What you talking about Lewis?

Our 1st pick was Broekhurst......pace to burn.....how did he go?

We also drafted in Ronnie Tutt.......how did he go? A good drummer is Ronnie!

Gibbs laughing when he kicked OOF at a critical time on our HF line.

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Let slip the Blues of war (with apologies to William Shakespeare) (and Sir Francis Bacon, just in case)

Bell kicked one and had about three score assists. IMO was one of our better players. One of the few to run the game out.

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Let slip the Blues of war (with apologies to William Shakespeare) (and Sir Francis Bacon, just in case)

My impression from the TV was that we wasted the first quarter and a half dominance by the usual crap kicking for goal. Missing from seven metres out is something we continue to see.
The turning point came from Gibbs absolutely unbelievable decision to kick to Rown in the middle of the ground when he was between two tigers and they just converted and got a quick second and al of a sudden were a few points down and in it. Gibbs got a fair bit of it last night but his disposal was horrible and reflected a lack of time on the field in the lead up games. We know he will get better but that OOF where he laughed says a lot.
After they hit the front, we would have been lucky to win more tan 20-30 of the 50%ers. They led us to the ball for the rest of the night and outran us on the switch a dozen times. It looked as though we lack pace and/or fitness.

Jaksch had a shocker but he will get better. Had three kicked on him in one on one contests and then played on when he should have gone back after a mark inside fifty that caused a 12 point turnaround. His kick from an angle was a ripper.

Smith is enthusiastic but looked lost.

Jones kicked his mandatory 2 but needs someone else down front.

Cripps needs to play. ordinary tonight but not Robinson Crusoe

Docherty easily our best and Menzel had a good game.

Everitt ordinary

Jamo ordinary

Rowe is not a ruckman. Neither is Wood but what options do we have???

Curnow played an honest game.

White OK early.

Touhy disappeared in the second half. Was he even paying? I thought he must be injured.

Simmo tried hard and obviously has a huge tank but he is getting on now.

Carazzo and Curnow shouldn't be played in the same team. I think Carazzzo's time has come.

Judd great but older than Simmo.

Bell. I like Bell and the way he plays his footy and because of that, watch his 1%ers. I must be in the minority because he doesn't have many fans on TC. I don't know his numbers but he was one of the few who tried all night and ran out the game. He was possibly in our best three in the last with Judd and Docherty. A plodder he is not. He is one of the few who can stick a tackle and one of the few who hits the footy hard. Tonight he made two errors where he kicked the ball into space when he had more time and another when he kicked it forward off the ground into a nest of tigers. Other than that, his handballs went to targets and he was instrumental in at least three goals plus he got one. He is in our best 22 easily now and tonight was in our best half a dozen.

Murphy got a few frees but doesn't have any pace. He has smarts but I don't think he would be happy with his game even if he weren't captain.

Henderson was just OK and will be better for the run.

Next week?

Casboult has to play. He is the only player in the team who demands respect in the forward line. A few years ago, Cloke marked everythig but couldn't kick anything but they persevered with him. We have to do the same.

One of Tutt or Buckley will have to come in for Thomas, who would probably get hit by lightning if he ventured outside in a storm.

Boekhurst should com in for Smith.

Tutt or Buckley for Carazzo

Leave Wood because Warnock is worse. At least Wood gets a few kicks, even though tonight he missed the easiest goal of the game from six metres out.

Speaking of players who we have let go, Grigg has turned into a pretty good outside player and showed it again tonight. I don't know why he wanted to leave but Collins has a fair bit of catching up to do before we break even on that trade.

All in all I was pretty calm afterwards. The Essendon* thing has knocked the stuffing out of me. It was almost as though I was watching two teams play and I didn't support either of them. Not good.

_________________
Let slip the Blues of war (with apologies to William Shakespeare) (and Sir Francis Bacon, just in case)

We will get better.
We must
But we're not going to be contenders for a long, long time.
It's not the football field . the football field is the translation of what we are off the football field.
How many boxes have we ticked over the years?
We haven't ticked enough boxes off the football field.
So how can you expect greatness on the football field?
That's how it works...
We have wasted years and years and we're still wasting..
The team however will improve. The question is how much?

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

As for Mick not paying betts to gain daisy... There were many overpaid footballers a smart football manager could have reorganized to keep Eddie and gain Daisy...
Just not a smart football club...

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

i think thats the best post you have ever posted sinners

after having issues with the membership department spuds during the week, i think i have finally seen where you are coming from, and despite your predominantly negative posts, there is a hint of optimism in this one, and it actually makes sense...

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my last one was rubbish

I'm done I think.....I don't know why I put myself through the misery, time and time again, season after season. I'm just gonna step back for now, engage myself in some other activities and start the detox. I'm sick and tired of it all at the moment...

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The problem will be made. for the solution to be sold, to your face before your eyes, tolerance is now the new danger

Another year with the same old crap this club have never got there
head around the draft they just don't get it.
This club still thinks you can just go out and buy a flag .Where the only
club in the afl who has no ideas how to rebuild a team the only club who
never has a process in place when signing coaches.
The days are gone where big name players and coaches will win you games
of football you need a team of goers who will put in no selfish players coaches
who have several game plans not just 1 like our current coach.
This club please stop wasting draft picks you just give them away year after year

I think we did OK with draft picks this year.
But should have done better
Boekhurst will be OK... Maybe
Kj will be fine
Wiley will be OK
But the club will feel it needs to get Dangerfield. Watch us throw the kitchen sink at him.. Lol

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Excellent analysis Blue Sombrero.
So little run.
Bell gave us more than most.
Need to keep playing Levi and Buckley.

Agree Synbad. Great posts.

sorry but already disenchanted this year and watched about 15 minutes of the game last night

I watched the period where were 3 - 4 goals in front and dominating

Even though we were doing it comfortably I knew we were going to lose as I have seen it all before

endeavour was great but we don't take full advantage of our dominance

should have been at least 5 - 6 goals in front

we don't have enough class in the team to finish sides off

still rely on Judd to be our match winner, which has been a problem for years

having both Curnow and Carazzo in the team doesn't make sense to me

will always be a battling side with those two players in your team

Carrazzo needs to be an inside extractor, with Judd Cripps and probably Whiley. Don't have anyone else to play that role.

Some good posts in here, I'm a regular reader but not poster. Funny old match, very disappointing for sure.

A few things I wanted to contribute:

- it won't be the only time this year we struggle to kick a score. There has been a lot said about the Betts trade but gee we missed him last night.

- hard to know what happened from the 10min mark of the second. We definitely started getting too cute but I think it was all precipitated by Richmond clicking and pressuring us. Our ball movement was ok until then and we had control but we just went to water.

- I believe we have needed a bona fide marking forward to lead our attack since we axed Fevola (which we were right to do). Very disappointing to still not have one, and I know it sits amongst a larger recruiting context but it just seems very disappointing to me.


Hoping very much to bounce back, still early days but it was the way we lost that was worrying.

Up the Blues.

Good one.

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Never argue with idiots. They drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience!!!

After Monday and Tuesday, even the calendar says W T F .........
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i was probably disappointed with henderson the most last night. partly due to my high expectations for him, partly due to fact he looked unfit(?) and struggled to move, but mostly due to the fact he had eff-all intensity or desire about him.

rance towelled him up at every 50-50 for the night, and that's just unacceptable. agree with whoever said he seems lost in attack. He doesn't lead into space, he doesn't read down the park very well, ie he won't/ can't anticipate where the ball is going to come in to.

Hend as a forward is the 2nd forward to a strong marking casboult type. i know cas is a shit kick, but for the structure of the forward he's essential.

Jones is a strong man-to-man mark, but he (like cas) offers absolutely zero when the ball hits the deck. the difference with cas and jones is cas is a brute, who'll split a pack and hurt, physically hurt his man.

this leaves the 2nd best defender to go to henderson and suddenly henderson has room to play his cherry-picking style up front.

imo ... henderson is a CHB, and a damn good one. or an above average 2nd tall forward.

jacksh is miles off it. he won't put on 10 kilos for another 2-3 seasons, and without it he's not a back or a forward. imo

like synners said during the week, we need more modern footballers.

Boekhurst & Buckley are quick and fast and along with docherty and menzel fit that modern football prototype. Curnow, carrots, bell, cripps do not. FTR, i like crisps and think he'll have value as a sam mitchell type down the track, but ... from the moment our team was announced, we should've known the result last night. we'd struggle to move the ball quickly, we'd struggle to spread, we'd only be running one way, and once that one way was stopped (after qtr time) we wouldn't have a plan B.

our match selection committee absolutely baffle the hell out of me from week to week ... can't help but feel it has micks fingerprints all over it.

did anyone notice at the stoppages, all night long, our players were looking for their man mark rather even attempting to find their own space and anticipate where the ball was going. it was a defensive mindset all night, to limit the bleeding, rather than to properly have a dig.

whether the mids knew Wood didn't have a chance in hell of winning a tap, or whether it was the gameplan, when you see crisps lining up at a stoppage looking for his man to body up, when he's a ball winner and an extractor and should be looking for his own space and making richmond go to him ... it blows my mind a little.

players put in positions designed to fail.

i think our main problem is a lack of pace through the middle. Richmond has it with guys like Hunt, Delidio and Ellis. When they got the ball down back (and gave it to Houli - we took far too long to tighten up on him) these guys spread and created options which meant they could get it into the forward line quickly and spuds like Lloyd could have a real impact.

Who does that for us other than Docherty? Curnow, Carazzo, Judd, Gibbs, White (who was in there last night), Cripps, Bell all can't do that and while Murphy can he's not doing it. Means our attempts to get it forward are contested which kills our forward line.

We have to play Buckley, Boekhurst and Tutt to give us that pace and hope that Wiley and Viojo-Raindow come good. We will still probably struggle, but hopefully it won't be torture like last night.

Our old/young, inside/outside mix is so on the nose at the moment. All we can really hope for is a couple of years of good drafting and picking off decent GWS kids. It's a tragedy that no-one, except for Bell to an extent, is really pushing Judd, Gibbs and Murphy for ownership of that centre square.

Mick's post game interview was telling too.

He said at one point that none of the players had played together ... yet that's the roster he built.

He said he knew his forward line might struggle to kick a score due to the fact that our last three leading goal kickers, Betts, waite and garlett are all no longer with us ... yet that's his doing too.

he called daisy a mate ... when we need footballers.

etc etc ... pretty damning stuff if you think about it, imo

Was the hovercraft cool though? On the radio they seemed to think the 'match day experience' (well, apart from the game) was very excellent and the bar was set for all other clubs.

Personally I think the AFL is going to be very unhappy about last night. In a rigged competition you still need both teams to look like they are trying, even when its your designated week to lose. Two thirds of our blokes went hokey pokey and never got out of a trot all night. They are ruining the illusion that the whole show is a real contest.

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The only way for some people to understand is for them to be on the receiving end

Left wing moralists
In self serving denial
They shit me no end