Pates

I think there was English somewhere in there. But I actually don’t rate him and don’t have him anywhere near our finals outfit but if we’re looking at players have EARNED a shot at playing this week than he would be one of the few that might fill Spargo’s spot. Spargo was far and away worse against GC and continued his poor form against WC. He SHOULD be dropped going on how everyone else has been dropped/promoted but whether someone else has earned the shot is another story.

He didn’t want to go, his manager made a public plea on his behalf saying he wanted to stay. That is very rare in these situations, I suspect he was given the hard word by the footy department saying if don’t go we won’t play you. Or something to that effect. When a player is put up for trade it’s very rare for the player to dig their heels in as you say. The only one I can remember on our side is Hawthorn were really keen on Ryan Ferguson and tried to trade Brad Sewell to us. Sewell apparently gave it the ok but Fergburger refused to go and the trade fell through. Watts wasn’t wanted, so there was very little option on his part.

I knew there was going to be at least one former player to come out and say this. Couldn’t give a rats, Jones in particular has earned this and in a tight difficult game the relief was so strong and they were feeling what the fans were feeling. The end of 12 years in the wilderness. Unless you’ve experienced it, you can’t know what it feels like.

I guess my point is we’re a better side this year for a lot of reasons. Oliver’s game has gone to a new level, Gawn has had an (touch wood) injury free run, Brayshaw has had an injury free run and shown his true potential, Hogan has had a better year with injuries/health and personal life, Harmes becoming an excellent player. Improvement was always going to happen with all those dominos falling into position. We don’t know how with all those things happening it would’ve affected Watts’s game, most of us came to accept he was a cherry on top player that could show his best when the team was at its best (essentially a front runner). We will never know whether with all those things coming together that Watts might’ve taken a step up in class as well. And remember we are (currently) only a better side by one win (and yes a bucket load of %), there are dozens of factors to consider but I feel it’s an oversimplification to say we are better without him. I think it’s just sad that people (not saying you) feel the need to slag off a guy who a) got traded against his will b) stayed loyal at times when he had every reason to ditch us and c) was IMO treated quite poorly at times by the club and it’s fans.

Well Fritch would be the one to go as he’s the one that we got with his pick. Fritch has been good, and has done an admirable job of filling the Lever hole, I would argue Watts would probably have gone down a similar path with first half of year in forward line and then floating in defence to cover Lever’s absence.

Yep, us missing finals last year was all his fault. ? Ponder this: he was easily our best kick for goal in the team, and we’ve had multiple games decided by poor kicking on goal. I’m not saying necessarily saying we’d be a better team with him, but there are qualities we lost when we traded him. What we gained was a player with more commitment, which I am happy with. At the end of the day Goodwin demands more accountability of his forwards, which Watts wasn’t up to providing.

He played out the game so obviously can’t have been too serious. We play on Sunday so he’s got the full week to recover I’m definitely of the opinion that if there’s a bit of concern we should rest him. We don’t want to be in GWS’s situation and losing players leading into finals.

When it comes to finals you expect your stars to perform, but it’s the bottom end players that get you over the line. You can’t have passengers in finals. All three of them and throw in Frost, OMac, Spargo, and ANB will have to step things us in September. Given that yesterday was like a final for us there were mostly good signs.

Actually quite entertaining reading some of the comments ?. I tried to find one that I made to see what I said, I’m pretty sure I was underwhelmed and annoyed we gave up a second round pick for him. Pretty good value looking at it now!

I love them saying we were dirty, I felt like we’d lost that mongrel we had last year. Yesterday we definitely had it back.

I remember we all raised our eyebrows when he was placed in the forward line, I was surprised and honestly didn’t think it was going to be successful. I don’t think it’s possible to be more wrong, he is our most important forward in that he rarely wastes it. I think there was one moment where he could’ve gone for goal himself but was on his wrong foot so he chose to centre it and the eagles rebounded. That was one of he few moments where I said, “c’mon Melks! Be selfish, finish the job yourself!” We’ve done some great trades in recent times, he’s up there with the best.

If Freo beat the Pies I’ll be a nervous wreck for the GWS game! Go Freo! (I just vomited a little)

Given Casey’s poor loss over the weekend with no one putting in a “pick me” performance and no reported injuries that are serious it’s highly likely we’ll go in with no change. If they want to play things safe with Hibberd, Wagner comes in. Spargo has been poor for a while and for me WC was his worst (he’s a young player at the end of a long season), I would like to see him dropped or rested but I just can’t for the life of me see who could possibly come in for him. Maybe JKH who was IMO unlucky to be dropped.

We got Fritch from the pick we used on Watts, it’s turned out well for us as he’s been a good performer for us showing some flexibility and hasn’t looked out of place. I feel for Jack, he’s got plenty of mates at Melbourne and I’m sure he’s happy for them but he would also be feeling like he went through all those tough years with us constantly being the whipping boy only to be traded just when we’re going to make the finals. He deserves to experience finals as much as anyone on our list.

It’s sometimes easy to forget about former players and how much they care about the club. Guys like Lyon, Green, Neita, Schwartz, and many more have been watching on in frustration the same as us for years. I was watching from my London flat match starting at 6:20am, when Kent kicked that goal and I yelled “c’mon Dees, f*** yeah!” I think I woke the entire neighbourhood! Certainly my housemates! ?

Geelong. It feels like the perfect narrative to the season, they get lucky against us twice and we kick then out of the finals.

He played out the game, and made a couple of very important contests with decent pace so he appeared to be ok. But at the same time if there are doubts on players like him then giving them a 2 week spell for finals could do them a world of good. All indications are though that we came out of the match without any injuries worth reporting.

The fixture is seriously messed up that this is the first time we play them this year, same as West Coast last week. All teams should play each other before there are any repeats.

If it's a channel 7 broadcast then the best you'll get is half time/full time analysis from fox footy, live commentary will still be seven as they just take the feed. I prefer fox footy to watch as they focus more on the footy and analysing the game, whereas seven likes to talk about the stories behind the game, the players, the coaches, the boot studders etc. Because they don't have any ad breaks they can also give proper replays to show the build ups and the key moments that created the goal. David King and Derm can get pretty tiresome at times but usually what they say is pretty on point.

I almost feel like we should have two banners or quotes up the locker room at the club and on match day from now on. "Why Not Us?" - Neale Daniher "Whatever it takes" - Jimmy Stynes

Haha yes those sort of conversations are predictable after a win like this, Weed and Hogan play different games. Weed seems more of a traditional tall forward, leaping hard at the ball and clunking marks (hopefully more regularly) with a long reach, whereas Hogan is more mobile and at times racks up midfield numbers. I suspect in the second half of the year Hogan's been playing with an injury of some sorts. I really felt like he should've been rested vs Fremantle or GC, not saying that would've made a difference with his eventual season ending foot injury, but he didn't look right. Without trying to sound wanky, Hogan is on a journey and is still only part the way towards becoming the player he's going to be. Watching the team play finals will be make him hungry for next year.

We will never know if that’s the case. He makes us a better side in terms of quality out on the field but we do become predictable with him in our team and he had a terrible record against better sides. Now some of this is down to the midfield not lowering their eyes to hit him up and instead bombing it in, but he also has a habit of just calling for it out the back rather than leading straight. He has the potential to be one of the best forwards in the game but with him we seem to stop lowering the eyes and have more of a “bomb it to Hogan” mindset. Our current forward line means we stop looking for one player and instead look for the best option.

I gotta say it’s incredibly entertaining reading all the salty WC fans complaining about the umpires. Do they seriously not know how much the umpires usually favour them in Perth? It’s about time they actually experienced a contest where the umpires were even with their decisions.

Rarely beaten all day, solid as a rock. That tackle on Rioli was a thing of beauty, after it I was thinking he’s taken down Cyril and Eddie, you had no hope kid! He did look pretty peeved though, considering we’d just won it was surprising to see him so fired up but it might’ve just been niggle at the wrong time.

It's hard to rate how Gus was before this year because he didn't get a clean run at it for so long. Now that Gus is injury free he's doing what he was born to do. Harmes was in a crossroads place at the start of this year, no one could actually say what his best position was because he was playing a bit of everywhere. Now that he's gone into the guts tagging opposition runners, with runs in the forward line he's found his place in the team. He set up Kent for the 2nd last goal and it was everything that he's become; he controlled the ball from the smother, kept calm, and delivered well.