RalphiusMaximus

6. Oliver 5. Petracca 4. Brayshaw 3. Weideman 2. Lever 1. Pickett

Brayshaw - Allergic to Viney.

What an absolute crock. His only other option was to let the guy go. No AFL player is ever going to do that. They like to talk about the tackler having a "duty of care" to the person they are tackling. What about the person being tackled and their "duty of care" to themselves? If Hammill had just dropped to the ground and accepted the tackle then he wouldn't have been hurt at all. It's no more absurd than telling us that the tackler has to let him go rather than forcing him down when he fights to escape the tackle. I really hope the club stands up here and challenges this verdict. Precedent and consistency don't mean anything to the AFL, but they do to the courts.

Well, I'm happy with a comprehensive win, but we need to remember that Adelaide are setting new standards for a bad season. I was really happy with the way Oliver was hitting the packs at pace and breaking away with the ball rather than dishing off. It's what the dominant mids do while he has tended to look for the really quick dish off which often gets us into trouble. I do wonder if he saw the media speculation from certain individuals about his trade value and felt the need to make a point. We haven't seen him dominate like that before. As for Jackson, I'm reminded of a pre-season game I went to. I was chatting to a random fellow supporter on the fence about how Jackson had played so far. Consensus was that there was something there, lots of speed and agility and good ground-balls, but his two-grab hands were a problem. The young lady who does running was in front of us and she piped up and told us that Jackson was going to be fine and "Burgo" calls him The Ferrari. It's looking like she was spot on. He and Weideman are getting some nice chemistry going now and the forward line is looking functional with them working together. It was also a bit of a thrill to see Gus playing some decent football again in the second half. I don't know what it is with his game, whether it's a position thing or he and Viney get in each other's way, but while Viney was off the ground Gus dominated.

Ours is 32

Sparrow looks really uncertain to me. He's capable, but every time he gets the ball he immediately looks for a senior player to give off to rather than trying to make something happen himself. Once he gets it into his head that he's allowed to try things for himself I think his game will improve out of sight. Was also really happy with Gus in the second half. Did Viney cop a knock or something? It looked like he was off for a lot of the last and Gus thrived with the inside role.

WTF is Langdon doing? HE sees the turnover on our HF line and for some idiotic reason every single time he starts stalking forwards towards the ball carrier and leaves his man wide open on the wing. How many times have they gone over his head tonight?

So at the opening bounce Viney is held off the ball to the point of being dragged to the ground. Without a call, Sparrow comes in to try to get the ball Viney would have, is tackled and wrapped up and it's HTB to Port. WTF are these Umpires doing?

I really wish Jackson would just take the shot himself. He's so intent on passing it off that he's ignoring his opportunities. He was wide open there with all the time in the world to wheel and line up a shot, and he passed back out of the 50 to a teammate under more pressure than he was.

No HTB for Melbourne... And saying that we get one finally.

Lockhart is showing a lot of fight. We have a couple who are putting in and trying to lift the team.

FMD, Viney bombs to the Hoff in the goalsquare...

Got away with one there. Good contested work from Brayshaw.

It's not looking good. There's no spark there tonight. They're going through the motions but the tackles are half-hearted, they're not crashing in to get the ball and disposal is loose. We won't win this one.

I suggest giving them each a copy of the rules and telling them to adjudicate the game according to those rules.

Those last few minutes, the umpires did everything but kick the ball themselves to prevent us from scoring again. Inexcusable.

OK, I just have to vent on my one great complaint from this game. Bloody Max Gawn. He could have had GOTY sewn up and he passed it off. The guy roves his own hitout, breaks a tackle and runs the ball out of the square. All he had to do was take it to 55m or so and belt the hell out of it for a goal. Why did he do the team thing and look for a pass? Why? Interesting. I wonder if this contributed to the space our forwards were finding?

Quite happy about that. This was everything that we've been crying out for in our side. It seems like they're finally getting the balance right in the side. The addition of Langdon, Bennell and Pickett give us some pace and skill to compliment the raw grunt, Oscar down back frees up Lever and May to play their natural games and Weid plays a more traditional full-forward game than T-Mac which helps the forward structure and gives us a moving target. Some of the passes to the lead were sublime today, none better than the bullet from May that bounced of Jackson's chest. It was very interesting seeing the more senior players going out of their way to give goals to the first year players. Even the Weid declined a set shot directly in front of goal to give Jackson a freeby. I'm also thrilled with the vision Bennell is showing. I don't care if he's not enough of a contested beast for Goodwin. That's not what he was hired for and trying to turn him into another inside animal is pointless. He's in the side for the damage he can do with the ball, not for his tackling and contested ball-winning. His hand pass through a mob of Hawks to create a goal was sublime.

He looks good, but his pace isn't great. That will hurt him as a small forward. Tough as hell though.

Cody Weightman. Amazing mark and goal from a first-gamer.

It's also worth saying that OMac and the Weid made a big difference to the structure today. Oscar frees up May and Lever to play a more attacking brand and having Sam up front means we have someone contesting in the packs which means that the blind kick in hope isn't quite as disastrous for us as it normally is. Well worth persistingwith both of them. Is it just me or was Kozzie trying to set up Bennell all game?

He didn't run under it. That was just BS from the commentators because they weren't game to say he was pushed in the back and not given the free. There were three contests in a row where he was shoved out and they marked behind him. Not a peep from the Umps. And the random one outside the boundary against Oliver that nobody knows what it was for...

Seriously? The Umps were searching for frees to pay to GC all night. That free to Rankine on the boundary... WTF? And the two dodgy frees to give Ellis his second goal. Then there were all of the HTB decisions they paid to GC that they refused to pay to us... The umps were a disgrace all night.

I see what you did there. He doesn't though.

Thanks for that. I quite enjoyed it.