What was it about that pattern of failure that suggested we'd get it right this year?

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“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb

its early days for boekhurst.. but an argument could have been made .. we could have got him later

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

In theory. They made a call, and they also wanted Viojo-Rainbow.

When you break it all down, I think the two best suited players that went in that range were Laverde and Boekhorst. We clearly liked Boekhorst more. If Langford or Durdin or Lever and the like were available, I'm sure we would have had a bite.

That's not how it went down.

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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.

..if they were the best two suited, they were not of equal value.. .. 18 vs 21, both about as ready as eachother, take the younger kid..

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

I was mainy responding to this

MM has changed the list so much that it now includes more plodders than x-factors and game breakers and the game breakers we have are a shadow of themselves. Any hope I had going into this season has truly vanished after 1 game.

I feel that it is unfair to characterise our list in this way. As a way of trying to illustrate this, i mentioned a number of very good players who are not plodders etc that were either missing due to injury or were well down on form. This does not make them plodders.
We had a bad match , no doubt. But do we really know how good richmond is?
They have won 10 out of their past 11 matches. They are possibly a much better side than many think. Good sides will always make other teams look bad. Is there any real logic at this early stage of the season, to jump to the conclusion that richmond are shizenhausen?
Of course we cant rationalise every defeat like this, eventually IF these losses continue, you have to concede that there is real trouble. But until that occurs we should, as loyal supporters, give the benefit of the doubt. Its ok to be concerned and obviously dissappointed, but to describe our list in such a negative way is reactionary and disrespectful.
Amongst the lows there are some positives, you just have to look for them.

I'm telling you my opinion, then saying the club clearly (and, given his age, substantially) preferred Boekhorst. His speed is a weapon, his right foot is a weapon.

I think Laverde will be a more versatile athlete, a leader and a good long kick, but perhaps Boekhorst is more suited to the modern game.

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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.

Agree to a certain extent Padre but if we get rolled by West Coast next week and possibly the bummers the week after we are 0-3 to start the third season in a row
I don't think we have enough quality in our side and we of all teams need all our good players on the park
Went thursday and saw a lot of footy on the weekend and whilst early days our game style effort and skills looked poor in comparison to say demons GWS and dogs let alone any of the good teams
Another long season I reckon if we don't win at least 2 out of the next 3 games
Must beat coasters and Aints or otherwise 2015 is looking like 2014 and 2013
Our supposedly good players Murphy Gibbs Yarran have to start playing consistent strong accountable football and not play cute like they did Thursday night
They along with Judd seem to be the ones that should be either to break the game open or steady the ship when we are behind
Thought they really left it to Judd and Hendo to do anything the other night
Otherwise we get again to round 4 and start playing everyone on the list in preparation for next season

We do have a lot of foot soldiers it would seem Rowe carrazzo wood to name a few

only 1 week for deledio

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*(grow - fun - gah)

Yeah but whatabout your whataboutism.

Did you expect anything else?
Very lucky.

Two weeks down to one with an early plea

Fair enough

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“I would rather have questions that can't be answered than answers that can't be questioned.” ― Richard Feynman

This is the key point I was trying to make as well Bondi. We cannot afford to fail again, not this year or the next or the next...
We have lost a lot of ground with our own supporters, let alone a whole generation afterwards. I truly do feel for my club as of Thursday night and what worries me even more is that it seems MM has not got his priorities right.

One tribe.

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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.

Yes, it is a pivotal game for us against wce. I am sure mick knows this , and i am sure the players will know it by weeks end. My worry is also ,along with many, that our leaders are just going missing. Judd cant do it on his own. He needs support from murphy ( wake up youre the captain!) gibbs, carazzo henderson jamison etc. I am sick of murphy. Ffs man up.

We played well when we had quicker ball movement - we were held up and started stop-start footy which meant we had to bomb it long to contest in the 50 (not deep 50 either - around the 40-45m mark which is not the danger zone).

Mick needs to address this and have more fluidity in our movement and move the ball quicker. I think Richmond did well defensively to hold us up and slowed our movement down. There were passages where we tried to run it through, but couldn't and ended up being called for holding the ball.

Someone mentioned that we have to aim for more uncontested mark in the 50 and that is spot on. But it starts from the defensive mids... I think its more a game style issue rather than personnell. Even the best forward players can't be effective when you have slow ball movement into the 45-50m mark.