RalphiusMaximus

Sitting in front of my computer...

Had a look at the replay on Kayo. The biggest conclusion we can draw is that North are in real trouble. The lack of any sort of depth is strongly reminiscent of us at our worst half a dozen years ago. They have nothing in their key positions, but that's ok because they have almost nothing in the middle as well and most of that is nearing the end of their careers. For our side, congratulations on whoever it was talking up Deakyn Smith during the off-season. He looks to be a very nice prospect. Give him a year or two to build his body and I could see him in the senior side. Sparrow delivers beautifully to the forwards and seems to work well with the Weed, who is of course dominating at VFL level. I get why they put Brown in for this week, but Weed is very stiff to be left out. Really though, there's to much you can take out of a game like that. They were that bad and we were professional and well-organised and took them apart.

He was at the ground. They interviewed him at half time.

Great news. I love that the club are getting these deals done early and with a minimum of drama. We're not hearing about players putting off talks until the end of the season or looking at their options. Already the media are turning their attention to the players who are out of contract at the end of 2022, because we've given them nothing to speculate on this year. Great position for the club to be in.

He played a really good game on the weekend. He used to be a bit flashy, dropping out for long periods. He seems to have moved past that, at least based on that game. He showed real presence and leadership in the middle and kept at it all game.

... Be pretty happy. You know the last time we won the first six games of the season was something like 1965, right? Edit: Or was that the first seven games? I think that team won like eight in a row anyway.

Don't forget his antics last year. Got a week suspension for a deliberate elbow to the head of an opponent, appealed and had it downgraded to careless and a fine. Played the next match, elbowed someone in the head and got a week again. Once again the AFL is demonstrating to the world that they have NFI how to run a league and their self-proclaimed integrity as an absolute joke.

Throw a blanket over the top three. They all had great games in different ways. 6 - Lever 5 - Trac 4 - Gawn 3 - Oliver 2 - Viney 1 - Fritta I have to give it to Lever for stepping up in the absence of May and some of the ridiculous defensive efforts he made. Being the only man in our defensive 50 when Geelong were streaming down the field and somehow making the stop was just stupid. Petracca unlucky given his dominance. I see plenty of people giving him the six and can't argue. Gawn also unlucky with his level of dominance over their ruck brigade. I was also really happy with Gus, Langdon and Salem, but there just aren't enough votes. It's a really nice problem to have.

That wasn't a change, it was a reshuffle. We swapped one of the players on the ground for the substitute. Still the same set of players, just a different one starting with a vest on. ?

Max Gawn - 41 Hitouts, 23 Disposals, 6 marks, 1 goal Both opposition rucks - 24 Hitouts, 19 disposals, 4 marks, 1 goal.

Do we have confirmation that May has a broken eye socket? That's what it looked like on the ground with the massive swelling and I see someone has mentioned it earlier.

Ben Brown won't come in. He's played half a practice match. He's not ready yet. While we're winning there is no pressure to rush him into the side, so he's going to keep building up at Casey for now.

That was just a genuine great win. Everyone contributed, nobody shirked and we operated as a unit all game. Yes, there were a few moments of idiocy that cost us goals, but overall we once again controlled the game and didn't panic when they got a run on. Of particular note is the fact that we were never behind. Not once in that game. We scored first and they never caught up. I don't remember the last time that happened. Even with our usual trouble converting, that was pretty close to a complete game. Is anyone else noticing how much the twins (Hunt and Langdon) are feeding off each other? It seems to me that Landon's presence on the outside has inspired Hunt and he's now working much harder to match his lookalike.

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.