RalphiusMaximus

You don't change a winning side unless forced. May out Petty or Daw in. Straight swap for another full back.

So you're saying the umpires never miss things? The tackle was clearly late. See what the medical report has to say, but if he's ended a kid's season through a late tackle then he shouldn't be playing the next week. It shouldn't just be for concussions.

Controversial opinion: I think that late tackle on Dursma warrants a suspension. If they penalise players for the outcome of an otherwise legal bump or tackle because it results in a concussion, they need to penalise players for committing illegal acts that result in injury. That was a late tackle that was needlessly brutal and may have ended the kids season. He needs to go.

Also of note is the fact that in three rounds we have only looked like we weren't in control of the game for a few minutes. The start of this match was probably the worst we've seen for that, and it lasted maybe five to ten minutes. Aside from that, ugly or not, scoring or not, we've been in control of the games. The side is showing a lot of maturity in being able to keep that control, possess the ball when we need to and not panic like they used to.

Well, I'm pretty happy with that effort. We're still well short of what the side will look like when everything clicks, but we're getting glimpses. As I said last week, it's great that we are undefeated and still have so much room for improvement. It really bodes well for the back end of the season that we are able to win these early games and buy time to iron out the wrinkles without ruining the season. These ugly wins are gold for us right now. Also really happy to see us win with quiet games from a lot of the prime movers. Trac was the only one of our big guns who had stats up to his usual levels. Oliver was well tagged in the first half and we played around it. Gawn spent far more time forward and let Jackson take a lot more of the ruck duties. Viney is still finding his mojo, but improved on last week. Great to see Fritsch improving his set shots. This is probably our biggest wrinkle right now and as with the last two weeks, if we'd kicked the set shots we should have this win blew out past ten goals. Guys like Oliver and Petracca should be slotting those shots, not to mention Gawn missing two set shots from right in front and Spargo missing the gift Jones gave him towards the end. Once again, winning while there's so much scope to improve is a great thing. Thrilled with Hunt's game. He may have had more disposals in other games, but I don't know that he's ever had as influential a game as that, even with his poor kicking early on. Also thrilled and amazed by Kozzie. We've been crying out for a player like this for so long, and he's so much more than we expected. For a second year player who missed a big chunk of the pre-season to be that fit is just amazing. His workrate is off the charts and he just keeps on churning out repeat efforts all night. Assuming we're still playing like this, they will spend some time at Casey getting match fit.

Bizarre results today. I hope it doesn't bode ill for us tomorrow. Not sure the Saints can claim to be finals contenders when they go that badly against the Bombers. Two of the flag favorites getting done is also interesting to see, although Richmond in particular are very good at peaking in September.

I just want to say that Collingwood should be ashamed of themselves. More than usual, that is. 61 Hitouts to 4. 24 to advantage vs 1. With that sort of dominance out of the middle they should have been all over Brisbane, but they barely won the clearances and they utterly failed to capitalise on them.

I'm just wondering about this. We saw a lot of high kicks, mostly from our side, but the Saints were doing it too. Does the ball maybe carry a bit more with the roof shut at Marvel? That could explain the issue. Another random thing I noticed. Tomlinson seems to have really soft hands. Even full stretch with a ball you'd expect to bounce out, it just seems to nestle into his hands. He was good last week and even better last night. Very happy with the team right now. We're winning ugly. There's still massive scope for improvement. If we iron out those issues and otherwise keep it up, we're going to do well.

I've said this before, but one of the big things that the top teams do that we don't is kick the goals they should kick. You very rarely see them miss a 30-40m kick within the 90 degree arc in front of goal. Or an uncontested running shot from 50. Or a snap from beside the point post. Basically, they are professional and clinical. I wish we had that degree of competence.

I saw a serious lack of heart in the final quarter. Williams the golden recruit gave a couple of putrid defensive efforts and there were plenty of others just jogging along behind their men instead of gut running and trying to impact the contest. Plus their ball movement fell apart when they got tired and they reverted to the long bomb and hope someone marks it.

Well, looks like I got this one wrong.

So, looks like it's Harmes to make way for Viney. That's not a terrible trade.

I didn't hear the interview, but during the coverage the fox commentators were referencing an earlier chat with Fyfe. When asked how to counter the Melbourne mids, he said that they needed to get behind them and push them inside the contest, meaning force them in too close to the rucks so they can't effectively get the ball out. The commentators were pointing out how successful this tactic was for them. I think what we can take from this is that the poor clearance rate from our midfield was contributed to by some tactics of dubious legality that the umpires completely overlooked.

I'm pretty sure the only in will be Viney. Chandler will go to Casey to get a run and I would think Sparrow or Gus will be moved into the substitute role. I will note that they continue to play Gus everywhere but in the guts where he belongs, but if they can't fit him in there then there are better options for the other roles they are trying to shoehorn him into.

Just checking out some of the less well-used stats. Steven May 578m gained, 5 intercept marks, 2 score involvements and won seven defensive 1-1 contests. Lever 6 Intercept marks, 2 score involvements Oliver 9 score involvements. That's nuts. TMac topped our forward 50 tackles with four, then Pickett with 3. Spargo had 3 direct goal assists and 5 score involvements.

I'd be adding the free to Serong at the start of the 3rd quarter. I'm in the middle of the replay here and I still can't see how he got a free. He had the ball, he was tackled and just let it dribble out of his hand. It's either HTB or play on if they think he didn't have prior opportunity. Just watched it again to be sure. He grabbed the ball in both hands before he was tackled. No possible way that was a free to him.

Tomlinson and Langdon were both meant to play big minutes on the wing. Their insane endurance was a big part of why we chased them.

They were talking about this on the Fox coverage. Yze is trying to get them to focus less on winning the ball and more on how they are going to get the ball out of the stoppage. I think that's fair since we have been consistently bad at this for years. Obviously they are still struggling to find the balance. Also, many of those hitouts missed their target by a minute amount. It's going to take very little for the chemistry to click and they will be getting those connections right and hopefully have a better idea of what comes next as well.

LOL. Great example of effort not being rewarded right there. Also worth noting that he missed the shot, but it was spectacular.

I'm allergic to those little bastards. Or a strong wind blowing one way? Looks like Casey did all of their scoring at one end and the other lot just didn't do much scoring at either end.

I have to say, when I saw that I would have to pay extra to sit on level one I very nearly pulled the plug. That's a disgrace. I'm glad I did go, but I pay for my membership so I can go to the games. Why am I being asked to pay twice to sit in the same place I normally would?

I don't think he likes pushing forward. In the second half he went back to playing ruck and dropping back into the hole and he started looking much better.

Tommy will wind up on the wing using his aerobic capacity to cruise up and down the ground all day. He took some really nice contested marks today as the outlet from defence.

I just got home a few minutes ago. I have to say that it was a great afternoon for football, not too hot or cold, slight breeze, overcast. Basically as good a day out as you could get. SO WHERE THE HELL WERE ALL THE DEMON SUPPORTERS? This game should have been a sell-out. The AFL backed us in and refused to let the Hawks and Bombers pinch our home game, and we get a pathetic 21000 on a perfect Saturday afternoon? That's shameful. Now that that's off my chest... How good were our backline today? 22 marks from our three tall(ish) defenders. May BOG. Lever was impassable, although there were some poor efforts when he pushed into attack. Tomlinson hasn't had the love he deserves, although admittedly he didn't have much in the way of opponents. He still dominated them. That back six a gelling nicely. Also huge props to Spargo and Pickett. They are both firmly in the best 22 at this point. Spargo's creativity and play-making are becoming really important, and Picket's pressure play created opportunities for everyone around him. Also love how Pickett upped his attack in the fourth and went looking to crash some bodies and land some hard tackles. Someone fed him angry pills at 3/4 time. Jordan had a very solid debut. Nailed a couple of beautiful passes and should have had two goals. He's another one who needs to work on his set shots. I'm not entirely sold on the midfield mix we had today though. Our output was pretty low, with only Oliver really racking up the disposals. Very happy for TMac. He's had a lot of pressure after last year, so to come out early and clunk a few contested marks on the wing was a great effort. Could have used a better conversion rate, especially since his misses were pretty easy shots. Overall, pretty happy with the game. They missed a lot of opportunities in attack, but the skills were much better than expected and our backline kicked their [censored].

And we're officially on top of the ladder. For now.