Wiseblood

Yep. Plenty of teams who have kicked off the year well aren't ones I expect to keep it up all season. The Dogs are a prime example. Being 0-3 puts us behind the other two you mentioned, but I think it does keep our season alive... just.

Well said, Clint. What that, and the Hawks final, also show that we really miss Hannan and AVB. They were either kicking or setting up goals throughout both games and we are missing their hardness and versatility up forward. Even Spargo was up and about in those games. But as you say, it does help to put things in perspective.

You're probably right, Clint. But if posters here want BOTH out next week, then that is one solution that could work. Otherwise we're stuck with at last one of them for a few more weeks at least.

I love this club just as much as I did the first time I realised who we were. Ill always buy my memberships, always be biased around my mates and always watch and cheer us on. Supporting sometimes isn't easy, but that's life. Sometimes players work out, sometimes they don't. Same goes for coaches, trainers, physios etc. Sure, I want the very best at our club, but nobody is perfect. Not everything will click and work all the time. The emotions go up and down but my support and my commitment to the club will never waiver. Edit - and about the trust aspect - I have no reason not to trust anyone at the club. The medicos haven't had a great run, but we have no idea of the inner workings of the club, so I don't really want to sink the boots in when I know nothing about it. I have no reason not to trust Goodwin, coaches, players, etc. with what they've done with the club as a whole over the last 5 years or so.

I don't see why you felt the need to elaborate when I had already agreed with you. Don't worry, I haven't changed my mind in the last few hours.

Like I give a stuff if you change your mind. Your views are disrespectful, full stop. Enjoy them.

I find it disrespectful that you think Goodwin won't be working his butt off for the club, players and supporters even with the contract extension. Pretty poor form there, even for you, adc.

Why do we need to? He's the CEO, not the coach. I'd rather him focus his energy on building our training facility than coming out and saying 'this is not acceptable'. I'll leave that to Goodwin. Also love how all the old men in the thread who have 'been suffering since 1965' are all banding together to pot the club. Never change, fellas.

True. But you won't win with forwards and mids who apply inconsistent pressure either. The way they ran the ball up and down the ground was ridiculously easy, and if we want to get back on track, we'll need to improve in that area quickly.

Human? Let's not get carried away.... And I wouldn't say I hit my breaking point. I've just had enough of ANB. I can't put up with it any longer. Our problems run much deeper than him, and I do feel guilty for singling him out, but it was horrible stuff.

It's the most frustrated I've been at a player for a long time. I'm said elsewhere that moments before that he fumbled a ball at half forward, and then he goes and drops a simple chest mark under no pressure. Unforgivable stuff.

No, they can't, but blaming him for what happened last night is short sighted at best. Was he to blame for the ease with which they often ran the ball off their half back line, or burst away from stoppages, or broke tackles that we should have been sticking? Our half forward line and midfield needs to work a hell of a lot harder than what it is right now. Oscar obviously isn't the way forward for us, but he is also not the main cause of the problem.

All we can do over the next few weeks while we wait for May to return is: Drop both Frost and Oscar. T Mac to CHB, Keilty comes in to play forward and pinch hit in the ruck. It's really the only solution we have right now.

Here we go.

ANB has to go. Surely his time has come. Stretch might get a look in for him, or Garlett. In fact I'd like to see Jeffy in the side. Frost and Oscar should go, too... but who for? Unless they send Tom back, we don't have anyone else. Edit - Totally forgot about Petty. Hopefully he plays well for Casey on the weekend and gets a run. What about Preuss? Maybe Keilty gets a look in? I dunno really. No idea where to start.

Is he a worse defender than what Oscar or Frost are currently bringing to the table? May is still a few weeks away, Lever even longer. We need to try something.

I lost it at that point. He had fumbled a little earlier in that term and I was telling my wife how I was sick and tired of it. Then he did that. Felt good to let it out. Serenity now!

Tom Mac to CHB. Frost or O Mac out. Take your pick. Keilty to play at CHF, pinch hitting in the ruck. It's something to do with the cattle we have.

Can't disagree with any of that, bing. The combo of players being out of form or not good enough, coupled with a game plan that isn't working, is a recipe for the disaster we are currently seeing.

@binman ANB can get stuffed, though. That dropped mark in the third term was it for me.

That's a small part of it, but I'm not sure it's as large of a factor as we think. May and Lever would have made a difference, but even the best defenders would cough up a few goals with the ease that the ball went into our defence.

No. When he dropped that mark very early in the third term, which was under no pressure, I yelled so loud I woke my 12 week old daughter up. The wife told me off, but I told her it was ANB's fault. I've defended him before, but I just can't do it anymore. The bloke is simply not good enough and his fumbles, dropped marks and lack of contribution can waste away at Casey for the rest of his career.

Yep. It also comes from the midfield as well. The ease with which they can run it down there is not good enough. Did we learn nothing from those first few games?

Been a while since I felt this flat. I'm not panicking yet, but I couldn't feel any flatter. Just an awful feeling. The bottom line for me is the gameplan, which is what many of us discussed last week. Yes, ANB should be dropped, Frost and O Mac were putrid pretty much most of the night and we have others like Hibberd and Tom Mac who are horribly out of form. They are are small pieces of the puzzle right now. But the ease with which opposition teams are scoring against us right now is alarming. In that third term the Bombers kicked 7 straight from roughly 12 inside 50s at one stage. This is horribly similar to what the Cats did in the third term last week. Every time they ran forward they looked like scoring and we did absolutely nothing about it. When you have McKernan and Tippa kicking 4, you know you're in deep trouble. We simply made the same mistakes last week and we paid dearly for it. How often did we turn it over at half forward and they hit a couple of over the top handballs and ran off with the ball? How can we let that happen? Are the instructions wrong, or do we have players at the moment who simply aren't putting them into practice? The pressure is on, now. Goody had a week to rectify things and he didn't. Thankfully the Bombers are rubbish as a half decent side would have probably beaten us by more. If there are any positives, it's that we seemed to lower our eyes a little better this week, but we still allowed the ball to get out too easily. Gawny wasn't bad, Gus tried hard and I thought some of the lesser lights like Lockhart and Corey Wagner did some good things. But we have nowhere to hide now. The season is slipping out of our grasp and we have very little time to get back into it. It seems hollow for me to say, but don't lose the faith.

We have totally switched off.