And what is this insight based on Jim?

Regards Cazzesman

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Ricky Gervais - “Everyone has the right to hold whatever beliefs they want. And everyone else has the right to find those beliefs f***ing ridiculous.”

Their level of intensity in the pre-season competition when compared with their fitness base of the last two seasons. You don't improve that dramatically overnight. All pre-season only the Pies were able to keep with them, and that was in week 4 of the competition. I think they did all their work through to January, then eased off where other clubs would push on through to week 3 of the pre-season competitions.

Personally I think they've opted for a membership drive, and one facet of that has been getting people excited with a good pre-season performance. It's worked in that respect.

Again, as stated - it's a theory - but based on something that I've seen from teams over the journey. Pagan's Blues of '05 to be exact. Our membership surged then too.

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29 different attributes,
And only 7 that you like;
20 ways to see the world,
Or 20 ways to start a fight.

Just a note on Healy, I've always thought him to be one of the more Carlton friendly people in the media. He usually hand braked a lot of Russell's Carlton loathing quite admirably I thought.

Jimmae, I know absolutely nothing about fitness but what you are saying makes a lot of sense to me. Essendon* certainly appeared to be a lot more advanced than other teams. Whether that's been driven to assist a marketing campaign I would perhaps debate, but on the face of it I could see them tailing off as other teams close in on them.

I suppose they could be working on their game style now as well, but don't discount the marketing factor. They're riding a PR wave and that will be maintained - when they eventually falter - by the positive aspects of their pre-season performance.

It'll transition into "they're developing, but gee they'll develop well."

As far as I'm concerned that's complete BS; every team in the competition can look like millionaires when the opposition is operating even 5% below their peak, so Essendon*'s performance is irrelevant if they've pulled the pin on high training loads early. And I believe they have.

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29 different attributes,
And only 7 that you like;
20 ways to see the world,
Or 20 ways to start a fight.

We should be aiming for top 4.

Last year we should have finished 6th, if it wasn't for some poor losses against Essendon*, North, and Rnd22 against Freo in particular. The fact we finished 8th in 2010 should be irrelevant to 2011 expectations.

Enough mediocrity.

But Jimmae, they already had a healthy membership, have plenty of $ and they didn`t need to be sold on Golden Boy/Thompson.
I think they have lifted a few % playing for Hird but agree they will falter mid to late season.

2006 - 32,511
2007 - 34,219
2008 - 41,947
2009 - 40,523
2010 - 40,511
2011 - 42,127 so far

Membership had stalled, and was set to drop. This is a club that had 36k back in '01.

_________________
29 different attributes,
And only 7 that you like;
20 ways to see the world,
Or 20 ways to start a fight.

That`s a fair argument then. I didn`t realise that was the case. They are perceived to be a massive club despite lack of on field success. Safe to say they are financially well off though.( I hate them btw).

absolutely right. They need to make up the massive spending they've done and they know it.

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#23: Lachlan Henderson