Amen and well said.

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Let slip the Blues of war (with apologies to William Shakespeare) (and Sir Francis Bacon, just in case)

Joseph was a huge surprise. Betts keeping his spot an even bigger one. Lot riding on this for BR

Would you have picked him?

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I hope Essendon* folds.

I haven't been to more than 3 Bullants game in a couple of years, let alone a Carlton training session. What would I know? I'm happy to trust the MC on this point and give him a go.

Dropped the same week his housemate Kerr got dropped to the Bullants reserves. A breaching of team rules perhaps.

Probably not. I think with Duigan coming in they are trying to retrain Armfield in a different role. Perhaps the end of season 2010 review identified patterns in Armfields game that cost us and they are trying to find another way to get him in the side because he is valuable to the team in other ways.

He is a favourite of mine so i look forward to seeing him in the team but i understand that i dont have all facts, data or know the personalities so i cant comment i why the mc chose AJ ahead of him.

Armfield cost us a final and is now paying the price. Armfield may be in the best 22 but it looks like he failed to follow the teams gameplan and the coach's instructions against Richmond. This is why he was named a sub against the Gold Coast and dropped the next week.

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You heard it here first!

Like Simpson cost us two points?

No one singular event can be blamed for a loss/draw, it's a culmination of factors. Chances are something's not going to go your way at the death, but some other things didn't go the way you hoped in the previous 115+ minutes.

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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.

..rubbish theory.. ..Army made a silly mistake, sure.. ..he also soon after made another line breaking attacking run that gave the fwd thrust that put the ball in Hendo's hands.. ..who fluffed it by playing on via handball to Garlett.. ..is hendo on the outs now too..?.. ..what about Judd's two missed goals..?..

..personally i think by movin' Yazz back, it's as if he's taken Army's spot.. ..personally i think they -play slightly different roles back there and they could both play.. ..or perhaps Army on a wing.. ..either way, he's [imho] part of our best 21..

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

..we're not strictly speaking a huge tough tackling team across the field.. ..we have a few players that tackle more to cover those that dont/cant.. ..Army's tackles stick.. ..and he runs hard both ways.. ..alot of the softness in our team that we havent shaken free of yet is partly remedied with his inclusion..

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

no particular problem with the guys coming in...let's be honest...it's just a shuffling of the deck chairs of our bottom 4-6.

my bigger frustration is with the outs...and what it says about our MC.

Essentially in selecting this week's side, they have admitted they made mistakes...

1. hendo was not ready when picked by the MC... and/or it unbalanced our fwd line with 1 too many talls...regardless, it is Mistake No. 1

2. collins was picked to provide another scoring and tackling option in the fwd line....Bum Bah...clearly hasn't worked... Mistake no. 2

3. add to this the fact that our 1st rd 'mature' draft pick, B Mclean (who was actively targetted by our MC), is unable to earn a game in the senior team...Mistake No. 3

Something like "3 strikes and you're out" !!!!!'

To achieve the ultimate success in AFL football, you need to consistently make the right decisions...! Unfortunately, our MC over a number of years has failed to demonstrate its capability in this area and continues to do so.

what's the slogan....."no passengers"?

Why don't we give Brock a little slack, he's clearly getting himself fit enough to play through an AFL match. Still getting a lot of tweaks done by the physio when he's on the bench for the Bullants.

Once he's worked through that (which will happen over the next month), then we can start judging Brock.

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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.

Interesting changes. AJ looks like yesterdays man but they must have picked him for a specific role. Last week they got one right (White) and one wrong (Hendo). Hopefully both ins this week improve the team.

Tough game. Gibbs owes us big time after last week. Obviously he didn't remember the no passengers motto when the last quarter started. One ineffective tackle and a hurried kick resulting in a Jetta goal are nowhere near good enough for a player with his talent. He needs to be fierce and passionate, and effect the outcome.

Hammo looks like his confidence is shot. He is no forward and he was moved off the ball way too easy in several last quarter ruck contests. A win here is expected, a loss would suggest we are going to struggle to make the 8.

The Crows are an enigma but have a smart tough coach. Hope Ratts gets somewhere where he can watch the game instead of lounging in the back of the bench. We need our senior coach to watch the whole game unfold not just the bit that occurs directly in front of him.

Waite has to start playing in front and becoming the target. The only other forward we have is Garlett. Eddie Betts is in awful form. Backline was very good last week. Look forward to seeing Laidlaw, White and Duigan continue to improve, and Yarran certainly is a smooth operator.

I'd be telling Gibbsy Eddie and Hammer that if they have anything left in the tank at the end of the game they'll be doing repeat 200's early the next morning.

workrate workrate workrate !

Hammers issue isn't workrate... if anything the fact he works so hard makes him look worse as he drops more marks

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#23: Lachlan Henderson

Ellard for Collins was a no-brainer.

Dropping Hendo for AJ is.....interesting. I don't have a problem with bringing AJ in, in fact I've mentioned on TC a few times in the last couple of weeks that I thought he was close to selection.

But on paper, this week's team look a bit short to me. I'll give the MC the benefit of the doubt and accept it as a 'horses for courses' decision, but if they were going to drop Hendo I would have thought T-Bird, Bower or Watson would come in - especially given the Crows have some tall timber that potentially could worry us (if Jamo/White, or Waite at the end, get injured early, we are in big trouble....).

Good luck (but not too much...) to Sauce in his 1st game for his new club.

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It's never as good as it looks and it's never as bad as it seems.

I am glad that they are experimenting with the mix of talls and smalls. What they have been sending out has been good but as we all know could be better.
I expect Walker to play a bigger part in our forward line and i expect a better game collectively from our midfield with the extra onballer/running type players we have brought in.
It is going to be interesting to watch. Could fail or could open up a whole new look to the team.

Hmmm, not sure they can claim brownie points for White. They dropped him for Collingwood which left second gamer Watson up against monsters Cloke and Dawes. Seems to me they realised their mistake a week too late when they brought back White and dropped Watson.

So that's a mistake with Hendo, mistake with White/Watson and after Ratts said regarding Eddie, post Collingwood, "He will have to respond well (against Essendon*)", and we saw the response and yet Eddie's still in the team?

What happened to "No Passengers"?

Not sure we're sending the right message.

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Number 17 - come on down!

IMO White was pretty poor in the first two games of the season, so the decision to drop him was justified, it's just that we had no options to turn to beyond Watson.

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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.

Maybe not, but I reckon the 'No Passengers' slogan centres around 100% effort and discipline. Although coming up short in terms of impact, I still think Eddie's been putting in the effort.

Which of course should happen week in, week out, from all players, no matter what slogan is used.

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THEY LIKE TO SEND UP!!!!!!!!

Until each team plays each other the same number of times, the AFL, as a fair dinkum competition, cannot be taken seriously.

He (Mr Swann) said the honour and pride associated with the club's traditional navy blue jumper was priceless.

Yep they handled White well. They have identified something they like in him. He failed to deliver in the first 2 rounds so they sent him back to get his sh1t together and then got him back in the ones when everyone thought they were mad and watched him produce the goods on Hurley.

Lets face it though we could all go tit for tat with this sort of stuff for days. Wins are the only things that are solid and cannot be argued. Its up to Ratts to get 13 odd wins this season and then win a final or two.

Time will tell. He has my support.