I am surprised by that but respect your opinion.

Give me finals football anyday above the NAB cup. The atmosphere, the brand of football and the level is so much higher than pre season games, even the GF.

I think with the pre seasons games, teams stumble into the GF if they are good/fortunate enough, then take it seriously.

Over the last couple of weeks we have seen some exciting performances from a side that is starting to look very solid and exciting. Yes our mighty Dockers!

I am very happy to see McPhee, Dodd, Schammer, Hasleby, etc get a go tonight. They had to prove themselves that they could be part of the 22 when the Season starts. From what I saw tonight they will have to try a lot harder than that!

This is what pre-season is about. Seeing where players are at and we are seeing just that!

at least we dont have to travel next week z man, i think?

Steady, people. Some of us are getting ahead of ourselves.

There was never any suggestion from Harves that we were having a tilt at the cup, nor has there ever been any hint that we are expecting to play finals this year. This game was always a step in the development program - we should remember that we are two or three years underripe.

And I don't think that under coach Harves the boys would have gone under the broken roof expecting to come out winners on the scoreboard. We have come out with some of our newer players having a taste of the big time. We have learnt about our midfield's reliance on big Aaron. We have learnt something about onfield leadership.

Best of all, they gave it a good shot right to the end, never gave up even when it was lost. That's good coaching.

And as Z man said - remember what the Saints did last year. Today they fielded 16 of the GF side in a season when they lost 3 games out of 25 - one of those being the GF itself.

Poor Walters I throught he really was on the end of some poor deliveries tonight. He has one really good moment when he spoiled the Saints show off passage of play..that was funny.


I don't think Pav is 100%.. what a shocker..


Not sure about Clarke...I'm not seeing the ruckman potential..but he does have a better kick than Sandi already..tall forward??

No Jesse Critchon?..Barlow HAS to be up for a rising star nomination come the season proper ...

Freofanatic, Clarke is a skinny kid trying to compete with much bigger and stronger opponents. Last night shows him where he needs to get to. The less said about Bradley in the ruck the better - maybe we should have held onto Gilmore after all.

I wouldn't worry about Pavlich, I can't remember the last time he burned it up in a pre-season game. It's a chance to get out there and run around for a bit for him, but that's all.

A lot of the players looked tired last night, the kids looked like kids against the Saints bigger bodies and Harvey tried out a few different positional moves. I think we'll be seeing a much different side take them on come round 4.

That's interesting that the Saints fielded 16 of their GF side. I guess there is still some way for the docker to go.

I have to say there is a lot to like about the Saints. I kept on seeing the enthusiasm of their kids coming to the fore in that game. On the slight chance the dockers don't win the premeirship this year I hope the saints do.

No matter what the commentators were saying last night, I think Harvey was smart to rest players. It is only the preseason and I would rather have wins in the season proper. If that means we rest some of our stars, cos we were travelling for the second week in a row. Then so be it. Also don't we play St Kilda early in the season. Why would we show them anything before that game. Lets surprise them.

I was disapointed with a couple of things last night.

I thought Johnson, Crowley, McPhee, Schammer and Hase all played pretty poorly. For our supposedly senior blokes I felt more secure when Mora, Barlow and Hill got the ball. Hayden is a star, love that guy. Johnson was great in the first couple of games so I can deal with that, just didn't look slick. But McPhee hasn't shown anything. Not in our best 22 I think, and definitely not a midfielder.

Not surprised that Michaels, Pav and Murphy had poor games, it wasn't their fault. And that brings me to my other disapointment of the night. The entry in 50m was very poor. It was bombs away for 3 quarters of the game. Pav jumping against 4 saints, with no crumbers and no chance.

I am very hopeful for this season. I am not picking finals like some people but think we can compete for the top of the bottom eight and maybe 7-8th. I am very happy with the teams direction and think that in 3 short seasons Harves has tranformed the team.

And lets face it guys. St Kilda are favs for the flag. I was just glad we kicked some goals, and hope we don't have any embarassing games like the St Kilda or Adelaide one last year, this year.

I agree Stevedore. I think some people are expecting we are going to play finals this year.

Personally I think 9th -10th would be satisfactoryy(yet disappointing) this year but when you finish that high one close game can put you into the finals. In the 8 would be a great result.

If we can win between 8 & 10 games this season it will be a success.

The new forward line structure Harves is going for is as follows:

Ballantyne Headland Mayne
Morabito Pavlich Johnson

This gives you crumbing and marking strength and spreads the delivery options unlike yesterday in which only Pav played all game (Johno only played 2nd half) and they just bombed in to him whilst being swamped constantly. As you can see this is a vastly different line up to what Harves had yesterday.

Now I've seen 3 games my side for round 1 is;

FF- Ballantyne Headland Mayne
HF- Morabito Pavlich Johnson
C- Hill Mundy Suban
HB- Duffield McPharlin Mcphee
FB- Broughton Tarrant Hayden

F- Sandilands Palmer Haselby
INT- Barlow, Crowley, De Boer, Bradley

Near misses: Pearce, Fyfe, Van Berlo


Of the above team only 14 played with 8 either rested or with minor injuries.

Also we have marking power down the spine and speed down the flanks. When Grovers available he would replace McPhee

That looks like a team to get excited about. Can we include Van Berlo, Pearce and Fyfe and take out Bradley, McPhee and Hasleby (I'm so sorry Hasleby).