Nasher

Exactly. The forum boss man last night also said "please don't get ahead of ourselves" or something like that. Pssh to that, I say. I consider it my duty as a supporter to get as far ahead of myself as possible. As long as the players don't, then I reserve the right to get as carried away as I like.

It may be that he does though, which again just points to it being an issue of confidence. He kicked 7.1 against the Aints and 5.1 against Brisbane. Last year he kicked 44.19. Fundamentally, he must be able to kick. It would be bloody nice to see him have a nice, fluid set shot action like Watts does, I'll admit. If we can get ProDee to say "if only Hogan was a bit more like Watts", I'll have officially seen everything on this forum.

Pedersen = no margin for error Hogan, Vanders = margin for error. Life's not fair, but too bad.

Effort is a function of form and confidence, which is a function of effort. It's circular. For a player of Hogan's talent, unless they're really, truly hurting the team (I reject any argument that says Hogan is), you wait. For a player of Pedersen's talent, you don't.

Pedersen = no margin for error Hogan = margin for error Life's not fair, but too bad.

Out: Pedersen In: Weideman Zero tackles to Pedersen and burned teammates to miss a sitter of a goal. I see Pedersen as being one of Roos' "no margin for error" players, and there was error yesterday. I know some will see this as being very harsh. He even said in an interview himself earlier in the year, "if I'm not doing the pressure kind of things, I find myself at Casey". Well, Cam... I'm not 100% sold on the idea of Weideman being a player we'd bring straight in to the side from injury with no Casey time, but on his showing against Hawthorn, I'm leaning that way. You're all welcome to persuade me otherwise. Casey obviously hasn't played yet, but I'm not too interested in any of the players playing there over who we have in the side at this stage. Most of our worst players in the side were players who are definitely not going to get dropped (Hogan, Viney et al). If Weideman doesn't get up, then no change.

I think a lot of the mood was because most of us were still in the clouds from last week, which continued in the first half. We were poor in the third quarter, but now that my ears have stopped ringing from the comedown, I'm very happy with the result and see the game in an overwhelmingly positive light. Since you're watching it already knowing the result, I don't think you'll take away the same negatives as those who endured the stress of the third term in real time.

You're like my kids, steve. Always determined to find out if I'm bluffing or not, and I usually am.

Yeah, what a hack. I was going to comment that he only beat Port Adelaide by 2 contested marks this week, but that turned out to be an increase of beating Hawthorn by 1. Still, hack.

No, you may not.

There's a few just in this thread! It's something I personally don't understand, not just in footy, but life in general: looking back and having a big old cry about ancient history. There's nothing else we can learn from that Bummers loss. It's happened, nothing we can do about it now, just focus on the dream!

We're mathematically the only team that can make the eight. Port are now a game too far behind and St Kilda have an irrecoverable percentage problem.

Pack splitting aggression is a function of form. He's not playing well, he's not as confident, so he's not going as hard, he's missing easy goals. It's a great big feedback loop. It's all in his head. I'm quite comfortable that he'll come out of it, and am happy to just wait (with him in the seniors, before anyone suggests anything silly like dropping him), knowing that he'll come good.

I suggested it. Not because I "wanted" it though (I cringe whenever Redleg says this), it was just because most players don't get two years on the list with an output of zero unless they're a tall, even if they've been injured. I plainly made the wrong call, but I'm still pretty comfortable with the logic I used to get there based on previous experience. It will definitely have an effect on my future delisting considerations. The club, with its actions - first in drafting Hunt in the National Draft when he probably would have fallen to the RD, and by retaining him this year, showed a level of faith in a struggling young player that I've never seen before. It's paying huge dividends now. This is why these guys (Roos, Mahoney, Viney, Taylor etc) get paid the big bucks. This is the 'management' story of the year for mine.

Going okay when you can't squeeze Gawn in for even one vote.

Honestly, the MFC would be stupid if it tried to curtail Max's personality. He is walking, talking good publicity for our club. All the club has to do to benefit from it, is absolutely nothing.

Ban the next person who sooks about the Essendon loss.

Rigoni and Leoncelli were both 90s-2000s era players.

Our young midfield who should be about fragged by this stage, seem to be just getting going. Brayshaw, Oliver and Stretch are now a genuinely capable second string to Viney, Jones and Tyson. Lots of credit to the box for the resting policy, you'd think. Our young players are coming home with a rush.

Someone stop me before I overdose on my own hyperbole

No point looking back fellas. The Essendon loss and so forth are ancient history. That was before. This is now, so look forward. This Melbourne side is hungry. No excuses, we must maul Carlton this week, then it's game on against Geelong.

Got all the right results this week, and made considerable inroads in to North's percentage. Look out North Melbourne, the bloody Demons are coming!

Max Gawn just high fived every Melbourne supporter in Adelaide. Where are Clint, JV7 and co?

The comedown from last week finally hit in the third, and it bloody hurt. However, we won by 40 points, basically in third gear, where several of our best players were well off the pace. A lot of great signs, in the first half we picked it up where we left off. Not as thrilling as last week, but I'm content with it.

Back to the good old Demonland sook fest. Phew, I was starting to worry about you guys.