Not exactly a convincing answer from Ratts

He sounds like he is still struggling with the finer points of the game

Is Setanta O'hAiplin playing himself into a new contract?
He's playing very well at the moment. I think his confidence is up and I think he feels that his body is in really good shape.

That was the most frustrating thing for him in the pre-season which is probably why we saw that incident with Cameron (Cloke). He couldn't do a lot of the pre-season, he was trying to catch up whereas Cam had done the pre-season and was a lot fitter than him in repeat effort running.

He probably just thought, 'I'll muscle him up a bit' and it went a bit further. The frustration came out then that his body wasn't right at AFL level.

Now he's actually got himself into really good shape, he's running along the deck, he's winning the footy and I thought we saw a player on the weekend who played in a very natural 'see ball, get ball' way.

Sometimes that's when he plays his best. You don't over-complicate it and you have small things that you put in place for him and allow him just to play.

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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

KISS principle for Setanta.

On the finer points of the game there were a couple of things I saw that suggest that he is grasping them. The goal that Murphy kicked where he decided to let the ball run rather than pick it up was a finer point. His goal in the last quarter where he judged the bounce of the ball perfectly and used his momentum to weave past a couple of Saints for a goal was another finer point. If Judd did it we would be in raptures.
A couple of things he really needs to work on are probably to compose himself a little more when he gets the ball and positioning himself in the right places on the ground.

Just saw a headline Chaplin signs new deal = wasn't wearing my glasses thought it said Ohailpin

Dam near sh1t myself

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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 thought the contrast from "let Setanta do his thing" with Ratts' comments on Walker were glaring:

"he could actually just play on instinct alone in the past. Even when he had a bit of a downer, he could still get away with an OK performance because he's fit enough"

"The game's gone beyond that now and if you don't play to what we want you to do – it doesn't matter how quick you run – I think he understands you just can't play on instinct anymore."

Diff'rent strokes I guess, but the juxtaposition was interesting

The big Irish knocking on the door of a new contract.... I was ready to chop him after the toe poke (not so much for the kick, but as a general 'getting-ahead-of-yourself-for-those-shenanigans' reality check) but with Cloke out of the way, his good has looked really good and his bad is barely noticed.

He gave Lovett-Murray a bath early on last night, but went missing when the supply was cut off and Fev lost the mental battle with a 50-gamer.

Warnock coming in is his next big worry, but Setanta's work overhead might help to quash some of the 'balance' arguments. If he can command the confidence of his team, we might see a bit more emphasis on owning the corridor with tall pillars like Bower, Kruezer, Hammer, Warnock, Setanta and Fev working the handball down to the runners.

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"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter" - Winston Churchill.

..thought he played a very good first half, team overall got demolished after that, and Fev the drongo cleaned him up a couple of times as well..

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..if you can't be good, be good at it..

He's now in the middle tier of the senior side, so it goes without saying that he should be re-contracted. The rapid improvement in his contested marking shows he's different to most 26 year old footy players - he has plenty of room for improvement, and he's a keen student.

I've said it before somewhere that the Big Irishman can play an Earl Spalding type role for us at CHF. Lots of bash and crash, making defenders think about him when they go near the ball.
Those contested marks in the first half...

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Wherever you go, there you are.

His efforts in the first quarter was good the rest was total rubbish
dumb and dumber were the forward targets last night

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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

..you're softening SB

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There's so much I could say...

He was clearly the most influential KP forward on the ground till midway if the 2nd imo. He played above my expectations in that he took 5 really good contested games to help us have a good shot at the rest of the game, let alone keeping us in touch with the Bumbers (before they kicked our ass).

Then after that, the whole team died out. Bower got injured, Fev sooked and was out of soughts...not just Setanta but everyone. Supply to the forwards dried up. Bizarre game. They kicked our arse.

Setanta didn't have a chance in the seocnd half despite running his guts out creating an option.

Well done Setanta. He was our go through man around half forward.

Setanta would have starred if Fev wasn't so selfish.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Setanta O'hailapin is one of the players that takes the best marks. He took more marks Fev took i am pretty sure. He just holds on to the bloody pigskin as if he is holding the grand final cup. Brett Ratten can't drop or get rid of him. Poor Irish. Getting clobbered up by Fev in the ribs.

Are you drunk?

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'Cause I'm J.U.D.D
I'm dynamite
J.U.D.D
And I'll win that fight
J.U.D.D
I'm a power load
J.U.D.D, Watch me explode

He'll still be pissing blood after those two hits to the kidneys.
He's lucky he saw out the game.
If it had been Fisher Fev hit, he'd have been carried off on a stretcher after the first one.
This was a great effort on his part.

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

Setanta's contested marks were terrific. He regularly kicks to advantage (for that alone Fev should have pulled out of the marking contests) and ran hard. He and Kruezer were excellent in the first half. Each week he is a consistant performer. New contract in my opinion.

I can't see Setanta being dropped this week.

I think he's relevant on our list.

We don't have much depth whilst Waite, Bower and Walker are out. There's no one knocking

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Had some internal bleeding - may miss a week because of it

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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

Again, I'd like to see the coaches publicly show Setanta some support after some good performances rather than just covering for our FF's misdeeds.

Ratts gave him a big rap on monday

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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

Put Irish at FF so he can crash into Fev's back.................karma............

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No ones listening till you make a mistake.