Yep you are right it might take us the next 3 Drafts - but however many Drafts it takes I would rather have Picks 1 and 4 in the 2007 National Draft.

Yep we need for our picks to be 100% rock solid correct - but in life their are no guarantees in life and their are no guarantees in the Draft Picks 1 adn 4 might turn out to be duds - but the odds are they wont. In the old days recruiting on Form Fours used to be a lottery too - ask Melbourne about Jim Tilbrook or Richmond about John Pitura.

Ackland dropped - yep eventually - but not until Hamspon and Aisake are ready and developed enough for senior AFL ruck duty. Whitnall dropped, you wont get an argument from me on that one. Lappin - he is a sentimental favourite of mine but unfortunately these days their is no room for sentiment.

If we secure Picks 1 and 4 this year with Pagan at the helm that is a risk we will have to take - hopefully Ratts and the other assistant coaches can salvage something from the wreckage that is our junior player development.

And as for you Teen Spirit - thier is no hypocracy in me cracking the shits when we lose - but wanting low picks. You only have to sit with me at the football to see that .

But you are young - and you have not lived through the glory days of winning 3 flags in 5 years then 3 flags in 4 years.

The only way we are going to get that back again is a long slow process and the process.

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

embrace tanking, its a strategy nothing more or less to repair this list..we have been at it for three years and we still need one good crop of kids to compliment the current crop.
our list is young, and it will get younger...
but after 2007...no more tanking...

point taken...fair call too...but i was a part of the '95 team which broke all sorts of records, and losing is still foreign to me (even after having the past 5 years during the impressionable teenage years)...i think it was put best when Fabulous said that he'd rather sit through 15more weeks of losing, than the next 5 years see us finish 9th or 10th.

Nic

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Cuck Follingwood

No use heading in the right direction if your not going to be able to go all the way ....

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Circumstance has no value. It is how one relates to a situation that has value. All true meaning resides in the personal relationship to a phenomenon, what it means to you.

For me our chances for the season evaporated over the weekend. It was clear when we were smashed in the last quarter that we simply do not have all of the cattle... yet!

We have 2 wins and 5 losses. I would love to finish the remaining 15 rounds winning them all and then going on to win the premiership. However, realistically it won't happen. We are still a bottom 4 side, but we are improving. We are competitive for part of matches instead of being belted right from the start. So let's continue to be competitive and teach our kids how to play the game.

But while we are still a bottom 4 side let's pick up the PP and set ourselves up as best we can for the next decade.

I dont care how the wider AFL community view our club over this. They can all get FLOWERED!!!

It was an absolute injustice that we were denied a pre-draft PP last year after enduring two consecutive wooden spoons and a cumulative total of 32 premiership points out of a possible total of 176. That is equivalent to 8 wins in 2 years, the supposed trigger point for qualification. But we were denied because of a drawn game in 2005 when the new rule wasn't even in place. Hadn't even been drafted!!!

So while our club was lodging submission after submission pleading the sheer injustice and imbalance of the new rules on our club, no other club gave a flower about our circumstances.

This was always going to be a possibility with the new qualification criteria and every club was fully aware of the implications. So clubs, supporters and media can all cry foul and have a good whinge but all I can say is GO FLOWER YOURSELVES!!!

If we happen to qualify for a PP and finish 2nd last then I will stick the finger up to all the sooks like Caro and watch Hughesy and co. call out pick 1 for my club...

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C'mon Blueboys!

Logic and reason finally permeating through.

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

I heartily agree

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Love Cricket? Love me

This was a particular hobby horse of mine last year - agree absolutely Marciblue.

You live by the sword you die by the sword Richmond.

That goes for you to Robert Copeland - your time is coming soon.

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

Excellent...

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C'mon Blueboys!

Yeah, I remember we kept the rage on this one for some time.
I exchanged a bit of correspondence on this topic with the club and I must say that they did try very hard to overturn the outcome of these rules as the result for our club was totally unfair. They made numerous, repeated submissions.

The AFL, and as an extension to that the other 15 clubs, didn't want a bar of it. So if these same rules were fair and just on our behalf, then it very well is for everyone else

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C'mon Blueboys!

I wrote to the club a few times and Michael Malouf responded in similar vein.

Heaven help the AFL if they so much as make 1 tiny exception or allowance to those pack of shits at Punt Road and soften the PP criteria for them. As God is my witness I will .......................

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

I understand the theory behind the priority pick and would love to see another top 2 pick in our colours

But....

If we do crash and burn and only win less than 4 games, how would that effect the club in a marketing sense, by that meaning things such as sponsors but most importantly members.

Personally i think it would have a shocking effect on membership

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SMFC 1959 : ONE LIFE, ONE LOVE, ONE CLUB

How do you think our predicament now is affecting sponsorship and membership? Have you noticed an Emirates knocking down our door? If we are going to do this revival then let's do it properly. We want the new dynasty to be as successful and as long as possible.

These days clubs market their draft picks over the summer not the place they finish.

Gibbs was all over the back pages in November 2006 as was Murphy in November 2005.

In November 2007 it will be "insert Number 1 Draft Pick's name" here, and in September 2007 it will the name of our new coach for 2008 - plus I'm sure Dicky will have a few tricks up his sleeve.

There will be no drop offs in memberships over the summer.

And people who do not renew their memberships are far worse than supporters who advocate a draft led recovery.

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

Finished last over the last two years and we're currently sitting on 32 odd thousand members.

To finish last two years running and still come up with those sorts of membership figures is brilliant but not suprising.

All the club has to do is say "yeah, we finished bottom, but look we've picked up this gun kid who we reckon will play brilliant footy for the next ten years". Some umm and ahhh about signing up, they see Gibbs or Murphy play in the NAB Cup, think "shit this kid is going to be unreal, i better get on board quick" and they sign up.

Add Pratt coming aboard and there's your answer as to why our membership was going to be ok.

At the end of this year, we'll get another decent kid and a new coach.

Imagine if Voss was appointed coach. If you didn't want to be a member this year, then you'd want to be if Voss got the gig.

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

Yeah, but Nah!

New Coach two of the best 3 kids in the land and a BIG FISH! will have us all jumping out of our skins for 2008.

MARK MY WORDS!


No pain, No Gain!

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Oompa loompa doompety dee
If you are wise you'll listen to me

you heard the man

PAUL SALMON TO COACH CARLTON

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Love Cricket? Love me

I still reckon Clive.

Or, in a cruel twist of irony, Lindsay Smith.

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

Hold on a sec PJ.STOP!
I do not understand the hype about Voss being a coach, yes he is one of the greatest captains ever and yes he was a superstar however who is to say that he is going to be a good coach next year?

I would prefer he does his apprenticeship, proves himself and then slotted in as a coach.

Great Captain he might have been however he might be the worst coach in history.
We need a coach who has new ideas and new methods and also a coach who can tap into all the young guys at the club and install faith in them.

At the moment it is way too risky to select a person like Vossywho has never coached properley.

Don't get me wrong it would a marketing dream if Vossy came to the club as coach but I still think it is risky especially in this day and age.

Names like O'donnel, Longmire,McKenna are names we should be looking at right now!

Anyone for Grant Thomas? Works very well with the kids. Proven he is a Top 4 coach!