P-man

Under a lot of pressure. The intent is there. Right now I’ll take that.

T Mac. Jesus.

Oliver starting forward?

Bloody hell. What a performance.

For god’s sake get the defence sorted out. It doesn’t seem that long ago that our defensive structures and quickness to set up used to be lauded. The ease with which teams are slicing us up right now is embarrassing. There must be some improvement across the entire team tonight. If it’s another field day for the opposition with our bunch of reactionary chooks all swarming towards the ball carrier with seemingly no communication or understanding of what they’re doing then pencil us in for bottom four because it means we actually can’t fix it. The other must is to crack in hard and win the clearance battle. It is inexcusable to have such a dominant ruckman winning hitouts for fun and losing the clearances to average midfields. And can we at least leave a couple of players sitting outside of the contest instead of seemingly every time the ball spilling to an opposition player unopposed. Oh and good luck Jeffy.

This is actually a dog’s breakfast. We can’t score and we can’t defend lol

Well the final against Geelong last year was fun. That may be the highlight for the foreseeable future.

Missed the set shot from dead in front. Welcome back Joe.

Barracking for the umps today. Can’t stand either of these clubs.

This game has arrived at just the right time to continue to build into the season. A less fancied opponent that has exceeded expectation going into the season and, given their outs, is basically playing to their potential. Conversely we have a fair bit of room for improvement, and if we can make another stride forward on the back of last week it will be a nice confidence boosting win. These ones are often nailbiters. Hopefully not the case this week. We should win and win well.

Bruce has his annoying quirks (the way he says “Sahlum” makes me want to reach through the screen and throttle him until he gurgles out “Salem” correctly), but compared to the likes of Dwayne Russell, Luke Darcy or, god help us all, Basil [censored] Zemplas, I’m often reminded there are a lot worse going around than old Brucey. Despite his many knockers he’s without question one of the greatest sports commentators we’ve ever had. I agree though that he should’ve left when Cometti did. They were a partnership that somehow worked. The chemistry with BT just isn’t there.

He wasn’t dreadful. I just didn’t notice him much. He kicked it straight to a red and a white jumper in the first half and I honestly can’t recall him doing a lot in the second. But I’ll take your word that he was better than I thought. I’d still be happy to see him swapped for Lewis. Re ANB, I think he’ll play better once the team is playing better. He’s a follower, not a leader. So let’s bring him back in this week (just jokes daz).

People are surely just looking at the name and not the performance when it comes to the Wagners. On that performance you could maybe drop Corey but not Josh. He was very good. Stretch was fairly disappointing I thought. If Lewis comes back in he’d be the one to make way. Jetta and Oscar the other straight swap. That would probably be it although Jeffy roaming at the feet of Preuss is a tasty prospect. If he can have a big game this weekend he could come in for Spargo

6. Jones 5. Gawn 4. Fritsch 3. Salem 2. Hore 1. Oliver HM: Hunt, Wagners, Preuss, Harmes, Trac

His value as a forward aside, his physicality is valuable in and of itself. The trash talk between Milkshake and Allir was picked up and occurred right after Preuss won an aerial contest. Allir responded to Milkshake by saying (in relation to Preuss): “he loves it rough”. The players know he’s a brute. Ours and theirs. Ours feed off it. You can see it.

That’s a bloody ripping win right there. A few Thursday night beers watching us get the four points to get the season up and rolling. No complaints. A dominant second half on the back of some subtle signs in the first. Got our contested game back. Pressure on the oppo was in a different league to what it’s been in the first three weeks. We wanted it and we got it. Jonesy pivotal serving up some humble pie. Hunt is a hot and cold player but when he’s hot he is very, very good. Preussy outstanding debut with a typical Gawn performance. It can work. Shout to the Wagner boys. 10 and 16 disposals but they mattered. In the top 7 players on the ground for efficiency. Hore in the votes. Great [censored] win. Now let’s continue on from here.

Career best year coming up.

[censored] yes

I love Salo

Best quarter of the season.

It’s official. You can drop the ball now. AFL need to declare it publicly.

Hore has comfortably been among the best.

Key to that quarter was a willingness to taking the dangerous kick on. Apart from Fritz it was non existent in the first. Got lucky with a few of those snaps in the pocket but that will generate confidence which we desperately need. Jones being moved into the middle has been well overdue. We were good in the second quarter last week too. Need to actually show up in the second half.

Ling could not sound less enthused when talking about Melbourne.