SaberFang

The game might not have been won or lost at selection, but Roos insistence to add two players that didn't fight their way into the ones (as he's bleated on about for over a year) most definitely didn't help our cause today. Can't begin to imagine what JKH would be feeling right now.

The game itself is definitely at a cross roads. It appeared the fast running Port style was coming back into vogue, but Roos found a way to nullify it twice last year, and so far this season two very defensive teams have had little problem nullifying their run. It's hard to be ahead of the game because the trends change every year. First and foremost you need the talent.

Since Roos we've gotten both right. Before Roos we got both catastrophically wrong. We could've assembled the best modern team of all time with the last 7 years of bottom 4 draft picks, but... we didn't.

Gill orchestrated the entire expansion plan and the last broadcast rights. Both have been unmitigated disasters. It speaks volumes about where his interests in the league really lie. His answer today about broadcast rights vs revenue was extremely telling.

The price of beer went down, but so did the cup sizes. Go figure.The old Mars bar trick. Keep bars $1 by reducing the size of the bar by 2gm every year in the hope nobody notices.

I'm sick of hearing the argument about not having talent. We've had the best access to talent of any team outside GWS for 5 years and for 3 of them we recruited duds. Just look at the Bulldogs. It only took them to nail 3 picks and they're looking seriously good when everyone predicted the spoon. We could've had at least 2 of the 3 key players in their resurrection, but we chose a different path.

Interesting to watch the Saints all over the Suns again tonight. Certainly raises more questions than answers for my liking. Are the Suns that bad? Are we any good? Are the Saints improving? The Saints, at least, were within ten points of the Giants. EDIT: Nah, the Suns are godawful. Wow, truly, truly awful. Uncontested marks all over the place, even right out front of the Saints goal.

Bulldogs and Port coped well enough. Bont, Macrae, Stringer, Libba... Wines, Wingard... Our drafting has been fine since Roos got involved, but two draft periods isn't close to enough to fix a club. We'll be having this same discussion next year and probably the year after.

It's just perverse to me that a Roos coached team could not only concede a ~30 point lead, but end up losing by 50 points. Absolutely no defensive structures held up today, and that's pathetic for year two of his game plan.

Man, it's hilarious to hear Gillon on radio rambling about his impression that clubs at the bottom are struggling to rebuild their lists. He seemed literally clueless about ways they can make it easier to rebuild, as 4-5 years at the bottom is simply too long to maintain membership/sponsors. Wouldn't be because the top teams are now able to cherry pick the best players through free agency, without giving anything up? Thus getting stronger without making sacrifices? Wouldn't be because your Academy bidding system allows Sydney to get the best players in the draft for the lowest first round pick? He then listed off a number of players who sought trades from top clubs to lower clubs, but conveniently ignored the Clark trade. Deadset, he's either completely clueless or in desperate damage control about the state of the league.

We will continue to be haunted by our horrible development and drafting for years to come. You just look at the players we missed and shudder. We could have been unstoppable if we nailed those picks, in the same way the Hawks used two consecutive drafts of high draft picks (and priority picks) to build a premiership-winning future, we wouldn't be in this mess.

Was definitely an undercurrent of angst in the presser with Roos. He pinned it on effort and that's entirely true. It wasn't skill errors today, it was effort. Even the Saints are having a dip tonight. We have a serious mental problem with effort. EDIT: Also had more than a couple of jabs about the GWS draft concessions. They will be unstoppable in 3 years.

Howe puts up another stinker like that and he can be dropped. Won't even commit to us, not sure why he's playing.

Last year was a surprise win against them but don't see a hope in hell of that happening this year. They look top 4 material under Walsh.

So I guess we'll string together 22 good games by the end of 2037!

What the hell was the point of spending all last year on defence if we can still get blown open by the Giants like that? Roos should've flooded their forward line to stem the flow after their 4 consecutive goals. That nothing was done after they kicked 10 in a row... you have to wonder.

Could be a hundred point loss to Adelaide here. Not looking forward to next week.

Oh, great. This will be fun for the psyche of the group.

It's not even about skill level, it's about effort. The Saints showed far more guts last week and came within a few goals. We just stopped trying at half time.

I think the saddest thing about losing today is looking ahead. Hawks, Adelaide, Sydney and Port all in the next 5 weeks. Be scared, people. Be scared.

Geez the Bulldogs look the goods though.

Because he'd leave today's winning team for the losing team?

Back to reserves for Dawes. He can earn his spot in the team next time.

Didn't see that coming.

Culturally, I stand by my opinion that Roos made a really counter-productive and culture hurting decision to change a winning team. This is a psychological defeat more than a physical one. Dawes didn't even play reserves last week and should never have come straight back in.