Lord Travis

25% of you need to harden up and demand more of the club. Missing finals would be a failure. Stop making up excuses and demand more or we will never get anywhere. Successful teams are never satisfied.

I was one of the few on here defending him earlier this season. He's been a whipping boy for idiots in the past, but the club knew what they were doing when they traded him in. He's got talent and experience. In the past he has played his best footy as a half forwarding rotating in the midfield. He had a top 5 BnF finish in a team that played finals when playing that role all year. The coaches tried him at half back and it didn't work out. As soon as he was moved away from there and has been given roles up forward or in the midfield he has excelled. He's done some good tagging jobs on the likes of Pendlebury and Zorko when needed. He's accumulated a lot of ball in the midfield when given license to roam. He's one of the few who currently goes for kicks more than handballs, which makes him valuable as a link man heading into 50. He's also chimed in with multiple goals repeatedly when playing up forward, including kicking important long goals under immense pressure to give us wins. His long kicking for goal from 50-60 metres is probably the best at the club alongside Bernie and Petracca. I also reckon he's laid the most bumps of anyone in the team this year. Love that he asserts himself physically without giving away bad frees. A few of our players could learn from him there. He's definitely best 22 and his finals experience and maturity will be valuable come September. PS The following statement from the MRP gave me a smile. "Jake Melksham was also charged with misconduct for pushing an opponent into an umpire in Sunday's clash against the Brisbane Lions." Glad someone is trying to do something about the umpires. They are beyond incompetent and bordering on corruption this year!

Correction to the OP.

It's always a worry going by recent history, but the trouble for the Hawks is they have nothing to give up. They gave up anything of worth to get Jaeger last year. They're without first and second round picks this year I believe. They don't have any stars young enough to have currency for trading. It'd be a miracle if they somehow landed him for Bruest and a 3rd rounder. We're in the box seat now for Lever if he is coming back to Victoria. We have the picks to trade, and decent developing young players who we could trade also. No-one like an Oliver or Petracca, but guys like Neal-Bullen, Harmes etc who could be added as a sweetener and play a role for the Crows. Exciting times ahead regarding this situation!

Our 3 likely opponents are: Sydney in Sydney Port in Adelaide Richmond in Melbourne Sydney are the form side of the competition, they're 12-2 over the past 14 weeks. They belted us at the MCG already this year. They'll most likely make the Grand Final IMO. On current form, if we met them in week one they'd most likely belt us again and we'd be out in straight sets. Port are fickle. They've struggled all year against decent teams that apply pressure to them. We've already beat them once this year at the MCG, and beat them late last year in Adelaide too. We'd have to travel to Adelaide, but if we are on and apply pressure again then we'll be a big chance to beat them. Richmond have had a great year considering they are a flakey team with an average list propped up by a few stars. We've beaten them repeatedly over the pst few years and had them beat when we played them this year, only to suffer injuries and be two men down for a half and have our structure ruined. I'd back us to beat them any day. It's almost guaranteed Richmond will sh*t the bed come finals time, it's built into their DNA! This is the ideal week one match up as we get to stay in Melbourne, played at our home ground in the MCG, and play a mentally fragile team that have a recent history of poor finals performances.

Jack had a good game. Speared a few good passes, worked hard leading up from CHF and playing on ball, competed in the air. The report was a joke. Just a standard aerial contest where two opponents came in at different angles. Was barely even a free kick. Should be back against the Pies next week. Will be good to have his kicking skills back!

Hopefully he is back for the Pies game in round 23. We would've lost that game against them earlier and a few others without him this year. Before he got injured he was in our best 5-10 players for the season. If he can find form again after his injury then our chances this finals series improve. He is a proven match winner. If he doesn't get another gig this year then it's in his best interests to ask for a trade to a club that will appreciate his talents more. He deserves it after the amount of crap he's had to endure over the years. If we ever win a flag and he is at the club, he will get the biggest cheer of all our players from me. He's had to work harder and had it tougher than anyone at the club the past 10 years.

If he sits out until finals, that'll be a 3 week break. That's a decent amount of time off to heal depending on what the injury is. Maybe he'll be given until finals to rest and prove he is ready?

Miraculous recovery. Good luck big fella!

Reckon it should be: Hogan in for Weid Maynard in for Viney Let Viney get right for finals. Maynard can replace him for a week to just smash in at stoppages. Let Jesse build form for finals.

Won't leave the Saints but he's an obvious talent that could fill a need for us. He's got outside class and has proven he can win ball and stand up in big moments. He's had a great year and would offer a lot to our side... but he won't leave the Saints.

He's got talent, not sure what his work ethic is like though. We could use his pace and goal kicking skills though. If he didn't cost much then I'd be all for getting him.

When Bugg had his brain fade and was suspended, we lost our mojo. He provides swagger and makes those around him more confident. He was also our number 1 target up forward when we were missing a few talks. Though he missed a lot of shots at goal, the fact he was getting so many shoes what a dangerous player he can be. Straight back into the team for mine. Our players are more confident when he's around.

Should take the one week suspension and run. Watching the game I thought he'd get 2-3. It was really reckless and concussed Sumner who left the ground and did not return. It's the second stupid suspension he's had this year, the other being the fore arm into the North players head while on the ground. Salem needs to use his time off to train hard and prove he wants to crack back into the team asap. His form has been up and down, had a few good games but also a number of complete ineffective ones. Like Watts, someone of Salem's talent should not be getting dropped at this stage of their career. Coming into his fifth year, he needs to work hard to stay fit, he needs to find consistency in his approach and impact on games, and he needs to cut out the reckless stuff that's lead to multiple suspensions. Next season is a cross roads of sorts for him. There's enough talent around him at the club now that he might not be best 22 every week if he isn't having an impact. On talent he is best 22, on output he's borderline. Take the week suspension and work your ass off Christian. We could use your kicking skills come finals time.

Hunt Frost Garlett Harmes Kent Watts They need to learn to use it properly. Hunt and Garlett are the only ones who consistently take advantage of their speed. Frost tries but runs himself into trouble a lot. Harmes and Kent use it in spurts to stream forward when they're playing well. Watts uses it both ways when he is confident and in good form.

He was a lot better yesterday. It was the first time he didn't just bomb it long over and over. He was spotting up shorter passes to guys inside 50 which converted to scoring shots instead of 50/50 contests. If he keeps that up then he'll become an All Australian standard HBF or wingman.

It's not a problem, yet. Our percentage shows we haven't been able to put teams away. Lots of our matches have been close either way this year. We're able to compete for the most part, but we're not able to put teams away when we should yet. Yesterday was similar to the Port Adelaide game. We absolutely dominated play but didn't convert that into scoring. We recorded 22 inside 50s, and statistically it was the second most dominant quarter by a team all year. Despite that dominance, we were only 30 something points up. Then the second quarter we were still in control but not taking our opportunities again. We should have legitimately been 60 points up during the second quarter, such was our dominance. The fact we weren't meant the Saints were able to build momentum and come back. The game should've been over in the 2nd quarter. As I said, it's not a problem yet at this stage of our development. In the future, we will need to build that killer instinct to keep the foot down and make sure our dominance converts to scoring. Like other good teams, we should be able to end games by half time against lesser opponents. I think with more maturity and synergy between young core players we will start to win by bigger margins that more reflect our dominance in games. At this stage in our development though it's good we are managing to stick tough and win close games. In 2018, I expect improvement in this regard though. First of all, we need to beat teams like North. The fact we still drop games to teams like North, Freo etc is definitely a mental application issue which needs to be addressed. I also expect us to start winning bigger next year. No more hard fought single digit wins against teams like Carlton. We should be able to put the foot down and have the match over by half time.

He's been well down the past three weeks or so. He's not winning anywhere near as much ball, and when he's got it he is hand balling it off instead of looking to use his good vision and kicking skills. He's also only laid 1 tackle twice in the past 3 weeks, so he's putting on less defensive pressure and laying less tackles than Watts, who was dropped. I reckon it's a fitness or niggle thing for Trac. He's not getting to as many contests and has bee caught jogging in no mans land a bit recently. When he gets the ball, he doesn't have the petrol in the tank to take off and hit a target, so he handballs it off for someone else to. He's not someone who I think would suffer confidence issues like Watts, so I reckon it's a fitness thing. Maybe a week off to rest him would be a good idea. I don't think he's playing poorly enough to warrant dropping, but he may need a rest for a week. Since coming into the team last year he's now played 37 games in a row and hasn't been "managed" like Oliver and most other youngsters were at times. Either way, we need Trac fit and firing for a tilt in September. He could be our x-factor!

That was his best game for the club. He's been one of our best players in every game for the past month. There was a hard ball get he won in the last quarter when the game was on the line that possibly won us the momentum and match. He can smell finals action and is playing accordingly now. He might not have had as good a year as some were hoping, but he's come good at the right end of the season and is showing his leadership and maturity now. Bring on September!

One of his best games for the club. Showed great courage standing under some high bombs. Gave good drive off half back as well. Great return to the side. Well done Gus!

Brayshaw warming up with the backline group. Looks set for a half back role today.

Best of luck today Gus. Hope luck is on your side and you have a ripping game with no injury worries.

Cmon Crows! Fire up and belt them! We need 45 points plus please

Would love one of Kelly, Coniglio, Scully, Shiel. They're all such good runners and kicks. We desperately lack those types of midfielders.

Cmon Giants. Get the job done so our hopes can remain in tact for another week!