The heart beats true

Credit where it's due to ANB. Hasn't really been given a clean run at AFL all year yet he's put his head down every week at Casey and refuses to go away. I hope it's the making of him as an AFL player.

108 point lead to the Crows at 3/4 time. Leppa's farewell tour of Australia continues on.

Are Gold Coast about to lose by 2 points again? Also, how'd Melbourne go today? Haven't looked at the scores yet.

The best part of the win was that it actually wasn't an anomaly in terms of individual performance - Watts, Gawn, Viney, Tyson etc are all very good players. It was that it all came together for the team. Now they know. They don't just 'feel' it. They know they've got what it takes.

He was there. Looked dissapointed to have missed out on such a win.

Gee, Collingwood are dreadful

I hope this isn't an indicator of the over umpiring to come this round. Seems like a few of the men in fluoro are trying to get their moment in the spotlight heading into finals.

A disappointing draw would be nice.

I just read something messed up. Sam Frost will play his 37th game this weekend. Thats the same number of games Trenners played when he was made captain. I like the bloke, he's obviously an outstanding character - but gees it makes you wonder what the bloody hell the club was thinking at the time they made him captain at age 20.

If Salem is fit, Oliver, Bugg and ANB have another preseason in them, Melksham is good to go and we bring in another experienced player (Hibberd to replace H), Trengove isn't even best 27. We need players 26-38 on the list to be development players. I'm ignoring the development of Weeds and Hulett here too because they are different players - but we'll want them coming on too. As an in and under type he's behind Tyson, Jones, Bradshaw, Oliver, Bugg and ANB. He's a less penetrating kick and slower with ball in hand than those blokes too. I think the writing is on the wall.

Didn't get asked about Hogan's contract once. Not once. Why? WHHHHHHYYYYY? OMG, he's definitely leaving and the media know it!!!! Sorry, couldn't help myself. Was a pretty straight bat from Roosy. Said that Bernie apologised to him after the game and said 'that was the worst game I've ever played'. Roos just laughed. Otherwise just spoke about the list and the way forward. Mentioned they spoke as a group to all the 1st and 2nd year players and told them that they needed to commit to getting better - both as a club and as individual players. Very interestingly they said that 3 games into his coaching career he apparently gave the players an absolute bake about where they are at and how the footy world perceived the players. They then showed the players from Rnd 3 2014 versus this week. Only 6 players remained.

Get your Jesse Hogan conspiracy theories ready so you can read way too much into what Roosy says (which will amount to virtually nothing).

I actually think with the 2 of them in the side we know that Jesse is going to get the best defender so he's working his arse off up the ground trying to burn them - but also taking away his opponents ability to go 3rd up. The shame is that Dawes isn't taking advantage of it, but I did feel like Vandenberg and Watts did yesterday. That may explain why VB seems like an automatic selection at the moment. We just need a more mobile player to come on and take Dawes role. I think the club is blooding those players quite well at Casey to be fair - they just aren't ready yet. The idea is right, just don't have the cattle for it at the moment.

Clint, my take on it was that we pushed more players to the contest continually (which also impacted our ability to go forward with confidence as it allowed GCS to have a player dropped back in Jesse's space, particularly after half time). The theory would have been that we needed to win or halve the clearances given the height of their forward line on a relatively clear day. Everybody was high to push into a contest, and you could see that in our zone - we pushed up all day to get to, or create a contest. I reckon it's why we have so many bloody frustrating in tight handballs too. Surprisingly I believe we got beaten in the clearances and contested footy yesterday - which was a real disappointment given the talent in and around that part of the ground, and the strain it put on our structure moving forward.

"I love Jack, he's one of the best people I've met in footy, and to see him get the reward is really exciting." I love reading this by Roosy. Makes the win feel like it meant something.

In fairness to Hogan he really banged his knee hard and was finding it hard to get moving. Before that he was very good and very mobile - ensuring they couldn't get 2 men up in our forward line marking contest by dragging May up the ground. May even acknowledged this at half time on FOX in an interview. After that he could barely move and so stayed put in the forward 30 and still dragged 2 defenders with him. Sometimes you've got to do what the teams need. I just wish so called 'experts' like Danny Frawley on Fox who said that Hogan was clearly beaten. I'd think the coaching staff would be happy with him - and disappointed in the team to work around it and find other avenues to goal.

If you get beaten by a side that won't play finals on your home deck by 94 points then you're a disgrace. Melbourne 2012-13 style disgrace. Leppa will be lucky to be coaching at Xavier College next year.

Gerald Healy giving Jeremy Howe a bath on Fox Footy. Pointing out his inadequacies very astutely. Howeys revealing himself as a C grader with one A grade asset with every turnover.

You guys are so biased towards Grimes. The bloke has had 100 games to prove his worth, and honestly he hasn't shown what it takes to be valuable to the team in the modern game. Kennedy has 70 odd less games and 4 years on him.

Just watched this (huge Saturday morning at my place). He's playing a character. He almost breaks it a couple of times and laughs. No doubt he's a lunatic, but he's also aware of it and plays it up to get attention. I found it oddly compelling, BUT... He knocked out Robbie Flower which is quite literally like punching all that is good and wholesome about my childhood. So if I never see or hear from him again it'll be too soon.

I'll put my squabbling with other 'supporters' aside and say this... Geelong are a very uninspiring 2nd side on the ladder, particularly in the context that the team thats 1st already has the last 3 premierships :/

So judging by the arguments on here we clearly need to be lumping a bunch of kids who weren't born for the majority of the time some frustrated supporters have been supporting the club into one bundle - and then tell them that the last 50 years of club history is now their responsibility to fix. Have you spent much time with 21 year olds. I believe the phrase they use is 'F*#ks not given'. The only way is forward. History is irrelevant, regardless of how entitled you feel because you've sat through some lean years.

So whats the Bulldogs excuse tonight? Injuries played no part? Nope, because context is irrelevant to any argument that the pessimists on here want to make, or is that only relevant to the MFC and doesn't apply to other clubs?

Gees theres a bunch of spuds on here talking about effort in relation to the Dogs. Our players try as hard as they can. They need more preseasons and more time together. Our list is 2-3 years behind the Bulldogs in terms of preseasons and build. Half our side has played less than 30 games. And yes the Bulldogs have had a lot of injuries but I wouldn't say they've got their best 6 out. Bont and Stringer are both game winners. We don't have one of those just yet. Stop potting out players all the time. It makes you look pathetic. Remember we beat Geelong this time last year, or does that not fit into your narrative about how terrible we are?

Has a more hated player ever played 427 games of AFL footy?