Demon Jack

The floodgates are opening. Jeffy kicks his third!

Pederson! Great kick by Lewis.

Instant reply! Trac is so classy.

WATTTTTTTTTTS!

Salem having an influence early in this quarter. Clarry also delightfully good.

TMac goal!

Goal to Jeffy! We're in front.

That wouldn't be Brent Moloney would it?

Not to break down with injury midway through the second quarter.

Congratulations to Neville Jetta, who will line up for his 100th game this weekend against the Bombers! Incredibly well deserved for easily one of the most underrated players in the competition and one of the first picked every week.

I always found it difficult to place us in the top eight at the start of the year. Personally, I think the likes of Petracca, Brayshaw, Salem, Hunt, Stretch, Oliver and Hogan are all another 20-30 games away from really hitting their stride and playing consistent football week in, week out. Saying that, I still think that a 4-2 result over the next four weeks is highly achievable. On paper, I believe we should beat Hawthorn, North, Gold Coast and Collingwood. As mentioned in another post, Essendon is about a 50/50 game and we'll be lucky to stay in reaching distance against the Crows in Adelaide. That would give us a 6-5 result going into the bye. I wouldn't say I'm optimistic about our chances this year, but anything is possible from there.

One of the more bizarre charity auctions I've seen.

Watts in second place. Go Jack!

Good point! Completely forgot about Lewis. Edited!

Out: Spencer (Inj), Smith (Inj) In: Pederson, Lewis Hopefully Trac is ok for next week. Kent comes in if he's injured. Neal-Bullen and JKH combined for 16 tackles. To the dismay of many, neither will be dropped. I wouldn't mind seeing JKH play a few matches before I make a call on whether he belongs in the team. Personally, I would like to see minimal changes (injuries pending). I want Goody to back the same team to perform against the Bombers just to show them that we can win by playing this style of football. Yes there were some inexcusable errors by seasoned players, but we won't go far if there's four to five changes every week.

I mentioned this in the post match thread, but there's always at least one team every year that is decimated by injury. Last year, I think it was the Eagles, and this year it seems we've pulled the shortest straw. I'm sure it was in the back of everyone's mind, but I don't think anyone actually predicted that we'd have our two key ruckman on the sidelines after round 5. I'm looking forward to see how Goodwin handles this and see if he decides to blood King or bring in Pederson (the ideal solution) who can share the role with Watts (who fought his guts out last night) and Frost. Injuries to handy players such as Wagner, VDB and Smith x2 (not best 22 players, but very good depth) are also all proving to be frustrating.

Well, I've had plenty of time to reflect on the game after the long, misrable and wet journey home. You know what? I feel abnormally calm considering the result. As much as I hate blaming injuries for losses, it cannot be denied that the losses of Smith and particularly Spencer hurt us significantly as the game progressed. It seemed like other players such as Petracca, Viney and at one stage Hunt also shared some time on the bench as well due to their respective niggles. It was inevitable, but we clearly ran out of puff at the end after running our guts out in a pretty impressive third quarter. It always seems that during every season, there is one team that is hit hard with injuries. Obviously, it seems that we've picked the short straw this time around. I don't think anyone predicted that we'd have both our key ruckmen on the sidelines after round five. On the topic of ruckmen, I can't help but feel incredibly proud of Jack Watts. It was by no means his biggest game, but he continues to stand up when he is needed. In this case, we had to call on him to ruck when Spencer went down. For most of the third quarter, I actually think he had an edge on Nankervis that helped us gain control of the game for a while. Understandly like the majority if the team, he ran out of gas in the last quarter and couldn't compete against the bigger body of Nankervis. It would also be a crime to not mention that Hibberd was also outstanding. 18 months out of the game? No problem! I actually had to pinch myself to convince myself I wasn't dreaming when I saw a Melbourne half-back hit a target 40 metres away. Chin up boys. Keep fighting like you did tonight and the results will come.

6. Hibberd: Provided exactly what we thought he would. Aggression competitiveness and a booming left boot. 5. Oliver: 32 disposals at 75% efficiency along with seven tackles. Enough said. 4. Hunt: Provided his usual dash. Threatened to really break the game open. 3. Watts: His athleticism in the ruck actually gave us an edge in the third quarter. Understandably ran out of gas in the last. 2. Jetta: Typical Jetta game. Did his job in the back 50 on the Richmond smalls who had little to no say in the result of the game. I know it's early, but happy 100th next week Nev! 1. Frost: Some outstanding efforts. Much prefer him to OMac.

"Hard to believe he was able to achieve it in a single quarter."

From the HS article "But the AFL establishment refused to allow Hunt the freedom of expression, saying all head bands had to be a single colour." Have the AFL even bothered to look at some of the shoes players wear these days?

Both North and Sydney are 5-0. Life ain't too bad at the moment.

Is Bugg playing as a forward?

Haven't lost hope on Melksham but he has shown nothing that suggests he is a part of the future. For a 100+ gamer, he hasn't provided much experience or leadership. I'd go out on a limb and say that Wagner would provide much more in the team if he was fit.

Another cracking podcast guys. Caught the final ten minutes live last night and listened to the rest this morning while I was on my way to Uni. It is a long podcast, but I never seem to tire of the material at any point. The Demonland faithful are always great to hear in person when they call in as well. I might need to take the initiative myself soon! Looking forward to the interview next week! Keep it up!

He gave a very good indication in his debut in the Hawthorn win last year as well. I think he had eight disposals and kicked two goals in the first half before he succumbed to a cramp/corkie. I remember he was very clean with his hands and showed very good attack at the footy in that game. He might take a few years to build up his body and tank, but I'm very confident he'll get there and be a very threatening forward for us.