chookrat

A bit early in the season to be talking about draftees.....

Re Joel Smith he did manage to kick 4 goals on practically 1 leg. When we're losing people analyse every decision, I say sit back, attend matches, support the club and enjoy the 'bumpy' ride.

I think Jack's doing fine. Played limited minutes in VFL during JLT2, 65% in round 1 and limited impact due to corkie, 75% in round 2 and I'd expect would build to 85% over the next few games. I reckon he will tear game apart for a quarter on Friday and will be primed for Sydney and St Kilda for BOG on Anzac eve v Richmond.

Demonhauntedworld if I understand your analysis, being 0-2 and 18th we are a certainty to finish minor premiers like St Kilda in 1997.

I don't think our situation is anywhere near as bad as it seems. Our aim is to win the Premiership, to do this we need to beat a WCE or Colliingwood in GF, to be able do this we need to to win at least two finals and to do this we need to win at least 12/13 games with healthy percentage. We can win the next 3 while improving to then take on Richmond for Anzac Eve and then we are 4 - 2 and back on track, with Lever, J Smith, Vanders and Hannan to work back in and establish in our best 22. All is not lost.

Club speaks out in support of George Pell, appeals for a lighter sentence

Today's game was very similar to what happened v Hawthorn last year. We got smashed bombing it into our forward 50 and Geelong rebounding and getting us out the back. Im confident we will sort out the problem, like we did last year and went on to win 20+ quarters in a row, but need to win at least two of Peptides, Sydney and Saints to keep in touch. Positives for me were our engine room starting to work, Oliver, Brayshaw, Gawn and Harmes, along with Viney and Melksham working back into form, a game into May and KK, and that we are fielding one of the youngest sides. Our system is clearly not working at the moment, bombing into our forward 50, losing crucial contests resulting in opposition goals and not applying enough pressure to create defensive stoppages. Next few weeks will be important.

Brayshaw - yes!

Geelong first to 100 should win this

Definitely up against it tonight but players are really digging deep. It's clear we are not in form but we started to get on top that qtr, keep it up and we might just pull off a win. Go dees!

Not happy that N Jones talked. He should have said 'talks cheap' followed by silence when asked a question.

I have it on good authority that Jay Lockhart will line up for the red and blue on Saturday.

Haha, in seriousness its great to see the players enjoying themselves and a great example by our captain.

Nathan Jones should not be laughing, let alone raucously, he should be focussed on training not having fun. AFL players need to realise that they can have as much fun as the like after their AFL careers are over but until then we pay memberships and attend games and therefore they have no rights and must show us they leave no stone unturned to improve their performance.

Thanks Petraccattack, re Ben Guthrie's comment did he mean that Viney looked less than 100% or more than 100%. I'm hoping its the latter and he's 110%.

Good post! I had an excuse that I had spent half time preparing cheese board and didnt want it to spill. I did manage to clap my fingers together, one handed.

In fairness the peak Neeld years brought a certain novelty factor

I reckon we need to lose this weekend to sing up the 'ironic' supporter base and once they are signed we start winning to pickup the 'winning' supporters. Relax we've got this!

This is too sensible for DL

67% game time is reasonable for a first game. If he played 50% I'd be concerned but i think he'll build to 80+% over the next 2 - 3 rounds. He might simply be holding himself back while he builds match fitness, in which case if he had won would have been smart play but because we lost he's seen as the problem. I reckon we give it a few games to see a bigger sample and then we will have a better idea where Jack and the team are tracking.

Viney played 79 minutes according to AFL.com. He looked like he was focussed on just getting through the game but also looked like this when he come back the last couple of seasons before being unleashed to devestating effect. I'll back him to be one of our best in the next 2-3 games.

Agree with this wholly. We fell apart in the middle where our players didn't work hard enough defensively. Port had a heap more handballs and uncontested marks yet also out tackled us. Desoite being so poor in this fundamental we were in it for most of the game and only lost by 5 goals. Fix our focus and workrate in the middle of the ground and we will then start winning and be able to tweak our game.

No way Pruce will play, needs fitness and unlikely to play unless oppo play two rucks or if Gawn injured. Pruce is not the answer to what happened yesterday.

He did kick 4 in JLT with only one leg, play him at FF what could possibly go wrong??

Frost out for May. Re comments to drop all three of Oscar, Frost and Hoare, our defensive running in the midfield was poor (same as JLT) and they smashed us in inside 50's. I thought Hoare was decent and deserves a few games to settle to hopefully fill the Lever sweeper role for the first half of the season. Tough game v Geelong on Saturday night but im backing us to have a real dip.