As as usual Keogh is calling for Houlihan's head.
He wants to promote Ando because 'I really like him and he is ready.'
When he is ready he will get a game whether he likes him or not, just as Houlihan gets a game every week even though he doesn't like him.
Luckily the MC tries to select the team on a needs basis and not a 'likes or dislikes' basis.
Houlihan is still a better footballer than Anderson and until Anderson is a better footballer than someone in the team on a regular basis,he will continue to develop his abilities in the Ants. He is obviously close to selection and good on him but he ia still a fair way short of Houlihan in the skills department.

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

I went kind of numb after the match & still am. The Kernahan epic in 93 against Essendon* really felt like a loss to me, but yesterday felt like a draw.

We will thrash Fremantle!!

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#DonTheStash

Beautifully put.

We rolled the dice with one of the best in the comp and came up one kick short.

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And so while others miserably pledge themselves to the pursuit of ambition and brief power, I will be stretched out in the shade, singing.

Was so impressed with the boys today ... yes we lost ... just ... but I am sure the loss will spurr the boys further and was just rapped with our play.

Judd, Krooze, murph, Fev etc etc ... amazing.

Saying that Cloke needs time in th twos and although he tries I feel he is on borrowed time until we draft someon to fill his shoes or someone steps up ... Am very hopeful Warnock to come in, release Krooze to CHF ... problem solved ... hope we manage Warnock right and do not bring him back too early. We will then have a forwardline like Hawthorn with 2 powerful goal kicking options ... not to mention all the potential forward crumbers ... Betts, Yarran, Garnett etc. As for our defence, with Jammo in it looks settled just a little inexperienced ... days like today will only strengthen it.

Initialy liked the selection of Bentley but in hindsight does not have it ... better to find out now than later. Put him in the twos, give him another chance if he proves himself again and then if he flowers it up like today again ... delist him. No room for passengers of this express train!

Ratts is still learning as a coach and made some basic errors today ... I hope he learns from them, like the rest of the team and is better for it. He seem to have the boys willing to run through brick walls for him and this can not be under estimated. But for God sake running the ball out ofdefence from a kick in really hurt us today. But geez how wellare we rebounding at the moment!

Funny thing is the difference between this loss and the Essendon* loss is huge ... today we showed what a great team we are becoming .. against Essendon* we just let ourselves down.

One pleasing aspect is the three losses have been narrow and all winnable, no blowouts ... and the wins have all been by decent marging. If we start winning the close ones ... WOW .... really we should be 5-1 .... but in our break through year I am so pleased at where we are.

Still need heaps of improvement but I think finally we have the personell and resources to achieve the ultimate.

Just wish Fev kicked the goal and we won for Pratt ,the one downside ... but 8 majors from Fev was more than ayone could have asked for ... feel for him he must be kicking himself.

I think Clokey must go - he tries really hard but we lack flexibility with him.

Bring in Hampson and Santy/Hampson/Kruise ruck and CHF.

Bentley is slow - so I want him replaced with someone with pace - not too fussed if the kid gets another crack next week. The thing is, though, we take out a runner like Garlett or Robbo and we force Eddie to do a lot more chasing. He needs a hand, frees him up, gives us more coverage.

Otherwise I am happy. JR did go to ground but twice it was because the ball kicked to him was in the wrong - twice he had to decide - mark it or wait for the bounce? If those 2 kicks had have been delivered properly?

I also thought he worked his way in to the game but you could see he felt the pressure of the hawks. I thought Carrots did too but that's the thing, we now need to have these kids learn the next step. That's what yesterday was all about.

AJ was good yesterday and is getting better and better - he';s a keeper unless he fatigues - he is doing a lot of running.

Houla had a bad game but heck it was a cracking game, we had winners, they had winners and we both had quiet players.

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This type of slight is alien in the more cultured part of the world - Walsh. Its up there with mad dogs, Englishmen and the midday sun!

Couple of little things that stood out for me was the
Bentley vs Sewell - Then Sewell took that mark at CHB and Bentley just ran up to him, went to his side and Sewell just ran off...... no excuse.
Armfield vs Moss - Moss marks 50meters out and was too far out to score, Armfield has his head down marking the line and Moss just runs off and around him and kicks a goal. Ouch, that's the 3rd that has happened this year, twice against the lions I think. Not good enough.

Houlihan's soft approach to the ball. His running in slow motion to the ball, couple times he had space between him and his opponent only to be beaten to the ball or get tackled straight away as soon as he touch it.

Overall, the flooding back into space rather than flooding forward. Its really shits me when an opposition player takes a mark and is allowed to stand there and our player stands off 5 meters or so to stand the mark. Make them kick over the man on the mark. Run up to spot where he marked it, force them to run backwards to have space to kick the footy. Its very hard to pinpoint a pass when your running backwards. St Kilda have been doing this all year, watch them today if you can.'



I wouldn't say Joseph.

I think Wallsy was saying
Cloke
Setanta
Wiggins
Houla
Thornton
Russell

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31-3-2015 - R.I.P AFL, corrupted lying pricks
12-5-2015 - Go WADA
18-8-2015 - Suffer Hird* u lying flower
12-1-2016 - CAS goes bang, happy new year.. Drugcheats forever..

Replay shown on One HD this Tuesday at 5pm.

Bentley (poor skills)
Cloke (too slow)
Wiggo (poor disposal)

These are the 3 that stand out.

If we are looking at premiership sides then the remainders are:

Houla (does not impose himself on the game - he could, but doesn't when the pressure is on)
Setanta (lacks game knowledge but love his work level)
Russell (doesn't impose on the contest)
Stevens - (lazy, no defense)
Armfield - (could be but lacks class and we need class to win flags)

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"our electorate seeks less to be informed and more to be validated." Sad times.

Guys - Walls has just plucked the number '6' out of nowhere...don't take it as gospel that there are '6' and 'name' the '6'...it's a futile exercise. It's more about not having the right matchups for the Hawks compared to what we have for other teams.

Reason we lost is that they are a better team when not in possession of the footy than we are. Our time will come.

IMO the MC have cost us 2 games this year. The non selection of Setanta against the Bummers and Bentley's mysterious selection for yesterdays game.

Changes for next week would be Bentley and Cloke out. Hadley/Robbo in with Hampson and have Kreuz playing CHF and switching with Hampson and O'hAilpin in the ruck. Cloke has been very ordinary this year except for a quarter here or there. Yesterday he was diabolical.

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"I will rejoice in their anguish, delight in their failure and revel in our success"

We are Carlton, @#$%&! the rest !!!!!!

I think the comparison of the bottom '6s' is a common rule of thumb, but it's merely a concept rather than anything concrete. Really it's just a way of dressing up the saying that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link in footy terms. Because of that it is a bit ridiculous to try to nominate 6 particular players to fill the bottom 6. The "bottom 6" can compare badly if you have 1 or 2 who were very ordinary. Comparing man for man is an overly pedantic way of looking at the concept.

It would certainly be silly to think Walls had 6 particular players in mind when he said it. As someone has noted already, it's pretty hard to come up with a conclusive list of the Hawks' bottom 6.

Unfortunately I agree with you.
The Bentley selection is perplexing and Garlett shouldn't have been picked against Essendon* after clearly being overawed the previous week against Brisbane.

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There is no footy god

Anyone know how Eddie Joseph & Simmo pulled up?

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#DonTheStash

Exactly.

What we did see yesterday was the gap in the "off the ball" work close considerably. Now the bar has been raised again of what to expect.

Still feel a bit sick about the loss and Fev's shot at goal.

Throughout the game I could feel we had momentum, but there were lapses in intensity.

Even at the 20 min mark I made a bet with a Hawks supporter that we would win, because the team really showed something prior to that. We almost and should've got the win against the reigning premiers.

One point the Hawks supporter said was that he'd never seen a team stop their run on game at all costs. We made the Hawks flat footed for most of the game. Hats off to the MC.

As I said after the game. I'm feeling sick for Fev and Dick, but what a fantastic game it was, and how we have come a long way in 2009.

We could be 6-0 or 5-1 but we're not. But we are close to doing it.

I really think we will lift from this experience.

As I have said since last year and prior to this game, Fisher and Cloke are too slow for the modern game, and definetely too slow to compete against Top 4 teams. Thank god, some posters are agreeing to this.

I don't know about the bottom 6 being a problem for us, but we sure did have a few no hopers.

I thought Cloke, Bentley and Wiggins were shown up as passengers today.

I thought Stevens and Houlihan played well most of the time but could have showed more intensity at some of the early contests, and Stevo could certainly do a bit more to keep up with his opponent when they are attacking. So yeah, they maybe on notice but they aren't bottom 6 players.

I am so happy with the balance of the team and whilst I understand where CJ 69 is coming from, I think he's being a bit too scathing and unrealistic to not look at upside of the players he lists as not going to take us to a flag. Funny things happen in footy.

Fantastic to watch Armfield and Joseph burn the turf and show the required desperation at every contest. They have the pace, commitment and desire to be in the first 22 and in a premiership team; they are only going to get better.

Warnock, Walker, Hampson and Hadley are going to be huge additions to this team. Then there's Grigg, Robinson, Anderson, Yarran and Garlett to consider. The point is that some of these guys have not been ready to take the next step and are not ready yet, and still have the job ahead of them to earn a spot and replace those in the current 22. Our list is still developing and we have a good balance across the list imo...and it's onl;y going to get better.

It's a good place to be at the moment for the Bluebaggers. Great effort all round. Bad luck. Very proud of the boys. Definetely worthy of a top 4 finish in 2009 imo. Keep it up and we are only going to improve.

Hampson to replace Cloke
Hadley to replace Bentley
Robinson to replace Wiggins

Grigg to return through the Ants and press for a spot.

Warnock, Walker, Grigg, Anderson and Yarran to put Stevens, Houlihan, Russell an Setanta on notice.

Austin is going to make Thornton's spot difficult to retain, but then that's up to Austin. Thornto is a very good defender imo, just not a KP defender in all fairness.

From yesterday's effort, I honestly believe we are definetely building towards a flag.

Blue Skies with a couple of painful tears.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Waite is on gameday on channel 7 and just said it was the loudest most intense game the boys have ever played in

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*(grow - fun - gah)

Yeah but whatabout your whataboutism.

Good post Bondi.
Agree with everything you have written however I wouldn't drop Wiggins just yet as he has been pretty good for us prior to the Hawks.

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There is no footy god

I thought Wig had his worse game for a while but the hawks dont leave a lot of space for his long leading and marking.

He did however recognise that he was struggling to get a kick and concerntrated on laying some big tackles (team high of 7) and made some crashing block/shepards.

Hopefully he can freshen up and get back into some good form.

Cloke was not very good yesterday.

+1 Great post but extremely harsh on Wiggins who would have to put together a string of bad games to be dropped.

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You want the flame? Give us the marbles!!

I think we all love Wiggins for his attitude and desire. He plays for the jumper and would do anything for the team or club and will not shirk a contest. However if all of our best players were fit and available IMO he would not make the team but then again IMO neither would Cloke, Carrazzo, Bentley, O'Hailpin, and Armfield with one or two others on notice if they don't improve their defensive efforts.

Add these players to yesterday's team and think of how much faster and better we would be
Shaun Grigg (half back half forward wing)
Richard Hadley ( on ball inside player)
Mitch Robinson (half forward)
Sam Jacobs (ruck)
Andrew Walker (utility half forward half back)
Chris Yarran (probably forward pocket goal sneak)
Robert Warnock (Ruck)