No more visits to the hot springs.

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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.

Uhmmm WC have a bye next week and then the cats....we win our next two and we sit pretty in the top four....relax all in good time....

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"Truth, for the tyrants, is the most terrible and cruel of all bindings; it is like an incandescent iron falling across their chests. And it is even more agonizing than hot iron, for that only burns the flesh, while truth burns its way into the soul"     — Lauro Aguirre

It is not, and has never been worth 8 points effectively, or otherwise. It is simply having direct control over the result of your nearest rival; '8 point game' is just the nickname for it in this sport.

Throw the bad maths out the window and just say we've blown a chance to cement our top 4 position for a while.

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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.

Don't want to appear to be trying to claim to be some sort of oracle but I told my daughter this morning we would lose.

Why?

Curnow, Robinson, Duigan out. Hard players we can't do without.

Hammer out, Warnock in. Hammer has been good since 206 got belted in the head. Warnock didn't play for 2 weeks and has been very poor for Bullants in 2 weeks back. Don't think he is fully recovered yet (wasn't going that well before anyway).

Ellard playing when he couldn't possibly be right (finished with 12 possessions at 42% eff).

WCE tall forward line and us 1 back short (obviously made untenable by Jamo hurting his knee).

Hendo really struggling. Kruezer unlikely to maintain last weeks form in the short term.

Thornton and Houlihan still to prove they are the type of players we need. O'Keefe first up. Tuohy and Austin pretty much untried.

I told my mates to back Weagles with the start but didn't myself.

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"You can't polish a James Hird"

Even with Jamo in we didn't look quite switched on or comfortable with the Eagles' height.

Anyone bagging Austin don't really understand that we were bombing the ball in Pagan style and the Eagles' midfield was just pumping it long into an open forward line where every key defender would have struggled.

I will be disgusted if they drop Austin for the Richmond game but knowing the MC, they will.

He didn't panic like Bower tends to do and competed.

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

- Igor Stravinsky

I think this was the loss we had to have.

We've been talked up and talked up for a month now. And yet if you look at the facts, since the loss to Collingwood and the draw with Essendon*:

- struggled to beat an ordinary Adelaide
- very good win over Sydney in Sydney, although a poor first half
- struggled to beat a poor St Kilda
- bye
- narrow loss to Geelong in an incredibly high standard game...good performance
- comfortable win over a poor Melbourne, although ordinary first half
- ditto against Port
- excellent win over a poor Brisbane
- very good win over Sydney

What that says is that although we've been on a good run, we haven't beaten much, and some of the wins were not that impressive, especially early in the run.

And what all that means is that we are around about the 3 - 5 mark in the competition. That's where we sit.

What today showed was the areas we need to work on to become a top 2 team. We need 3 accomplished key backs, even if in many games, we will only play 2. Jamison is one, but he may be out for a while (scans tomorrow). Bower you would like to think would be another, but who knows when he'll be back, and how long it will take him to get some form. Thornton woujld work well as a third tall. Watson and McCarthy are a season or three away.

We need 2 key talls who can take control of the game. Waite is one, and will be a welcome return next week. Henderson ideally would be another, but his form has been average. Kreuzer could be one, but with Warnock's form and Hampson's injury, he may be needed more in the ruck now. O'hAilpin is injured, and as much as I love his spirit, I don't see him as being a finals forward.

As another poster said, the drafting of Watson, McCarthy and Mitchell shows that the Club recognised this deficiency. It may be that we don't become a true Premiership threat until 1 or 2 of these can cement their places in the team.

Oh, and Warnock needs to pull his finger out. If he can't find form, it's really going to hurt.

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Mens sana in corpore sano.

Bring back the laurel wreath logo!!!

This.

No one could have stopped their passes today. We've done extremely well with our defensive press this year, but it was almost non-existent today. Austin was the right selection based on last week's VFL game. Looked more competitive and solid than Bower who does panic. I'll be disgusted if they bring Bower straight back after they only gave him one game before dropping him. Austin will probably suffer the same fate.

Yeah but we're gonna finish ninth or something, it has to do with a 12 pt game we lost and we haven't beaten anyone above us or just below us and everyone else we beat were not much chop 'cept the Swans who are very good which counts for something I guess. But its Houlas fault because we should have sacked him six years ago and if Carlos played we would have won which would got us twelve points and put us on top or sixth. But we can still finish top four if the Hawks beat a bunch of people and we beat them which we wouldn't cause they bat deeper than us. This thread has done my head in, its after midnight and I have had the flu for five days or was it four?
Goodnight.

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A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty" -Winston Churchill

L.M 35-06

Oh yeah forgot and Hotcox should be coach. nite

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A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty" -Winston Churchill

L.M 35-06

I'm with you there LosAzules, SydBlu WTF

absolutely bang on point there Seigfried. Perfect summation IMO

Austin was absolutely crap today. I was shocked he was picked in the first place. His form in the two's hasn't warranted his place in a senior side, his forms been just ok.
IMO O'Keefe too shouldn't have been brought in yet, I was gobsmacked at his inclusion aswell.
Agree on the houlihan point aswell, his form hasnt been good enough inthe magoos, and his time is probably up, the game's almost past him now. I'd rather Saad, Cachia or Iaccobucci

Is Ellard a Kerr, Mitchell, Murphy or Brent Harvey?

DE has pluck and that's easy to like, but due to his lack of size, he isn't a great in and under and clearance machine like Mclean was. Spreads better than Mclean, yet that doesn't put Ellard on the untouchable list. Kerr and Priddis were too good.

I hope you're being sarcastic but I don't suspect you are...

Haven't seen the game, am many miles away right now but looking at the players who were out of the team I'm not too concerned about one flat performance.

We were down crucial players in every area of the ground. Crucial in terms of structure, and crucial in terms of hardness and emotional influence on the rest of the team. Time to regroup this week, get ready for the Tiges and get back on track. Hopefully a few of the missing this week can get back up and running.

The boys have been putting up sustained performances pretty much every week until now. I think we can forgive them one flat performance considering who was missing. If it continues for a few more weeks then I will get concerned. Sounds to me like the Eagles got us on the perfect weekend for them. Unfortunately unlike other teams missing a few we didn't get an internally combusting Essendon*, Gold Coast, Port, Adelaide etc etc. We got a team desperate for a big scalp in Melbourne who had the right structure to take advantage of our injuries before and during the game.

totally agree with you

Kouta face the facts Houlihan is a sheepdog. At least Joseph would provide a contest and more run which is what the game is about.Agree that the MC had no choice with some of the ins but there performance was ordinary. Jamo should have been off earlier. Ellard shouldnt have played. And I advocated for Judd to be rested a month ago.He clearly isnt right. Austin has shown very little in the 4and half seasons he has been at the club. Watson should have played as he has more scope for improvement. It might bring the best out of him.

We were ordinary yeah.. move on, any team missing at least 6 of their best 22, (Laidler, Duigan, Robo, Curnow, Waite, Hampson and maybe White) would have struggled against a good eagles team... they are big boys.. almost like early 90's big.. wink wink!!

Btw anyone starting to wonder about the dome.. three games in a row there and geez we looked flat.. maybe the hot springs this week wasn't a junket, maybe the boys are sore after running on concrete for 3 weeks.. Same thing happened last year if memory serves me right.

No, Ellard is not a Kerr, Mitchell, Murphy or Brent Harvey .... but we have a Judd, Murphy and Robinson already.

Our second and third tiers were exposed against a class opposition.

Ellard exposed today in the absence of Robbo, Curnow and with Judd not 100%.
Hendo exposed in absence of Waite
Thornton/Austin exposed in absence of Jammo, Duigan.

Won't judge Austin on today ... with Jammo down, that was the weakest back 6 we've fielded this year. He had no support.

As you said Ellard "isn't a great in and under and clearance machine like Mclean was" .... and well neither is McLean at the moment. Give me Ellard.

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"It was like calling your ex girlfriend after a night on the booze, just a really bad decision".

You would think Ellard, while cleared to play, may still have had some after-effects of the knock to the head he got last week which would not have helped his cause as the lone grunt yesterday.



My thoughts exactly. Frustrating as it was to watch, and weak structure no excuse for some of our disposal and decision making yesterday, we were vulnerable.

well last week he had 6 disposals up to 3/4 time when he was concussed - 6 disposals at 33% Eff those were the 2 goals he kicked and for 3/4 of the game in the midfield is pretty ordinary by anyone standards and yesterday he had 12 disposals with 42% Eff so basically 4 effective disposals and his turnovers resulted in no fewer than 4 goals to the WC - ok he had 10 tackles but Brocky was doing that and that usually means you are 2nd to the ball
Three times this year he has kicked goals from the 50 metre mark - yesterday from 45 he choose to pop an up and under kick to a tight congested pocket to a bloke that hasnt marked the ball all year the ball was cleared and went straight down the other end for a goal to the Westcoast the ultimate 12 point play
now if Brock Maclean put in two efforts like that they would be howling from the roof tops to get him dropped - At least 3 times yesterday in the clinches he tried for the clearing kick only to have his kick smothered and on all occassions the handball options was there - two of those smothers resulted in WC clearing the ball and having shots on goal

It is one of my main gripes about Ratts he often plays trihards instead of whats best for the team - there is no way Brock should have made way for Curnow because he clearly wasnt right - If he was in the side for the last 3 games he would have had 5 on the trott and his feel for the game would have started to come back - Instead we have Ellard not getting a touch and Curnow clearly hampered by and injury

Ratts got ahead of himself he was singing the praises of his sides depth and thought he could swing changes willy nilly and still pull off a result - we needed hardness yesterday and Brock would have provided that

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If you allow the Government to change the Laws in an emergency
They will create an Emergency to change the Laws