As much as I'd love the PP, I actually think we'll beat Essendon* this week. They're a bit of a rabble, and have only won 2 of their last 12 at the 'G.

How many of our last 12 have we won at the G?

Sounds like some posters have been kidnapped by aliens and replaced by cleverly engineered doppelgangers, identical in every respect except for one important point.

If we are near the end of the season and are stuck on 4 wins, then I think it would do more benefit for the club than harm to put an inexperienced (unlikely to win) team on the park. I have said that throughout the entire thread. The difference here is, playing to lose from as early as round 4 in the season may be more harmful to the club than good. Throwing a season of AFL football for a pick is manipulating and cheating the system. Playing a young inexperienced team late in the season where there is no chance of making finals is common practice and desireable as it gives the youngsters more games and sees where they're at in their development which also helps in list management. It rests the older players to inable them to avoid injury and play on in the future (resting Fev when he had a groin injury a few years back comes to mind ). It also enables supporters to get a taste for the future and one or two loss doesn't destroy the club. If we were on 5-7 wins by Round 21 I would still like to see the club play more of the youngsters and give guys like Lappo and Kouta a rest so they can go on next year. To me that is not tanking, it is smart player and list management. If Hartlett has played only a couple of senior games by round 20 I'd be pissed and want to see him in the team if we're out of finals contention even if he wasn't a walk up for our best 22. To be honest, I'd like to see him in the team now.

There's a massive difference between playing to lose early/mid season and playing youngsters late in the year when we're out of finals contention.

Sounds like some posters have been kidnapped by aliens and replaced by cleverly engineered doppelgangers, identical in every respect except for one important point.

This is how I feel when talking about this game, and the rest of the season...

I think we will win - Sheedy is great at engineering results to piss us off - who remembers the last round or was it the second last round in 1988? It's all a little hazy to me now but I can vaguely remember them losing to Melbourne which made things bad for us. Or how about in 1989 when he did anything he could to avoid playing Geelong - yeah I can't recall the exact details but they have lost games under him which benefited them.