Nasher

He was our second best player, but I'm not unhappy to put him as the 6th best on the ground. Though I'd say he was definitely better than Thomas.Interesting breaking that list down. Coach A: Higgins Hogan Goldstein Cunnington Thomas Coach B: Higgins Cunnington Hogan Goldstein Thomas

I've never understood why supporters care about what the players are paid. It has no impact on what happens once the player steps out on to the field, so why worry? As far as I'm concerned, Josh Mahoney is there to lose sleep over player contract value so I don't have to.

That was actually their original explanation!

Heh, oh dear. At least it's a bit more honest than "we ate a steak in Mexico...".

I wonder what impact Dawes' personality has with his working relationship with Hogan? One thing I've noticed is that they never get in each others way - I put this down to both mutual smarts and Dawes' awareness of his place in the world. He says himself that Hogan is #1 and he's a battler, but accepts it and doesn't lose confidence from it. It's an admirable personality trait.

Gosh, imagine the whinging we'd have to read on here now if the positions had been reversed, and we'd have taken Martin first and left Jesse. Actually, don't imagine it. It's very unpleasant.

I thought exactly the same thing Clint. Robbie Tarrant must have felt terribly ripped off - he only defended against Dawes the same way every other defender has since he's been here, ie scragging, holding and chopping his arms, but he was the first one to get pinged for it.

Who the heck is Pulopulos?

I agree that it'd be tough going to drop Grimes, Michie or Jones on today's showing, but the answer isn't to drop Garlett or Garland. That's going too far in the other direction I reckon. The thing that makes it tricky is that our worst players today are all players who are clearly, far and away better players than anyone we can replace them with (special case Lumumba aside), and Salem is a better player than any of those others. Notwithstanding them playing good games, having one of them make way for Salem makes our side better; swapping him for Garlett et al doesn't make the side better overall. I agree that all of what I've said needs to be weighed against the message dropping players who were okay sends. This is putting forth a strong case for "no change", to be honest.

lol - has anyone seriously suggested John Butcher?

He's a small forward. Surely going missing a bit is just part of the gig? Even at his worst, he is still dangerous. If he'd swallowed that mark he may have had two goals today - I'd take a crap day with two goals over anything we've got kicking about in the VFL.

I do giggle whenever anyone blames the lack of selection of Fitzy for a loss. I wonder sometimes if there's some other Fitzy on our list that I've forgotten about, because the one I've seen definitely ain't the man to turn our losses in to wins. Notwithstanding the fact that he was unavailable today anyway. Suspect Brown might not have torn us a new one if their midfield had more to beat than witch's hats in the first quarter.

Stu, I reckon the only thing worse than having the same players in the revolving door is making changes based on a sample size of one game. Suggesting to drop Garlett is dead set laughable. He wasn't clean with the ball, he dropped a sitter etc, sure, but surely he's got the credits up his sleeve to be given some benefit of the doubt. You make changes that made the side better - that's why the same old names keep getting tossed up, because on balance they're the worst players in the side. There's no way there are better players than Garland and Garlett kicking about in the VFL at the moment. I'd say the same is true for Harmes at the moment, too.

If Salem is match fit now, he should be in. Any of the "big three" to go - Grimes, Michie and Matt Jones, though in my mind they were all okay today. Agree with the comment above that H should be in the gun but won't be.

I didn't actually say I bought the cold/flu reason. It's just conjecture. I was just amused by your connecting the conversation between a flu vaccine and not having the cattle. It was an odd segue; I pieced together the existing conversation with your addition and that's what I came up with. Carry on

As chook fowler pointed out, it's a vaccine against the most major strains. You won't get those strains if you've had the vaccine, but you may get other strains, and you'll still get the cold that every other bastard in the office/school/footy club has. Fewer people die of the major strains of influenza because of vaccination.

I wonder how many more would die if there were no vaccine? My post was in response to a question about whether the injection works.

So not having the cattle was the reason some of our players had a cold?

When was the last time someone you knew died of the flu? 95% of the time when people talk about a flu, they mean the common cold, for which there is no preventative injection.

I thought Michie was okay today.

6. Hogan 5. Dawes 4. Viney 3. Tyson Thought these were the clear top 4. Found voting very difficult after this. 2. Howe 1. Cross Edited several hours later to reverse Viney and Tyson order. Not sure why I had them in the order I did as I thought Viney was clearly our best mid.

After the first quarter, I thought it was an entertaining game. Loved the Dawes show in the second quarter and the Hogan show throughout. Viney our best mid for mine, with Tyson getting some mojo back. Lots of uncharacteristically crud performances from the likes of Jonesy and Bernie. H is currently behind Grimes for mine and should have his spot under threat when Salem is ready. Won't happen though. I walked away just regulation disappointed, much like the QB match. No red mist here today.

Well said. I find it really sad when people can't see the human aspect to footy. It was a touching gesture by his teammates. Ability to get back on the footy field has nothing to do with what this thread is about.

I had the same thought at half time about how they had been winning despite playing terribly. Their game against GWS was on par with ours against Brisbane. They were putrid last night though. Glad Adelaide finally kicked on; the difference could easily have been 100+.