IMO was the best thing about our game last night. Bower, Jamison and Thornton look a great team now, with Waite to come back and the underrated Armfield (who would've been mighty handy on Jetta last night). It's good to see the investment perhaps beginning to pay off.

Still need to work on our kick-ins though. Love JR's improvement and all, but if he's our designated kicker we must be in deep trouble. God I hope ROK can make it as a senior player.

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WADA medical director Dr Alan Vernec describes Essendon* FC drug case as biggest scandal in team sport the world of sport has seen. #WC2WB

#GUILTY

Still reckon Jamo farts about and moves it on too slowly. I said late last year that our defense rebounded better when Jamo got injured and we injected more run through the likes of Walker. Great defender Jamo, but needs more attack in his game.

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"I had to eat"

I thought Bower was fantastic last night. Overall, however, I thought our defence looked a bit shaky at times. I think we just need to get Jamo, Bower, T-Bird, Armfield, JR playing as many games together as possible. We don't quite have that understanding between our defenders yet that the good teams do.

One of the good things about our current defenders though is that they can all play on a variety of different types of opponents.

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It's never as good as it looks and it's never as bad as it seems.

It was interesting to see a slight change to our game plan from a defensive perspective in that more of our defenders pushed up the ground and even into the forward line. I've always felt that our defenders don't challenge the opposition forwards enough by pushing up the ground to be an option however Jamieson and Thornton both had shots on goal and Paulie B got to the forward arch. All encouraging signs.

Defense was great against Swans. The weakness is we are too predictable. We always come out with the chip kick. I would love to see more run and carry.

Dont forget that Swans had no big forwards of note.

Big challenges will come from Brisbane, Adelaide etc ie the Better teams.

I think our defence is now moving to be a strength rather than a weakness. Unfortunately our forward line is now a weakness after once being our strength.

I think the defence worked well but against a pretty weak forward line. My main criticism is similar to the Jamo criticism above, but perhaps more to do with their defensive structure and our forward leading, but too often we went at 30 degrees (not even 45 degrees) and rarely straight ahead as we tried to clear. Their forward set ups from defensive clearances were better than ours and they won the game because of it. Jamo, Thornton and Bower each seem to naturally 'turn right' and not take it up the field.

The ground looked thin so maybe we were too compressed to really judge. Adding a Waite would help that but I think he'll be forward more than back during 2010.

I saw Jamo moving slowly when in possession....very slowly.

There was no pressure on him and as a result there was no sense of urgency from him either.

I didn't like that. We can't afford to have 1 let alone to key defenders who take their time running the ball out of defense.

I'd prefer they give the ball off to Armfield, Russell, Bower or a Walker so they can move the ball faster and maybe break a line or 2.

Defense is good, but there's plenty of room for improvement. Kock ins to mention another concern.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Kock Ins ??

No comment

We really miss Ang Christou's kock-outs.

I think Jamison is by far our best kick out of all our defenders. He may look a little slow but how often do you see him miss a target or make a bad decision? No way near as often as the other guys.

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Koperek.

He may be our best...but he's no where near perfect. I've seen him make plenty of mistakes. 3 just on the weekend...1 very bad elementary mistake...shows he's human, and the best we've got. He has planty of room for improvement imo.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Or long to a leading CHF.

To my knowledge, nobody has ever outrun a 50m drop punt.

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"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter" - Winston Churchill.

I thought the guys looked solid, but we still lack an elite kick back there. Even just one gun kick who can defend would make us so much better IMO.

Geesh, no takers?

and Koutoufides marking via the kickouts.