With the 100+ points loss to Carlton tonight, you would expect that any ambitious footballer would think twice about moving to a new club where they are going to spend two or three years getting flogged every week.

It is a long time since there has been such a one sided AFL game,and the Suns are far better set up and run than GWS. From here, I would be amazed if any of our young guns left.

Hmm I suppose but don't forget our ambitious young kids two or three years ago, who got flogged by 100+ points in Round one and two at the start of the 2008 season! IMO GC are exactly where we were at the start of the 2008 season... A handful of experiences players and an abundance of kids

With the 100+ points loss to Carlton tonight, you would expect that any ambitious footballer would think twice about moving to a new club where they are going to spend two or three years getting flogged every week.

It is a long time since there has been such a one sided AFL game,and the Suns are far better set up and run than GWS. From here, I would be amazed if any of our young guns left.

i was thinking exactly the same thing mate. I do hope Tom Scully was watching that tonight with 7.1 surround sound, to get the full bleak effect.

Money is not the Be all to life.

Hmm I suppose but don't forget our ambitious young kids two or three years ago, who got flogged by 100+ points in Round one and two at the start of the 2008 season! IMO GC are exactly where we were at the start of the 2008 season... A handful of experiences players and an abundance of kids

was thinking this too....2008 revisited

The do have Dr. Zachary Smith at Full Forward Though....That was the highlight of the night for mine!

Manufactured teams are going to start out with no chemistry. It will take them a half a season to find themselves and build chemistry and trust.

They will be a better team by the seasons end, but the message is loud and clear. If you want to go to a manufactured team, there is going to be some hard times early.

Money isn't everything, but winning is (bi-winning more so)

Nobody expected Gold Coast to be an overnight sensation but tonight's performance was disappointing especially when you think that a club like the Brisbane Bears were able to win their first two games. The difference to some extent was the fact that most of the Bears team were mature bodied players with some experience who (even if they weren't great footballers) could play a bit of footy from day one. They didn't throw a dozen kids into the game first up.

One week is really not enough upon which to make an assessment. The new rugby union franchise, the Melbourne Rebels, lost their first game 0-43 earlier this year but yesterday won their third game out of a total seven played so far this season.

That said, it will take time for Gold Coast to find their feet but they do have a lot of advantages over GWS which I think is going to find it even harder next year. It's going to be harder to attract players to western Sydney and the draft pool is said to be weaker this year.

The Giants might have to rely on an even younger group and it's going to take both of them four or five years before they are of sufficient strength to test the top sides.

It does mean that some careers may stagnate and even be shortened. That's one of the reasons why I can't see it as beneficial to the long term interests of a young player like Tom Scully to accept a contract with the Giants and why the Giants need to spend their coin on more seasoned footballers.

Either way, I'd hate to have to go through the tough early years and have to live in Rooty Hill as well.

I can say that's 8 premiership points in the bag this season.

I liked the look of Charlie Dixon.

Hmm I suppose but don't forget our ambitious young kids two or three years ago, who got flogged by 100+ points in Round one and two at the start of the 2008 season! IMO GC are exactly where we were at the start of the 2008 season... A handful of experiences players and an abundance of kids

I wonder whether you watched the whole game. Even at our worst, we never got flogged like that. It was a debacle. Good players will not want to play their formative years through that, particularly in a singularly uninviting place like western Sydney.

I can say that's 8 premiership points in the bag this season.

I liked the look of Charlie Dixon.

not sure about 8 in the bag but the better news is that we play them twice but rich, st k and syd only play them once

I wonder whether you watched the whole game. Even at our worst, we never got flogged like that. It was a debacle. Good players will not want to play their formative years through that, particularly in a singularly uninviting place like western Sydney.

Yes we did. A friday night in the rain against Geelong was just like it from 2008. In 2007-2008 we were a complete shambles for a while there.

I wonder whether you watched the whole game. Even at our worst, we never got flogged like that.

Well...there is this

Well...there is this

i had tried to forget that nightmare, that was a different Geelong massacre wasn't it!!!

If someone paid me close to a million bucks I'd cop 119 point beltings every day.

If someone paid me close to a million bucks I'd cop 119 point beltings every day.

Even if they offered you $700,000 without the necessity to cop beltings?

This is the biggest argument the "but it's a gazillion bucks! Who in their right mind would turn down a gazillion bucks!" brigade overlook IMO.

never forget how bad we were. we were shocking. and it is that that will make our progress more enjoyable. We were worse than the gold coast were last night. don't worry about that.

I agree hillie. This is the reason why I just laugh whenever dumbarse opposition supporters accuse us of tanking - especially in 2008. I watched every game and I can safely say that we were so god awful that no tanking was necessary, and any experimentation that may have been done in 2009 is absolutely justified, given the level of pain I and every other MFC supporter had to endure. That said, I think we lost all our 2009 games on merit anyway.

I wonder whether you watched the whole game. Even at our worst, we never got flogged like that. It was a debacle. Good players will not want to play their formative years through that, particularly in a singularly uninviting place like western Sydney.

You should think back to 2008.

We started the year with two 100 point losses.

I was actually going to start a thread on this.

I think Gold Coast's results this season will made us MORE likely to keep our young stars. Coming into this season the media and GC were hyping up the team, so much so that plenty were convinced they could make the top 8. They enticed the stars of the competition by saying they could be competitive basically from the get-go. Sure most people were realistic with their expectations, but imo GC will come dead last and cop 6-7 100+ pt thrashings. Watch the team completely fall apart in the second half of the season once 1-2 out of their 8 senior players goes down injured.

Imo they won't even compete for the finals for at least 3-4 years. That changes the equation completely!

Imo, the new equation is this:

On the one hand= extra money

On the other hand= living in a [censored] area of Sydney away from family & friends and the MCG, in a manufactured club with no history, no realistic opportunity of playing in finals for 3-4 years and huge pressure and expectation to basically drag the team over the line.

And what's even better is that there will be 16 clubs licking their lips in 3-4 years time, waiting for the opportunity to throw BIG money at some of their young guns once the GoldCoast are back to equal salary cap. Pay back time. And trust me... very few Gold Coast players will have loyalty to a manufactured club comprised of players who all left their respective clubs purely for money.

... And what's even better is that there will be 16 clubs licking their lips in 3-4 years time, waiting for the opportunity to throw BIG money at some of their young guns once the GoldCoast are back to equal salary cap. Pay back time. And trust me... very few Gold Coast players will have loyalty to a manufactured club comprised of players who all left their respective clubs purely for money.

I agree.

On a side note, its hard not to think some of these young guns may have a slower development compared to draftees from the 'normal' clubs, in the sense they are learning the game from non interested money hungry senior players.

I made a post (somewhere) about a year ago about the positives and negatives of Gold Coast coming in a year before GWS and how having that as an example would affect our chances of losing a topline player.

Basically, players thinking of going to GWS will have seen all the money & big names that have gone to GC and made it look like a glamourous option to move north.

This is a negative for us, because it will serve as an example that if a big offer is there, you need to seriously consider it & that you won't be universally hated for accepting it.

On the other hand, players thinking of going to GWS will have a chance to see exactly how hard it is on-field for the defectors, & there won't be enough time to those pondering a move to see and really positive signs (hopefully).

If we're lucky, this year at GC17 will serve as a cautionary tale.

In any case, we've had to take the bad with the good.

Scully will stay.

never forget how bad we were. we were shocking. and it is that that will make our progress more enjoyable. We were worse than the gold coast were last night. don't worry about that.

Ok, 2008 we were bad but not that bad. Carlton were not really that switched on but still won by 100 + points. In 2008 we had some close games as well as hidings but we had a core team that had experienced players such as Yze, White Robbo ect. I'd be surprised if Gold Coast don't take a 100 shallacking in nearly every game. The kids have no idea yet, even our progress tells you that three years on, the young players are still batteling. Hate to think what will happen when the gold coast play collingwood.

Very surpised by the margin of this result. And yet its but one game. Lets see what happens next week before crowing too much and then its us...Hate to be the first ones to lose to them !! We better worry more about our own game than gettingour jollies from another's debacle.

Smug tends to get wiped off faces !!

Ok, 2008 we were bad but not that bad. Carlton were not really that switched on but still won by 100 + points. In 2008 we had some close games as well as hidings but we had a core team that had experienced players such as Yze, White Robbo ect. I'd be surprised if Gold Coast don't take a 100 shallacking in nearly every game. The kids have no idea yet, even our progress tells you that three years on, the young players are still batteling. Hate to think what will happen when the gold coast play collingwood.

I bet you Melbourne doesn't beat GC by over 100 points in a couple of weeks time. I reckon we will only win by 4 or 5 goals. We have always lacked the ability to smash teams (excluding Sydney last year, which was a rarity), particularly when we are expected to win. In fact, if we play liked we did against West Coast last year, GC will beat us.

Even if they offered you $700,000 without the necessity to cop beltings?

This is the biggest argument the "but it's a gazillion bucks! Who in their right mind would turn down a gazillion bucks!" brigade overlook IMO.

I didn't. It probably wouldn't make a difference that I could earn 70% of that.

That's still a large sum. And they wouldn't be copping those beltings forever. The other thing you're missing is that he can earn those large sums for longer as the new teams' salary caps still are generous for those first years. And... after all... what makes you think our list isn't going to cop beltings? Something we don't want to discuss cos it's unthinkable... maybe he just does rate MFC as a premiership chance like the rest of us do? We're certainly not going to end up with the talent of a GWS/GC list...

Well...there is this

Actually we put in quite a competitive performance that day.