Okay Reality Check and maybe some answers too where the Blues Sit today

Quick Comment about the Blues in 2005 we suffer cause we are not putting goals on the board and i reckon in 3-4 Games this year that is main cause of why we are really struggling ... Watching the game again this morning we should have had 10 Goals on the board not 6 and if we didnt have 3-4 8 Point turn arounds Geelong may have been 6 Goals instaead of 10 but alas we have failed to Kick goals we should

Okay reality check on where we are

* The Fines and Draft penalties have wrecked this club much more than we could contemplate. The year we came last for the first time we should have had 2 first round selections and PSD what we ended up with is very little and missed out completely. Then we came second last and still where hamstrung but got Stevo for nothing lucky break.

* Back Ended Contracts of players from previous regime IE Campo / Kouta / Whits
These contracts have really damaged the Blues and caused to main problems - firstly the players havnt been playing anywhere near the money being payed or have been injured or out of form
- All three players should have led by example and restructured there contracts to ease finnaces on the Blues and allowed us to target some good outsiders but alas they all have basically said stuff the Blues we will get paid regardless of how we are playing and really just think for ourselves.
Campo - Been great but not a VC and i think has gotten greedy and sets a bad example in the team after this year he is out of contract he either says i am playing out with the Blues on 1-2 year Contract at a more appropriate value of 250k or he can stuff off. Call it pay back for the years he was over paid will test out his character.
Kouta - Great Player / Club Legend still is playing but has cost us dearly has been on his Multi million $ contract but we didnt have him play properly for 2-3 seasons and yer he took some pay cut but i reckon he should say i will sacrifice last 1-2 seasons really give something back to club and allow us to keep Fev and target other players.
Whits - well reality Check i dont think he has been bad this year but nothing like he was 5 years ago. Last year would have told him he not gonna get paid what he did he will also have to take a substantial Pay cut to stay with the Blues and i think he is still of value but not at 500K +
* the other effect of these high paid recruits is that the list below see a big gap of payments and like people have said if Campo on $620K he is equivelent to 12 players now in realty that is crap but maybe that effects player morale IE Thorntons / Teagues ect who work hard but see a Campo being paid 2-3 times more and dosnt deserve it. dosnt help that he sets a bad example on the field by gievn away frees and getting suspended which is a poor tone to set from your Vice Captain..

* previous contracts that still being paid out Ala Cory Mckernon and Beumant /+ a few others they just another additional problem we have had to endure

* Pagan inherited a poor list which should have had some talent if we wernt penalised but has struggled and had to do patch up to try and get a mix that will be competative. Problem with the Pagans / Sheedy and Malthouse is these coaches play to win and wont tank .. thats good thing but can hurt you when you need to go down to come up. Tigers / Bulldogs / Hawks have all been helped by coaches like Frawley / Rhode who if you drop down that ladder wont impact on the reputation of the coach as much,. We had that with Britain and if we hadnt been penalised we would have had Pagan come in with 1-2 seasons of a good injection of talent instead we got nothing. Look at T Wallet and Eade both inherited clubs who have got a great injection of youth blended with some talent on the list and they dont have to tank or play poorly the jobs been done for them by the previous coach. So now they florish.

How do we go from here. Well the year looks pretty shot so we need to play all on the list and find out who will remain for 2006. So i am not gonna say he goes he stays just play them and see who stands up and they will be the nucleous of the 2006

* Some serious finances will be freed up
* target some out of contract players
* more draft injection depending where we finish
* removal of the last bits of Cancer from previous regime Ie Campo / Kouta though he still on contract and i see Campo bein the last of the upstarts ... Kouta has toed the line to a degree
* target a really good skills coach IE from West coast or somewhere we have a really big need for someonw who can improve th whole lists skills which have really been lacking in past 3 years

Players which will stay i think regardless
Stevo
Thornton
Waite
Teague
Houla
French
Fev (needs to be resigned)
Fisher
Carrazo
Lappin

More time needed
Walker
Chambers
Betts
Raso
Hartlet
Backwell
Santana
Russell
Becker Rookie
Smith Rookie
Becker Rookie

Need to give back to the club ie revalued Contracts or sign for realistic value
Kouta
Campo
Whits

The rest well they call it swiming with sharks they will sink or swim playe them and see if any stand up


I am sure people can add other things as well that have hurt us in past 4 years any comments would be great

Sorry for the long post

Don't apologise.

Great post, and I pretty much concur with everything stated.

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NOW YOU'RE JUST SOME CLUB THAT I USED TO KNOW.

Well said. I know there's been lots of $ threads which I havent' entered into but putting Campo / Whits on a lower grade, plus getting rid of other contracts (plus CLarkey - i am pretty sure at the time he was on an OK size contract)... then we will have some pretty serious $ to play with.

What we really need to add to that basket is for, as you say, continued use of those youngsters, to get them up to speed. If we had $1m to throw around (less something for Fev i guess) + a backline of a solid Livo, Thornton and Norman, and a forward line of Fisher, Fev, Waite and Setanta - each of these playing at potential, then we could have that money to get some additional midfielders. Under this hopeful scenario, a bounce could be relatively quick.

Think it goes back further than that. We gave away too many early picks for has beens like Mansfield, O'Reilly & McKernan which is why we have hardly anyone from 23-29.

Trouble is, it goes back further than even Mansfield, O'Reilly and McKernan.

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I´ve got less posts than a St Kilda troll.