For those of you that are interested Pagan was on SEN this morning... A few points he made:

*Feels that we would win more games than we will by throwing players behind the ball.. but feels that none of the youngsters will learn anything except for how to play negative football if we were to play like that... Happy for us to play the style of running footy that we are at the moment.
*Thought was best game by Bryce so far... feels no one would have stopped the 3 marks Johnson took in the last.
*Feels Setanta learned a hell of a lot and said that Jonno Brown actually said he was happy he played on him now rather than in 40 games because he will be a star...
*Aisake is quicker than Setanta and will be playing for the Blues in 12 months time.
*A FEW more young kids will get runs this week... Blackwell & Edwards????
*Whilst Stevens is a huge loss feels it is an opportunity for some of the others to stand up.. but said they will be working with Murphy this week on helping him break a tag as he will get #1 tagger every week for now...

Most of that is common sense but was happy to hear we may be seeing a few more youngsters in the side this week... Still hope we dont see Gibbs at FB this week... Let him learn the game off HBF as many others prize recruits have done in the past (e.g. Walker, Deledio)

And my other two cents.... Let me start by saying I am not a Kennedy basher (which there are plenty on here)... I do though believe that he doesn't impose himself on a game at the moment.. that could be due to three things... our game plan... or his size (as he is till young and not developed)... or his positioning. I believe that he gets himself too far under the ball (or fails to read the flight properly) and hence is always reaching up and back to take marks (which are easily spoiled) and also that he jumps off a standing start for many contested marks not on a lead (yes he does take marks.. but outside fwd 50 away from goal... I am talking about in fwd 50 in my examples)......

I would love to see him go to the bullants... tear it up... get his confidence up and then be an integral part to our side for years to come, maybe one day he too can have 27 touches, 7 goal assists and 3 marks - but at the moment with our structure and his lack of know how\positioning \size he is struggling... dont make him a Livo who constantly was beaten and a great prospect who everyone wanted to persevere with had his confidence shattered and never reached where he could have....

Re Gibbs, he said that he felt he did very well against Johnson and did a number of good things earlier in the piece. He said if you looked only at a 3 minute period where Johnson was hit by excellent passes you might be disappointed, but over the whole game you couldn't be. He made mention of the footskills of the BLs midfielders including Cheynee Stiller.

But the highlight of this part of the interview was that Pagan said he approached Gibbs and said he hoped the matchup hadn't been too tough for him, and Gibbs quickly said no.

KB added his view that Gibbs played well on Johnson and you couldn't be upset about 2 marks when Johnson had been hit on the chest by sizzling passes when Gibbs was right on his hammer on both occasions. He wondered what anyone could do in that situation.

KB was also very excited by Setanta, saying that it was amazing he'd picked up the game so quickly when he'd had no junior development. He also said he was impressed to see the look of anguish on his face at the end of the game. He asked Pagan about whether his brother was a bit bigger, and Pagan said yes, he's only 21 and he's faster too and would come into the side in a year and KB laughed in amazement/excitement.

Did he apologise for 2003 to 2006?

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Formerly: Ackland the Wonderkid / Army the Wonderkid / quivering mess / molsey / Tony Lynn Fan Club

No. Elliot has to do that!!

Yep, he said he made a mistake by failing to get rid of Mitchell when he first came in

In both of Johnson's marks, Gibbs' fist was inches from the ball. He was there but Johnson shielded the ball well given he is a superstar. Gibbs did well on him, no doubt

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T E A M

Whos KB,don't know who your talking about?Kevin Bartlett

Kevin "Hungry" Bartlett, the 403 game, 5 time premiership Tiger.

Thanks i was just typing that in just then,thought it was him

Did he say 'gee' a lot?

Makes me giggle.

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Writer for SuperCoach Paige www.scpaige.com.au
Twitter - @johnfeeney24

Aisake is quicker than Setanta and will be playing for the Blues in 12 months time,cool looks like he will get promoted,hope he can be what we need in the ruck and be mobile along with Hampson with the hope of Sam Jacobs being our version of Dean Cox that no one picked in the national draft.

Now all we need is that Matt Kreuzer to play ordinary or tank it a bit so other clubs think he isn't as good as they thought,but is really good,so if we come 12th or better we could get him, as if i'm correct his a Carlton supporter?

Here is the problem for 2003 to 2006.

1995 - Round 1 National Draft selection - TRADED
1996 - Round 1 National Draft selection - TRADED
1997 - Round 1 National Draft Selection (Kris Massie) - NO GOOD
1998 - Round 1 National Draft Selection (Murray Vance) - NO GOOD
1999 - Round 1 National Draft selection - TRADED
2000 - Round 1 National Draft Selection (3 selections - Livo, Sporn and Wiggins) - NO GOOD
2001 - Round 1 National Draft selection - TRADED
2002 - Priority Pick & Round 1 National Draft selection - Removed due to penalty for salary cap breaches.
2003 - Round 1 National Draft selection - Removed due to penalty for salary cap breaches.

So all up we have either traded, made bad selections or lost 12 round 1 selections. Only 1 of the twelve that we have selected or traded for is playing currently. This is appalling list management. If 4 of these 12 were guns another 4 good and the other 4 serviceable (like Wiggins) we would be in a far greater position.

Still waiting for a sorry from Elliott, Parkin and O'Sullivan.

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"can't kick ... don't pick"

If that quote is accurate that is a big change in the way DP deals with the media.

If that was asked last year he would have said that 'Aisake will have to keep working hard and if he does that opportunities will present themselves', therefore keeping pressure on the kid and keeping the future ambiguous for the fans.

But to actually say that Aisake will be playing in 12 months time is vastly different, it is actually dealing supporters some hope.

Whether this is a change across the board or just specific to Aisake because DP thinks he will succeed despite what pressure is applied will be interesting to see.

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I think his whole presentation in the media has changed. Last year there was a defensive edge when he talked to the media. This year he's quite open and friendly. If the journos had a poll on prickly interviewees, he'd now come well down the list.

Maybe he's worked on his presentation with a PR prefessional, or maybe he feels a lot more relaxed now that he's seen off the attempted palace coup that must have dragged him down during 2006.

But whatever it is, it's now like listening to a doting father talking about his sometimes wayward sons with humour and hope.

As an example, he also talked about Fev. He said soemthing like "We've been working with Fev but he still has flashbacks. Fev is a very emotional person and you have to accept that as part of a very talented package. We've talked about it, and he understands he did the wrong thing and I'm sure he'll have a big week this week." He sounded happy when he was saying this, and there was absolutely no angry edge to it. He got a bit of a laugh with the flashbacks comment, and as soon as he was done it was dusted. They moved on to other things.

I agree Indie, lets give Denis an ambassadorial type role. Like a grandfather type figure around the club.
It also frees us up to get a coach who can take us forward.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

Or is displaying such enthusiasm for the job and versatility that Pratt will have no hesitation in keeping him for 2008 and even longer. If we have good results this year, you'd be happy with that wouldn't you BV?

Who knows, he might even win over the coaching wannabees in the outer by introducing some wanky drills like 7 on 6 marking contests

Yes, lets forget the wanky drills Indie, god forbid we'd want to be like the successful sides hey?
Lets stick to how they did it in the 80s and 90s, its worked so well for us!

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

Do we really have to go negative and go "sack DP" at every occassion?

This was a great positive interview. DP has been slammed for not being positive and selling the future. This time he did and it was good.

No, it's a great suggestion BV. I reckon you should volunteer to be the loose man in defence so the boys can practice taking you out with a knee in the back in the marking contest when you drop back to cut off the lead

PS: I'm impressed you've travelled to Perth, Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane to see how the successful teams include this in their training sessions. Now that's going well beyond the call of duty.

I think that Pagan has changed on a few fronts since the start of the year. Not as defensive match-time, not as defensive interview-time - playing the kids more and more, and starting to rotate those that have earned themselves a position. More energetic, positive football - more creating, less negating. Whether it is his doing or not, there is a lot more passion and will to win so far this year... this could dissipate should be be sitting on 2-10 come the mid season. (but we won't!)

Maybe Pagan is a little more gung-ho this year due to the fact that he knows the board want results, be in wins, possible finals or some real development of the kids. And regardless of if he stays or goes - this is the first time I've really seen some progress with the team - and well be setting a solid foundation for '08 and beyond.



No we don't mikkey - it's just that some people think we have to... I'm behind Pagan and have been for a while, but that doesn't mean I can't change my mind in the future...