Looking ahead

Some random observations from tonights game (**** key observations):

***** No legspeed

- Backline a rabble.....no Rivers, no backline

- Doggy Brown "Goodbye, thanks for the memories"

- Brock - chinks in the armour appearing, becomes a thug when he plays badly

- Wheatley "superboot", sink your slipper son, always

- Robbo, keep your feet!

- Captain courageous - our only true leader (a worrying sign considering he doesn't have much time left in the game)

- Junior definitely in our top 3 - 5 most important players right now

- Hate to kick him when he's down but Nathan Carrol is having a very ordinary year.

- Loved Sylvia's work but we need his strength and awareness in the middle to take some of the heat off Jones and Brock

- Bell poor guy, crocked again

**** We need a first rate tagger that can handle players like Hird and/or hurt the opposition the other way (hopefully Bartram becomes this player, with Godfrey as backup)

**** We're a soft tackling team, even my wife noticed this, opposition break our tackles with monotonous regularity and we get sold far too many dummies

- Newton welcome to the forward line son (EDIT: now that Juice has got his first game, can Mark Riley please now start teaching Miller to become a key defender or trade him off for someone that can play that position. We are so short on key possie backmen, Gerard Healey was spot on, this has always been a big problem for our team as long as I can remember)

- Petterd looking very promising, love his courage and his skill level, more muscle and confidence could see him really blossom into something special

- Our talls don't fill the hole in the opp. attacking 50, why? This used to be Whitey's bread and butter, I guess this was Rivers role as well.

**** we're the up and under kings, disposal and footskills really need work

**** Prospective coaches must be looking at our team with an air of perplexity. On the one hand they'll look at our fighting spirit and skills that we showed in quarters 2,3 and most of 4 as a big positive but the first quarter was utter tripe. The way our players turn it on and off like a tap is baffling in the extreme. This is the single biggest issue that needs addressing by the new coach, inconsistency and mental frailty. Unfortunately this is the legacy that ND has left (as much as it hurts me to say it as he's a top character and was good for the image of the footy club).

My top 5 for the night

1) Junior

2) Col

3) TJ

4) Petterd

5) Ward/Godfrey (couldn't split em)