A bit flippant from both you and h_h.

Yes, clearly Schwab wasn't able to do anything on the field, but it's not exactly a bad call to say the time he spent at the club has hurt us and may well hurt us into the future.

Possibly so but I think we were hurt more by abysmally poor recruiting, coaching and list management over a lengthy period which involved personnel at the club before Schwab came here. He might not have done enough to extract us out of the hole but he didn't dig it in the first place.

Both Richmond n GC beat more fancied opposition the week after playing in equally demanding conditions in Cairns just 2 weeks ago. Lets face it we are simply one of the worst teams to play at this level in living memory ..... As an aside, both Port n Dogs had the bye after their match in Darwin earlier this year.

Possibly so but I think we were hurt more by abysmally poor recruiting, coaching and list management over a lengthy period which involved personnel at the club before Schwab came here. He might not have done enough to extract us out of the hole but he didn't dig it in the first place.

agreed, but his Blueprint was an absolute failure on all levels.

Possibly so but I think we were hurt more by abysmally poor recruiting, coaching and list management over a lengthy period which involved personnel at the club before Schwab came here. He might not have done enough to extract us out of the hole but he didn't dig it in the first place.

He didn't dig it.

Just made it deeper.

Here is what's happened after each Darwin game.

2013 - 122 point loss to North Melbourne. 40 scoring shots to 8. Disposals: 439-290. Inside 50s: 66-30

2012 - 54 point loss to North Melbourne. 32 scoring shots to 18. Disposals: 429-337. Inside 50s: 62-37.

2011 - 54 point loss to Hawthorn. 32 scoring shots to 18. Disposals: 409-298. Inside 50s: 59-39.

2010 - 54 point loss to Geelong. 31 scoring shots to 17. Disposals: 434-328. Inside 50s: 57-37.

Aside from the amazing coincidence of three consecutive 54 point margins, each year we've been uncompetitive, unable to get the ball.

We need the money, but is Darwin worth it?

2010 - Melbourne's average losing margin was 27.8 over 13 losses. Losing by 54 points to the team that finished second that year doesn't really show "The Darwin effect" you're referring to.

2011 - Average losing margin of 56.8 over 13 losses. We lost to a team that finished third on the ladder and did better than our average losing margin. Nothing to see here.

2012 - Average losing margin of 50 points over 17 losses. We lost to North who finished 8th, ie slightly better than average. Losing by slightly more than our average losing margin would be expected.

This is a rubbish thread.

Both Richmond n GC beat more fancied opposition the week after playing in equally demanding conditions in Cairns just 2 weeks ago. Lets face it we are simply one of the worst teams to play at this level in living memory ..... As an aside, both Port n Dogs had the bye after their match in Darwin earlier this year.

Port and Dogs getting the bye shouldn't be an aside. It should be a requirement! Considering we are now the priority client of the AFL in Darwin we should get priority treatment. A bye (for one of our games) and an extra days rest for another of the games would be minimum requirements.

I'm not convinced Cairns is as hot as Darwin but that's my perspective but I'd say Gold Coast don't have to adapt to the change in heat as much as we do. It's also a relatively short flight from Cairns from the GC. Richmond did respond well and run out the game against Freo I will give you that. But then again I wonder if Freo didn't have so many key players out if Richmond could've done the same.

Port and Dogs getting the bye shouldn't be an aside. It should be a requirement! Considering we are now the priority client of the AFL in Darwin we should get priority treatment. A bye (for one of our games) and an extra days rest for another of the games would be minimum requirements.

I'm not convinced Cairns is as hot as Darwin but that's my perspective but I'd say Gold Coast don't have to adapt to the change in heat as much as we do. It's also a relatively short flight from Cairns from the GC. Richmond did respond well and run out the game against Freo I will give you that. But then again I wonder if Freo didn't have so many key players out if Richmond could've done the same.

It's more the humidity that is the more difficult for players to deal with in my opinion ... Cairns was a max of 26 with 86 % humidity and was played as a twilight fixture. Whilst Darwin had a top of 30 last week the match conditions would not have been that hot come 7pm and humidity only reached 32 % that day. I agree the bye makes sense though after these games, maybe we might have only lost by 15 goals today lol

I have to agree with the poster above who says that we must insist that we, and our opponent, play our Darwin game immediately before our bye.

Not an excuse for today, but maybe a contributing reason for the magnitude of the capitulation, especially in the final quarter.

How about the Terlich and Garland effect today? Big outs and we lost a lot of the drive and execution they provide.

Provided we have 10 MCG home games, the other can be played in Darwin, Docklands, Canberra or Afghanistan. Darwin and Etihad (In consecutive weeks, mind you) is too much. As is the fact that we played 12 of our first 14 games at the G and 1 of our last 8.