the Crows are to still challenge for the big prize this year ...

Josh Jenkins simply needs to be part of that push. Bring him back this week … and stick with him.

you're going at better-than-goal-a-game pace for your first 28 matches in a stretch where your team has won nine of those 28 ...

don't worry about the doubters, Cam Rayner. You're tracking to be the star the Lions knew you'd be.

you have a look at the outs (Kreuzer, McGovern, Simpson, Newman) and combine that with this side's inability to win ...

the Blues are justifiable outsiders against North. But they are still a massive chance. 

he was a crucial member of the Pies' 2010 premiership as a 21-year-old and an All Australian the next year ...

Ben Reid's body has let him down in the years thereafter. Just 89 matches since, none since round 10 last year. But always a loved Pie.

you think of booing Ablett on Sunday ...

take a breath, and then another one, and remember your own outrage when Jobe was copping that treatment.

you go back through Ross The Boss's time as coach ...

you'll recall that when he's got a good team, he'll take on anyone. It's been a while. But there was a hint of it this week when he shot back at Bevo. We like punchy Ross. 

Gaz had absolutely nothing left to prove ...

he's proving something anyway. There is something beautiful in watching an all-time great, older athlete, operating with about 75 per cent of full faculties, reminding everyone he's still the best when he wants to be. 

one club, even at this entry-to-round-seven point and with a 3-3 scoreline, seems to have a long season ahead ...

it is this one. 

we're never going to know the answer to the one about the chicken and the egg ...

we're never going to really know who was the first late withdrawal last weekend, Phil Davis or Buddy Franklin. It doesn’t matter, Davis is back this week, and that makes the Giants a six goal better outfit. 

there's a team which we just can’t get a proper read on ...

it is this one. Have won games they probably shouldn't have (Blues round six, North round three), and have lost games they probably shouldn’t have (Saints round four, Bulldogs round two).  

you're last on the ladder after six rounds ...

that's normally enough to write a team off. But we're giving the Dees one more chance.

you enter a game where a win, no matter the circumstances, will not be cause for celebration ... 

it's a dangerous place to be. Reckon the Roos will beat the Blues, but this is one tough season.  

part of West Coast's blueprint for Grand Final success last year was a Lycett-Vardy double-team mauling of Pies ruckman Brodie Grundy ...

lock it in that the Power will attempt to do the same against him with Lycett and Ryder.    

there's been a bigger waste of time and money in 2019 than Jack Riewoldt taking his Match Review Officer's chicken-wing fine to the Tribunal ...

we can't recall it. 

your first game back after almost three years out of the AFL is a role against the red-hot Jeremy Cameron ... 

good luck, Jonathon Marsh. Love your tale of toil, though.  

there's one player who simply must stand up this round ...

it is Sam Reid. With Bud out again, time to take control.   

the three losses to date have been heavy ...

we'd normally be worried. But with Gold Coast, St Kilda and Melbourne the next three matches, should be 6-3 and back on the premiership-defence track . 

the Dogs lose a fifth consecutive game ... 

the hope and buoyancy that abounded after the opening two rounds will have fully dissipated.  

those five contentious free kicks on Anzac Day had all been adjudicated the other way on the day ...

the umps, incredibly, would've also been able to say all five were right. The grey within a game of footy is its biggest problem.