How did Essendon* go without the senior players?

That is the example of where Carlton is at.

We are a bunch of kids with limited senior support. Essendon* have a stronger senior core to support the developing kids.

Heard a bit of a SEN interview with Simon Lethlean re the saints.... yes yes just hear me out.... and one thing he said re their young players was that they had to take ownership from the older guys.

The same applies to us.

Our young guys have to not only be played (Polson, McKay, Jack, etc), but they have to take ownership from the likes of Simmo, Murph and Thomas.

There's no other way.

the club chose this path of recruitment - Essendon* didn't exactly chose theirs - ( although you could say they did )

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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

Really? Parish in his 3rd year against Dow who has played 3 games?

Ask the other 16 coaches who is better, Charlie Curnow or Cale Hooker.
Or Patrick Cripps or Dyson Heppell.
Heppell turns 26 next month and has achieved nothing. Last season his own supporters were calling for him to be dropped!
I'd also take a 21 year old Caleb Marchbank before Michael Hurley who turns 28 in 7 weeks.
Kade Simpson was in the All australian squad in 2016, represented his country in 2017 and is a far more influential player than Brendon Goddard now.

I'd question several of your judgements.
I wouldn't worry about Essendon*. John Worsfold will be gone long before Brendan Bolton is.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

This.
SPS has to back himself instad of looking around to see if there is a senior player to dish off to.
Fisher the same.
That kid, Murray from Collingwood had no such qualms.

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Let slip the Blues of war (with apologies to William Shakespeare) (and Sir Francis Bacon, just in case)

Just because you guys happen to be satisfied with the latest in a long line of “trust us and have patience“ propaganda coming from the club doesn’t mean we all have to. Most of us are sick of the 15 years of crap that’s been served to us. Don’t try and tell us we should be happy with the last 15 years.

I broke my boycott and watched Essendon* vs the Bulldogs. If Heppell didn’t have dreadlocks you wouldn’t even notice him out there, he’s just an OK player.

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"One of my favorite philosophical tenets is that people will agree with you only if they already agree with you. You do not change people's minds." - Frank Zappa

I don’t think the club has faulted in its drafting or recruiting for now. For me they have done a very good job turning the list around except for some recycled players this year. You need some experienced players but we went overboard with that this year and none look like they are adding to our team. What is the biggest gripe is the structure and effort that is been presented this year.
If we are to progress in this “66 game rebuild” we need to constantly grow and I feel we need to address some obvious critical points which are quite apparent, lazy leadership, selfish play, astonishing decision making, and a less than effective structure and game plan.
Apparently we have been working hard all summer but in three games we have some glaring problems. It’s not about the rebuild itself but Bolton needs to rectify some issues and quickly or he will need to start been accountable and take some responsibility.

Nobody is saying they are happy with the last 15 years. Quite the opposite. It’s about breaking the cycle.

This is the first true rebuild we’ve had. 2002-2015 were just wasted years of quick fixes, sacked coaches, poor player development and atrocious list management.

There’s no guarantee any approach will work. This current one might not result in a flag either. But let’s see a plan through for once.

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It's never as good as it looks and it's never as bad as it seems.

If we sack Bolton they'll be even more scary.


Sent from my XT1033 using Tapatalk

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#DonTheStash

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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

Agree with all the angst after all the years of pain and false dawns (the Ratt's 3 amigos era and even Bolt's honeymoon period when we beat top teams with a crap list). I was gutted on Friday night as I thought we'd respond after the GC game, and fired off a fair few broadsides on TC

But we have to forget the past and trust this basically new list and coaching staff. The alternative is to wallow in the past and go nowhere. Of course we need to keep tweaking the list, hope that McKay and Kerr keep developing so they can come into the side and give us much needed KPF options, and get the best available in the 2018 Super Draft. An out-of-contract Big Fish would be handy too.....we're due for one surely !!

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It's never as good as it looks and it's never as bad as it seems.

I agree but "That kid, Murray" is in his 3rd year as an AFL player. He wasn't getting a game when he was SPS or Fishers age.
Let's compare them when they've had the same exposure to the system.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

As has been said, there’s no question that a full rebuild was required at the end of 2015 and that the current coaches/recruiters can’t be held accountable for our failures prior to then. The board being excluded from that exemption.

We all knew this would come with many ups and downs and much pain.

As hard as it is/was, especially with our dearth of meaningful success for far too many years, I had accepted this and prepared for what was to come.

I acknowledge that losing Gibbs and Docherty is huge for us right now and I personally wasn’t as optimistic as others going in to the season.

That being said, I’ve been incredibly disappointed with our last 2 games. Even allowing for all the mitigants, I’m incredibly concerned about our glaring inability to execute the ‘basics’:

• Our demonstrated skills are sub standard and flat out amateur hour at times.
• We can’t tackle to save ourselves.
• Our pressure and intensity has dropped off markedly in my opinion. We’ve been flat out soft in large parts of the past two games.
• Our forward entries are poor to say the least. Either the long bomb to the opposition numbers or scrubber/hack kicks forward. There’s no wonder we get rebounded on with ease with system like that.
• Getting beaten by what you know, again (Gold Coast).

These are some of the things that are bothering me. Things we can bring/address regardless of talent/age.

I’m not calling for Bolts’ head or anything like that. I admit to having lost some faith and have been very deflated after the recent games.

The last two games have been unacceptable imho and I don’t believe it is unreasonable to pose questions noting we are now in year 3. There are losses and then there are losses. I put the past 2 games in the latter category because of how poor we have been with the ‘basics’.

Here’s hoping we’ll have an up very soon.

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We are on our way back...

Good Post

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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

I'm confident SOS has assembled the natural talent - just need Bolton and his coaches to do their job by getting the young guys to take ownership and deliver on that talent.

The Saints have also employed the same mindfulness coach Richmond used in 2016/17.

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Fair point - but 3 more losses like the last 2 and I don't see the players recovering any time soon.

Weitering is a great young player. Last year he read the play beautifully and disposed of the footy very well. Either he was playing above his ability, or something has happened to his confidence.

As a layman, all I can do is say it for the way it looks - and it looks as if they don't know what they're doing, or where they're supposed to be.

We might have a very cunning plan, but if it looks shit-hot on paper, but like a turd in practice, we have to take another look at the plan......surely?

SPS is another who played with stacks more confidence last year, IMO.

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Agree and disagree
Agree: There are different rules for different players
Disagree: We know what Graham brings to the table. We've seen it 50 odd times. It's not going to take us forward. We have yet to see what Polson brings. happy to give him half the games Graham has been given before making an informed assessment

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If I want your opinion, I'll give it to you!