I think we need Houlihan delivering the ball into the forward 50 at the moment because noone else can bloody pass the thing properly. If Fev is out on Friday night who knows how we'll end up doing? I mean seeing as every team this year is putting 2 or 3 blokes to stop Fev they'll have to do something different with him out. You never know it might work in our favour although I doubt it.

Synbad,

If we had played the second quarter as well as any of the other three, we would have won.

We outscored them in the first and last, and only 3 points short in the third.

Problem was they didn't take the opportunities that were there in the first few minutes of the second quarter, and Freo took the momentum, and flew away.

For the other three quarters, we played equal or better.

In my book, that means they played three good quarters. Unless you rate Freo on their home ground as crap.

if you were watching the standard of the game and the kind of footy Freo played you would have to call them crap on that performance.
A good side would have wiped the floor with us.
youre not suggesting they played champagne football are you?
Crap game.. 2 teams that looked miles away from competing when it counts.
We had a couple of very good players and some that were solid. We had a heap that played shithouse.
Same with Freo.

Were going on about our tall defenders.. we were carved up by the midget brigade.

Who are the good sides at the moment Syn?? Are the a Weagles 12 goals bettah that the Lions? and it was played at the Gabba. Blues have been short on leaders since the SOS's and Kernahans retired.

Where is the positivity of 2 hard road trips and to come away with a draw and a loss that really a fair effort in anyones book. Considering in both games we were in the position to win and let ourselves down. (perhaps thats the failure of youth and inexperience) Im lookin at the postives we are not that far away and honestly did any of us really expect to be playing finals football this yr? I think we creating a sound future.

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Can smell the gf its there for the taking we are the form side

sandra , i agree with you. usually coming away from subiaco and footy park with that kind of result is ok.. but its very old stkilda. (we gave it ago and lost... AGAIN!)... i think both of those games were winnable as were the north and collingwood games.
Were not executing our game properly... too few are up to standard though some have been a revelation in my opinion. Stevens is captain material.. Houlla is going to be a dead set star!Wiggo is improving.. Waite is getting better...but some have stalled..
I agree.. we have lacked leaders since Sticks and SoS... we need to mould them for the future starting now.
Id hate to see the kids modelling themselves on some of the ones who think theyre leaders at the moment. If you watch them as closely as some of us who go to training do youd be horrified with the idea.
In my opinion Stevens should be Captain asap. On the surface we can get excited to get 2 points from 8 on the rd.. but we should be doing better and we should have higher standards.
Yes we are developing still There is no doubt. But sooner or later kids need to step up and leaders need to drag them up...
There is no excuse for Sporn to be at the same level he was 3 years ago... Norman is a joke ... he is capable of much more.
someone needs to grab them by the scruff off the neck and shape them up .. Denis cant do everything alone.

If we lose our next 2 were a bottom 4 side because we set the tone early and now were playing catch up footy. Another year gone.
that will cost someone their career. Its make or break for alot of people..
It costs the club money .

There is so much at stake. Have another slow start next year miss the finals and were well on our way to becoming a Richmond.
Thats why leadership is so important.
Im sick of the me me me me me attitude some have. They dont believe they will be part of the fair dinkum revival so theyre happy to self preserve.

They get no loyalty from me.

We are travelling on a hard road with many bumps along the way. Hawks next week could easily be a loss for us. Richmond - could lose that too on current form.

Top of the bottom four finish for us, maybe 7 wins for the year.

So if we finished like that, Id accept it, because athough we've improved in our game, so have everyone else. We need new players and/or developing of our young players.

Theres plenty of material to work on.

I am thinking that this year will be a downer, and 2006 will be better.

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My Blue Heaven

Agree with all Synbad's arguments.

We need leadership and plenty of it. Stevens is in the Kernahan, Bradley, SOS, Ratts, McKay mould IMO.

Problem is, he's only one.

Campo, Lance, and Kouta are servicable at best for leadership. Think French has good leadership qualities - must be these ex-Port players!!

Kouta is a good captain, don't get me wrong, but I think Stevens is the better choice.

Just my opinion

We did beat them a few weeks ago. Don't tell me they weren't fair dinkum.

How many games has he played in that time?

He could have played a possible 95 .. so how many hass he played???
Can he stand up to the rigours of Denis Pagan collision football???

How much time has the leadership group put into him???

See i think that has alot to do with where our kids are.

did you know Hamill used to go pick up Goddard from school?
He mentored Riewoldt too...

We just dont have any of that at the club... its sink or swim for our kids.

Lets hope he gave him Dave Allison's phone number.

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

Let's hope that he tutored them in the best way to approach contract negotiations then

Their tree needs shaking.

Agree with Synbad..3 players short and a few leaders short as well not to mention some muscle bound players who can look after some of our players who need looking after.
Synbad is right and I said it on one of the other threads..Freo are garbage and any half decent side would have done us by ten goals.
When you have players like Medhurst and Farmer intimidating our players with no comeback apart from Thornton then its time to look for some players who can stand up for themselves.
Not a fan of Stevens being captain...I want a bigger player who can set a example in all areas..Stevens is a great footballer but I want someone like Kernahan or Fitzpatrick who the players know will look after them.
Everyone still bags Hamill on this site but he would be my captain if still on our list...at least he flys the flag for his teamates even if its at 500K a year...

Thats the problem we haven't been done by 10 goals yet - so the problems are being "papered over" time for Wallsy to do a piece on us.

As for Medhurst - pretty much over him kicking 4/5 goals on us every f - u - c - k - i - n - g time. [/quote]

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

35

So it's not his fault- his body can't cope with collision football (where does that leave Simpson) and our leaders are to blame?

Simpson has pace. Sporn doesnt have pace and it doesnt seem he can handle the collision stuff.

No we dont have leaders we have bloodsuckers...
Wannabe leaders who said they would leave if they didnt get the big money but then couldnt perform.

elwood .. i think Stevens can be a captain in the cousins buckley harvey mould.

We dont have a choice... its stevens or kouta.
kouta wont be here after next year so its time to make stevo captain and allow the future of the club to grow together.

Okay we agree we are 3 players short:

So who are they?

Where do they play?

Do we bite the bullet and play our younger kids in their place - and hang the consequences??

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

I think a tall CHF.. like a ruckman CHF... like Longmuir would be great.
Setanta along side him
Then a hard midfielder who can win hard balls so we dont run Stevens into the ground.
Ultimately a Judd/ Ball/ Hodge would be perfect but theyre almost too good to kill of like that.. maybe a Moloney / Hahn type..

And then another tall defender if none of ours can do it. Waite Norman Livo Hartlett.

Ball would be fantastic. in my opinion Judds equal. Hes the type that will run the club after hes through captaining it.

You look at our leaders and then you look at a 20 year old Luke Ball.
Absolute beauty!!!!


Once you get that into the club and naturally getting bigger with age..youre a top 4 team with a window of opportunity to win something of 5 years.

Thats all we need i reckon.

those 3 types would change the dynamics along with what we have and what we have developing.

two hard midfielders, a big pack busting forward, a big backman - development from the kids and a changing of the guard. Old servants finsishing up, new players coming in. Now we are back in the draft (and hopefully a bit more cashed up - yes I know Synbad, I know -) we must really take last year and ground zero. This year and next year and slowly we'll turn it around.

But the lost picks hurt. We have many good players of the same type. We lack depth in a few key areas. I, like many, got my hopes up but this will not be a quick turn around. This is a slow haul back from the brink.

Do we have the right leaders? I think we haven't had the right leader since Sticks, I think we need fresh blood, players who have not climbed the pinnacle. Our future leadership group looks likely to come from

Stevens T-Bird and who else?

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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!

Top of the shopping list is a hard-ball getting midfielder in the Simon Black/Chad Fletcher/Adam Simpson mould. Disposal must be good. I'm hoping Bentick turns into this because his disposal is good, he has grunt and while he's not quick, he'll do the hard yakka.

Simpson is a straight swap for Camporeale IMO except he doesn't go chasing after cheap kicks so that's ok. We need another midfielder who can get clearances to replace Kouta.

A high-marking utility who can play both ends as required would be ideal - we're hoping Hartlett can be that but another type like him would be wonderful.

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"A good composer does not initiate. He steals."

- Igor Stravinsky