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Friday game Collingwood vs GWS is a 3:02pm start - game is live on Fox Footy and Kayo

Tasmania v Port Melbourne would certainly have been an exciting game for Tassie supporters and neutrals. From the Port Melbourne perspective, we're seeing some things that were problems last season as well, with inefficiency inside forward 50 and difficulty stopping the opposition transitioning from their defensive 50. 26 forward 50 entries that didn't lead to a score is not great; neither is losing the tackle count; neither is the lack of composure with the game on the line that led to repeated late turnovers. On the other hand, we did kick more goals than behinds and posted a higher score than we did in all but 4 games last season, despite Van Es playing below his best and Bedendo also making uncharacteristic mistakes after a good first quarter. Both teams' backlines were better than the high scores might suggest; for Tasmania Wilkinson was particularly impressive. A number of the scores we gave up came from failures of team defence and aren't just on the backline. Baldwin's attack on the footy continues to be excellent, Sparkman was very good, and Rankin was good up until that turnover. Dreher was good as well and deserves to stay in the side; with Rosman out concussed I expect he will. Hopefully Rosman recovers well and doesn't have to miss more than three weeks. 

Grant has made a good start to the season as well. It's a bit early to say, and he did have a couple turnovers, but it looks like Hird may have put some work into improving his kicking efficiency. Although recruiting wasn't as extensive as we'd hoped, and we'll definitely be in trouble if Grant is injured, the recruits we did sign generally look good. Tovey and Downie were excellent and along with Clarke looked to be our best players today. Stubbings and Downie on the wings look like a good combo.

So there are some positive signs for us out of what did look like it would be a tough game.

Tassie have put together an impressive side, especially considering that the team has had only the one preseason together, and their backline should be even stronger when Robbie Fox returns. They look to be very good at that quick transition out of defensive 50 and also got some fast ball movement out of centre clearances; a number of times their players were also able to catch us out with quick changes of direction.

Good to see Frankston hold on for the win against St Kilda. Their players showed good composure late as St Kilda were finishing strong.

Haven't had a chance to watch the Sandringham-Werribee game yet, but that is a surprising result indeed - hadn't entirely ruled out the possibility of a Sandy win but hadn't thought anyone would hold Werribee to 0.4 in the entire second half. I'll have to watch just to see what on earth happened in the second half.

Good win by coburg over richmond after a loss at north hobart last week. Southport rebounded after their poor showing against richmond. The sharks booted 10 goals in the third quarter to have an easy win over brisbane. Sandringham was a surprise winner over werribee. Thought geelong would beat box hill but not thrash them. The cats had quite a few experienced afl players like close and stanley playing. Good to see the dolphins hang on after a great first quarter. Tassie v port looked like a great game. What was the crowd like ?

I saw a report on Facebook that Rosman was flying home with the rest of the team and said he's doing well.

Regarding the backline, I was less pleased than I expected to be in round 1 and less disappointed than I would have expected considering the final score in round 2 - I was inclined to attribute a lot of the problems to breakdowns of team defence, with the midfield not getting back as quickly as they should have. But breakdowns of team defence do certainly involve the backline as well as the midfield and I may well have overlooked some things also. Losing Rosman early certainly didn't help, as you note, and neither did not having Highmore, although he might have played up forward again had he been available. Hopefully we do beat Sydney this weekend, especially as we have some tough games coming up after the bye for the state game (Box Hill and then Brisbane)

The Frankston-Tasmania game this coming weekend should be well worth watching, although Frankston do look more vulnerable this season with Blamires in the AFL and several players injured. But then again they will have the home ground advantage for this one.

Just finished watching the Sandringham-Werribee game. That was an incredible comeback by Sandy. Can't even say it looked like the teams swapped jumpers at halftime because Sandy were more dominant in the second half than Werribee had been in the first. In terms of general play most of the first half was closer than the score suggested because of inaccurate goalkicking and poor forward 50 entries by Sandy., though Werribee really did break away late in the second quarter and looked set for a big win. And then Sandy came out in the second half and just did not give Werribee any space. Nathan Philactides was one of Sandy's best against us in round 1 and certainly backed that up in this game. AJ Kuol Mun won most of the hitouts, but his Sandringham counterpart Daniel Pinter more than made up for it with his work around the ground, and in the second half Sandy's mids read the taps well and also gave the Werribee mids no room to move even when Werribee was first to the ball. And then when Werribee did get the ball inside 50, the Sandringham defenders were perfectly positioned. Not at all what I would have expected if I hadn't known the result going in, and even knowing the score in advance I was still bit surprised at just how dominant Sandringham was in the second. It was a really brilliant half of football, and it will be interesting to see how the rest of the season goes for them. They certainly have a tough game coming up this weekend, playing Brisbane at Brisbane's home ground. 

Yeah, fair point about the defence, NorthPort. I'd approved of the Van Es positional change but perhaps it is too much of a change to our defence with Highmore absent this week and otherwise starting forward - though I said I wouldn't judge the Highmore move until midseason. We'll see if they can work out the bugs over the coming weeks. I am keeping weekly notes for that midseason assessment so I can be sure of remembering my impressions week to week, and I've added your thoughts (properly credited of course) to my notes.

If Josh Tovey improves as the season goes on he could be just about the best player in the comp by round 21! Really like what he's brought to the side so far. Was a bit surprised to see him with the 10 coaches' votes given we lost, but it was a very good game from him. 

vfa, I read that the crowd for the Tasmania-Port Melbourne game was around 5000. Looked like a good turnout on the recording.

I was at the game vfa - that 5,000 stated.was a embellished figure. People around me.were saying around.the 3 k.mark. Was.a.dwcwnt crowd but nowhere near the 6k they were expecting.  Great atmosphere at times they sounded extremely loud,.almost like a afl roar and a nice stadium as well but pity at the drink.prices. 3 - 3.5 k is pretty good though as the publicity down there was surprisingly minimal.