Adam The God

What the hell are they doing up in Sydney? What's with the rock garden behind the goals to the left of screen? They've just conceded that they'll never fill the house at that end of the ground.

Haha, absolutely. Was my thinking too. Yep, agreed, mate. I don't think it's just the senior coach either. It seems to be an unhappy place to be.

He seems to be playing high half forward as you say and historically he's struggled there a little bit, but seems to have some intensity in this position this year. I'm hoping he gets some midfield minutes soon. He was dominant for a period against the Saints last year when playing in the guts.

I want Gus to really lift his game this year. He's fallen behind a little bit.

I just wonder if it's worth relocating the Suns to Tassie. There'd be more buy in from supporters down there. QLD will never turn to the AFL. They, like NSW, don't support sport enough anyway. You only have to look at rugby attendances for both codes. Union is dying and league is struggling. What say you, @Nasher? I know we've had this discussion multiple times, but given where the Suns are at I just wonder if the AFL should cut their losses.

Who goes first? Buckley or Eade? Potentially Eade the way it's going today.

It has a bit of the Neeld days about it for me. Wouldn't be surprised if there's a bit of a revolt there. I'd target Saad and Kolodjashnij and see if we can woo them. I would imagine it wouldn't take much to want to get out of there.

Wow. Just wow. Anyone see Ablett's jog then?

I'm slow to the party, but his finals series last year swayed me and he's started beautifully this year.

37,420 (if that was the crowd) is a terrific crowd for a game against Adelaide at the G. We'd be delighted by that. Hawthorn have never had particularly massive attendances for H&A games. Their actual membership numbers are high, but not many attend.

How's the Suns jumper? Copy of the MFC jumper per chance? They also lack a front of jumper sponsor.

I just wonder whether their easy draw last year covered up a few cracks in their drafting. They're certainly well coached, but my question over them has always been their lack of midfield depth.

Hodge is done.

I thought that was fair. Rioli nominated. Clever by the Hawks. But pathetic defending at the top of the square though. Hilarious!

She's like many Hawthorn people I know. Doesn't really care what happens, but if they win is happy to say "Go Hawkers".

Agree to disagree then about Bont.

Really like Roosy as a commentator too. Those three years back in the game have given him the feel for it again. I felt just prior to joining Melbourne he wasn't as up with it anymore. That's not the case now.

Me too, mate. Sitting here with the Hawthorn supporting fiancee. It is delightful.

Adelaide half backs have started storming through the centre square now though. Even with that Poppy goal, Adelaide are on top here. Hawthorn lack the leaders. Hodge is so slow and keeps turning it over.

Would love to see Gawn v Jacobs at the moment. Jacobs has killed Vickery around the ground. Absolutely murdered him.

Yep, I agree with Roosy. That is possibly the worst call I've ever seen. Inexplicable.

The Bont is now elite IMO.

I think what will propel us up the ladder sooner than was anticipated is if we can develop the Hannan types into B graders. As long as our Hogan's, Oliver's, Petracca's and Brayshaw's continue to improve every couple of games and begin to show consistency, the lower picks like Hunt and Hannan fill the holes we'd otherwise have in our bottom six. Most people use the bottom 6 of a best 22 to decide the fate of a football team. Our current interchangable bottom 6 would be: ANB/Kent, Hannan/Kennedy/JKH, Frost/Smith/Garland, Weideman/Pedersen, Bugg/Vandenberg and White. Now if ANB can provide Kent with decent competition for that half forward role our forwardline is immediately improved and harder to match up on. If Hannan develops into a good player and JKH can show us something to put pressure on Hannan, that's another string for our forwardline. If Frost and Smith get a good run at the third defender role without injuries, our defence will look a lot stronger. If Weideman continues to develop and starts to clunk some of those marks, Hogan, Watts and Weideman are a tall and mobile set of key forwards who could get in top of most defences. So looking at the remaining guys from above, it means our bottom 3 or 4, particularly with injuries are still a worry. But with another trade/draft season or two, those holes should be filled. If we can make our 2017 picks count and get lucky with a talented FA sometime in the next two years, we'll be superbly positioned in 2018-2019 to make an assault on the flag. As PD says, Kelly would be the perfect addition to our midfield, although I worry about his hardness. I'd like to see how Dion Johnstone develops, because he could also be the answer to our small forward problems. But looking through this bottom 6 shows me that we really have assembled an exciting list.

Agreed, mate.

Not sure the Pies starting 0-2 is that unexpected. I think we'll see Adelaide, Bulldogs, GWS, West Coast and eventually the Swans in the top 5. The rest of the top 8 is up for grabs.