Dante

Ross Stevenson said that he'd heard Jesse was going to sign a 4 year deal this week.

Question is, do you play to the strengths of the side you currently have or the side you intend recruiting, remembering that a football list is fluid.

See post 62.

Every club apart from us has some sort of support within the community, we elicit some sympathy from the supporters of other clubs, they look at us as some sort of nothing that exists but doesn't matter. It's up to us to change that, it's going to be hard though, flags are the only way we will become relevant.

I think they will continue on, I'm not saying they'll win a flag but I believe they are hungry for success and that will drive them. Let's see how the draw is first, that will have a bearing in where they will finish up at the end of the home and away games.

I said earlier in the year that this was going to be a very even year and that there was no stand out team, well that turned out to be about right, the flag was there, like 1990, to be grabbed and the Bullies did. Next year, unless GWS really hit form and dominate, it may be the same again. Some of the teams that have dominated over the last few years have some ageing players that may be on their last legs and unless they can use free agency to rebuild quickly, they will start to fall away. Some of the other major clubs that are rebuilding their lists and will either stagnate or drop down. We are in a position to take advantage of this and if we can get our act together, we could have a very good chance of finishing in the top 6 or thereabouts. We must get everyone on board and I think most are and we must get rid of the last remnants of The Neeld era, if we do, we have a good chance of getting in to a spot that will give us more chance of being a destination club. Who knows, if all falls in to place we could play off for the big prize.

True, but we already have our fair share of "not so special" players.

There were a couple of blatant throws yesterday that weren't paid and one was a tunnel ball through the legs, which they replayed and the commentators said that it was ok, huh, how could it be if you lift the ball with two hands? Guess we have to revisit the free paid against Fitzpatrick for his tunnel ball against Hawthorn. Another was a double handed throw right in front of the umpire as the player was going down, it was the most obvious I've seen that wasn't paid.

I thought he was serviceable but not great, he's not really a player you'd go after because he's simply not something special.

2012 They won 8 games we won 2 2013 They won 7 games we won 4 2010 They played finals, finished 4th and won 14 games. We won 8 and finished 12th. In the years 2012 and 2013 we had Mark Neeld who not only decimated our list, he also destroyed all the players that we had, most of whom were second raters to say the least. The Bullies had a good list even though they had turmoil at the club and if you'd like to take the time to compare the two lists at the start of Roos reign and the start of Bevos reign, let me know if you can see any difference. How many of the players that were in the Bullies side yesterday were there when he arrived, how many of the players in the side that played the last game of Melbourne's season were there when Roos started? Their Captain walked for Money, the BM left because he was shown the door, Higgins left for money and isn't that the way to do it; get rid of the money men and those that have a poor attitude. How many times have you seen a club with a good list of players come good after they get rid of an unpopular coach and some poisonous players? Hogan has shown that he can be a top liner and Boyd has been ordinary to date, but the way Boyd stamped his authority on the game yesterday says to me that he will be a force in the competition.

I thought it was at the MCG but that was probably the game.

Stringer was terrible at times yesterday, he actually got in the way several times and they would probably have been better without him, although he would have demanded a reasonable player to look after him, just in case. Do you think he's drunk too much of his own bathwater?

Remember the list that Roos inherited, I do it was a shambles and he had to spend the next couple of years ridding us of the deadwood. You can say what you want about Roos but he has regenerated our list and we are where we are at the moment because of him, the last lot will go this year, I believe. Roos had to rid us of 50 years of mediocrity, apart from some patches of finals, which we were never a realistic chance to win, we have been garbage. The Bullies had some good players and played finals a few years ago, the culture at that club was far superior to ours, whose isn't, and as we'd been destroying our list they'd been building theirs. I'm excited by our list, Pertacca can be our Bont, Hunt can be our JJ, Hogan can be our Boyd, Max is better than Roughy and we have a pretty exciting bunch of kids in the midfield with Oliver, Viney, Dom and Brayshaw capable of going to the next level. Roos has left us in good shape and now it's up to Goodwin to deliver.

It was like a changing of the guard this year, Hawthorn dropped out early, Geelong were shown up as pretenders, Sydney were walloped by GWS and were only there because they played Geelong to get back in the game. Sydney were beaten by two teams in the finals that were brutal and hit them with everything, that's what they normally do to other teams. There are other teams on the verge of the top eight like Melbourne and St Kilda that are on the improve and sides like West Coast and Adelaide that seem to be treading water. If we can improve our list a bit to fill in the missing pieces we can have a real rivalry with the Bullies and GWS, it's up to us now.

Boyd crashed packs and marked the ball, all over the ground, he didn't really play the role of a FF he was more a roving forward/ruck, he got better as the game went on. Hogan doesn't play ruck but it is something that maybe we should look at, Boyd had 14 Hit Outs as well and if Hogan could play the cut out ruck position it would solve a few problems.

Boyd was great, Johannisen absolutely butchered the ball today but got plenty of it, Picken was very good, but Kennedy was just sensational.

I agree, I don't want the players that can't make it at GWS, I want the ones that can. We have a few that were from GWS and couldn't get a game and that's fine, but no more, I'm sure we have enough depth players and now we need best 22.

There are rumours that the rumours are only rumours.

Congratulations Nathan and Jerrii. Great stuff, I didn't know that his wife was expecting, keep em coming Nat.

My mistake, I can't remember who the coach was then, but the facts of the day remain the same.

Do you think that was a fair representation of the season? Congratulations to all the winners, well done.

In the last game of the 2015 season I thought he was terrible and was surprised when he was selected early in the year, however he put in some reasonable performances and deserved he spot until injured. He came to us when we were on our backs on the floor and despite the lack of competition finished in the top 5 in the B&F so he was still better than a lot of other players on our list. I was never a big fan but I have to say he gave it his all, so I thank him for his contribution over the last 4 years and wish him well in the future.

Agreed, they may [play the game before it starts, bit like us in 2000, we looked so good up to the GF and then we just went to pieces. Hope the Bulies win and then we win the next three like we did in 55, 56 and 57.

I wish there was a way of knowing if there was any real news about Hogan re signing, I've opened this thread countless times, all to no avail. Perhaps we could have an asterisk next to the thread title to show something of note has been posted.

He was selected on the bench one day and Neale Daniher left him there until about 2 minutes to go in the game, it must have been the most embarrassing day of his life and obviously Danners didn't want him in the team but the match committee did. I really felt for him that day.