Jarka

Frawley named as an emergency is not a good sign at all.

Huge outs for the Hawks if true which will mean that they'll be missing Hodge, Crawford, Lewis, Brown, Williams & Boyle. Really we should be able to be them, no excuses.

Sweet, thanks again

Probably not but it's an issue that's worthy of it's own discussion, especially if the trend continues

RR, where did you get these figures from, do you have a link? I'm going to have a field day with this, thankyou very, very much

I hear ya Jaded

This topic has been discussed in a couple of threads and I won't repeat everything but here is a summary of Gardner's achievement (please note that I am far from his biggest fan but you have to acknowledge his good wotk): - Olympic Park will happen, the delay is not his fault - Record membership of 28k in a very poor year - Reduced debt - Increased expenditure to the footy department Not bad for a bloke who has apparently done a terrible job. Sometimes I think that people have forgotten what state the club was in when he came into power, remember we had lost over $5m over the space of just 2 years. He will probably leave us at the end of the year but he has set us up so we have a chance for survival in the future, after Szondy left we were as good as dead.

We were financially strong under Ridley

Point 1 - We are much more financially viable than we were in the years before he became pres. Prior to his appointment we lost around $5m over 2 years, make no mistake he has made giant strides, still a long way to go though. Point 2 - He has given us Olympic Park, sure it's not ready yet but that's hardly his fault. Point 3 - We haven't won a premiership in 44 years and it will take time to rebuild the club after the disastrous last decade.

I'm surprised there's been no replies to this thread, it makes for very encouraging reading for our future.

Apparently there was some confusion regarding the starting time for the game so it's not really his fault.

Careful loges what you say about Bate around here, some of the natives don't take too kindly to negative comments, but fwiw I agree with you, and I believe he makes a better mid or flanker.

The last time a club was written off like we have been this year us was last year with the pies, and up until just recently I've tended to agree, however I'm beginning to feel alot more positive...

meh I lie, BRING IT ON!!!!!

Grimes' injury was always going to take him awhile to get back to 100% and I completely agree with you that he shouldn't be rushed. I don't understand how anyone wwould be prepared to rush him back early and risk doing permanent damage, ffs he's only 18y/o.

Wait until the 4th or 5th round and then reward the one who worked harder

No, he was 4th with 461 http://www.finalsiren.com/AFLPlayerStats.a...=HitOuts%20Desc

Exactly, he is a much better midfielder than he is key forward and right now we don't have alot of midfielders who are capable of this type of delivery. Playing Bate up forward sacrifices a potent weapon that we have.

Yeah and Neita had a very poor season, thanks for agreeing with me. Bate does not play as a key forward and he definitely doesn't mark like one, but hopefully he can improve in this area.

No, I'd hope that he'd take more than 5 marks a game, but if you're happy with that sort of performance then that's just swell

If Dunn could improve his contested marking he could be anything

Connolly has a great football brain and I'm rapt that he's back at the club, he's actually a mate of my old mans back from their Rusden days

It has nothing to do with his age

Kicks goals? He's only ever kicked more than 2 goals in a game on one single occasion and that was against Carlton, hardly something to be proud of. He doesn't have the contested marking or goal kicking ability to be a dominant CHF, but considering we have absolutely no one else to play that role I guess he's it Thanks CAC

He is not a Key Forward