Adam The God

If we're going with Patton, I'd add Prestia. Another MFC supporter. Bring 'em home. Prestia is quick and a clearance machine. Probably the only non-MFC player I actually follow, mainly because he's a Melbourne boy and I hold out some ridiculous hope of getting him one day. If we get two top 5 picks, I'd be offering one for Prestia and use the other on a big forward.

Dunn's a strange one. I suspect his kids have matured him. Not totally against it, I guess.

I'd have Dawes in the DL banner before Howe.

His name's Alistair Clarkson. Not saying that is what Roos should do with our mob, but the authoritarian style still has a place in today's modern footy. You've just gotta be good at it. Neeld or Watters weren't. They both lacked tactical nous too. One of my mates works at Hawthorn. He says Clarkson's an absolute psycho - who knew?

It surprises me that Viney didn't lay one. He seemed to be the only one attempting to tackle Ablett. And from our captain, that's hopeless.

Love him. One of my favourites already. Never stops.

I think the second quarter was comparable with last year or the year before, but our dominance in other patches was certainly an improvement.

There was nothing that supported this more than a two minute period in the final quarter yesterday. Grimes gets out-marked when he shouldn't have been, Gold Coast scoring shot and down the other end, Jones finds some way of getting through the traffic and snapping a much needed goal. Grimes shouldn't be in the team, let alone captain. Jones would be in the AA team if it were named now.

Spot on. Particularly, as our clearance rate from throw ins is abysmal. Even when we won the centre clearances yesterday, we lost from throw in and stoppage clearances. I've been bemoaning our lack of plan B from this situation for the past 7 years as well. It seems amazing that none of our coaches have identified this as a weakness. They couldn't have, otherwise we would have done something about it. We consistently, slowly kick long to a player (usually ruckman) on the back flank.

Thought Georgiou was our best back. Certainly the most reliable. I dreaded every time Tommy Mac, Terlich or Grimes got the ball and expected a turn over.

We've clearly made progress on what Neeld delivered us. But, that was the lowest base to come off in the history of the game. Our 2013 side was the worst I've seen in my life time and one of the worst coached too. That said, people have a right to be cheesed off at the lack of intensity from our team. I said before the game that I expect us to be firmly entrenched in the bottom four this year. Talk of finals is ludicrous rubbish, but that doesn't change the fact that today's performance was extremely ordinary.

The Suns were themselves hopeless. We went missing for large patches of the game. It's time to stamp out this attitude of 'there's no disgrace in being beaten'. Other clubs don't accept this and neither should we. The way a large number of our players went about it today was not up to AFL standard. Certainly not in the intensity stakes. Alright, so they've got arguably the greatest player of all time, but this was a team that was more inexperienced than us. It's not like we had a spirited, close loss to Hawthorn. Gold Coast played poorly, are younger and generally struggle for forwards, let alone backs. They have a terrific, young midfield, but this was on our home track. Inexcusable not to bring 100% to the contest. We quite clearly didn't. This was reflected in the number of tackles and ineffective tackles we 'attempted'.

Oh yeah. And the obvious one is Watts' lack of intensity at the contest. He did try to lay a few tackles, but they weren't particularly effective. I guess you could say that's an improvement, but it is still not acceptable. JKH started off like a headless chook (see last week too), but slowly worked himself into the game. It started with a nice tackle in our forward fifty and then he was in front moments later, and then kicked truly from 30m.

Our intensity wasn't high enough for at least 90% of the match. We failed to stick effective tackles and were hesitant with ball in hand. It was like we hadn't won at all last week. We looked really low on confidence, yet won many of the centre clearances. Viney was terrific. N Jones was very good. Frawley is growing tremendously into his forward role - he and Dawes just need to ensure they leave space for each other. Too often they would lead to the same place. We let ourselves down when kicking for goal. Almost every time (save one beautiful kick in the first quarter) Terlich touched the ball, he turned it over or made a horrible decision. He's a liability. Jack Grimes - I can't remember him having an effective spoil, I'm sure he did at one point, but how many times was he out-marked? He too continues to butcher the ball, with below ordinary decision making. We didn't get enough from Vince, Tyson (who looked incredibly slow again) or Howe. And the Melbourne crowd was atrocious in the first quarter. Absolutely no atmosphere and it really reflected the team spirit (or lack there of). They picked up a little bit once we scored our first, but gee, it was embarrassingly quiet. We took a step back today. It was time to put together four consistent quarters. Had we done that, we would have won. The umpiring was rubbish, but it shouldn't have mattered. In the first half, they dominated. In the second half, we did. We didn't make it pay.

Absolutely hopeless. How many tackles stuck?

That surprises me greatly. Thanks for that, HB.

Tragedy, if that were the case, mate.

Spot on, S. Dawes is practically an assistant coach on field too. Really, really important that he plays.

Jumbo clearly has a problem with Jetta. Who are these other players he doesn't like? The white knight stuff is great Saty, but people can have different opinions from you too.

Can't see us winning this if he's out.

I hope you're wrong about the Adelaide v GWS match, mate. I have a bit of money riding on that one. Fingers crossed.

I'd agree, but I think if we win the tackle count, that probably means we've turned up. If we turn up, I think that'll go a long way to winning the game. Sounds obvious, huh? If we're up to our necks in it, I think the home ground advantage and the confidence gained from last week, might be enough to see us over the line. Structurally, we look stronger on paper. Maybe that's my bias?

Hmm, I always feel like Jones is trying to run in a block of cement. Kinda reminds me of Trengove's agility over the last two and a bit seasons. But, maybe it's an awareness thing with Jones?

Defensive forward, you reckon, AJ?

I think he's tougher than Terlich and comparable for speed with M Jones. But Nicholson would beat him in a leg race.