Lord Travis

He's ok. Just copped a lot of physical attention, often unfairly and off the ball, but he's ok.

Fire and and get the job done Dees. Time to end this losing streak against the Kangas. They're a rubbish team, dominate them as such and claim the 4 points.

He's worth that, but we have bigger needs. If I was going to trade a first rounder I'd spend it on a key position player like Steven May, rather than a small runner like Jones.

Dogs and Saints losing gives us an opportunity tomorrow to jump into the 8. If we account for North, Freo will probably beat Carlton, so we will likely finish the weekend 7th on the ladder. Let's hope the boys bring the same work ethic and intensity they did last week against Adelaide. Fire up Dees!

Zac Jones having another good game to continue his great year. He's become Sydneys main attacking weapon off half back. He's got decent pace and the same aggressive attitude as his older brother. Would be a good addition to our team but would cost a first rounder so not going to happen.

Looks like the Swans are back. Winning lots of ball and competing strongly again like we're used to. They'll knock over a few teams and move up the ladder now, not enough for finals though obviously unless they go absolutely berserk. Shame we didn't play them already when they were playing poorly.

I would lose it. I've talked a lot of sh*t in my time, but that is the kind of thing that would finally tip me over the edge! The idea that a team who has not been good enough all season to make finals, can have a good week or two right at the end and take the finals place of a team that has learnt if over the course of a full season of pathetic. A team should be rewarded for playing well over a full season, not 1-2 weeks. Imagine if Melbourne finished 7th, then played off in a "wildcard" match against 10th. Imagine 10th is West Coast and we have to fly to WA to play them. Under the current more fair system and fixture that is already in place, and we would've been scheduled to play Brisbane who are 17th in Melbourne. During that match we suffer injuries such as Hogan and Gawn going down, leaving us 2 men down on the bench, and then had an umpire makes an incorrect or debatable decision at the end of a game that gives West Coast the win. Due to that loss we could potentially go from 7th and playing finals, to out of the 8 and not playing finals. It's a sh*t idea used to generate hype and creates an unfair fixture. We need to keep the game the way it is and stop copying other sports to generate hype at the expense of a fair system. It's already unbalanced to favour certain teams/areas, we shouldn't tip the scales even further. I don't want it to degenerate into Baseketball (as fun as that movie is).

Gold! The idea that Viney can be intimated by anyone is humerous in itself, let alone some plodder who is so slow he'd struggle to get within 10 metres of him in the first place! God I hope we finally smash North. Such an average nothing club and we need a percentage boost for our race to finals.

Ridiculous Oliver didn't win goal of the week. It was a deliberate kick completely in control with no from bouncing to help it through. Goal of the year thus far, let alone goal of the week. Suppose the AFL needed something positive to come out of the China match so they give air time to the Westhoff goal. That China match was one of the most boring rubbish games of football I've forced myself to sit through.

Stop changing the f*cking game! It would be stupid for a team that's been rubbish nearly all year to fire up for 2-3 weeks and be given a token entry into finals ahead of a team that earnt it by playing better all year. Stop changing the game. The rules changes for the most part make it worse every year. The game is becoming softer and more of the rules are now open to interpretation. The umpires have more effect on games than they should because of this. We don't need wildcards added to f things up even more!

It'd be great to get him back soon, but don't rush him. Worst thing they can do is rush him. Getting him and hopefully Hogan back fit and healthy in the second half of the year will be huge for us as a team and a club.

Gotta make the 8 first. We've lost games we should win this year already, we need to stop this trend. If we do and we start winning games we should then yep we'll make the 8 and be in with a chance.

So the clangers list is essentially a list of the best players in the league from what I can see? The more disposals a player gets, the higher their clanger count due to weight of numbers. This shows further that stats are often irrelevant. That game against West Coast in WA last year was proof of this to me. We won literally every stat convincingly, yet managed to lose the game.

100% this. Full backs and defenders that switch the ball across the ground under no pressure have the highest disposal efficiency. I know I'd prefer the ball in the hands of Jordan Lewis than Oscar or Frosty if I wanted an effective kick going forward.

No change this week. Reward the team for a good team effort and get them to build consistency together.

Horrible news in such a challenging time for a young man after losing his father to cancer recently. They have caught it early so he has the best chance possible to beat it and be healthy again. Best wishes to Jesse and his close ones in this hard time.

Guthrie got off. Not even a fine. Apparently it was 'reasonable' to shove an umpire aside, yet Bernie blindsided and being backed into by one was 'careless conduct' and warrants a fine. Ridiculous!

Drag him along every week! May he bring us a premiership?!

The hip must have been limiting him until the past few weeks. His first month was ordinary. He didn't have the speed to get out of congestion, wasn't getting to as many contests, wasn't showing his trademark aggression and intensity. It would have been nice to see him try to lead more vocally during this period and organise players around stoppages etc. He just went completely into his shell and barely gave a yelp. In the Essendon game he was doing some odd looking hip stretches in between quarters and while waiting for centre bounces etc. The hip was clearly limiting him, but his burst of speed and general intensity has now returned. Now that he is able to perform the way he wants out there his voice has also returned, laying into opposition players and organising players at stoppages. Great news for Jack and the team if he can stay healthy and in good form for the remainder of the season.

I'll probably do all 3 if we lose I'll be that disgusted and furious. Surely after all this improvement we can beat a bottom 4 side at our home ground!

If Hogan is mentally and physically ready to play then he replaces Weiderman. The team as a whole though need to change the way they enter 50. Hogan stays deep and calls for it long, often while having two men on him. The players need to recognise this and not just bomb it long to him, even if he calls for it. If there are two on him, that means we have a spare player somewhere else, likely charging towards 50. We need to use quick handballs and short kicks to move the ball forward quickly . If there is space, use it. If Hogan is in the goal swear with 2 guys on him, and there is 40 metres of space in front of him, either kick it into the space if he can get on a lead, or run the ball the entire way yourself and have a shot. We did this so much better against Adelaide without Hogan there, and have done the same in the past with him out. We need to learn that lesson and use the available space instead of bombing it to a contest where we will likely lose. We should account for North this week. Just need to turn up with intensity and play our game. It should be straight forward, but that does't seem possible with this group yet. Hopefully they can take confidence from last weekend and understand that if they work hard they can beat anybody. It's all up to them to work hard all match and not just turn up for a few minutes when they feel like it.

The club are likely going to give him time off again because of the knock on the weekend. I hope there is some further treatment, research or opinion they can seek. Angus is a talented and driven kid. We invested a lot in him taking him with pick 3. Hopefully he can overcome the concussion issues with further guidance and treatment, as he would obviously be an important player for us in the future if he can make the most of his footballing ability in the red and blue. If the risk to his health is too great though, then he must do what is best for his long term health. Health always comes first. I don't think it's time he hung up the boots just yet at only 21 years old, but if he keeps suffering further head damage in the future then it's best he stops playing for his own health.

Irrelevant. Writing off 9 attempts is ridiculous. It's embarrassing that we haven't beaten North for over 10 years. At least with a team like Hawthorn or Geelong you know they both had eras of greatness so it's not surprising if you haven't beaten them for a few years. North however have been a bog average middle of the road side. We will beat them this weekend. If we don't, I'll burn the MCG to the ground.

We need to start performing better at our home ground the MCG. This year we've stumbled over the line against Carlton there when we were at full strength with Gawn and Hogan playing, then lost all our other games there to beatable teams. It's ironic that the MCG is now our weakest ground. We've been better at Etihad and now interstate swell after the weekend. Does our gameplan break down with the extra space of the G? Our high zone always seems to get caught out playing there this year and it's painful to watch when you're at the ground. Does Goodwin need to tweak something? We've got 3 winnable games coming up, and if we win all 3 we are well placed for a tilt at finals. If we drop more of these winnable games to bottom 4-6 sides then kiss finals goodbye. Hopefully the win in Adelaide has given the boys belief and they can come out breathing fire and know they're capable of beating anyone as long as they keep working hard and playing their game.

Definitely agree with this. His 'don't argue' fend offs are just him shoving another player in the face or throat. Can't remember which match it was, but early in the year he pushed a player in the throat with such force that they couldn't breathe properly and had to come from the field with medical staff. Umpires didn't even pay a free kick. While it's great to see acts of strength or speed or athleticism in our game, they still need to be within the rules and Dusty should be penalised for his fend offs a lot of the time, but is obviously one of the untouchable players and so the umpires let him get away with it. I loved when he tried it against us this year and barely broke through our first midfielder, then the second one came in and crunched him in the tackle. Umpire had no choice but to pay holding the ball while he was pinned to the ground looking sorry for himself. Was an absolute delight to see!