My baby takes the morning train

The verdict is in, public transport is good for the environment and full forwards.

Riewoldt is second only to Franklin in 'when he's on, he's on' factor and after a week like that, something along those lines was always on the cards.

I've never understood the animosity directed at Jack and Buddy. They are the guys who make footy good, they drag people through the gate, they make people watch neutral games and fill newspaper columns. The AFL doesn't get a billion dollars for their TV deal because of midfielders, they get a billion dollars because of Buddy and Jack.

I suspect there is something seriously wrong out west but you can only beat who you play, and given that we haven't been doing that, yesterday was nice. We've been beaten up on enough in my lifetime, so I'm chuffed for us to fill our boots when and where we can.

As savaging as it was, it doesn't change much for 2014 other than putting us in a bit of form heading into Dreamtime.

For a second week in a row we took on a team financially propped up by the AFL and it went much more to plan. You can say good things about all who played yesterday, during even the glory days of last year I'm not sure we could have said that too many weeks.

After a week where everyone, including yours truly, were savage on Hardwick he made a few changes to structure that got us moving. Morris forward was genius, despite some of the finest junk time padding Shaw could only find it 13 times and turned it over on five of those. He free'd up the forward 50, it wasn't too often that Riewoldt, Vickery and Griffiths were in the same area and our ball movement was much better for it. He made a change during the game, something he hasn't always been great at, when he shifted McDonough out of the back pocket and into the midfield after he lost a few contests early. And he brought Thomas in, who's tough as teak and wouldn't have let Melbourne have their way with us in the middle last week.

Hampson is one of those players who legally has to be proceeded as 'often maligned' whenever mentioned in the press but yesterday he was outstanding. Not just beating Mumford, but smashing him, and hinting that he doesn't care too much for being subbed at half time.

Yesterday has to be taken with a pinch of salt given the opposition but how good was it watching Foley trust his speed? Two or three times he looked at his closest opponent, knew he had him covered, arched the back and went.

It looks as if we've found some groove which will keep the media off the doorstep for a little bit but yesterday means squat unless they turn up against Essendon and North during the next fortnight.

Lids racing to 200 as the youngest Richmond player is very impressive considering the number of finals a few people before him have racked up. He's as durable as they come, has only missed eight games across ten years and let's hope that the next 150 are peppered with a few more finals.

The Giants ground is a ripping place to watch footy if you are ever thinking about making an interstate trip.

Votes

5: Jack Riewoldt

4: Dustin Martin

3: Shaun Hampson

2: Brett Deledio

1: Steven Morris

Plenty unlucky for the first time in a while: Thomas, Rance, Cotchin, Chaplin and Houli amongst others.

Leaderboards

The Benny

16: Jack Riewoldt

14: David Astbury

13: Trent Cotchin and Shaun Hampson

12: Dustin Martin

10: Daniel Jackson

9: Ricky Petterd

8: Reece Conca

7: Brandon Ellis

6: Steven Morris

4: Matt Thomas, Sam Lloyd, Brett Deledio and Shaun Grigg

3: Ty Vickery and Shane Edwards

2: Nick Vlastuin

1: Ben Griffiths, Orren Stephenson and Ben Lennon

Blair Hartley Appreciation Award

13: Shaun Hampson

9: Ricky Petterd

4: Matt Thomas and Shaun Grigg

Anthony Banik Best First Year Player

4: Sam Lloyd

1: Ben Lennon

Joel Bowden’s Golden Left Boot

4: Shaun Grigg

Greg Tivendale Rookie Medal

4: Matt Thomas

1: Orren Stephenson

Championship belt

Incumbent	Winner	Streak	Wins
NA	Cotchin	1	1
Cotchin	Astbury	1	1
Astbury	Riewoldt	1	1
Riewoldt	Astbury	1	2
Astbury	Petterd	1	1
Petterd	Ellis	1	1
Ellis	Conca	1	1
Conca	Martin	1	1
Martin	Riewoldt	1	2

The guys over at TTBB are doing some really cool things on their site and I reckon the Virtual Duffle Coat is my favourite.