Jaded No More

Bruce another rubbish footballer who loves to play his one good game of the year against Melbourne.

We are so loose. What’s actually happened here?

Well game is even. That’s a pretty disappointing turn off. We have to get rid of this type of “off” quarters from our game. It absolutely killed our season last year.

Bad bad quarter. Revolting kicking.

Frost is an extremely ordinary defender.

The most pleasing thing for me is that every game I’ve seen us play, even that AFLX junk, we look like we are playing with the purpose and intensity of a serious team.

That free against Hannan is technically correct but gees I hate that free

No need to tackle when you’re controlling the ball

Well now you’re giving me all heart palpitation. Does he has an injury or not???

Oliver is really quite good ?

Well that’s good news. Unless you mean he has a toe injury?

Salem to kick everything and we win a flag. I think that’s a simple game plan.

Fritsch is surely a shoe-in for round 1!

I missed the start of the game so sorry if this has been covered, but I assume Tmac is being rested?

We had some massive injuries last year too. Gawn and Hogan effectively missed the season, Viney and Jones were injured throughout the year, Tyson started the year injured. Then we had issues with suspensions, namely Lewis missing 3 very important games. A bit of luck, a lot more discipline, plus Lever, plus a healthy Gawn and Hogan, certainly make us 0.5% ahead of last year, but last year is just that, it's the past. We need to look at 2018 as a fresh start, with new challenges. We will face teams who have gotten better over the summer, and some who have gotten weaker, just as we will face injuries and suspensions. As long as the sum of those parts is not greater than our overall output and effort, then we should make the 8 comfortably. Unfortunately with Melbourne, so much of our fortunes are mental, and we can't predict whether we have gotten mentally stronger and whether we will clean up those silly losses to poor teams that ultimately cost us heavily last year.

Totally agree. It's a long season, and his career is all in front of him. I would rather miss him for 5 weeks, than have him struggle for the next 10 years with this injury.

Meh? Does this actually impact anyone and more importantly does this make us less likely to succeed this year? No. So whatever. I like that they've upped the emergencies to 4 to allow for a ruckman. That's actually a good idea.

I love that he's an angry kid, but he needs to really learn to control how he reacts to taggers, because the least helpful thing he can do for the team is get suspended. We need him in the side, and he should take tagging as flattery and another challenge he needs to overcome, not as an excuses to release his frustrations. He is treading a fine line, and until he gains Hodge like status, the MRP and umpires will continue to punish him for every little indiscretion.

I can't see how we go into a game with Tmac, Hogan, Gawn and Pedo. It's too top heavy, unless you are willing to play Hogan mainly in the midfield. While I love Pedo and he is a fantastic backup, unless we are playing a very big defence, he will struggle to fit into the 22 purely from a structure perspective. TMac is fine for 5 minute ruck stints a quarter. He will lose almost all tap outs, but he does OK roving.

Agreed. Nobody here would know the difficulty of going out on a footy field knowing that you're perhaps one concussion away from retirement. He has had an awful run with injuries and is still finding his feet. Hasn't even played 50 games yet! Everyone is so quick to point out and write players off. To me Brayshaw will be the perfect Jones replacement when Jones retires. On a different note, Salem showed on Saturday that he doesn't need massive numbers to make some serious damage. I hope he and Hunt spend significant time on the wing this year. Hunt and Oliver will get some serious tags this year, and I hope both learn to cope with them.

Oscar has been great against a very good opponent. Excellent kicking today.

Lever is A+

Gawn getting warmed up and looking ominous

I'm so glad firewall has blocked me from watching this and spared me 5 minutes of my life I will never get back!

I try hard to only name styles after winners. I believe it brings a sense of success to the product.... So to answer your question, no.