I can't see any benefit in sending a bunch of kids out to get slaughtered each week. That could quite easily do more harm than good - we need to ease them into a side with SOME experience around them and play them into the competition rather than scarring them for life.

Can you imagine what it would be like to be beaten by the Saints by 130 points in front of 45,000 at the Dome?? I'm not saying we shouldn't play them a bit at a time, but let's not cook 'em.

I reckon it's a bit selfish for peolple to start hammering the table wanting to play kids and then be the first to criticize and throw their arms in the air in disgust when they come up short.

Yes it would be damaging, but it's not like we would be playing them all at once.

Give one or two blokes a go every week.

This week someone like Russell should be given a run.

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Writer for SuperCoach Paige www.scpaige.com.au
Twitter - @johnfeeney24

HELL YES!

Russell should be rewarded for his consistant form in the two's with a game in the senior side NOW!

I am not suggesting you play them all at once, introduce them into the team gradually and give them preference in selection when its line ball..
Bret Thorton stood up under prerssure when we were getting blown away and if we found another equally decent player like him out of our youngsters then it wont be a wasted year....and when they get a game dont drop them after one week..encourage them by giving them a string of games to allow them to settle...

But lets not spend the rest of the year squeezing out a few wins by rotating the same average players who wont improve......

Point taken, but I think that was just a matter of course. We've only had 1/3rd of the season and most of the "kids" have come from junior competition. I'd like to see the young blokes too - but not 'til they're ready.

Hopefully we'll 'release Bryan' this week and maybe Russell, but I wouldn't hold my breath given that Livo will definately come in and probably Carazzo and Chambers. I can see any more than 3 changes.

You can play a bunch of kids for the rest of the season but not with this game plan they will get slaughtered . Go back and have a look at tapes of Geelong and StKilda from a few years ago the type of game they are playing now is totally different. thomas in particular didn't want to expose his young stars to floggings so they flooded back chipped it around got their hands on the footy and built confidence. My fear is that some of our players have been exposed to too many floggings already that a team only has to kick a couple of quick goals against us and all the heads drop and we start thinking here we go again. It might be ugly style of footy and it will never win you a flag but it limits the damage until you have the cattle to really have a go.

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I'm not advocating sending out the kiddies for a regular flogging, but I don't buy this permenant mental scarring bollocks.
Look at Steve Waugh, came into the Australian team when it was at a very low period and did it hard for a while. Rather than chewing anti-depressants, he used the hard times as a reminder of where he didn't want to be. Worked harder at his own game and encouraged team mates to join him in heading upwards. If they slackened off he reminded them of the bad times.
Regards Pedro.

Henry Playfair gave Teague a bath last Friday night and Teague may have won the B&F last year, but Matty Lappin was our best player.

Sure I like Teague's courage, his never-say-die attitude, but still he has much room for improvement. His kicking is at times atrocious and I can't understand why he punches the ball without having the presence of mind to take the uncontested mark and then kick the ball 50m up the ground. He did this at least 3 times last Friday night. We lose advantage with this style of play.

Who says they are going to get slaughtered? Blackwell was supposedly too small to play AFL, yet was BOG in the WAFL finals against AFL listed and veteran WAFL senior players. Same goes for Russell and Hartlett in South Australia.

Pagan wanting big bodies is just a bunch of crap to me, no good having big bodies if they can't use it to the teams advantage or win the ball.

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Well, Rivers is confirmed as out. That's gotta count for something.

Nietz and Bruce will aparantly play!

Rivers 2 weeks.

Didn't help Livo in 2002.

we beat them at full strength last yr, i would rather do the same, but wateva helps us out is good.

Lets look at the kids we have who haven't already been blooded:

Blackwell, Russell, Hartlett and Raso.

Obviously Raso will not be playing this year, but why can't the other 3 play?

They have all played senior football at the second highest level against men (SANFL, WAFL). They have the senior guys around them in Kouta, Stevens, Campo, Whitnall and Fevola.

It is the third tier players they would be replacing/played ahead of in Bannister, Prendergast, Longmuirs, Clarke, Deluca, Bowyer and Johnson.

To me these kids will be replacing guys who will not be around come 2 years let alone survive 1 more year.

The Eagles blooded Zach Beek (1 Game), Sam Butler (12 Games), Ashley Hansen (6 Games), Brett Jones (8 Games), Mark Nicoski (11 Games), Mark Seaby (11 Games) and Beau Waters (10 Games) all in 2004, replacing the likes of Morrison, Chambers, Collica, Munro, Carrol.

In the weekends game, Seaby, Jones, Nicoski, Butler and Hansen all played and have consistently all season.

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Mjonc signing off at 8888

Don't forget Daniel McConnell.

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Writer for SuperCoach Paige www.scpaige.com.au
Twitter - @johnfeeney24

Are you joking? West Coast is the complete opposite of what you want to bring up with your argument...

Hansen sat on the list at west coast for something like three years before getting a game... maybe two, I don't know... I'm pretty sure he had to be re-signed (because his original contract had run) before he'd even played a senior game!

D-Mac was drafted in the same year as Walker, yet had his first game this weekend!

I'm still unsure as to how I feel about throwing the kids in, but let's not use West Coast as an example of throwing kids in straight away, cos Woosha hasnt handled them like that at ALL.



...However, give Russell a game this weekend... I wanna see him play.

The point is they all had exposure to the AFL for the first time in 2004. It gave them experience in the big time and a pre-season to concentrate on what they needed to improve on to make it. Come 2005 and these players are now key members in the Eagles team.

Be it 5 games or ten games, the experience alone is worth more to there development than 22 games at the Bullants against players who couldn't make it or fellow kids from the U18's.

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