The heart beats true

Essendon would only have beaten 2 teams today - and they got one of them. Their defensive transition and work without the ball has been horrible. Im so annoyed we lost to them.

I hate watching footy at Docklands. The ball zips around and bounces in a way that it just doesn’t anywhere else. No wind, never greasy, always fast. It feels like a hybrid version of the game. I also reckon in the long run it’s a disadvantage to the teams based there.

Gees that was a good game.

Set him up nicely to kick that last one @DubDee

Watched the replay in full this morning. Some observations… Our kicking from set shots was the only thing that kept the game even remotely close. We dominated the game everywhere but on the scoreboard. Van Rooyen is going to be an absolute gun. He looks really confident at this level now. Tracc was a class above. Sparrow played his best game for us for 18 months. McVee is all class. Tomlinson didn’t get killed by McKay, they sacrificed their entire forward structure to isolate him and exploit that option. If you think that Curnow and McKay kicked 3 between them you’d take that everyday. I was at the G Friday night, but the commentary on TV did everything they could to make it seem like Carlton were in the game even when we had full control. We just didn’t finish off the work in front of goal. There’s a bloke coming in next week who might be the best player we’ve had for 40 years. Aside from that the sky is falling, obviously.

This is Elvis at the peak of his powers. He’s so good.

That 50 was insane. That’s not the kind of umpiring that helps the game.

Gees Humphries looks incredible.

Pies are loading.

So I’m assuming that means JV has nothing to answer for?

I reckon Joel Smith does a defensive role on Moore. Try and get a match up between JVR and Frampton. Moore will take Fritsch. I’d back our boys in, and they’d struggle against Max.

And the player is concussed. He’s De Gone. (sorry, been sitting on that for 20 minutes).

Balls gone by, chose to bump, left the ground, hit him with the shoulder. Theres no way that’s not at least one.

De Goey rubbed out for that for sure!

I love the psychological impact of this on Port. It just asks questions of them. Allowing 11 goals in a quarter and a half.

80 point lead with 10 minutes to play before half time. Ugly.

Jefferson looks a long way off from what I’ve seen. He seems to have no ability for a second effort.

I’d say Toby Greene as caption, judging by last years criteria - which was clearly to pick a captain that annoyed as many people as possible.

Was Charlie the little fella in the chair who Jack pushed through the banner, and then sang the song with the team?

Not sure Sally Capp has much sway at the club Picket, but knock yourself out.

I thought Salem moved better than he has since that one day in September. Looks like he’s got real confidence in his legs again, and found the tempo of the game. It’s so good to see. He is an absolute gun, and makes us much harder to play against.

All aboard the Teague ship?

That’s so interesting that you saw that @A F I reckon he’s been so good this year. His marking and courage is really impressive. I think sometimes fatigue impacts his kicking, and he often tries to kick the ball 60 metres, but doesn’t have the distance. I think it’s just taking time for him to develop composure at this level. I think he’s going to be a great player, it’s just consistency and knowing what decisions to make when.

I really like the sound of ‘’Jake and Steve’. It has a real no nonsense, 1980’s Belfast ring to it. ‘Sent out Jake and Steve. Job done. Don’t ask no questions.’

We had a win! We’ve found some great young players this year, who look to be 100-200 game players. We’ve got players coming back from long term injuries like Salem and Grundy who look better every week. There’s work to be done, but it’s the 1st of June. We have months to get our game plan humming.