StKilda have been close for a decade.

Unless youre doing a hell of a lot of things right... close and being there are two totally different things.

IMO... there is no such thing as close... it doesnt matter.
Its just winning it!

The proof of that will be in the pudding.
Im not a believer in the recipe atm.

thats just not the over abundance of hbfers we have... but in my opinion the club is lacking in many key areas.
CLUB doesnt mean just on the park.. it means the organisation.

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Can you provide a bullet point list of the missing ingredients? Don't answer it like a politician be specific.

Oh goodie we have a know it all.

Synbad, why don;t you tll me the quality on ballers we could have taken in the draft instead of the flankers we have taken?

Hmm think you answered your own question there Synbad
2.5 yrs ago we recruited Brock
Football landscapes move quick

Now we have Ellard and Curnow and Robinson as hard inside mids

+ Gibbs, Yazz, Lucas coming in

You still think we need another hard mid? Maybe give Ellard, Curnow and Robbo a year to prove themselves??

Short answer YES !

I didn't say it was great 3 years ago, did I.

Read Sugarcane's reply and my previous responce.

at this stage its just opinion.
at this stage I am not more right than you and you are no more right than me.

I did say the proof is in the pudding.

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Oh I love this, now he resorts to the ol "Everyone has an opinion line"

Defensive mode

Thing is, I reckon most TCers think XCFC have the best list they have had for about 17 years, and yet all you can do is whinge and complain like a 12 year old girl

Sybnad, are you going to out fwd some names of true onballers we should have taken ahead of the flankers we have taken in recent years?

don't we pay an army of recruiters to do that job?

barlow is one .



of course its an opinion.

I believe we are not a cutting edge club.
so I believe if you're not top tier you wont win a flag.

as I said.

its an opiniog.

stop getting touchy!

jets prove me wrong.

ill be rapt if I am wrong on this one.

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That would be good, but however we manage it I believe that our next step is to start defeating top four teams rather than just being "competitive". I think that we'll do this this year. Once you can do this, then you just need a bit of luck come September and the cup cometh home.

Ellard, Curnow, Robinson are all hard mids who have come on since last year

They have made Brock redundant - just as well as he was struggling anyhow

+ Lucas recruited

+ Gibbs and Yarran moving into midfield, and club also raised Russell's name this off season and Walker too (you see, the recruitment of Duigan, Laidler, Touhy arguably means a Russell can move upfield, maybe just maybe, had you thought of that ??)

+ Armfield getting a chance in midfield, there's your Carrazzo replacement in years to come as running defensive mid

+ LT choices in Bucks Jnr and Bootsma

Where's the fire Synbad??

How many mids do you want/do we need??

Seriously, if we had too many they wouldnt get a game and would want out

We have the players. Depends on injuries.

Jamison, Kreuzer, Hampson, Waite, etc all have lengthy stays on the sidelines and we are struggling against the top sides.

Fit list and my serious money is on the blues. And I don't bet.

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"Get ready, Teddy - you're on": Ron Barassi half time 1970 Grand Final

Yes I'd have thought the latent problem has less to do with recruiting too few true mids (as Synbad says) and more to do with the brittleness of our important talls in Kruezer, Waite, Bower and Jamison

Kernaha, Silvagni, Sexton and Spalding were fairly resilient in their time at CFC

In our last premiership year 1995 the side was very stable regarding injuries. The supposed great colonwood side in 2010 had extremely few injuries and it had more to do with their off field management than on field performance that got them the flag.

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"Get ready, Teddy - you're on": Ron Barassi half time 1970 Grand Final

different game.
injuries are part of what you need to cope with as the game speeds up.

as much as an idiot derm is
he is right!

mid field wise we bat very shallow.
coal face types are a massive problem for us.
.hawthorn needed pace, they went out and found it.

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OK, let me break it down for you Synbad

Now of course there will always be injuries but for the sake of arguments let’s look at a possible top 22 (and Top 18) and then see what potential mids and flankers don’t make the cut and as such are reserves…

B Joseph, Jamison, Laidler
HB Duigan, Henderson, Russell
C Simpson, Gibbs, Yarran
FOLL Warnock, Judd, Murphy
HF Garlett, Kruezer, Robinson
F Betts, Waite, Walker

INT Scotland, Carrazzo, Ellard, Thornton (Sub)


EMERG (NOTE : MIDS/TAGGERS/WINGS ONLY) … Curnow, Lucas, Armfield, Touhy, McLean, Kerr, Bootsma (whom Ratts thinks will play some senior games in 2012)

Outside of the Top 18, you have the following who could all reasonably be expected to play midfield/wing in 2012…

Scotland
Carrazzo
Ellard
Curnow
Lucas
Armfield

And we’re not even considering if Touhy becomes a back six regular which could allow Russell to potentially move up the ground, which the club have flagged this off season
And I haven’t included Brock in this last list

Not inc JR or Brock that is 6 additional mid types who can’t get into my Top 18 (I have Scotland as a Bencher only because of his age). Seven if we do the Touhy for Russell swap

That’s pretty reasonable back up for the midfield I’d have thought

I have always felt on avg you have about 6-8 injured players at any given time. Let’s say 3 of the 8 are players who aren’t in the top 25. That leaves us with 5. Then let’s say 3 of these are talls, which seems to be the case with this current team. That leaves us with 2. So you have 2 mids out injured at any given time, that still leaves us with surplus mids/wingers.

Look if we are so unlucky as to have a lot of mids go down then we will be in trouble but then so would all clubs.

What are our injuries now?? Jamison, Duigan, Rowe – no mids in that lot as I can see.

If the list is fully fit Curnow, Lucas, Armfield and Touhy don’t get a game in the above – that would be a huge shame to lose Lucas to another club because he can’t crack a game at CFC because we have too many mids ahead of him (does the name Shaun Grigg ring any bells??)

And let’s not argue about who’s in and why and why not – it’s not about semantics, you can replace the names and you’d still have 6 mids not getting a Top 18 gurnsey

So in essence then you could say we have 2 midfields …

Midfield 1 – Judd, Gibbs, Murphy, Yarran, Simpson
Midfield 2 – Scotland, Carrazzo, Ellard, Curnow, Lucas, Armfield

More than enough I’d have thought … ??

Oh and isn’t there talk of Kruezer being a ruck rover potentially ??

Coalface mids ??
You close your eyes and pretend to not see the Ellard, Curnow, and Robinson additions to the midfield in the last 1-2 seasons??
Nothing makes you happy in life does it Synbad ??

coal face mid field players.

add robbo after that we struggle.

clearance players.

most of those you mentioned are periphery mid field players.

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A good run with injuries would be nice but the team needs to be good enough for it not to depend on injuries. Hawthorn had Roughead out most of the season plus a cobbled together defence....& got within a whisker of a GF. Easier said than done I know.

Also need -

Rapid improvement from guys like Ellard Joseph Curnow

More goals from midfielders

More unpredictable goals from fwd line

Ability to regularly bang on 3-4 goals in a short burst to break the game open (ala Geel & Coll)

Midfield toughness needs to keep improving. Getting better but we still haven't beaten Hawthorn for years & getting pushed aside midfield is the reason why.

But above all we need to be addicted to winning. I remember Bartel interviewed after a match they’d got out of jail in, could’ve been the one against Haw where he kicked the winning behind. He was asked how they did it & replied “we’re addicted to winning”.

Top teams just find a way. It won't be easy.

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#DonTheStash

Politician.