Nasher

After nearly 9 years, it has just occurred to me why you have SpongeBob as your avatar. Yup. I'm as sharp as a bowling ball.

Clisby I reckon. I agree that Allison seemed to be saying Riley is ready though.

Yep, I saw that one and commented on it in the game day thread. Those things are very pleasing to see; I realise that if we had scored from that stoppage he wouldn't have taken much of the credit, but it was crucial. A lot gets said about players being able to shake a tag, well it surely helps when your other big bodied mids (like Dom) stand in the tagger's way every now and again. It doesn't seem like a hard thing to do, and yet we haven't seen a lot of it from our team in recent years. This is what the best midfielders do: play for each other. Awesome to see.

Yay. I've been absolutely *itching* for another round of this. I believe in Jesse.

Same. I was expecting a developing midfielder, not an instant gun.

And Clisby was on standby for the MFC game. Went as far as warming up with the team.

Interesting that in the article on the MFC website, Roos again reiterated that we would not have taken Kelly had we held on to pick 2. I suspect they wanted Salem and took the view that he'd still be there at 9. If that's the case, we got Tyson basically for nothing. Sounds pretty rosy. Since we'll never know the truth, I choose to believe it

Me too. It's a feeling I hadn't felt in a long time though - that filthy feeling of "should have won, no excuse for not winning". The only feelings I've felt in the last three years have been "I can't believe we still manage to be even worse than the week before" or "I don't mind the loss - at least we were competitive". This must be what it's like to be a North Melbourne supporter.

Don't care if he's not the future. Neither is Daniel Cross, but both players are the present and if players who are the future want their spots, they can earn them.

If Dunn stands on Riewoldt then we've lost sight of Dunn's role IMO. I think last night showed that we're worse off having him stand the opposition's most dangerous forward. He has played his best footy as third man up and distributor coming out of the 50. Lots of other options for Riewoldt. Frawley back or Georgiou back in the side as a horses for courses change would be my preference. Garland is also an option; all these are better options than Dunn I think. I'd like to see Dunn in tandem with Howe on the half back flanks, or forward when needed.

lolThose were frustrating misses, but leaving him out because of it? lol The idea for making unforced changes is to improve the side. As Matt Jones has demonstrated this year that on work ethic and fitness he's easily, easily best 22, if you leave him out, you've automatically made the side worse. And it's Riley, not Reilly.

Byrnes is the best of a bad bunch I think. I'm happy to swap him for Kent when Kent is ready, but until then I would persevere with Byrnes. I'm glad that Blease had a good game at Casey, but from Allison's reports, he's coming from a long way back. I can't see Roos playing a player whose biggest knock is his ability to apply pressure. That is completely at odds with the way we have been approaching the game. Once I've read that Blease has applied at AFL intensity for three weeks in a row, I'd start considering him then. Allison even uses those exact words, so it'll be easy for us to know when he's done it.

At least this time you had the grace to name Clisby instead of Tapscott this time, but your idea of dropping Bail and Terlich is no better than it was last night. Dropping Bail is particularly laughable; he's one of our side's hardest runners, he gets in space and his ball use has improved significantly. I get the impression that the coach is a fan.

No change, or Clisby in if Terlich comes up no good from concussion.

Official attendance: 36,326. That seems pretty decent for two lowly sides who don't get many to their games at the best of times. Well done all.

It's only been 8 weeks.

Bail isn't going anywhere and Terlich only will if he's injured. Riley's been in good VFL form and Blease was good this week by the sounds of it, but the idea of bringing Tapscott in is laughable. These are changes for the sake of change for mine. Your team on paper looks worse than the one we fielded. Byrnes is the only player in our team whose spot was doubtful in the leadup, and it's fair to say he didn't answer too many of the questions asked of him this week.

As would mine. If the consequence of it going pear shaped were any less than a slow, painful death, I'd give it a crack. Unfortunately though...

Heartbroken. We should have won. Got to say though, I love the hard style of game we are playing. Sod those who moaned about how boring Sydney were, I couldn't agree less. Dom Tyson just keeps getting better. BOG for mine. What a gun.

Jack Viney has had 8 tackles with still a quarter to play. He has really come on in the last few weeks.

I absolutely love this style of play. Stuff everyone who reckons the Swans were boring to watch with their defensive style.

Not the flavour of the week rule, obviously,

Great to see Terlich run off, but surely that's gotta be a sub. That looked utterly awful. Tough contest too.

Tyson puts body on Picken in the contest and Jonesy gets away. Great selfless play.

Great desperate tackle Watts.