45HG

Questioning Barassi's iconic status at the MFC because of hearsay about a stolen jumper?

Sleeve, I see what you're saying, but the point is that they have had 5 years more development than us. Not only should they be ahead of us, now is when they should be starting to press for high finishes, not scraping into top 10 finishes. If they pick up some good kids, and get rid of the dead wood, i think with a good coach they can do good things. They just need a good coach

Mate you don't have to be so precious. It was just one of the things I remember about the ground. Next time I'll bring Sunnies. I saw potential for a decent little stadium, but in general didn't see anything special. However, of course, it doesn't need to be special

Haha what's Dean's middle name?!?! This may not be coincidental

It sure as hell didn't work in the first 4 rounds last year. I'm not sure what the Cats have done, but i'm sure it has more to do with the 4 years of list building and gameplan management, more than a few players having coffee deciding the direction they want their club to take. I think off field our club is heading in the right direction. It is forming links with the community, and in a professional manner is becoming more connected with supporters through their functions, emails etc. As supporters, we need to be more united. Perhaps make it easier, or more enjoyable, to join the cheer squad. Perhaps have more functions where fans can meet up and decide plans of their own on how to attack the image of our fans. I find that the better your support it, the more likely it is that neutral fans will jump on board. Essendon are a prime example of this, as are the Pies. If our supporters are seen as strong, and the club fixes off its off field problems, all that needs to happen is the onfield turn around which in all honesty, we know will come eventually.

I knew this would cheer me up. Cheers Rhino http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fremantle_Foo...trading_history Phil Matera? Didn't know that! How'd I forget James Clement. On a positive, they traded away Kingsley Hunter, the down side of that is that they had him in the first place. Adam McPhee. This just gets better and better Medhurst and Pick 8 for Tarrant

I never said it was a new problem. But fear is about perception. We are not a big club, we have not won a premiership in over 40 years, we have a poor membership record, we will not be feared until these things are fixed. Since i've been watching footy, at various times these teams have been better than us but i have feared them, the Saints, Dogs, Hawks, Roos, Cats. Yet teams like the Bombers, Blues, Pies and to a lesser extent the Tigers always command respect not because of the waythey play footy, but the presence of their brand and supporter group. Obviously winning a premiership is probably the only way a team can become feared, but it has much more to do with perception than reality. The Magpies can drag 60,000 to away matches and have people think they're a powerful club, yet play mediocre footy, because of their perception.

RD that is spot on! It's the one thing that got to me above all else on Friday night. As soon as our boys got the ball, from the first minute to the 81st, they were pressured, harrassed, bullied and then usually defeated. As soon as a Cats player got the ball, they had space to think and move freely. Now this is obviously partly to do with the fact that they are a more drilled team who know their roles, but it also showed we weren't running hard enough

I'd much rather see a thread that makes an attempt to think of ideas on how to fix this cultural problem. Stating we have a soft culture will not harden the culture amongst the team, or amongst its supporters. WCE got done by 135 points by the Cats this year, they'll be back. Friday night was atrocious, but there are steps in place to make our team competitive week in week out. You have to be patient. You cannot expect a team of 12 year olds to suddenly change 44 years of soft culture. How can we, as supporters, develop a strong collective unit of supporters? That's what we should be attempting to do. And I'll clap my team off whenever they come off the field if I feel our club is headed in the right direction. I feel it's a part of building a strong team, a team that knows it has it's fans onside. A team that knows their supporters won't enjoy the wins against Brisbane, and then ignore them after the embarrassing defeats that echo throughout the whole club

Two things i remember, being blinded by the Sun in the 3rd(?) quarter and it taking about 5 minutes to walk from one side of the grandstand to the other. This must have been horrible at the Bombers Hawks game

It would cheer me up immensely if someone could do a quick round up of Freo's drafting "ability." At a quick think, Farmer, Mcleod, White, Bell, Croad have all been traded out of Freo, any others? Any there that are wrong?

Has a team ever had an average winning margin of 3.5 points or lower at the end of a season?

You're a goose

HT, you're probably better off ignoring idiotic comments like that, as they clearly carry no weight. But may I suggest next time if you do a poll like this, make the question "will Melbourne beat..." Much of this thread has revolved around the difference between can and will

Good call, because Daniher is still coaching AFL and all... His was more of a one year plan anyway

Says the girl who's name doesn't begin with a Capital letter. Seriously, how boring do you want to be?

Of their injury list, Richmond are missing 2, Adelaide 5, of their probable starting 22, so hardly undermanned. Tigers haven't beaten a top 8 side this year, and i don't agree with putting Deledio in the same boat as Cotchin, let alone Tambling. I think Deledio is almost as good as he'll get (which is pretty good mind you) but i don't think Tambling has it. Like us last year, they have a lot of drift wood in their team, and I wonder how long it takes them to shift them out

Unless the Tigers can produce a remarkable turn around in performance (and gameplan and possibly personnel) you'd have to think they've blown another shot at finals. Surely if they miss them this year, Wallace would have to be a goner. There's only so many 5 year plans you can have. Just goes to show how important building a good team culture is.

From memory, aside from the very odd occasion, I reckon the Cats usually had at least Harley no further forward than the back 50 arc. I certainly didn't see him run with Sylvia into his own forwardline

Good calling guys! Loved the "mighty Zebras" call

I don't know how much we can gain out of a 116 point belting in all honesty. Geelong players didn't push back because we screwed around with the ball, they were already back! I'd have thought from being at the game you would've picked that up. Our forwards pushed back to a) stem the flow of the ball into the cats forwardline (which if they didn't do we'd probably be all complaining about) and b ) to help the midfielders to break even. The problem was, even 6 against 6, our forwardline was losing out to the cats backline, resulting in an 8 goal to 0 opening term. Again, i don't think you can criticize a coach about structure based upon a 19 goal loss, given he's done pretty well to scrap out a structure at all in previous rounds. If it continues next week against WCE i'll both concerned and upset.

Why not chuck Meesen in? I realise it sounds like he's been not playing well, but what do we have to lose? And PJ just shouldn't play Geelong

Absolutely, was the only man to stand up in the first half, first quarter especially. Did it shift your view at all 'Bub?

I'm excited about an 18 year old Number One draft pick coming to the club, maybe a trade of one of our older blokes for another team's younger player, but I personally wouldn't be excited to see a 31 year old don the Red and Blue for the first time. It would be a media circus more than anything, and i fail to see how Ben Cousins could give us any extra sponsors. And if you're having to think of behaviour clauses to sign someone so far out of your target age, well then you know you should stop right there. The only name worthy of debate is Didak IMO

I hope that he overcomes his addiction, as i hope anyone who is trapped in such a horrible situation can overcome. But I hold no hope for his football career extending its boundaries to the MFC. I would see this as a short-sighted decision which would contradict much of what we have been attempting to achieve this year. I hope Cousins can overcome his ailment, but that should not give him free passage to our club at such an age with our club needing to rebuild