whatwhat say what

Between them, Hawthorn, Geelong, Sydney and West Coast have won all bar one of the last 11 premierships, with the Pies on the first Saturday in October 2010 (as opposed to the last Saturday in September - same as in 1990). The only teams other than those five to play off for a premiership in that time period are Port Adelaide as a bit of a surprise in 2007 (albeit they had won three years previous, so it can't be that much of a surprise that they were still in contention), where they were destroyed by the Cats, and Freo - who have a bit of Port circa 01-03 about them in that they're there or thereabouts albeit not quite premiership ready it would seem. What was that about an 'even' competition? As midnight oil sang...the rich get richer, the poor get the picture.

if dunn doesn't get picked with a tall defender going down injured, then his career is officially in jeopardy.

his run-up to kick is not nearly as bad as everyone says. it is being critcised primarily because it starts so strangely with the ball held over the wrong foot - but then he has the stutter and from there it's actually super-steady and perfectly balanced. he's going to be helped massively by the limited rotations of modern football, because teams are going to start going long. look at kennedy for meth coke yesterday - he was unstoppable once they got their quick ball movement happening. admittedly the bears were absolute gash, but no one would've been able to stop kennedy with the amount of ball he was being presented with. people criticising hogan's second efforts need to watch that gif of him floating back and killing the contest in the last seconds. he impacted the contest and ensured it was neutralised. he's one impressive unit to be as starved of opportunity as he was in the first half, move up the ground to get involved in the third, and then utterly dominate the last.

i live in absolute fear of losing this game.

i'd say the only certain change is o mac out injured for dunn. o mac wasn't even that bad yesterday. we desperately need some outside pace - when garlett moved up on to scully on the wing we finally had someone who could run and carry with the pill, which is why you'd think garlett would be a chance. i personally can't see pedo or frost being omitted; the forward structure with those two plus hogan and watts is working okay, and the pace of frost is an added dimension. harmes might be in trouble for brayshaw's re-inclusion in the side, but if garlett goes for his hit (which might happen but would be pretty ridiculous as there was nothing in it), then he stays. as such, i'm thinking changes are minimal: out: oscar mcdonald (injured), harmes in: dunn, brayshaw

Swan gone for ten weeks apparently. Good chance to miss both our games? Tom Lynch from the Suns will miss a few. Nasty roundhouse to Baguley's scone.

He wasn't at his best today but to call for him to be dropped is ridiculous. He also wasn't alone in turning the ball over repeatedly. Some of the mistakes Vince made were just as bad.

gerard whateley has called that if clayton oliver doesn't get the rising star nomination this week it would be a surprise...you could hear sellars maclure snort in derision in the back of the box. weitering's debut was good, but oliver's was better.

my favourite player.

6 - viney: he's a ripper 5 - watts: continued on his fine pre-season form 4 - t mcdonald: i panicked big time when he went off carrying his soulder 3 - n jones: a bit rough in patches, but he's still our best player 2 - kennedy: fantastic replacement for the toump 1 - oliver: we have got an absolute beauty on our hands here

jeepers creepers that was a tough game to watch.

we'll know at 12:10 whether or not avb is in - final teams need to be submitted an hour and a half before the bounce.

bontempelli (4), cripps (13), kade kolodjashnij (5), zach merrett (26), then salem (9) for mine.

so nervous. most of my non-dees mates reckon gws will pump us. hells bells, that better not happen. ps: series 3 of hannibal is incredible. amazing show. such a shame it wasn't allowed to go for the intended 5-season arc to tell the full story. mads is amazeballs.

Callum Mills should take out the rising star I reckon. Petracca and Oliver will hopefully split people on which Melbourne young gun to vote for...

Port Adelaide renaissance is heartening to see. Adelaide Oval and the general sentiment played a big part in that too. Of the q of which four teams, other than ours, that I see up and about in three seasons time: - GWS: list depth is so strong already, and each year they trade out varying degrees of quality and bring in youth with potential - Footscray: whilst they have a lot of elder statesmen who are important (Boyd, Murphy, etc) their quality of youth with the likes of Liberatore, Wallis, Macrae Bontempelli and Stringer is all class - Port Adelaide: the likes of Boak, Gray x2, Hartlett etc are still relatively young, and they keep bringing in complementary players 'for the now' like Polec, Ryder, and Dixon...potentially the Toump too if he can return to his underage level at AFL level - Cats / filth: can't separate these two sides, both are building sides for this exact time period to complement their established players

Lang Lang's list is better than Robbo's

i wonder if matt jones might miss, regardless, due to the concussion he received in the third preseason game. i'm expecting lumumba to play; i'd prefer it if he didn't, but particularly considering vanders has to be a doubt for now i presume he will be an 'in' of nowhere near enough preseason base imo. he'll be so underdone. there's basically two schools of thought for me tho - we either go with four tall forwards with one permanently on the bench or we chance our arm and go with three, in which case one of frost or pedersen miss out. with all four: B: Jetta - Dunn - Garland HB: Salem - T. McDonald - Vince C: Brayshaw - N. Jones - Bugg HF: Watts - Pedersen - Kennedy F: Kent - Hogan - Garlett Foll: Gawn - Tyson - Viney I/C: Lumumba - Oliver - Frost - Harmes Emerg: Stretch - Grimes - M. Jones with three: B: Jetta - Dunn - Garland HB: Salem - T. McDonald - Vince C: Brayshaw - N. Jones - Bugg HF: Harmes - Watts - Kennedy F: Kent - Hogan - Garlett Foll: Gawn - Tyson - Viney I/C: Lumumba - Oliver - Pedersen - M. Jones Emerg: Stretch - Frost - Grimes during preseason we definitely went the 'all four' route, but because we've not played on a ground quite like the g until round 1 i have no idea which way it will go.

thriller at the fields!

back to a point the diff according to casey twitter feed.

yeah, looks like the twitterati might've massively overreacted too.

Seems like there's a lot of great discussion happening around richmond on another thread, but i reckon we should create a new thread specifically to discuss other clubs. maybe something the mods can pin? Let me start with this little tidbit about the filth - adam treloar has either done a hamstring or copped a knee knack this morning at a pies' intra-club. No idea of how serious or not it is at this stage.

this was first considered nearly three years ago. it won't happen.

if we get to 13 wins i'll dance a jig of glee. 10 wins is optimistic in my view. i just want to see no more blowout losses, and winning the close ones. do that and we might get to 10-13 wins.

would love hurley at the dees. he's the player i most wanted when we picked watts. he's no guarantee to stick to the bombers.