Nasher

I don't mind seeing Watts or Howe go third man up around the ground when there's a solid body there too. Watts did one very smart tap that resulted in a goal last week. I'd hate to see them in actual ruck contests though. I just have visions of Jared Brennan contesting the ruck for Brisbane a few years ago and getting a bad knee in the ribs straight up. I'd see Hogan in there before I saw a flanker go in there to get killed.

Pre-season starts now! Okay, jumping the gun a little, but if he's starting running now, that bodes well for being in full running form by the beginning of actual pre-season. Exciting stuff.

Does bringing in great players on great money ever really cause instability? I've heard supporters use that line often, but I can't recall any evidence of that happening in my lifetime. I would have thought in the professional era, most players would look past the envy of the big income earners and would be quite happy to have a superstar added to their side to enhance their flag chances.

Please, for the love of all that is holy, tell me you are taking the piss.

Really disappointed for Grimes - he was finally starting to string together some form to get his career back on track. The injury list is well and truly out of hand now. Very, very frustrating.

Oh, were they? There's nothing like blatantly making stuff up to argue against a point nobody made.

To be fair, I doubt that view was shared by the overwhelming majority. The great thing about forums like this is the variety of views; the cost of that is you get the odd silly one pop up.

I'd be very surprised to see JKH in, since his return from a groin injury has comprised of a half of footy in the VFL development league. I'd say given that slow buildup that he is at least two more weeks away from being in contention for selection.

Best and worst are relative terms. Even the worst clubs have a "best" player; the player that is better than all the other players.

You mean like the Bulldogs win? I don't believe in teams having breakout wins any more than I believe in players having breakout games. You won't be able to pinpoint the moment the club turned, it will happen through steady increments. Besides, I thought it pretty obvious that the moment we "turn" (stop getting worse and start getting better) has already happened.

He basically just tackled him by the arm, having had no choice after Weller gave him the "don't argue". It would have seriously hurt, and also happened to leave Weller no legal way of disposing of the ball. Loved it.

Would you say no to a Montagna type? I know with a pick 4 we expect a cream of the crop, but history shows that even with top 10 draft picks, the average-good players and outright lemons far outweigh the stars. If Toumpas became a 200 game average-good player, that would be an adequate result for mine.

Presumably Dunn is acting under some coaching/team directive. Don't think we need to change who takes the kick - Dunn has the tools to be a good kicker in with decent skills kicking it short and has the bomb in his arsenal when appropriate - just need to change the way we structure ourselves when we do it. This problem is surely a very coachable one. That's probably why it's so frustrating that we seem to have sucked at it since forever.

I agree when looking at the best case, but I do reckon we need every single potential midfielder currently on our list to turn in to an AFL capable mid though. If Brayshaw stalls, Trengove can't get back on the park, Kent can never remain in one piece long enough, or any of Petracca, ANB, Stretch turn out to be busts, there's not a huge amount of slack there. It puts paid to the idea that we could pension Cross off at the end of the year, which a few people held at the beginning of the year. He's still very much a required player and for mine is in the best form he's been in since getting here. I'd be working on his new contract now: a one-year contract on fair money with a games-triggered second year option.

...or perhaps, if persevered with, he'll quickly adapt to the pace as he did in the VFL seniors. Needs to be either given an extended run, knowing that he'll be off the pace for a little while and accepting the consequences of that, or given an extended run in the VFL seniors. I'd hate to see him enter the midfield revolving door tour Michie, Riley, Newton et al are currently on. On Stretch, I thought he was good last night. Played to a standard that I would expect of a talented but undeveloped, incomplete 18 year old. For an outside player, he isn't afraid to be physical and tackle. Saw a lot more of the ball in this game than he did in the first two. Good signs.

It was a total process breakdown, really. From what I've pieced together from the Vince and Roos interviews, both the players and the coaches took the view that the players have responsibility for driving that kind of tactic, but: - Vince said the players overestimated how long was left - Roos' choice of words for taking responsibility was "we (coaches) couldn't get it done" - suggests they were trying to get the message through - Miller (the runner) was stuck on the ground giving out "other messages". After the goal, by the time someone gets his attention to relay the new message, play will have resumed and it will be too late So the players stuffed up: didn't set up correctly, the coaches stuffed up: left in a position where they couldn't communicate with the players and the runner stuffed up: not left in a position to relay messages at a crucial time. One thing I've learned in my line of business is that most major catastrophes occur when errors "cascade", i.e. one leads to another several times over, and that's definitely the case here. Whoever is in charge (Roos, I guess) needs to make sure systems are in place so this never happens again.

If he can start hanging on to those he'll make a huge leap forward in terms of ruckman quality. Thought his tapping has been excellent since coming in to the side and he gets involved around the ground. Clunk those marks and his value increases drastically.

Yep, another one here raising an eyebrow at the Grimes criticism. We know he's no star, but it was a solid game with no significant mistakes that I spotted. He is in decent form at the moment, I hope it can continue as I like him. Thought joeboy was harsh on Viney and Brayshaw too, but I understand that it's hard to capture the essence of a whole game in three words.

We've got at least two midfielders every week who are not up to scratch, and we're back to seeing the usual revolving door policy that we've seen in the past as a result. Riley, Newton, Michie, Bail and Matt Jones all belong in this category. I think it's pretty hard to have two of those guys in as well as ANB and Stretch who are just babies (that said - Stretch took a big step forward last night), and Toumpas who slowly starting to reach some form. Sometimes one of these guys steps up and plays well (e.g. Michie vs Richmond), but by and large they are unreliable and too prone to contributing absolutely nothing. Our core midfield group is still way too small. It's frustrating when the only changes you've got available to you are swapping players of this class in and out of the side, and Dawes who was in poor form prior to injury. it's why I feel like vomiting every time I hear people refer to our "depth" - you've got good depth when you've got genuine AFL grade players being held out of the 22, not when you've got 5 nearly good enough midfielders bouncing in and out of the team.

I'm going to have nightmares of Montagna strolling in to an open goal all week.

See ya next week.

Jeez it's hard to see through the red mist to do this one today. I'm still trying to snap out of it. Talk to me again in a few hours.

Post match thread, people.

Fuming.

The panicking is all down to his personality I think - he takes mistakes very personally, so each one has a snowballing effect. I suspect he'll always have highs and lows, but we're starting to see what he looks like as a player as his confidence is picking up. I'm really enjoying his game so far today.