Dinger is another John West pick up. Well regarded in his junior days as he used to monster them but the smart clubs knew he had a fatal weakness. Same with a heap of guys we got under Hughes...Bower, Robbo, Davies, Anderson, Walker, Carrazzo, Hampson, etc...butchers all of them. Compare them to the silk of Geelong and Hawthorn.

We're back on track now with Cripps and Menzel, and Giles too. But it will take time to build the side with enough class to be competitive.

can't think of another team that has had so many rookie players in one team. The effort is there but the skill level is not.

with our misses in early drafting we will pay the price as relying on these rookie players won't enable us to take the next step

we need to bite the bullet now and chop Ellard, Curnow, McLean and Robinson from the team. Only use as depth players this year.

Hughes needs to be up at some sort of War crimes style court for crimes against recruting and live the remainder of days in Siberia.

Season as good as over.
Will get smashed by the Scum next week.
Skills and goal kicking have been an issue for Years, so won't improve.
As long as Robbo, Ellard, White are in yhe starting 22 we ll go no where

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James Hird and Essendon* FC - #FOREVERDRUGCHEATS

I reckon that's a good thing anyway. Judd's injury is a blessing as we have to blood some players.

Tom Bell makes some mistakes but flew the flag on his own basically in the first half. Warnock was immense but made two critical errors which was unfortunate.

Buckley was fantastic. Highlight of the night.

Yarran and Everitt were also sensational. Gibbs and Touhy were poor but are first 22 and will improve.

I hope McLean is the one who slips out and we will be much better with Walker back in the team.

I thought it was a really gutsy effort for an undermanned team.

Far prefer us with one Genuine ruck so if Kruze is injured then get him right. A month in the twos once he is fit.

Replace White with Walker, Rowe with Watson and McLean with Cripps/Holman/Graham. Make a foot soldier like Ellard the sub and blood our kids.

Still Docherty to look forward to aswell.

Have low expectations for finals makes it so much more enjoyable.

Game plan in first half not holding up. Either that or lazy footballers. Again, just a mediocre team, at best.

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For some silly reason, you people want to assassinate him, and it's just rubbish. You people. All of you, ALL of you!

We're crap but the ferals should have buried us and didn't. Bit like Rd 1 last year except they player much better in the first half.
Gibbs can head back to SA for all I care and FOR @#$%&!'S SAKE can someone kick an easy @#$%&! goal for once?

We're going to have to play catch up football for the rest of the year now. Change of tact required. Need the defence we showed at the start of the last game. Need an exciting forward line and to kick through the big sticks.
Buckley Jamison Someone (Docherty later but need a 3rd tall)
Tuohy Henderson Simpson
Thomas Gibbs Yarran
Everitt Casboult Walker
Garlett Waite Menzel
Warnock, Curnow, Murphy
Bell, Lucas, and either Cachia, Cripps, Holman

Last quarter three goals seven (one rushed) two out of bounds on the full. Of those seven behinds, by my estimation two were very easy shots for goal, another four were pretty easy shots. The two sitters Waite missed (third quarter and last) were pivotal and Garlett's in the last... Not that I thought for a second he'd kick it, the look in his eyes told it all, he's got history with those shots.

Never was the axiom "bad kicking is bad football" more apt. Richmond were shot ducks and we couldn't put them away. Could have won by four goals, but having said that we probably were only on top for a quarter of the game.

I felt Knockers overall played a pretty good game, but can we afford the luxury of a player who is such a terrible kick? Cost us two goals, one at each end. Lucas at least gave us some run and spread when he came on, like half the team his kicking is a worry though. Young Bucks was terrific, play the kids.

The top sides would have been laughing their guts out watching that game. "There's two sides we haven't got to worry about. One falls to pieces when pressure is applied, the other can't take their chances and chokes when the game is there to be won".

I need a drink, my throat is sore and I've got a headache. I wish it didn't all still mean so much to me. Let's face it, you could have written the script for that game.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

If Mick Malthouse is the supercoach that he is reputed to be, why has he and any of his highly paid assistants not told / taught Jeffey that when he is running into an open goal from 10m under no pressure he does not need to drop the ball onto his foot 'any old how' when he can line it up as a conventional drop punt. The number of absolute sitters he has missed from short range ( not just tonight - but regularly in recent years) is absolutely ridiculous and obviously no one on our moron coaching staff has ever addressed it. Tell the "brains trust" to look at the Jeffey footage from the past three years. It sticks out like a sore thumb and nothing is done about it. Tell them to watch Jack Gunston in the same position. Always a conventional drop. Always a predictable result. Yarran is not far off for missing sitters when running into an open goal from short range - although he was good tonight.

Curnow? He's not the issue he was good. Ok skills, not great but ok, but he can tag.

Yes being a Reds fan takes some of the pain way, but that was a diabolical first half and the foot skills are just shocking for professional footballers.

So deleted my first attempt

HGow about

Really happy with Bucks and menzel.

Bell was good

People bagging KLucas and I understand that but I thought when he came on we evened up the game cos they couldn;t run off us as easily

No more Maclean

I have no time for Murphy ad a captain, i think he cheats the game

Poor kicking, not jut at goal, how many times did we hit them on the chest

so drop
Maclean
Curnow
Warnock
Robbo
Rowe
Lucas
Waite
Garlett

just kidding

but maclean goes.

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This type of slight is alien in the more cultured part of the world - Walsh. Its up there with mad dogs, Englishmen and the midday sun!

..lazy, they like that shoot out style, but it won't get you all the way.. ..and team was built that way, will take some undoing.. ..the style and standard is still Q1 vs port..

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..if you can't be good, be good at it..

The voice of reason. That clearance by Dylan in the last Q under immense pressure when he was obviously shagged was very much like the old man. Just needs to start drinking more......

yes he would of!!! ,,,he would crashed packs and taken contested marks in the first half when it mattered and was needed and he would not of missed from right in the front in the 3rd...I wonder what casboult did in the second half against the tiges last year rd 23...

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#sayerscouldbetheman!!

I am really excited by this squad.

Tonight was a watershed moment.

We should have won the game by three goals with opportunities, but the result meant nothing because the proof of the pudding was the ingrediants.


Buckley is now in the side to stay. He will move from the backline to forward over the course of his career. He has got it. Will be at the very least a good Carlton player, potential to be great.

Warnock played an outstanding game despite the two obvious stuff ups. What is twelve point here or there when in reality if everything went well we should have been 42 points better off.

Menzel is a gun. What is it, 5 multiple goal efforts in 9 games? Some of those off the bench. Absolute gun and will keep improving.

Thomas will keep getting better every week.

Everitt already proving a solid pick up. Will never star, but is a footsoldier. In an area where we need it.

Curnow just keeps on improving, where is this guys ceiling?

On the negatives, pretty obvious that Robinson and Touhy are living on borrowed time. Touhy is great on the run but has shown many times that he cannot take the proper defensive position in a one on one contest. Hopefully Docherty can take over Touhy's spot and help us in that area.

The Robinson one is easy, actually it could easily be either Robbo or McLean.

Cripps cover both of these blokes in almost every aspect of the game already.

Fitness is his only issue. So what? There is the sub rule. Play Cripps flat out for three quarters every game and let the sub on. Too easy.

Cripps is beyond elite. I know this is a big call but in my opinion Cripps is the first absolute superstar player we have recruited from the draft since Koutoufides.

This boy is special with a capital S. It is sad that it has taken this long. I am talking superstar, do not get me wrong this boy is going to make it big time. The sooner he is in the senior team the better.

He is exactly the type of player we need, which is a stupid comment really because every team need superstars.

They say stupidity is doing the same things over and over and expecting a different result. We're the kings of stupidity because we stuffed up our rebuild. Every week we take to the field with:

A slow and unaccountable midfield
No height or size in the key positions
Limited ball winning ability
No superstars
Limited ruckmen

But we have no depth to cover any of these deficiencies because we never draft. The Psychologist could answer this, but when was the last draft where we took more than three players? Was it 2010? The reason I ask is that you're hitting and hoping to fill deficiencies when you take one player in the vain effort of filling a gap - especially when your draft record in the second and third rounds is as poor as ours.

To finish things off, the club never levels with us. Each year they recruit rather than draft and hint that we are heading for top 4. I kind of get the trade for Thomas because Micky would have wanted to get someone in to show the others how to play his brand of footy. But trades for Docherty and Everitt were beyond me in a draft which seemed to have a bit of depth until about pick forty.

To demonstrate what I'm on about, here's a question: if you want to add pace to our midfield from outside tonight's squad, who are you going to call up? It's an indictment on our list management.

sorry but his skills are crap, with both hand and foot

cannot be a key midfielder for us

for this club to get anywhere near a premiership in the next 5 - 10 years we need to make some decisions quickly

I am sick and tired of average players remaining in our team for years on end

our turnover of players has been diabolical