Pates

That's it, next week is the week. We win I feel confident of finals, lose and I reckon it's close to over.

It's funny looking at Port Adelaide, they may be pretenders against teams who are decent but they have got the job done just about every time against the teams they should beat. We need to get there, I'm sick of us losing games we should win. It's the reason we've got ourselves in such a stupidly precarious position.

Saints now have a sniff of finals, next week is the first elimination final of the year. Whoever loses I can't see making it.

Bulldogs and Essendon found a way to get the job done, something we couldn't do last week. One friggen goal and we would've got it done last week, we're behind he 8 ball now and it's all our doing.

The equation is simple, win our last three and we make it (very likely at least). We can do it, whether we do.....

Got to win the next two for that to be the case, and that's very far from a certainty. One week at a time, we've got to find a way to win next week, seems to me the players have lost some confidence.

I just saw the bump from Mumford on Gawn, HOW THE ACTUAL F--- DID THE UMPIRE CALL PLAY ON!? YOU CHEATING DOG, HE LINED ONE OF OUR PLAYERS UP AND GOT HIM HIGH!!!! I know it won't happen but I want Goodwin to be fuming about it, Mumford should get at least 2 weeks for it but somehow with the umpire standing right there it gets called play on. Bloody disgusting from the umpire. Oh and I think finals are going to be really tricky now, dug ourselves a big hole with that loss last week and I can't see us digging ourselves out.

As always waking up on the other side of the world can either give me great pleasure or great frustration. Thanks MFC for kicking of my weekend in style like last week.

I would love nothing more to play Richmond in the finals this year, it would be such an even contest and the crowd would be electric (let's be honest it would probably be 65-70% Tigers fans). I also think we were very unlucky against them, we were the better team for 3 quarters but didn't make the most of it and got some bad injury that made us run out of legs. Credit to them they took advantage, but injury fee for both teams I would back us in. We obviously need to make the finals first, and whoever we play we play. But if we get there, please let it be the tigers!

I stupidly tipped Geelong forgetting Dangermouse is out. They are nothing without him or Selwood, take one away and they're screwed. If the Swans get a big win here I reckon they'd have fair claim to be one of the premiership favourites. I don't mind the Swans but they have been up for a while, would've been nice to see them take a hit at least for a year.

I've tipped GWS, so we've got a good chance! It's been said but one of the biggest variables so our game is our intensity with tackling pressure. When that dips so does the rest of our game, we need to get back to the level we produced vs Adelaide. I want big games from Vince, Watts, and Lewis. All of them owe the team good games for various reasons and they are leaders. Time to stand up. I also want to see Petracca back to his best, he was close to ineffectual in the last quarter (only quarter I was able to watch), he's young but he's a game breaker. He also doesn't like staying off for a while, would love to see him put in a dominating 4 quarter effort v GWS. Like many games this year, I have no doubt we CAN win. Much of it is dependent on how the players respond from last weeks pathetically stupid loss.

Happyfor him to fly under the radar for the time being. He shouldn't be in contention for the Brownlow, he's had a very good year but not that good. He'll get his due recognition in time.

Absolute 50/50 this game. We could play like we did against Adelaide, and get a fantastic win or we could play like we did last weekend and suffer a big loss that puts us behind the 8 ball. Looking for a BIG game from Watts. He was poor his first game back and from all reports practically unsighted against the Roos. No more excuses of "returning from injury", he's a senior player and very important one. Time for him to get back to form. I'm cautiously optimistic, I feel similarly to how I felt against Port. But it really is huge for both teams.

So going by that he would be eligible during the bye week but not the rest of the VFL finals.

For me this is why there doesn't seem to be any point playing him again this year. At best we make finals and he's available for selection, without match/fitness conditioning what will his value be on the field? Moral for teammates? If we end up in the finals we need everyone cherry ripe and in form, we don't need someone out on the field finding his feet again. The only scenario I'd be happy with is if he returned with Casey playing finals and he has AT LEAST one week there and dominates before playing for us.

But wait I thought he was certain to be a demon! Didn't his body language clearly state he wanted to play with his brother? Just having a laugh, knowing how loyal Nathan it's hardly surprising to find out his younger brother is the same.

Clubs do plenty of 6 day breaks through the year, I'm not overly concerned about this one. We have 8, 7, & 7 before that so it shouldn't be an issue for conditioning. I just wish (selfishly) that it was a night (or at least a twilight) game so it would be easier for me to watch. It's going to be starting at 4:40am for me!

This week is huge for us, I could be completely wrong but I feel like one of he reasons why we lost to North is the classic "getting ahead of yourself" scenario. We had just come off a very hard fought win against Port who people consider a top 4 contender and we're facing GWS this week. Sandwiched in there is a match against 17th placed North Melbourne and I'm sure a few of the players were already setting their minds to GWS. This is where the leaders and senior players failed over the weekend, at quarter time and 3 quarter time they needed to make a statement to drag the players up. Anyway enough wrist slashing about the loss, I've done my best to maintain a "one week at a time" mantra. The times I didn't were after the WC win and the Port win, back to one week at a time. This week could well determine our whether we're in a dog fight for the final places or get in there comfortably. We can most definitely beat GWS but it's 50/50 for me and they've got a good record in Canberra. I really want finals action!!!!

Regardless of whether he gets fit I think we should hold him until next year. He's had such an awful year, and to be honest when he came back he wasn't exactly setting the world on fire. Get him set for a big 2018.

I had to have a chuckle at fox footy with their ladder prediction, they still have us winning all four games. There is literally no analysis, they're just going on who they think the favourites will be week to week. A 10 year old can do that with basic info. The strange good news is that apart from Brisbane we play teams we are evenly matched against, which going on what we've seen this year means we're more likely to bring our best game.

I didn't see the Watts one but I definitely saw the TMac chop the arms. Inexcusable to let that one go and then they got a soft as butter push in the back in their forward 50 straight after. But this loss was certainly not on the umpires heads, the players will rightfully where this one. Everything to play for and north looked like the ones fighting and scrapping for finals.

As much as it's a cliche I really do think we have to take it one week at a time. I partly feel that's what's happened here, the players just thought it was going to happen. How many times do we have to go through this, you actually need to bring it every week!!!! It's all the response now, how do we come back from such a monumentally stupid loss?

What I noticed in the last quarter (the only one I watched) was there wasn't any structure when we went forward. Where in other times there would be people moving to the correct position after short kicks there were a lot of statues and and people unsure of themselves. Even Hibberd who has been fantastic was unsure and turned that simple kick over, Hunt as well taking a strange short option with only 1min to go. We fell apart in the final quarter, mentally, physically, and structurally. I have a feeling this will be a game that Goodwin goes through very methodically with the players to work out what went wrong because no one seemed to step up and say follow me.

I'm predicting they'll let him walk, they will say he didn't know the ball was clear and didn't drive him into the ground the enough force. Which mostly I agree with. Problem is there are others who have been suspended for similar instances where they would've had no clue the ball was clear and they simply brought the player to ground with a bit of force. This will be a test of consistency, not what's necessarily fair.

Far from done. We need to win three to close to guarantee finals (nothing has change in that respect from last week) and we can definitely beat all four of our opponents. But not the way we played yesterday. Yesterday has to be the last blip on the radar or I agree we are cooked. GWS are not in good form so are very beatable, we're past our "hoodoo" with the Saints so we don't have that hanging over our heads, Brisbane FFS has to be a win, and the Pies we beat earlier in the year we can definitely do it again. Similar to how it was last year it's laid out for us, it's down to the players having the mental resolve to pick themselves off the mat like they've done a few times this year.