Nasher

'Stephen Scumbag' probably isn't quite subtle enough.

Again, maybe I'm being thick but I'm struggling with the idea that one player has responsibility for the outcome when the whole team was pus. Maybe Lewis' influence added 5 goals to our side but we still fell short - how would we know? I find it hard to be critical *or* appraising of his leadership when I wasn't on the field or in the coaches box. To me it's a leap too far to say "we lost, therefore Lewis failed to exert the required leadership". The Lewis effect is 100% guesswork. Maybe we're saying the same thing from opposite angles.

Even the poster who made the "done deal" reference immediately followed it up with "but we will see". It is clearly not a done deal in any sense of the word, no matter how loose your interpretation is.

Can any one player change that? The whole team fell in a heap in the first quarter. I expect him to be able to influence it, but of course that is completely immeasurable from the outer, not withstanding posters on here attempting to anyway.

Gotta say I giggle a little bit when people describe Kelly as "exactly what we need". Are there any teams out there that don't need a player of this ilk?

He was a massive whipping boy at Essendon and was starting to head down that path here, too. In his early years there he was highly rated; I think he's starting to show why. Has definitely won me over in the last month.

I did say almost never happens. Remote enough chance not to waste my breath.

Zero hope of prising out one of the Saints best young talents. I'm not sure what the relevance of him being out of contract is: he's not a FA and we ain't going to get him to nominate for the draft, that almost never happens. It would have to happen by the same method as a contracted player: with agreement from the Saints. Which brings me back to my first point: zero chance of prising him out of the Saints.

I feel like this "game not getting any slower" discussion sounds a lot like the discussions had about Daniel Cross. They're not the same player in that Cross was a run all day, truly tough inside mid. The relevance is that Lewis, like Cross, was always slow to start with. Injury might limit Lewis in the latter years, and obviously you can't predict that now, but I'm not sure declining pace will.

OMac is a good player. It's only your stubbornness that prevents you from seeing it now. Agree with you on Frost.

The only team we've played near the bottom end of the ladder was Carlton, and that was during our horror stretch of 6 day breaks and half the team out injured. Most sides just don't allow themselves to be crushed - we certainly haven't. We've got North and Brisbane in the run home. Let's revisit this then.

Far out. Without a word of a lie, I wrote that Dory joke on here the other day then decided it was probably too obscure for people to get, so I didn't post it. Hope nobody laughs at it now!

Doesn't tackle much, but when he does, they hurt. That tackle 15 metres out after the unluckiest bounce ever was an absolute ripper. I'm still in disbelief at such a good player landing on our lap. He hasn't had a poor game since joining.

It took the heat off ANB as well. If he'd had the shot and missed it could well have cost us the game. I was crapping myself watching ANB line up. Everyone I was watching with just started laughing when he passed off to Lewis. The relief of the pressure dissipating was palpable. Where were the Carlton defenders? In their shoes I'd be filthy that they didn't force ANB to take the shot.

Thought so. Didn't get the long term deal right but as if he was going to leave.

He and Hibberd sang the absolute sheet out of the song. Loved it.

I saw Viney grimace in pain with the shoulder while on the bench. Could he... could he be human after all? Nah. What an effort that was.

When he said on 360 that he was going to bounce back in a big way, I believed him. He mentioned being a proud player, but he's also obviously very confident and knows what he is capable of. Last week obviously stung.

I think on current form, you'd have to play them all and wait until it becomes apparent which one doesn't fit in. You'd think Pedersen and OMac were still the most vulnerable, but I can't see how you'd justify dropping either of them. Anyway, I'm nearly in a good enough mood to stop stomping on@picket fence's fingers and let him on the bandwagon.

Because it's interesting?

Who is worried about tackles?

To answer my own question a bit, looking at the numbers closely, our defenders are nearly all in the bottom few players for tackles. Hibberd and the McDonald bros regularly feature at the bottom end of the ladder. The inside mids (Viney, Oliver etc) sit at the top. The ladder for 1%ers - of which spoils is a key feature - almost looks like the tackles ladder in reverse, with Hibberd, McDonald bros, Frost and Jetta often featuring at the top.

I don't understand the lack of tackles - he's such a strong competitor in general and very hard to get the footy past; winning tackles seems like the next logical piece. He's got 4 tackles in total in 7 games for the MFC. That's a very low number whichever way you cut it. Maybe it is a genuine weakness in his game, but so far nobody cares because his contests and use of the footy out of the back line are first rate, and an element we've been absolutely screaming for. I'm sure not complaining at all, just trying to understand.

All three teams are below us on the ladder Steve. I know that doesn't necessarily mean we're better, but it does mean they have plenty of flaws to be exposed, just as we do. Get around us!

There are so many posters who are guilty of being biased towards 30 seconds of play DA (read: probably all of us), but very few capable of recognising it after the fact and correcting. Great post.