Uncle Fester

Shame it wasn't Richmond doing this. I'd smell Punt road burning from 300 kms away.

Meaningless... He either goes on to become a star and this will be forgotten, or he won't and he will be meaningless trivia ten years from now.

No you aren't. Quite the opposite.

Not fussed about the season. If you offered me 10 wins and talking finals in round 22 in Feb I'd have taken it in a heartbeat. We call them awesome when they beat Hawthorn, and dispicable when they lose to Carlton... the truth is in the middle. Young team coming off a decade of being the easybeats. We need to relax a little and see what 2017 brings.

Ummm. They smashed us. Whoever they are worried about on their white board Wednesday, I can bet we aren't part of the conversation.

Im not a recruiter, but I'm going to go with because they are babies. Every year there are first round picks delisted. It's more a lotto than a science, I think. I wonder if the hits would get bigger, and the misses smaller if the draft was raised to 20, but I guess we will never know.

Always play to win. Always. Anything else means all the training, all the hard work, all the blood sweat and tears is wasted.

Because the kids that are drafted are babies. And had only ever played against babies. That trick that worked so well against a 16 year old suddenly doesn't work as well when the guy running at you is a 120 game 25 year old. The good ones either are natually those that can slow down time (Pendles), find other strings to their bow (Jetta), or just work bloody hard at what they can do and drop the things that no longer work. Chunk is probably a good example of that. He wanted to run through every tackle when ghe was first on the list because that is what he could always do... against kids because he was the biggest one. Against men he couldn't so he changed his style. Jimmy seems lost in a similar way because that extra second he used to have isn't there in the big league. and he gets flustered because of it. I wish him luck, even though I think his time is running out, but sometimes things click. He's still young and still on a list so maybe he will find a way to find his mojo.

If he is the answer, then what the hell is the question?

Sorry for not getting back to you asap, but I had to give some kids poisoned apples and kick a couple of puppy dogs. Look, it's not irrelevant if I like his playing style or the trade. We got dudded. Collingwood got rid of an ordinary player with one or two tricks, and now we are paying his super fund.You can have all the love ins you want about him, but to me he is always going to be a NQR Collingwood reject that talks a big game and offers little. The sooner he retires the better it will be for the kid whose spot he is taking.

Aww geez, now I have to be sensitive? I'm glad you weren't next to me during the Essendon game when I yelled at him to get the @#$% off the ground, and never wear our jumper again. I don't have to like every player, and I don't have to like every trade. I don't rate him, and hated the trade. But here we are. We have a precious VFL player on a long contract. Yay! I'm excited.

If we get there... If... then I'll worry about it. Right now qwe need 4 games to go our way. Not just wins but margins. Right now we are picking tattslotto numbers and spanding the money before the draw. All that said: I'm proud of the boys to be in the mix so late in the season. It's so nice not to know or care who is in the top 5 of the draft, and better to see the kids we have and have faith in them. Whatever happens this year we all know next should and will be better

Didn't rate him in his golden years at Collingwood, and rate him less in the red and blue.At the best he has been servicable, but mostly he is a laibility. Run, run, run, run into trouble and boot it to no one. If he never plays another game I won't even notice. Just another NQR from Colling@#$% we won't miss or even remember ten years fom now

Ya gotta catch him to get to him. That kid is like a greyhound. But, in all seriousnes, we do sometimes lack that, and sometimes we get around too much when the business at hand is getting back and doing the job. Chunk is leading the kids brigade, and at other teams he'd be just another older player. I don't think he's suited for the role, but then again I can't think of anyone else that would be better. Watts needs to roam free. He is finally growing into the player we hoped for all those years back, and Viney is too young. There are a bunch of U23's that might one day put there hand up, but that for 2018/19/20. Not today. Right now Nate is the best man we have for the job.

Sun dried tomatoes

Spent all day trying to break into jail unsucessfully...

At least the umps as bad as the 36 players out there

No. Like religion and state, sport and other crap should be kept separate

I think you've nailed it. It's not the coach, or the zone, or the depth, or the talent, or whatever we go looking for. It's that, for whatever reason, we fall apart for periods in games. It's Bailey-eske, but without the blowouts or us smashing them. But we can look as good as the best and then as bad as the worst all in a half of football. I don't have an answer but this is something that has happened off and on for 25 year (forgetting the Neeld years, and I am really trying to forget them). I tend to think that when the kids see the older bloke panic they panic too. There was a lot of it against St Kilda. We had enough of the ball but under pressure we ran in circles. The mids played handball circles until it was undone. The defenders didn't know where they should be. The forwards stood still and waited for the perfect pass. But when we were on, it was all different. It's between the ears. It has to be. How to fix that, I really don't know.

Thought so too. 11 point turn around there, also the kick that was finger tipped on the line was also 11 points against us. A millimeter here, a lower elbow there... Yes we were flat in parts, but very good in parts. They took their chances. We didn't

4 pts. Same as every other team

And that's why Garland won't play another senior game...

Me too. I'm not sure I am happy with the idea of half of Essendons backline in ours in 2017. One: I think we are growing a good one ourselves, and two: other than Hurley, the other guys are bit players. Good bit players, but not a leap in talent from what we have, or will have. I guess however 3 is: I'm going to have to back the club, because it seems to have it's head and arse in the right spots since the early 2000's, but I am a tad uneasy about us chasing B grade Dons.

I hope it helps. Because if he shows faith after all he's been through and seen, then the young pups have to believe the worst is over

Sure, but it was more fun yelling back 'Josh Fraser says hi!'