Melbourne. Round Two Report

The Demons continue in the losers circle, thanks to the fine running game of the Western Bulldogs. If they are allowed to play the game their way the Dogs will trouble the best sides, as they did last year.

When the Demons beat the Kangaroos pre-season, courtesy of a big bag of goals by Neitz, I formed the impression that they really need a pair of bookends, a full forward who delivers every week or at least most weeks, and a dominating backman like Dustin Fletcher or Scarlett. In the meantime Neitz will kick five goals one week and one the next two weeks while at the other end of the ground the defence will always struggle against the top sides as long as Rivers has to play above his weight in the key position.

Welcome to a new contributor, "eat 'em alive" will report on Richmond. The recruitment process proceeds.

And another thing. The Bomber reporter who hails from Circular Head in Tasmania, like myself, has advised that the competition in our home district is still going on and I have corrected the blurb on the site accordingly.

The tipping competition. The organizer is away for a couple of weeks so there is no report on the ladder. 5/8 is not a great result although most of the field would have been on the Swans. It was not smart to bet against Port, I saw the third quarter of the game against the Kangaroos and I thought that their poor showing in that quarter was a mix of bad luck and bad options that could be easily fixed. I kept backing them last year on the strength of their list even when they kept losing games, so I should have had more faith this week. And I didn't check the injury list at the Crows or I would have gone for the Eagles, even away from home.