Lord Travis

Superman dive away from the contest like the AFL’s love child Alex Rance

We are obviously going to get slaughtered on the outside by quick teams with our current team, but the interesting part to me is that teams that beat us somehow take away our strength. Our main strength is contested ball and clearances, yet Brisbane had 10+ more clearances than us today. West Coast, Hawthorn and Collingwood did it to us last year too. If teams work out a way to take away that strength, we're cooked because our outside game is poor.

Reportedly a compound fracture to a finger. Hoping it's not serious and he'll be fine early season, but is one of those weird type of injuries that can wind up being 8 weeks.

Lol Joel Smith limps after every play he f*cks up.

We're going to get blown away by quick teams this year. The rules are now designed to create space and promote quick movement. We are a contested ball team that thrive on getting numbers around the ball. When it gets into space, we are one of the slowest teams in the league. Hopefully players like Sparrow and Bedford come on quickly, as we still need genuine leg speed IMO. Disappointing to see us have another team (likely) kick 100+ against us again. We've got a lot of work do on our defensive running.

On second viewing, that May bump should be fine. He stood still and braced, the opposition player ran into him. If he had thrown weight in, then yes it warrants suspension. But all he did was brace for impact. Should be fine.

It's a shame Garlett got injured. He's never been consistent, but he's the best small forward we've had this decade and can slot his 40 goals per year. Spargo is a smart footballer, but he just doesn't get involved enough either offensively or defensively. Kent is gone. Hannan is injured until second half of the year. JKH likely injured for a while too. Hopefully Bedford comes on quickly, as it's definitely an area we're lacking in. Hore has been horrible today. Don't expect to see him play round 1 unless we are struggling with injuries.

[censored] I love Jetta! Awesome mark!

Has barely been near it. I expect him to have a similar year to Lever last year (minus the injury). I expect it will take time for him to gel with the other defenders and learn when to attack and leave his man etc. but I expect after a month or so he'll start doing some real damage and being an important cog for our finals run.

From a coaching point of view, I'm disappointed to see we haven't developed any strategies to take advantage of the new kick in rule. We could be gaining so much more territory with the new rules, but we're still anchored to the goal square and kicking short.

Really liking Tracs game today. He's nailed the set shot, laid some big tackles and found a lot of ball. Definitely up there as our best to half time, and on track to have a career best game. Good signs heading into round 1 for the potential superstar!

Huge tackle from Trac! This is the best game I've seen him play in a long time.

Great lead up and inside 50 by Weid. Just needs to get more of it! And Trac nailing a set shot for the first time in forever! He's having a great game so far.

J Smith is an athlete with a poor football brain. He does some nice things, but mostly just impedes our other tall forwards and flies for marks he'll never take and removes himself from the contest by being unable to follow up defensible. He's got some good attributes, but he's depth at best IMO.

[censored] I wish Brayshaw could kick!

Our forwards keep jumping into Weid and ruining his aerial marking attempts. Tim Smith did it against the Pies, Joel Smith did it last week and again today. Weid just had a perfect jump and sit then, but Smith flew in trying to be a hero and spoilt a clear mark and goal shot for us. Getting very frustrating, and a key reason I'm not a fan of J Smith. Just completely lacks a footy brain.

Harmes off with finger injury. This is turning into a shocking day for the club.

Neale, Mcluccage and co are giving Oliver and Brayshaw a bath around the ball. Haven't sen our young stars dominated like this around the ball before (outside the Prelim...)

Yeah looked like a broken leg. Horrible! Back to the match, they're still smashing us. We're fumbling and missing targets repeatedly. We're not laying or sticking tackles. We're obviously just wanting the real stuff to start, but it's still disappointing to see such a lack of effort and the players being this rusty. This is it before round 1, and our skills look horrible.

Looked like a leg injury. Don't think we'll be seeing him again for a while. Hopefully he is ok the poor guy!

He's probably been the worst drop off in form since last year. He'll never be a star, but was always working hard and contributing. This preseason he has been pathetic in every aspect of the game and doesn't warrant a place in the team come round 1.

Only positives so far are Hunt and Petracca playing to their strengths and having an impact. Gawn is wining taps, but it's not leading to any effective clearances. Everyone else is playing poorly, and the effort is non-existent. Hope the coach gives them a rocket and makes them have a crack. We're getting shown up by a worse team than us who are more organised and working harder.

Wasted opportunity by Hibberd. Harmes intensity has been well down today. Looks like he's avoiding contact if anything. very strange!

We've leaked like a sieve all preseason. Hopefully we step up our defensive intensity come the real stuff, or we're going to be in for a rude shock and a drop down the ladder. Our mids are a super talented bunch, but they've still got to work hard both ways.

Hore should have punched then. He can intercept well when uncontested, but his actual defending on first few matches has been poor. We'll be far better off when he is out of the team and Lever returns.