Webber

Over and over it seems.

Watching his tap work is like watching great spin bowling. You're not quite sure how he gets to be so nuanced. The best for me against Gold Coast was the tap to the skipper for his left foot goal in the third quarter. Pure magic. He's also becoming a huge personality presence to attract new supporters. And the lesson..... big boys take time.

Watch the goals highlights, Tyson's handballing is sublime and creative. Jesse Hogan's father told me last year that next to Jack Viney, Salem has the hardest head and least fear of anybody else on the list.

Swans under 19's when the ressies and U19's were still at Lakeside but seniors in Sydney. Got cut, not enough mongrel. VAFA under 20's rep side. B-grade Amo seniors. Got distracted by girls and study. Ho hum. I don't think you need to have played the game to be a good analyst. In fact I think it's irrelevant.

Spot on, Akum. I hope, and have a feeling that the umps will be a bit gun shy at gifting the Dogs free kicks this week, and will also be looking harder at their infringements, ideally in the ruck. Also, good luck to the victim who tries to block Jack Viney. He won't let it pass, and nor will his teammates I would suggest. I have a feeling we'll turn up this week due to the underdees status, so it could be a cracker!

You've completely misinterpreted my post. Just settle down RM and pay attention.

Wow! At halftime I called a loss, and have never been happier to be so completely and woefully wrong. We all know about Petracca, but none of us saw Jayden Hunt coming. Yep, he'll ride a rollercoaster, but he's going to be a very very good footballer. Best game of the year for the chunk too. Our clearance work is simply blistering, even if their midfield was thinned. So much to like, can't imagine how impressive we'll be when we tighten up on the easy transitions and gift goals.

*the most frustrating team in the AFL to watch, nearly impossible in fact. *the easiest team to score against in the AFL, we just gift the opposition uncontested goals. *the most inefficient ball users in the AFL, our clangers and fumbles are absolute game killers. It shouldn't be the case, but because of those last two things, and even though the Suns are two players down, I just can't see us winning it from here. We're just too easy to exploit, and too ready to give the ball away.

More games and experience into Stretch (a natural footballer who will be terrific once he matures), Hunt, and Petracca, and that's your speed across the centre-wings. Ben Ken, Garlett and Kent (still learning) provide the speed up forward.

Nice work fr_ap, but the short turnaround was the same for both teams, bar a few hours. We looked absolutely cooked out there, and the Saints were the complete opposite. Selection would have gone a long way to remedying this, something Roos acknowledged they got wrong, but it still doesn't explain the disparity in energies between the two teams.

That is speculation based on no evidence that I can see. Barring 3 or 4 of our players, the rest lowered their colours drastically today, and that wasn't about Riewoldt and Montagna. The Saints are better balanced and more consistent than us, with just as many young guns.

The number of goals the saints got from floods of uncontested possessions without a Melbourne player within a handball's distance of any of them was beyond belief. Passages of the most uncompetitive football I can remember seeing. Even when we are running well in attack (last 2 weeks) we are woefully easy to score against. It's a massive and frankly fatal flaw in our game plan, and opposition teams know it. Much too unnacountable and much too predictable.

Impossible to watch without a big smile on the face. These guys are loving their footy at the moment, and they're loving playing for each other. In fact there's just a lotta love goin 'round.

That's exactly what it was. No bias at all. Some people need to shed their victim mentality.

He's gobby alright. I'm just glad he didn't have to regret that pointing to the grandstand as he was running into the open goal. He's loving his footy and his new club, and quite likes a big crowd I reckon. We haven't seen the best of the Bugg yet, I'm pretty sure of that.

I'm 50 Rafiki, and you're not wrong. It's a big call, but a new era it is.

Top 5 in the Brownlow at this stage too I'd say. He is a 120 minute fearsome beast.

Two in a row? I have a hard time believing we can do it. We're very young and have less to prove tonight than the Tiges. Dees by 25 ?

Was never in doubt. ?

The kid's played 26 games, without being able to string many together because of injury. He isn't yet 21, and is our key kicker outer from the goal square. Give him a chance to build on his role over a season, which I reckon he is doing, and very nicely thank you. What he does as the years go by is anybody's guess, but natural footballers like Salem need to be allowed to mature with games experience in a defined role. Halfback is perfect for him.

Yep, remember him well. Thought he was going to be our Trevor Barker. Pretty sure I had his footy card. Why didn't I hang on to those bl**dy things?

Lovely sounds.

You stole my thoughts SS. And that's not the only Melbourne blindness he has. He just will never rate the Dees or anything we do.

They get 2 early goals this quarter and the Collingwood crowd will do the rest. This is barely more than a 50/50 game now. Collingwood have nothing to lose and their pressure was killing us that last 10 minutes.

....be less surprised than I was at 5 pm last Saturday.