doug williams

For mine Stretch is ahead of Kent who appears fragile. A bit like Hoges, he breaks down and it's one thing after the other. I'm ambivalent about keeping Jesse. He clogs up the forward line when Tommy is there so spends a lot of time keeping out of his way. Weed doesn't. So, can Jesse become a midfielder? He could play on the wing as was done with Tommy often, even drifting back to take Lever's job. He's not an inside mid and he doesn't succeed as a forward pocket/flank.

Why were our players slipping over so often?

Yes Simmo was kneed in the throat by Michael Long whose defence was that "he sees things differently". Hard to comment on these days but the penalty he received was only 4 weeks and were counted into the pre-match series the following year. So, he got away with it.

It appears that the Swans are getting players back to strengthen their list but look, hey, we want to beat their best combination and any oppo team's strongest side to prove ourselves over the coming weeks. And at this stage I now believe we can. Go Dees!

Disappointing missed set shot by the captain on Saturday night. But, I'm sorry to say, he just doesn't convince me that he can produce something special when needed. Nothing inspirational in the way he plays. As soon as Viney is back, Jones can be 'rested'. If he doesn't get back, next in line for the captaincy should be T Mac as current vc. Next year, of course. Then we'll be looking at the likes of Gus and Clarrie as the next leaders of our club.

I'm glad this topic has been raised. I've watched him enough to recognise that he is not impacting games, not leading from the front and unable to hit the scoreboard. He looks slow and out of sorts; a little lost out there - I believe he has reached his use by date. Presents a small problem with no Viney to be captain though.

Picking both Spargo and Garlett is a bit of a surprise. Suggests a change in direction by the FD. I hope it's not an "all or nothing", "last throw of the dice" approach by us. You know the sort of thing - what we have been doing doesn't seem to be working, so let's try plan C and see if that works. I don't believe the problem lies up forward at all and while it appears inefficient (forward entries to goals scored ratio) we have actually been kicking plenty of goals even when we lose. Frosty won't play forward, he's there to bolster the back line.

I'm starting to see in Petracca what was predicted for Watts : a player about to have a break-out game. He's been around for a good while now and hasn't produced much more than glimpses of possibility. What's the go Christian? Are you a gun who is just a little bit over-awed, a bit shy? Not likely, but! Have a look at young Spargo. No glamour there but he's kicked more goals than you have recently. And he tackles hard too.

Well he's not the only under performing high drift pick to come our way (any club's truth be known). You know the one : the one always predicted to have a break-out game. Today his name is Christian Petracca.

what point are you making here? it's pages of negatives after this loss but we still manged to score 91 points by kicking 14 goals 7 behinds so that is a positive to take out of it.

Dieter - it was James Joyce, the Irish writer. He said “Life is in many days...”. T. S. Eliot was a British born poet, playwright and critic who changed his nationality to become a US citizen. As a side note he also dropped the Anglican Church for Roman Catholicism. I don,t believe he barracked for the Dees though.

I'm with Buck Nekkid re Jones. Check him on the replay : he coughs it up quite a bit, is messy by hand and 50/50 by foot. Nice to see him snag a couple of goals last night - he doesn't kick all that many. Which takes me on to Kent. I wouldn't be considering him. Oppo teams don't fear him because he tackles like Jack Watts and doesn't hurt them on the scoreboard. Seriously. He just does not kick goals; all he has is leg speed. I think of Sam Blease as a comparison - lightning fast but not an asset.

It's Caro raking over the coals to heat the turds she has laid on us over the years. She loved re-hashing the "tanking" issue and now she has this dead, ashen story to niggle with. She can be a fine journalist but when she's short of new material (she is out of the loop now) is equally happy to dish the dirt.

Unfortunately contacting the footy department will have no impact. I don't believe they listen to us, the members, (that includes me who remains as yet unsigned after round 23). Last 2 years I have asked them not to send YET ANOTHER SCARF in my pack. Made no difference because they are not listening. I want a year patch I can sew onto my scarf, not a new scarf every flaming year. What, I'm going to find a use for them? It's landfill. They just want my money and despite taking out my first membership in 1964 I'll be blowed if I will support them in 2018. What's it matter - the AFL will prop us up anyhow, my cash won't make a scrap of difference in this day and age.

Seems to me the biggest problem with our back line is our forward line. Points against are relatively low (compared with Adelaide, say) but we are just not kicking enough scores as the season progresses. Hogan's unable to get on the paddock, T. Mac has been kicking a few and so has Jeffy but we seriously lack firepower up forward. The back line are doing their job, no doubt in my mind.