We have lost the coach. The senior players are hopeless and mutinous because they don't realise how hopeless they are, the admin is bloated (according to some), the footy dept is poorly run (according to some), the CEO is meddling places he shouldn't, and the board hadn't the faintest idea what hit them, and is now getting a retired champ to tell them what to do...

Yeah, yeah, but apart from all that stuff everything else is really on the up.....right?

its been a hard year thats for sure.

Last year I was firmly in the development is more important than wins or ladder position camp, but this year I think we need to aim a little higher. I think the 8 is a reasonable and realistic goal.

Last year we still had blokes like Miller, PJ and Bell, who may have given us more on the day than a kid but who weren't in our plans long term. Now we have 10 players who'll be 24 or older rd 1 next year. Only 6 are comfortably best 22, Green, Davey, Jamar, Moloney, Rivers and Sylvia. Warnock and MacDonald are fringe and Martin is playing for his career. Last is Robbie Campbell and he's a roll of the dice. The state of our list pretty much guarentees that young players will get gametime.

The last few years we've had to choose between developing young talent in the seniors or persisting with guys we didn't think were up to it or we thought were past it. This is no longer the case. Everyone on our list now is a potential best 22 when our window opens, if they can make the most of their opportunities. Competition for spots should be pretty feirce next year and games should be earned.

I see this year as the beginning of the next stage of our development. Last season we managed to become competitive, we were in games longer, won more of them and were seldom blown away. Now we have to move from being competitive to being a contender. First step on that path is to make the 8.

Martin is playing for his career-did you mean his entire career earnings to date next year? Gun ruck-potential Brownlow .

No-one could state we have improved this year. It's simply a crock to suggest it. In EVERY facet (except for games won) we are worse. Our favourable draw meant we have won more games but in terms of sides beaten or competitiveness or honourable losses we are disgracefully worse.

In effort and intensity it breaks my heart to see how soft we re as a club.

We certainly expected better from 2011, but, well, let's look at it.

The worst two losses are far and away the Geelong game and the Hawthorn Rd2 game, fairly closely followed by the North game. Geelong we know why - it was a blowout. The other two though are bad because of the turnarounds - Hawthorn Rd2 we led at halftime, North we led at quarter time.

The others, well, all kinds of reasons can be thrown in there. Part of it is simply the need for natural improvement - around the time of the Essendon game everyone was throwing around the stats of how we were close to the Gold Coast in terms of games played by the side, and the only way that improves is by, well, playing games of football. The reality is, we know we're on the upwards curve, just none of us expected a 186pt bump in the road.

We've also seen improvement and revelations where they weren't necessarily expected. Martin (if you'd told me we'd not be delisting him at the start of 2011 I'd have laughed at you), Watts, Nicholson, Howe, Evans, Tapscott, hell even Big Max. It was very notable by the time Howe got a mention in Mark Robinson's The Tackle he stopped actually writing a piece, merely writing Jeremy Howe (The Demons have found another one!) after writing on Evans, Nicho and Martin in the weeks before.

And, well, couldn't you see some of the issues coming? LJ had never had a full preseason til this year and had never played a full season. Wonna was always going to struggle after what happened late last year. We were worried we'd be light-on in the midfield without Junior - a worry that has proven to be well-founded. We've had a bad run with injuries, especially the Grimes and Bail ones - not to mention the spate where we lost about 10 players in a week and a half.

And sure, some of the problems noone foresaw. Who thought Brad Green would go as backwards as he has? Not to mention the leadership thing.

Depending on the last few weeks, I'll probably rate the season a mildly moderate success. It's hard for me to feel like it's a failure unless we only win one of those last three - but if we win 2 or (hopefully) all three then it'll still be a slight success in my books.

That said, I think my view of 2011 will be far more tempered by what happens next year - if we hit finals with 12 or so wins next year, I'll be more likely to view 2011 as a stepping-stone year. If we make it with 14 or 15, I'll be much more bitter.

And if we don't get there, don't get me started....

It appears to me that the team of young players have developed pretty well onsidering their ages and inexperience and in the main I believe we have a good list going forward.Also e have uncovered some genuine talent in Howe Tapscott etc. They will be inconsistent and get fatigued as the season progreses.

What has killed us this year has been the appalling lack of effort and leadership from the senior players like Green Davey et al. Davey in the HS today talking about dropping his head.Green last week the same stuff. Less talsing to the press and more effort boys would help. This to me has been the hardeset part of watching the Dees this year

It's been the way we have lost that has been so dissappointing, not the numbers of wins or losses. We have been completely unable to cope with heavy, organised pressure and zones. We competed better with the better sides last year than this year. Despite how the players felt about Bailey, I think once his game plan came unstuck so dramatically in games against Hawthorn and West Coast early on in the season, the players lost faith in it and we saw the big blow outs.

Despite what our win/loss record looks like at the end of the year, we went backwards.