bing181

Impressive, whatever way you look at it. Pity that a) our two longer-term injuries are for the season and b) they're both mids.

Read an article somewhere recently re Hawthorn that made the point that the game-day coaches are effectively Hodge and the other senior players. They're the ones who run the show onfield - to the extent that any running is necessary when pretty well everyone knows and understands what needs to be done. There is, of course, a key role in all this for the coaches, as Roos acknowledged when he talked about "getting the message across", but it's less about match-day. Still much soul-searching to be done it would appear. Looking forward to this weekend. We can't play that badly two weeks in a row can we?

In the recent Neitz interview, they were talking about the lack of leadership over a number of years, and as well as Junior, he highlighted Brad as a player who should never have been pushed out/on. It's not always all about the stats sheet.

Bleachers.

They still do carbo loading the day of a match. (I believe ...) The problem on Saturday wasn't what's going on below the neck, but above it.

Think we all do, but it's probably more about management and load for a young player/mid over the longer term.

Seriously? A week ago Roos was a hero. You can make all the changes you want (a number of which were made), but at the end of the day, if the players don't respond and make an effort, it's all for naught. Viney made the observation in his post-match interview that it's not about any individual player, it's about the whole team and the way they attack the ball and the contest. If that's not there across all 18 on the field, then you allow for the possibility of what happened in the second half. Plenty of posters here just kidding themselves.

Anyone who thinks that a few changes at the selection table would have made anything more than a cosmetic difference is kidding themselves. If the players don't play, or play for a bit then rest on their laurels, the rest is just shuffling the deck chairs. We were 6 goals up at one point. Team isn't that bad.

Is someone disagreeing?

How good are a lot of these players ... Port/Swans ... two-tier AFL.

You've got to be kidding. Excepting Jones, they're potentially talented, but nothing more at this stage. Hogan has played 2 games, Salem and JKH not that many more, Viney, Tyson and McDonald are still learning the ropes, and Vince is approaching his last season or two. You can't even begin to build a team around players like that, but to a large extent that's what we're being forced to do. Dees' supporters have got to stop kidding themselves about where our current list is at. Seriously.

He didn't single out lack of talent, he specifically singled out lack of effort and lack of 4 quarter effort. He made the perfectly valid point that if you aren't Hawthorn, Swans, Freeo, you can't afford to slack off, even for a moment.

I look at the free run the Giants had at the draft, the 17 year olds, the NSW players, the extended list, the salary cap allowance ... and shudder. There was never a worse time to be looking to rebuild through the draft than what existed over the years we so desperately needed it. All of the cream was taken off the top, as was obvious in what we saw running around against us today. Against that, the drafting we've done over the last couple of seasons has been potentially great, with hardly a foot wrong. But, as with the Giants, it will take 3 or 4 years.

No there's not. We have perhaps one player in the best 50 in the comp.

Not sure. Vince and to some extent Dawes short of match fitness/practise, so I wouldn't be moving them on. Perhaps the same for Howe - he missed the back half of the pre-season, obviously busted a gut to make it back for round 1, maybe paid for it all today. I liked Brayshaw in what time he had, definitely keep him in for mine, even only as sub. The two I'd look at would be VDBerg and Kent. Both have great upside, but Kent has disposal issues - too often just a panic disposal, and should have had one or two goals more than he did. Vandenberg needs to get a bit more experience away from the pressure, and it's going to be nothing but pressure for the coming weeks. I'd consider playing them at Casey with specific goals/tasks to focus on. But ... who really knows!

A new low in game-day posting? They didn't get 9 goals to zilch because of Chris Dawes.

Only downside with H is that everyone knows what he's going to do. They've managed to not give him any of that space he needs to do his best work. Be interesting to see if Tyson and Jones can lift, that's probably the match right there.

No.

Beat me to it WJ. Some interesting content in that article: While the Essendon players did not test positive, there is international concern that the weight of evidence against the AFL players was not sufficient for the sport's tribunal to be "comfortably satisfied" to return a guilty verdict. The heads of anti-doping agencies in the US, UK, France and Germany have all contacted McDevitt with messages of support, including raising the possibility of appeal. ... While McDevitt has been under siege from sections of the Australian media, he has received support where it matters most – the current federal sports minister, Sussan Ley, and her predecessor, Peter Dutton. ... Sports disciplinary tribunals, while well intentioned and qualified generally in criminal law, do not have the CAS-type expertise or experience in dealing with the nuances of increasingly complex sports anti-doping law.

Watts. Looked confident and in control. The tap back to Garlett was inspired, as was the mark on the line that he went back and turned into a goal. He's always been a kind of "I see what's going on here" type player, but he hasn't always been the "I"ll do what's needed here" player to go with that. Agree with the others listed above as well, great to see Garland back up to speed. Also impressed with Viney, he was a bit so-so in the NAB cup series.

And to add ... Ablett: - handpass directly to opposition player standing in front of goal, resulting in a goal - drops handpass while standing in the goal square. opposition clear, resulting in a goal at the other end. But of course, it's only Melbourne players who make mistakes.

Is that you Ben?

To give him his due, he managed to get into the right place to receive the ball 10m out in the first place. Given that Ablett also messed up a handball/play in a similar position, not quite ready to throw Jimmy under a bus yet.

Social Litigator article has been updated, has more background material and some interesting input/comments. http://sociallitigator.com/2015/04/03/a-question-of-proof-might-an-asada-appeal-have-legs/

You too eh ... but you should move across the water, we only have to get up at 4 am. A great day. So this is what it feels like to support a football team. A real football team.