Undeeterred

Sorry but when Terlich torches you for 41 and Grimes kicks 2 on you, you're in a world of pain.

It's so hard to see in real time, but he gave one of those great little handballs over his head into space, around our forward 50 arc. You can't teach that kind of awareness and, when it comes off, you go from a maul type situation to someone running into an open goal. He doesn't come out, for me. If they were flogging him, fine, but they're not.

Happy to admit being one who poured scorn on him being picked. So happy to be wrong. Did I hear they saw him when they went up to check out VDB?

And I hate the way everyone circle jerks about Ablett, when he is such a dirty sniper. He knew full well what was coming and sold Martin right into it. Hodge and Mitchell are the same. Their dirtiness is celebrated as toughness, when everybody else gets weeks.

He is turning disputed ball on half back into a mark on the lead in about two and a half seconds. The way he is playing is what we've been crying out for ever since the Moloney/Neeld bomb it to a contest years...

I'm going early, but I think there's a pretty good chance that by the time Dawes is ready, Frost might have settled in and we won't have room for Dawes.

Easily.

Harmes didn't do much after the cork so they might give him a week to freshen up. Shame, because he has such strong hands and is a fantastic kick around the wing and forward. Vince for him, Brayshaw or Matt Jones if he doesn't come up. Jones won't go if fit. But LOL at those suggesting any of Bugg, Lumumba, Frost or Tyson getting dropped. Do you even watch games??

I said Essendon was maybe the loss we had to have, and I still reckon I'm right. I don't think we would have seen the effort of the last two weeks without it. I think they got a real fright after that game, and it forced a few to pull the finger out and get to work. The best thing is that the coaching department obviously have just kept the faith, are picking the right team, and it's working out.

The Channel 7 camera zoomed to Collingwood walking off, and he was in the middle of them all and looked completely broken. I LOLled, though not as hard as when he handpassed it into the goal square. That was cringe worthy.

I thought Brayshaw because he is playing as a full time forward and it doesn't suit him. He doesn't seem to be quite ready to play in the midfield yet. My straight reaction was Garlett for Brayshaw because that would be like for like, and Vince for, probably, Hunt (even though he was very good today). But giving Clarry a rest does mean we can give Hunt the confidence boost of another shot at it, and not make him feel like he's been dropped. He was great for a first gamer and I think we need to harness the enthusiasm of these kids as much as we can.

That's definitely true as well. I was horrified at the thought of he and Frost playing in the same team, but it actually worked really well. They are both more mobile than they look.

What I meant was that I don't think the threat of playing in the twos has anything to do with it. He might not be quite good enough to be automatic first 22, but he works his testes off. I don't think he played hard because he'd got a rocket or anything. That's the distinction I was drawing.

There was so much to like about today. Firstly, I'm definitely a WTF are those selections culprit and I'm totally happy to have got it wrong. A few general thoughts: the chemistry is sensational and there's a real sense on field of these guys playing for each other. They will all come through the age brackets around the same time and in a few years that will play out very nicely for us. I think we won the BenKen/Howe trade. LOL Jeremy Do you think Treloar regrets not expanding the job search beyond Collingwood and Richmond? Freeing Hogan up to go back or chase kicks through the centre square, has worked wonders for him. Truly his best position and he will be Carey-esqe. He'd also be mental to go to Freo next year, let alone the year after. Speaking of best positions, why have we been facking around with Jack Watts for so long playing anywhere other than as a running, marking forward? I didn't think Bugg did a lot, but then saw 29 touches and 9 tackles. He's a bit rough around the edges but good on him Hunt certainly didn't look out of place Wagner is so composed - wonderful. Dom Tyson is getting back to his best, so too bad haters Lumumba is amazing when he lowers his eyes. Why has he been bombing it for 2 years?? Dunn and McDonald were really, really excellent today. Dunn's bullet passes were sensational and McDonald's defensive work was first class. Garland and Grimes are done. Brayshaw is underdone and makes way for Garlett Frost played his best game for us and brought a huge amount to the table. Just needs to kick goals.

Wow. The only rational response today is to be hugely excited. But go for it - enjoy the delayed gratification when it finally arrives.

Grossly unfair. Whatever you say about Pedersen, he gives nothing but his absolute best. So underrated on this site and was really good today.

The lid is off. They could have rattled us a number of times, but we really stuck it out and it was fantastic to see. From memory, they didn't get closer than about 20 points and, each time they looked likely, we pushed back really hard.

Disagree. He was excellent today. His kicking has been cleaned right up and he was plenty damaging enough.

Just had to make that count when we stack the forward line - can't afford to let them get out the back.

Really, really critical we belt them again into the wind this quarter.

LOL HOWE

Best opening quarter under Paul Roos

Frost great use of the body to push Grundy off the ball and Harmes a belter of a kick to Hogan at the top of the square. The future.

Well you certainly know how to use Shift and 1 at the same time with those two fingers!

I don't think he intended to push him into May, but he'd lost the contest and did deliberately push him square in the back, which meant that Martin was off balance and had no way to defend himself.