Very Jaded

Had his back to the goals. Don’t think he knew that it was going over and had a split second to mark it for fear it won’t go in. He did play selfish footy but that wasn’t one of the instances.

Cairns is a terrible terrible place to play football.

Correct. Nobody who came into the side apart from Bedford made even half the impact the 5 Covid infected players make on a weekly basis. Weideman was not bad in the ruck but Jackson makes a far bigger impact in marking contests. Melksham is nowhere near ANB for pressure and you can’t compare what Sparrow and Petty bring to what we got out of Dunstan and Smith. So essentially we were missing 5 really key players (6 with Salem) and most teams would really struggle if that happened to them.

You can say that again. Two years ago you would murder for this type of position. Now we are whinging because we didn’t smash a competitive side after a week full of disruptions. No doubt whatsoever Lever and Viney were underdone after Covid and we were missing key players AND we lost Smith which threw the defense into chaos with Tmac going down. We keep being thrown challenges and we keep finding ways to win. We saw what we can do when we put the foot down for 15 minutes in the third term. We conserved energy and defended hard in the last because that’s how we like to play. It is great practice for our defensive set ups and it greatly reduces the amount of energy spent and risk of injury. We don’t need to win by 10 goals every week. People forget that we didn’t have big wins this time last year either. Why give up your winning hand this early in the year? Very proud of us for making it work in a week that threw us massive curveballs literally on the daily.

Well we will have one forced change at least with Smith. Let’s hope Petty is right to go. In: Petty, ANB, Jackson, Sparrow Out: Smith, Dunstan, Tmac, Melksham Really torn on Bedford. He played so well. Hard to drop him for Kosi but hard to leave Kosi out.

Everyone is better when Petty is playing. He is criminally underrated because he does as much interceptions as Lever and you can’t stop both. Of course our pressure was off when we missed ANB and Pickett. We had Melksham and Dunstan playing the ANB role but sadly neither are half as good as him defensively. Bedford was very good and definitely made up for the loss of Pickett. I hate playing 3 talls up forward but I thought Weid rucked well. To have such a disruptive week and still win against a team that has pushed a lot of sides is a really good result. If anyone told you we would be 5 players down with Covid and without our senior coach you’d put that down as a loss. Bowey is amazing. Had a lot of clearances at half back and I still think he ends up as a winger.

Bowey. That’s it. That’s the post.

Joel [censored] Smith I cannot

Oliver also very good and May. Let’s not forget Gawn has no opponent.

We don’t look great let’s be honest. But the third quarter is coming.

Hawks moving it fast and it’s hurting us.

Recovered well but we need to stop the 2 players who constantly destroy us, Bruest and Gunston. They will haunt me in my grave.

Embarrassing.

Nothing better has ever happened in Geelong.

Punching the ball into the stands. 50 meter penalty. Minor premiership.

They announced the sub already. That means no more changes.

He played last week. Didn’t help them much.

What the actual [censored] is wrong with GWS?

Totally agreed. But he will cost them an arm and a leg so they have to make a decision if they prefer 2-3 good quality players now versus one. They will rebuild slower around him but he’s definitely someone to build a team around. To be honest Freo is a bigger threat. They are a good side with a bright future and he can easily take the second ruck role and develop into a starting ruck role as at Melbourne.

If his heart lies with his family over success and his teammates, then he isn’t destined to be a great player. Hogan chose family and that didn’t turn out. Kelly at West Coast would be absolutely loving life wouldn’t he? At the end of the day to be a great player takes more than just skills and talent. It takes heart and a steely focus. If Jackson chooses to leave at 20 years of age because the lure of family is too great, when he has a lifetime ahead of him to be with his family and friends, than that is absolutely his choice. But I can’t and won’t lose sleep over players choosing to leave a club like ours right now. We will do a lot better without Jackson than Jackson will do without us.

I’m not a fan of Melksham, BUT when a player knows they are facing a rare and golden ticket to getting back into the side in the twilight of their career, they will do their outmost to play their best football. Melksham must have a lot of jealously and regret watching Hibbo with a premiership medal. He knows he will have to put a blinder in to stay in the side and he might just do that. He is a quality kick and has a great football brain. The knocks on him have always been his poor two way running. He knows now it’s not negotiable if he’s to press for a best 22 spot. Let’s see what he does.

Covid handled Jackson

I also had them earmarked as bottom 4. Right now only North can take the spoon off them, and I reckon North is more competitive than they are with a much much younger list. Embarrassing stuff.

When I saw their marquee player NicNat in round one, I knew their season was done before it began. He is carrying 15 extra kgs at a minimum. No idea why West Coast is letting their players get away with such poor fitness. It’s insane to me how many of them look so badly out of shape. Josh Kennedy at 86 years of age is just about the fittest player in their side.

We won’t know how much more impact Covid has had on the team until the bounce. More late outs could throw us into disarray as it’s not like we can plan for possible outs if we know someone is under an injury cloud. We also have no idea how much losing Kosi and ANB will impact the team. That’s two of our key pressure players forward of the centre. Hawks are fast and will play an open game. They will make mistakes but they can also hurt us on the counterattack if they move it quickly. There is no doubt this is a danger game.