You have to be impressed with what the Bulldogs & St Kilda are doing. Have stripped back the list, brought in new football departments, picked the right players and taken the pain for the long term good of the club and it seems to be working.

I wonder if the Saints supporters were capable of rationalising that last year when the Hawks beat them by 145 points?

I wonder if the Saints supporters were capable of rationalising that last year when the Hawks beat them by 145 points?

They were actually because the club had a plan, conveyed it to the members who could see the talent coming through. They had hope!

Have you seen groundhog day?

Some of the responses to Fridays loss are ridiculously over the top. What did everyone expect? Hawthorn dismantled the ladder leading Fremantle 2 weeks ago and had 30 scoring shots to 10!
A week later they decimate the best defensive side of the past decade in Sydney by 90 points! When they are on, they are an irresistible force. Yes we suffered our biggest loss but I have no doubt we put out on the ground the most inexperienced team in our history. After totally smashing the 2 best defensive sides in the past 2 weeks, what chance did we have? What did people expect? The result was almost inevitable.

Our biggest problem was our inability to defend inside our defensive 25. Hawthorn took too many marks within 25 metres which allowed them to convert well. They dragged Jamison up the ground and our lack of strength and experience inside defensive 25 was exposed. Good coaching by Clarkson.
But lets not cut our wrists just yet. FFS, it was one heavy loss. Several posters who have been praising Barker for 6 weeks are suddenly talking doomsday after 1 game! You can't judge a coach, a team, a club on one game. A number of positive initiatives have been put in place over the past month or so and that isn't eradicated because Hawthorn flogged us.
Look back over their season. They had 38 scoring shots against us but they also had 38 against Geelong. They had 32 against the Bulldogs, 35 against North and 34 against Essendon**, 35 against Melbourne etc etc etc. The killer from us was their conversion because their shots were so close to goal.

I like the fact Barker played kids. I like the fact he hasn't played older players who are injured to protect his own reputation. I like the fact we had 12 players with 50 or less games exposed to Hawthorn. What a lesson they learnt on how to execute a game plan under immense pressure. They saw what's required to be the very best and I have no doubt it will drive them to be better in the pre-season.

So to all those people who are cutting their wrists over one game, giving up on the club and whinging, i say good riddance and @#$%&! off. We have too many supporters who change the strength of their allegiances from week to week anyway. Yes it was incredibly disappointing. Yes it was tough to watch but it was one game. I Liked Kruezer playing as a ruck rover. It wasn't a great success but they tried it. I liked Holmans mongrel. I liked the fact Barker put the clubs interests before his own. We were decimated with injuries to key players and we got flogged. It was always going to happen but have some perspective, it was one game.

Are our members not aware that the club has declared "rebuild"?

Are our members not aware that the club is undergoing a process to find a new coach?

The club can't yet sell a complete plan until the coach is in place.

I know that the current board and executive have justifiable question marks over them. However, as best they can after sakcing Mick, they are selling a plan.

No one is happy about this loss......some just aren't being hysterical, there's a difference.

I didn't watch this one....first time this year that I haven't tuned in and its because I knew the belting was a certainty. You cannot expect a team such as ours to have any other result against a team who has just belted 2 top 4 teams....I don't know what planet some people are on but how on earth do you expect a young team to come out confident and cool under pressure and able to concentrate for 4 quarters against an unbeatable side such as that...? How? I know some will say 'effort' but effort and tackling and pressure all comes with confidence our team is young inexperienced and hasn't had much from this year to be at all confident about.

I am relieved somewhat that Barkers honeymoon is over and we can focus on the external recruitment of our next coach without bias towards him.

People cant call for the club to play the kids, give young players a set of games regardless of output, develop young talent and accept there will be mistakes.......then lose their sh1t when the inevitable belting against the best team in the comp eventuates. The general consensus on here seems to be that we need to be brave, pare back the list and reload with kids. If we do that then I am afraid this might not be the last one of these we see before things get better.