Round 9 Recap: Meh...sorry...MEH!

I'm not going to lie and say that I watched the whole game. In reality, I watched until halfway through the second quarter. Quite a sterling effort on my behalf. The game was predictably never even close to being competitive. The crowd was miniscule, GWS were a giant failure and we killed them. Just like we should.

Although I can't give an entire assessment on proceedings, some things of marginal relevance transpired.

- JJK and Darling kicked 5 each. JJK moves up to outright first in the race for the Coleman with 31 goals, 1 ahead of Lindsay Thomas. As evidence of how strong our forward line is when fully fit, there are 4 Eagles in the top 20. Darling is 11th with 22 goals, Lecras is 16th with 17 goals and Hill is 19th with 16 goals.

....

Okay, look, I don't have anything else to write about the game. Everything that happened was always going to happen. Naitanui was exciting. Masten and the rest collected tons of possession.

But, in season terms we are now (weakly) embedded inside the top 8.

In good news, I think the teams below us are fairly average. Carlton, Adelaide, Collingwood, North (wow-ee did you see that?!) and Richmond are all teams which don't exactly send shivers down my spine.

We have bounced back from an embarassing and abysmal start. We're 5-4, with wins against Melbourne, WB, GWS, North Melbourne and Brisbane. Barring something remarkable none of those teams will make the 8.  I still have serious concerns about this team's ability to beat the teams above it.The real test, and the real defining moment of our season comes after the bye. No disrespect to Richmond and Stkilda, both games we could lose if we don't play our best, but after the week off, things get a little nasty:

We couldn't have asked for a lot more from the last month. 4 games, 4 wins. Maybe fewer injuries and slightly stronger performances, but we'll take the 16 points and move on.

Richmond next Monday. That should be fun and I promise to watch the whole 4 quarters (except when Riewoldt has the ball, as I can't stand his face).