I saw the 1st quarter but nothing else yet. I will watch the replay shortly.

9 rounds in, and if before Rd 1 someone said, we would be 6-3, I would be happy with that scoreline.

I will say it out loud.........We can make it to another Prelim and maybe the GF with our best 22 on the park and the right mindset. We have the talent, and the game plan is slowly coming into focus. Yes, it is still an obvious work in progress but isn't every other team in the same boat. We are competing consistently, for longer.

Of course, we have lapses, but we are still sneaking wins against damn good teams. Alittle bit more composure and a few less injuries and we could easily be 9-0. That might sound silly, but the margins are slow close it is not out of the realms of possibility.

We have now beaten two teams above us, including having the Demons 38pts in arears, 7 mins into the 3rd. The Cats pipped us when we were undermanned.

This week will be another great litmus test. Based on the past 9 games, I nolonger go into a game thinking we can't win. It has been a fair length of time since I felt this way.

I would rather be 6-3, being a competitive unit week in week out without our best 22 on the park, than what we have been in years gone by.

Regards Cazzesman

A few observations (they are mine and you may not agree with them). Some have been mentioned;

1. Hollands has no peripheral vision and holds onto the ball too long
2. Wet weather footy should involve more "soccering" off the ground to gain territory. No point bending down to pick up greasy ball, getting tackled immediately and losing possession
3. Walsh has the Cripps disease of taking on everybody rather than releasing quicker
4. Our tackles (apart from a few standout ones) are just so weak compared with the opposition
5. Kemp still doesn't know when to punch and when to mark
6. Durdin is a passenger...give me Binns or Cunningham any day of the week and rotate them between positions
7. Cincotta bleeds for the jumper and has an abundance of pride in his role.
8. Cowan not far behind
9. Why oh why oh why can we not create some space or loose man scenario when kicking out, particularly on the open 'fat side'?
10. Either our system or our mindset precludes us from putting teams away...not just talking about Melbourne last night. Adelaide was DEFINITELY mindset from the first bounce

No teams play 4 quarters of powerful football. And probably only North are putrid for 4.

Our first half, and particularly first quarter showed so much intent to atone for last week.

You can see that Weitering is better when Kemp and McGovern play. Whether that is trust or dumb luck I don't know. But these 2 make a difference to weitering.

1 put after being 38 up is an opportunity missed but Melbourne have weapons everywhere but tall forwards. Cincotta blanketed Kosi Pickett.

All in all another case of take the 4 and keep on running.

Not sure I can be angry about any of that. Can we get better? Sure. But we showed a lot of focus on areas of past weakness in the first half. Happy with that. Selection stability will make a difference too.

Some of you guys need to see a therapist.

We won that game.

We've done the exact thing to other teams - played poorly then come home with a wet sail. All decent teams can do it these days. They can get on a roll and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. But we just held on. Good on us.

Do we have things to work on? Yes. Was the first quarter just about the best quarter of footy we've played all year? Yes! We kept a top-four side scoreless and put five on them going the other way. We defended with intent and system - the exact thing we've been working on.

https://twitter.com/7AFL/status/1788528363025387548


Barely any contact.
Having said that, who knows what chooklotto will throw up.

Spent the last 3 mins outside wishing I smoked.

I think that Newman hit deserves heftier punishment than a punch to the face or to the back of the head #logic #reason