Adam The God

This might just get ugly for Carlton. I hope so.

It turns pretty quickly though, doesn't it? Only have to look at Port pre-Kosh.

Well, he did say he wanted to play alongside Hogan.

For a bloke who is an absolute ball magnet and clearance machine, he's played all four games this year. His first week against Essendon was good and since then he's been pretty quiet. He's still managed 24 touches twice and then 20 tonight, but the cobwebs were blasted out in the first week. We're now a month into the season and it's the big Q clash. Lots of feeling in the game and he just didn't look interested to me.

Are you actually watching the game, mate? I'm watching his body language. No, I don't know for certain, but geez, you jump down posters throats at the drop of a hat. Prestia also looks unusually sluggish and doesn't seem to be using his voice at the stoppages like he usually does.

I reckon Prestia's gone... anyone watching the Q clash?

I thought Garlett was missing next week too? Read that somewhere on the pages of Demonland.

There's a lot more midfield competition than there is half back conpetition.

A pretty clear sign of intentions, isn't it? It's a bit different too. It's exciting. Great post, mate. Agreed.

There's nothing in it, IMO. If he goes, it won't be back to Perth. I reckon he could test the water (with a Melbourne-based club) at the end of this year if we don't win between 10-12 games. I reckon we will and he'll end up signing with us on a long term deal.

Don't trust Misson anymore. This is the bloke that also said Garlett was a certainty to play last week. And he spent most of last year [censored]-teasing us with player returns that never eventuated either. EDIT. To be clear, I don't trust what he says about player ins or outs. Not questioning how good he is at his job though.

That's what I said on one of his friend's Facebook walls. I presume the big fella will see it.

Well, Brown was ineffectual. Jones also said he was gonna "douse this one" and something to the effect of "he's not gonna play for a couple of weeks". I'd believe that. I thought it'd be Round 7 or 8. Round 10 sounds about right.

Murphy's always felt to me like a pseudo intellectual, but he seems like a nice guy all the same.

That's a kind of interesting idea. He's good on the sling-shot is Brayshaw, with that penetrating kick of his.

None. Absolutely none. Agree wholeheartedly with all of this except that "it's a big ask to get up each week". No, it isn't. Practically every other team does it and if we want to play finals, that's the benchmark. Besides kicking 3 or 4, I'm not sure Harmes could have done much more. I'm not his biggest fan, but he had 10 tackles (a team high). Going by the footage of Petracca down at Casey, Harmes will be getting a game before him based solely on his defensive pressure. Just Cloke or even Moore. Anyone could bob up against us if we're not switched on.

Lol. I haven't read it yet, but the headline sounds like a Demonland thread topic. Hyperbole much, Newscorp? Never!

Given he is yet to play a full match at VFL level, I'd say they're managing his loads and don't think he is ready.

Well, this will be interesting to see. When Dawes does come back (let's be honest, Roos loves him), how will that impact upon the forward structure and in particular, Watts' position? Watts, as almost the second tall forward, has lifted his game with that responsibility, or perhaps it's just coincidental maturity, but either way I hope Dawes, Hogan and Watts can all play in the same forwardline. I'm also hoping that Dawes' return (although I don't particularly rate him) will release Frost to the backline.

Well, he hasn't yet and that was partly my point.

I can understand the distrust in the FD after the Essendon loss and there's no doubt they are sending mixed messages at the moment... however, Wagner didn't look out of his depth for a first game. I'd be giving him another run this week. He didn't make any critical errors that I can recall and that was a high pressure match on Sunday, so I'll be interested to see how he goes against the Filth.

Didn't Gerard Healy say last night that Gawn had 25 hit outs to advantage? Isn't that a record?

He has been positively glowing of us in the past few weeks and even at times last year. I used not like him because he was so anti-Melbourne, but no one's making him jump on the bandwagon, because the engine isn't even on yet. He's decided to take a front seat and call things with excitement. He appears genuinely happy about Melbourne's very, very slow improvement. I normally wouldn't say a game could be decided by poor umpiring, because many of the frees we stupidly gave away were there. However, there were a handful of incorrect decisions and frankly, mind bogglingly so at times, that given the margin on the day, eventually ended up costing us the game. We would have won by a couple of goals I reckon, possibly more with the wind in the last quarter and a bit of a lead.

Bit of love for Greg Stafford then? He rarely gets a mention around these parts, but I think Spencer also improved last year under Stafford's direction.

Would not be playing Petracca until Round 8 or even Round 9. There is absolutely no need to rush him. Make sure he's right to go. We don't want his body breaking down again, because we've put him in too early. Watching that Casey 4th quarter (admittedly not a great sample size), but he didn't seem to me to work that hard defensively. Either he doesn't or he was knackered by that stage. Let him play two full games at VFL level and prove himself. He hasn't played a full game yet. Let's manage our players professionally this time, instead of debuting him for the sake of the impatience of fans. The defensive pressure has been passable for two weeks. I'd say it was very good against North and passable against GWS. But Kent didn't get to enough contests to apply pressure in Round 2.