Historically speaking, which I like to do:

http://www.blueseum.org/Round+15%2C+2013

....

this game represented a number of losses in a row, albeit only a month or so earlier we were sitting in 6th:

http://www.blueseum.org/Round+10%2C+2013

FtB

Historically speaking, which I like to do:

http://www.blueseum.org/Round+15%2C+2013

....

this game represented a number of losses in a row, albeit only a month or so earlier we were sitting in 6th:

http://www.blueseum.org/Round+10%2C+2013

FtB

She is right to a certain extent it was an missed opportunity to give fans hope.
But it will all be forgotten if we win round 1

ive said this elsewhere, but we simply cant afford to miss opportunities like this when we get them, and I believe the AFL gave us the bombers at home with the expectation that we would use it to deal with our somewhat mournful finances. We didnt capitalise on this in any way on the day, expecially when you consider the stuff on hand for the fans at Kardinia Park last friday.

it was only last year that we borrowed money from the league because we ran out of cash before the season started, and it was just 4 months ago that Trigg was begging the clubs millionaires for money because we'd maxed out our AFL loan and werent far off handing the keys back to the league. You cannot ignore the financial side of a professional club, any more than you can the player development side.

We needed better planning, and frankly we need better club management.

By playing the team we did, playing the way we did and being complacent in our match day arrangements we squandered a golden opportunity. We didnt so much look a gift horse in the mouth as shot it dead and danced on its corpse.

Wookie I normally love your work but you're talking though you bunghole.

Theres a bigger picture than just football development. I happen to give a crap about that. And i dont give a crap if you agree with me or approve of my work. If you cant see the bigger picture, then you have no idea what most of my work is about in the first place.

Am looking at the bigger picture - stable membership comes through playing finals, not winning NAB. Bolts is using the NAB to have a better real season. He's said that.

Hypothetical - Let's say we did well in the NAB and got a short but sharp rise in membership. What would happen if we then had a poor start to the AFL season?

what happens if we have a poor start to the season anyway? No one is seriously expecting us to do much this season.

And what happens when we dont have the funds to even get through the start of the season as happened just last year? We literally ran out of operating cash. The fact remains that the entire day was many elements of fail. Wins arent everything, but gettuing absolutely trounced by a half strength Essendon** isnt ideal for the clubs marketing to potential members and sponsors - and we need both.

Lets be clear here, Im not advocating that selection should have been interfered with by management. Im saying that the entire match and the day around it needed to be better planned in advance - players could have been rested in week 1 and 4, instead of our only game at Princes Park this year. The club isnt trying to get the hardcore members, its trying to excite the ones on the periphery, and the day was a chance to excite the long suffering fans, and in that it failed miserably, unless you ardently follow our draft prospects. People on forums have never been the majority of fans.

Who the @#$%&! cares. It's the nab challenge, there is not even a prize at the end of it. i haven't even seen a minute of any game thus far.