La Dee-vina Comedia

Heart in mouth when he played on yesterday and kicked with his left when he didn't have to which resulted in a goal. I suspect that means he is brimming with confidence (which I didn't share at the time).

I think Oliver might provide some good support. I thought he whole team responded well to what I assume was a targeted coaching message during the week. Gone were the "long bombs" into the forward line and instead there was much more precision, low kicking. It was probably overdone a few times when players perhaps should have had shots for goal instead of looking for someone else, but overall, the change in tactics seemed obvious to me and well executed most of the time.

I'd be disappointed if the MRO didn't look at every incident that caused a concussion. That being said, once it's looked at I can't see how O Mac would be penalised. If Hibberd is in any way sore, he should be rested. Would Joel Smith be ready to come back? If not, I assume that leaves Wagner as his replacement. I don't think Spargo is adding enough for a full game at the moment, but I can't see Garlett coming back for him. Maybe he could be replaced by Kennedy-Harris who I think can offer more. Finally, if/when Viney comes back, I wouldn't be opposed to him starting off in a small forward role. I suspect small forwards still run a lot but probably not as much as midfielders, so it might help him through the game in his early one back. So, if Hibberd is out - in J Smith or Wagner. And I'd replace Spargo with JKH (or Viney in the unlikely event that he's ready).

Well said. And I'd like to add my personal thanks to our track watchers, too.

I suspect Petracca is being named because he hasn't yet delivered consistently what we hoped for so we are now hoping for occasional glimpses. I think our X-factor player might be Garlett, except that I don't think he'll get a chance to show it. And that's possibly a good thing as it suggested we can trust the rest of our team to get the job done.

So, which club now has the longest streak of not playing in finals? I'd just like to know who I can look down on.

I've done that. Have checked and confirmed that it is not 1 April.

6. Harmes 5. Brayshaw 4. Gawn 3. Melksham 2. Jetta 1. Oliver Honourable mentions: Lewis and Tyson

It's all a bit hard for me to work out but is it still possible we could boost our percentage enough with one huge win and lose the other game by a point and miss the finals and get the record for the team with the highest percentage ever to miss a final?

Personally, I think we should be more respectful of the umpires, particularly when they're announcing their retirements. I get frustrated, too, with the decisions at times, but I don't think for one minute they're biased in any way. And it must be an almost impossible game to umpire. So, good luck to Troy and Justin and thanks for your service.

I suspect it's the difference between a pessimistic view on Monday and an optimistic view on Friday.

I feel like that every week after a loss. By Friday I'm busting with optimism irrespective of what happened in the previous game.

A few weeks back I recall commenting that Goodwin must say something at half time because for a period there we were poor in the first half and then significantly better in Q3. Perhaps he was too monotone pre-game and animated at half time. More likely, though, is that he could see the problems in the first half and could explain to the players how to fix them for the second half. Of course, that still required the players to execute correctly which it seems they couldn't do last week against Sydney.

I'm working on the basis that 2017 didn't actually exist.

Of interest to me is whether Weideman or McDonald play the second ruck role around the ground. The argument for McDonald is that the team is more familiar with him doing it and he's better around the ground than Weideman. The argument for Weideman doing it is that it leaves our most dangerous forward in the forward role for the whole game. I'll guess we'll be conservative and keep McDonald as second ruck because that's what the onballers are more familiar with.

While that's an amusing comment, this year is really about getting ready for a genuine assault on the Premiership in 2019 to 2022. The stats show we're building in so many areas. Next year I expect it to all come together and make us a serious contender. I'd like us to make Finals this year so as to give the players some September experience, all to help with the 2019 to 2022 window of opportunity.

Glad you cleared that up. I thought you were talking about Saty.

Surprised you didn't go with Hann in

To be fair you need to add (f) to (n) [little maths joke] of all the negatives such as: f) if it's a behind the opposition can attack g) ditto if it's out on the full h) if it doesn't quite make the distance it will be punched through for a behind - see (f) i) if it misses, it looks bad at the ground j) if it misses, it subdues the crowd k) it might increase the risk of a hamstring or calf strain etc

As a matter of interest, is there any data which refers to the success rates of coaches versus their experience? We appreciate that inexperienced players make mistakes with the consensus view these days suggesting that it's not until a core of players reach 50+ games each that success starts to follow. Is it generally the same for coaches? I know it's hard to assess because some inexperienced coaches inherit strong teams (Chris Scott, Alan Joyce) and conversely, some experienced coaches take over when a club is very low (Roos with us, Malthouse with Carlton, Eade with Gold Coast). Nevertheless, we should not lose sight of the fact that Goodwin is still an inexperienced senior coach.

I'm in favour of the club replacing the free scarf with every membership with a 30 minute session with a sports psychologist to help me cope with the footy season.

Of course, if we do beat the Eagles, there will be claims that the Eagles tanked deliberately to keep us in the finals race on the basis of the common belief that we couldn't actually beat another team in the 8 if that team was actually trying.

On the inside or outside?

Thanks. Perhaps we won't then hold that particular record, then. And I don't feel any better.

We already hold the record for missing out on playing finals by percentage. This year if we miss, we might create two more records: highest percentage for a team missing finals; and missing finals by the smallest time gap. (If the siren had gone one second earlier in the second Geelong game, we wouldn't have lost it).