Beating Adelaide at AAMI, however down their form at present, is a huge achievement. Gotta be happy with that. And to steady and power on when threatened early in the last quarter was very pleasing.

As many of us have said, having the indigenous mosquito fleet all in the side at the same time makes us looks dangerous going forward, and compensates partially for our lack of quality forward talls. Seven goals to Yarran Garlett and Betts and the tackling pressure and unpredictability they bring gives one hope that something is always likely to happen.

Many good players too numeous to mention.

But how unbelievably mentally tough and composed is Judd. Thirty quality possessions, almost all being double tagged, harassed, pushed off the ball, crunched as soon as he goes near it, elbows to the head, face forced into the turf at every scrum, opposition players facing and blocking him at ball ups, tackled by 2 or 3 every time he gets the ball. Yet he still manages to ALWAYS get off the quality handball, make the right decision, set up the play. His tackling pressure was the best I've seen of him for a long while. Jesus, the stress on his body playing like that every week is a major concern. Sensational game from one of the greats of all time.

Lets all enjoy the win. Go Blues.

+ 1.

Amen to that!

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Be positive to all those @ TC- the wait is almost over!

good win
on the otherside of the coin Adelaide are shit because as Tim Lane said yesterday their style of play under Craig hasnt work in terms of giving them a flag. Consequently they have lost their mojo and unless they change their style they will finish down the bottom of the ladder.
They are an old team. Edwards was awesome last year. He looks finished.That can happen overnight to a player his age. Same applies to Rutten and Burton to a lesser degree.

They also played guys who simply were not physically right to play
Tippett
Dangefield
Goodwin couldnt kick it over 45m when he sometimes got it.
They fell for the old 3 card trick of playing unfit players with the othe guys out and underestimated us.

Dont get me wrong happy how we played for most of the game.
And you can only beat whats infront of you

But we played a club just going


Dont expect us to win a flag yet and we are a developing side but if we dont win a final this year we have gone backwards IMO, particularly when you consider the aints wont be without the volt for much of the year , Hawthorn are in the same boat as Adelaide, Essendon* can be beaten with the right structures so on so on

I would like the club to approach Jeff Gieschen about the mauling of Judd by the opposition, at times mauled by 2 at once.
Quite disgraceful that this was allowed to go on with no free kicks given to the skipper.

Make no mistake, Adelaide are in trouble. Starting 0-4 to the season is really going to hurt them for the rest of the year, and even more so that they've lost to teams that they'd usually expect to beat based on their recent history (i.e Melbourne and Carlton). They face the possibility of being 0-5 by the end of next week too as they play the Bulldogs on Friday night. The Crows were a team I had picked to challenge for the top four but at the moment it isn't looking too good. They had an ordinary start to the season last year but managed to recover...however the Crows would need a miracle to do the same this year. The next four weeks will be deciding for them with Port, Richmond, and North to come. Even if they win two of those matches, Adelaide may still be 2-6 after round 8.

Being one of two AFL teams in SA, they will cop it from all angles in the media. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of blokes

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Premierships: 1869, 1871, 1873, 1874, 1875, 1877, 1887, 1906, 1907, 1908, 1914, 1915, 1938, 1945, 1947, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1987, 1995.

"GIBBS."

Absolutely rapt with the win. Only had a chance to watch the first half so far but liked what I saw.

I don't care how Adelaide are travelling. To beat them, by 8 goals, at AAMI, after probably our worst performance in years, is a great achievement.

Just goes to show what we can do when we come to play.

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We are on our way back...

Not only are they in trouble for this season but for years to come. The commentators mentioned yesterday that Adelaide had 5 players over the age of 30. Not good signs for the coming years.

Very, very happy with the win. Recent history made me very fearful of Adelaide no matter what their current form. Judd is the best player in the League and does everything and will go down as one of the great players ever. Unfortunately none of us will be around to see him picked in the team of the century. Houla, apart from last week, is having a very good season and is closing on 200 games. Can't help wondering whether TBirds negative body language and bickering with team mates was unsettling the backline. Finally Walks has rediscovered his run and seemed to be at the level he was pre injury. I like him in the backline ag a taller opponent where he can use his athleticism to spoil and then run away from his opponent with the ball.

We have more run in defence with he Army and JR, what we really miss is one of them being an elite, or even above average kick.

I thought Lucas' debut was the only positive last week and he looked terrific this week. Great hands pace and skill. White was solid and is very strong across the hips so should have good balance and be able to hold his ground. Yarran looks a rolls royce and with BEtts and Gartlett adds loads of skill and pace and all can mark above their height.

None of this of course mitigates last weeks game. Dons pathetic ag ordinary oppo Friday night, just makes last week all the more disappointing. We need to be up every week and beating sides worse than us (esp. Essendon*) if we are to make the 8. And we need to have more leaders than just Chris Judd.

Warnock has competed well each week and will be a handy second ruck, but why we gave 2 draft choices for a solid second ruck when we have a developing super athlete in Hammo and a solid crash and bash ruck in Jacobs is puzzling. Warnock is only 6cm taller than those guys, he seems to have no spring and I am yet to see him look like taking an overhead mark. Can't fault his effort but I'd rather have kept the two draft picks and put more games into Jacobs and Hammo when fit. There is no way those 3 will be on our list in 2 years time unless a couple of them love playing for the Ants.

Hendo has the right stuff. Solid skills and good footy smarts, and could easily play both ends. As expected our key forwards are battlers but the others up there are super skilled.

Agreed. Despite the fact that Gerard Healy has been raving about their elite group of youngsters over the last 6 months.

I reckon this is an interesting point and a good one. But in defence of the trade, I'm glad that we (finally!) have ruck depth & I think Jacobs has come on a bit better than was expected a couple of years ago. I also think Warnock has a lot of improvement left in him and could still become an elite ruckman in 2-3 years time.

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

Inspiring, exciting footy......loved it; and very proud of the boys......good for their confidence too.

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No ones listening till you make a mistake.

It was truly HERCULEAN! I honestly got goose bumps watching Judd yesterday
He was breath-taking

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C'mon Blueboys!

Good point.

I've thought this over...definetely a disgraceful act and suggests the AFL condones bullying.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Well...................



Finally watched the replay as I missed the game.

Well done to Ratten for dropping Thornton and Waite. I wasn't very convinced at first but you have to say that he's decision was indeed justified.
- White looks like a decent replacement for Thornton and hopefully Thornton sees that and does something about it.

Also, well done to recruiters on picking up Lucas. The kid looks like a gem. Just a real talented footballer who will hopefully play 200 games for us.
Ditto White.

On the Betts / Garlett / Yarran trio.............. i KNEW they could all fit into the same side. And i was right! These three could be POTENT and With big Irish (who was a little down in form yesterday but still presents a handy target up forward) up forward close to goal I think we have a forward line good enough to match it with the best.

But, whilst the win was good and we looked impressive,.................My question is.................were we really that good yesterday or was Adelaide just plain crap! I'm thinking it's the later.

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"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit"
- Aristotle

The general response from the game (from what I've read and watched thus far) has been more about Adelaide than giving credit to us.

This doesn't bother me a bit. More than happy to fly under the radar. At our best, we can trouble most sides and I reckon we might be able to pinch some unexpected wins along the way.

I just hope they won't be offsetting some unacceptable losses.

Therein lies our challenge for the rest of season 2010.

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We are on our way back...

Agree Army is neither of those, but I reckon JR is now above average. Rarely misses targets these days.

And I think White looks like a good kick of the footy - though needs to work on his marking contests if his encounters with Burton are anything to go by.

Summed it up beautifully there.

Happy with the result but we've got our two wins against two sides who haven't won a game yet. We'll see where we're really at this week.

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"We used to sit around and talk about how bad the game plan was." Anthony Koutoufides

Next week we get the chance to beat a side that has only won 3 games for the year.

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Let slip the Blues of war (with apologies to William Shakespeare) (and Sir Francis Bacon, just in case)

Come on, you can do it.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue