Pates

Expect the Bombers to come out really hard from the first bounce, I would really like to see Vanders back as he's one that's always up for a fight. People in the media are saying its a must win for the Bombers but I reckon it's almo as much of a must win for us, their down on confidence, mentally shot, and coming off a 100+ slaughter. To lose this would have us taking another backward step. I really hope Gus is good to go for this one, it's the perfect game for him.

Wow what the hell happened in the Bombers/Saints game? I don't know whether to be concerned or glad that we're playing the bombers next week. Coming off Darwin, plus they'll be out to prove a point. We'd better be ready to play.

Tommy Mac was in the form of his career earlier this year, I don't know how it's gone so wrong. I reckon he just needs to get back to basics, he might've started to believe his own hype and believed he needs to take things on his own. Just get him back to he was doing best; fisting the ball through, body on body work, and getting the ball the hell out!

First the 3 quarters the endeavour was really good, the ball movement was good but for me the plan of bombing the ball in long was clearly not working with the conditions and they should've realised and changed the plan. West Coast adapted quicker to the conditions, which really annoyed me given that we have played more games recently there. For 54 point loss it wasn't that bad, we gave away some cheap goals and missed some sitters of marks and goals. Watts was close to our best for me, which is good to see although he still had a few of his usual "Watts moments". Disappointing result, more so the margin than the loss itself. We need a big response next week against Essendon.

We still haven't won two games in a row for ages.. We're still on baby steps at the moment, plenty more work to be done before we can start to talk finals.

2010 he didn't look slow, he certainly didn't look slow when he tore Richmond apart that year and tackled them relentlessly. There was a reason why he was made captain, he looked like he had the traits, unfortunately injury and expectation ruined that. I really hope he's able to come back, it would be a great credit to his character if he does. Many others would've given up a long time ago.

A lot more risk with picking up a kid as opposed to Vince. We'd have to let him develop, we have to pick to right kid (no guarantee we'd pick Crouch), plus he wasn't what we needed at the time. We needed someone to be able to walk into the team with experience to give Jones another seasoned body around him. The value of having Vince as someone to help with the development of Brayshaw, Petracca, Viney, ANB, Stretch etc is something you also have to consider. I simply look at it as Sylvia for Vince, Crows got something good, we got something good, and Freo got a lemon.

There was an article regarding previous false dawns and while it did depress me a little at how many times I'd though the bad days were over it also tempered my latest hopes. I still feel the wheel is turning but we still lack depth, particularly in key forwards. If Hogan goes down all we currently have is Dawes and Pederson. That said the likes of Brayshaw and Viney are culture builders, Jones and co have set the groundwork but these guys are the ones that will take us forward.

Where we are at as a side there are very few "should wins". Basically only poor interstate teams are one's I would put into that category. So much of it is above the shoulders and I only now feel that's being improved. Eagles TIO Stadium - Loss, but we need to continue this momentum and make damn sure it's a competitive loss. We've played the ground more, we should know it and be better prepared for the conditions but the Eagles are a good side and should win this. Bombers MCG - the only team we've had the wood over, especially at this time of year. I reckon the boys will be setting themselves for a big one this game. 50/50 Lions MCG - the only game I'd call a "should win". Interstate team, have a crap year, if we've at least played well against the bombers I reckon we'll be in the right frame of mind. Saints MCG - I would hope the boys are eying this one off in the distance as a "statement match". Given where both teams are at, it's at the G, we should have the advantage. But for me it's 50/50 with maybe us in front a touch. Magpies MCG - Probably loss, but like the Essendon game the boys should set themselves for it. Gave them a good run the last time and failure to mark a free man in our forward line cost us big time. Kangaroos MCG - Probably loss. Kangas a so hot and cold, but this is one I would dearly love to check off the list as a win. Bulldogs Etihad Stadium - 40/60 in dogs way. Etihad stadium, I reckon their best is a bit better than our best. Blues MCG - Similar to the Saints, seems like we should have the edge but against any victorian side we need to be very wary. Dockers Domain Stadium - Loss, probably painful loss. Giants Etihad Stadium - depends more on the Giants than us. They may well be tiring by the end of the year. They're best is better than ours (painful as it is to say it) 50/50 depending on both teams interest I'm expecting to get about 3-5 wins from the rest of the year. We will probably drop a a game or two that we look at as one we should win but I reckon we'll nab 1 or two against "better" opposition. That gives us 7-9 wins for the year which is where I had us at the start of the year.

No people sleeping during the winning team song this weekend!

Looking back on the Trengove tackle after so many years I still felt it was a harsh penalty but I see what the AFL was trying to do and what they are trying to do now. Concussion is becoming an increasingly concerning issue and the clubs and the AFL are taking it very seriously. Look at Daniel Bell, his post game issues have been made very public. The way we have been cautious with Bail and now with Jetta shows me that we as a club are getting the idea. First thought when I saw Gibb's tackle was two weeks, the guy was knocked out and clearly two motions. Not 3 down to 2, just straight 2 weeks.

Do you know roughly how much it is for single trips so I know much to load on the card.

It's been a while since I've taken the train to Geelong, my friends and I are planning on getting an earlier train and have lunch in there but I'm not sure how it works with trains home. I'm looking to book ahead but do they fun footy special trains and do you have to book to be on them. Or if you have a ticket to Melbourne is that all you need to get on to any of the trains heading back? Thanks in advance.

It's amazing that in his biggest haul game I felt he could've done better! Opposition defenders are already starting to realise how good he is and they're trying to stop his run at it and blocking him at contests. I hope the umpires are reviewing this as it's happening a lot in games. But jeez we've gone a gem here. 22 goals in 11 games in his first playing year.

I wanted to get my mind off the 41sec saga by bringing up a thought I had with a mate. I really like the Hells Bells at the start of the game but there's only one down side to it, it doesn't lead into our club song at all. So my suggestion is simple. Let's have Hells Bells as our entry song for home games, try to encourage the crowd to yell "hells bells" during the chorus. I reckon it fits quite well with the club, I like the build up to it (although it's a bit drawn out), and I reckon it's a song to get your blood pumping going up to the bounce. We can even try to time it perfectly to lead into the bounce every time. First argument against is obviously tradition, the fact of singing your team song pre match and post match if you win, but I no longer feel like the crowd cares enough about it. Play the song if we win, makes it mean more when it happens.

Pederson goes out through injury, but beyond that I don't know that we'll see wholesale changes. Jamar comes in for Pederson, play him predominantly as a forward and rucking every now and then. I saw that Brayshaw looked proppy in the last quarter, hopefully he'll be right. He been one of our best in recent weeks. Perhaps one of ANB or Stretch to go out and bring in some seasoned bodies. I reckon Geelong will try to monster the players with rough play and big tackles, we need guys that can give it back. I'm heading up the freeway for this game, hopefully it's not a massacre.

Look I feel like I'm mostly a glass is half full kinda guy, but this game needed to be won. For so many reasons. We haven't beaten the Saints for a very long time and that is absolutely ridiculous as they've hardly been world beaters, we haven't won at Etihad Stadium and I don't see us breaking that hoodoo as they keep making the same errors there. We have actually managed to win less games than this time last year, you can talk about us changing/improving culture and future and all that stuff but the time to show the improvement that the fans deserve is to win these games. Finally the win was actually handed to us on a plate, the Saints did everything they could to lose it and when it came to the crunch everybody right down to the runner failed. There are good signs, but I am so bloody sick of "good signs".

I didn't think I could get more angry with this loss, turns out I can. After hearing that Vince thought there was more time I am now absolutely fuming. 1: there had only been one, count it one, goal scored for the quarter. A player of his experience should able to work out the rough time. 2: the coaches have a timeclock available to them, how are there not updates ever 2-3min after the 10min mark in a close game? 3: you have a runner that should be relaying this info. 4: we had a set shot with 40sec left, as I said earlier he should have been going to every player telling them how long left. 5: there are that many rotations surely someone should have some rough info on it. This has been one of the biggest, dumbest, most pathetically amature stuff ups we have ever done. Not only off the pace in players but off the field as well, fan-bloody-tastic. Not going to be sleeping any time soon.

Ok so having taken a breath I'm summing this game up as a 1 step forward 2 steps backwards game. 1 step forward: Toumpas having probably his best game for his club, good to see. Gus continuing good form (although needed to get himself off the ground when he hurt himself in the last quarter). Jesse, excellent full forwards game (though that miss at the end hurt). 2 steps backwards: where do I start? We make the same mistakes time and time again. We don't learn. We lose to a shite team and we lose at bloody Etihad. Our leaders fail.

Toump played his part in that final goal as much as anyone, it's not on him, it's on all 18 players out there. Even more so on the so called leaders. Leadership is massive massive problem for us, has been ever since we got rid of Junior and to be honest it's probably been longer than that. But today it 100% cost us four points. Lumumba brought in from an apparent winning culture, Cross (normally good) very experienced and should know, Dunn 150 games and VC, Jones (love the guy) experienced enough; all failed in a critical moment.

To be fair you could say the exact same thing about them, and I guarantee you I would've been carrying on like a pork chop if we'd actaully done the right thing.

While Howe kicked the goal to put us in front one thing should've been happening. The runner should've been sprinting to every play to tell them how long left and to flood if it went through. I want to know was that message going out there, and if not, why the hell not!!!!

Dumb, just so.......dumb. Cannot even fathom how stupid that was. Two games in a row stupidity has cost us dearly. This one hurts more. How do we keep losin to this rabble.

Hopefully when the Essendon game comes around we'll still be doing pretty ok and the Dees fans will turn out. We need more experience in front of large, loud crowds. I felt the crowd was good, the turnout from the Dees fans was pretty up there with previous years. As we (hopefully) continue to improve more of the fence sitters will start to come again, especially if we've got exciting young players like Brayshaw and Hogan lighting up the G.

There was a period in the game where Lumumba, Toumpas, and Garland were all sharing the ball between themselves and every time they gave it off I reckon a day was taken off my life I was that nervous. Credit to them they all came to a better standard throughout the game but I didn't like that they were all responsible for getting the ball out!