What did I learn this week?
Channel 7 has been told to go to Brett Kirk as the negativity about him has been huge. He is improving with the Dorothy Dix questions.
Judd and Jamo are elite. Robo, Army and Heath Scotland had a huge go and Hendo was good but he lackadaisical.
For the 4th week in a row we were smashed in stoppages and one of those was GWS. Against St. Kilda we had 60 hitouts to 25 and lost the clearances 42 to 37. This aspect smacks of very poor coaching or player awareness to me. If they can rove our rucks last week, why couldn’t we rove theirs today?
Why does an ex-player make the right person for the coaching job? Melbourne midfield and a local club? Where was the successful pathway?
There are some serious underlying problems within the club. Jacobs goes and he becomes one of the premier ruckmen playing (well at least today he was). Grigg is swapped for Collins and learns to kick and get 30 plus weekly at a weaker club. Where is the development of players coming from, given that we have all seen potential from number 12 selection Kane Lucas and yet he languishes at the Bullants?
We pick Watson, and sorry I actually think he is only a “man child” and a future NFL punter with his inability to know what body position is, and miss Isaac Smith, Jack Darling, Kieran Harper, Jeremy Howe, Luke Parker and even Alex Fasolo! Yes I know that all drafts have these imbalances but from when we swapped the pick to Geelong took for Paul Chapman to take Michael Mansfield we have been worse at it than all, IMHO, except Richmond.
Then we get the early picks. We all make no mistakes with Murphy, Gibbs and Kreuzer as all were touted for 12 months beforehand.
I will start with 2004 where we were allowed back in. Jordan Russell at 9, Adam Hartlett at 24 and Luke Blackwell at 41. Add to that Chris Bryan and Anthony Raso and it seems that we weren’t too successful. Van Berlo at 24 may have been useful or Le Cras at 37.
2005? Bower at 20 (Bernie Vince at 31), Jake Edwards at 36 (Andrew Swallow at 43).
2006? 17 Hampson, 19 Grigg , 35 Austin in what looks like a weak draft. Dawes at 28, Goldstein at 37, Houli 42 (can kick), Schofield 50 may have been better. Clint Benjamin at 51 is very poor when Robbie Gray came out at 55. Aaron Edwards, Goldsack, Justin Westhoff and Rodan all came after and I have ignored the recruiting of Joe Anderson
2007? Steven Browne at 36 and Scott Thompson comes out at 37 with Cale Hooker at 54.
2008? I actually think we chose well though Nick Suban for the Warnock trade will take a while to decide. O’Keefe at 65 versus Savage at 75 is a “wrong” but an acceptable one.
2009? Brock McLean a poor trade for pick 11 but the Fev trade was a huge bonus for Hendo. Lucas at 12 versus Fyfe at 20 and Bastinac at 21? Loss big time. Luke Ball at 30? I would take him after today, and before today. Davies at 43 is a battler but there wasn’t a whole lot behind him it seems.
The next two drafts for me are too early to judge.
Bottom line?
We have become too complacent with the status of the number 1 pics and Judd. The mid range stuff has been appalling especially when one looks at Grigg this year and the picks after our second and other round picks.
The development of the second round picks has just been wrong. I love that we picked Jeremy Laidler at 22 years old and think he is a gun but he was a rookie from Geelong and they taught him first.

Good point

Season over for me. Had a gut feel what would happen and did something more enjoyable then going to the game. Really flat. Under the current system you can't restructure your list quickly. This is our "window" and it's shutting before it even opened. Have lost confidence in Ratts because we have done nothing to counter the strategy the Bummers used against us and the other teams just copy. That's simply not good enough. Throw some money at Malthouse maybe. Don't like Roos' playing style.

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TC suffers from the social media illness - the death of respect and constructive discourse by keyboard.

Boys against men.
Essendon* realised their deficiences over the summer and addressed them got better defensively and bigger bodied. Brenton Sanderson transformed his team over the summer. We have gone backwards.
We are soft in the midfield and only have one genuine bloke who can get his hand on the ball. C Judd and we've run him into the ground.
List management very poor. Have not recruited enough hard-bodied midfielders where the game is won and lost.
Fatal errors in getting McLean and Watson over Darling.
The thing that most annoys me most, however, is our coaching staff know how teams are going to set-up against us and have done nothing about it. Out coached week in week out.
No plan B. Terrible forward structure, concede every first kick in defensively and can't get the ball out of our defensive 50. Playing out-dated football. The press is over.
Rattten will NOT take us to the next level. He is not an innovator. I know I will get shot down for it but he has had his time and we need a change. If you are satisfied with mediocrity then maintain the status quo.

that really hurts, but there's the truth

Spot on. I concur. In total agreement.

Well that was embrassing. Don't think anyone associated with the Navy Blue would be happy with that. Suspect some rockets going down range this week and a few 'truth' sessions being held. Time to reset, get back to what we do well and move forward. Nowhere to hide now.

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A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty" -Winston Churchill

L.M 35-06

While I agree, should have happened already. If it hasn't, another sign of our shortcomings internally.

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We are on our way back...

You could do the same thing for Adelaide's drafting.

Hindsight with recruiting is pure genius.

Not even in your trench????

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To make things worse; we have a disease that Jack Dyer called ''losingitis''; which does sap team's confidence.

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No ones listening till you make a mistake.

yeah you can!!!... and they completely bent us over...!!!

So ours has to be worse...

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You keep digging and filling the shit pit Synners, You'll get a recognition of service certificate at some point

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A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty" -Winston Churchill

L.M 35-06

Is it development or recruitment? I think but of column a bit of column b

Is that what Adelaide did to get back to the eight?

Hire old timers like Pagan?

A young coach isn't a monty to succeed, yet I don't want to see another coach who may be past it. Pies were right to replace Malthouse who wasn't going to be there for ever. Ratten gets until the end of the year.

Today was more than the coach not performing. Players just didn't work, give a shit and play team footy. Easy to say that Ratten buggered up with all those tall forwards and hard mids we picked today. Doubt that another coach would have produced better results with today's team. Players don't deserve to get off scott free by knifing the coach. Murphy, Simpson and Gibbs have been dreadful for the last month. Kreuzer has been up and down.

Two weeks ago we had everything, the players the game plan the coaching.
I thought one week in football is a long time.

We need to get back to the one percenters.
Create for your team.
At the moment we are playing a stupid selfish brand of footy.
We would rather run to receive than create space and time for the man with the ball.
This creates more chances of a turn over and less time to spot a team mate further up ground.

We need a strong presents in the forward line all the time for something to go forward to all the time without stopping and proping.

Last but certainly not least we need the smalls out of the way and not used as marking forwards.
This is a major structual flaw and the more we use them as marking or leading forwards the worse we will be caught out against better sides.

All this won't work thou if we don't play like a team.

Just asking.
You talk about ditches... and pessimists and shitstirrers
And whatever....

.. and youre awfully touchy there fella.. especially when u enjoy dishing it out.

So if i were you... i wouldnt be firing shots over bows and not expecting them coming back.

Life is simple... just as footy is.

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Every year footy evolves.
We thought we were onto something but the game evlved again.
We didnt plan for what footy is becoming.
We thought we didnt need to evolve.

Caught out

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Should we have taken Cotchin ahead of Kruezer

The key issue is:
how can a team that played very well and confident the first 3 rounds fall apart like this when the opposition changes tactics?
How come that Gibbs has gone backwards instead of forward with his football?
How come that Russel, who showed 2 seasons ago that he had a lot of potential, totally loose it?
Why does Grigg play so much better for the Tigers then for us?
Etc etc etc

Something is rotten at the CFC

Interesting to see how the Crows have changed in one season with a new setup and a new coach. Time for a change at the club.

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TC suffers from the social media illness - the death of respect and constructive discourse by keyboard.