Wiseblood

I love these ins. Not really...

Not surprised at all. I was just trying to be diplomatic. What you mentioned above only has a hold on certain supporters. Current players couldn't care less and are far more interested in forging their own path.

Not to mention that Spargo is still just 19 years of age. He played an important role for us during our surge for the finals at just 18 years of age. The kid has the ability, and drop off at his age isn't uncommon. I think it would be short sighted for supporters to write him off just yet.

I disagree.

Where did I play the man? I didn't get personal. I just disagreed with your comment that Oliver should be dropped. Regardless of how you framed your comment, that is what you suggested. In my opinion, that's ludicrous. If you don't like that then fine, but don't get all sooky when someone disagrees with you.

Pedantic? Hardly. I'm just looking at your quote. You said 'both won't get the ultimate message, again', and then you followed that up by clarifying this by saying 'neither have been dropped'. If you don't want me to look at your comments, then don't post your own thoughts to go with the article. Simple. And the fact that you're suggesting Oliver should have been dropped, at any point this season, is laughable at best.

So you believe Oliver should be dropped? Forget Gus for a second, who it would be fair to say is struggling, but you said 'they won't get the ultimate message', so I'm assuming you're including Clarrie in this assessment, yes?

Great post, but you're banging your head against a brick wall. The bloke will never, ever change. He thinks the club is haunted by all these things when in fact it's him whose haunted by it all.

That doesn't answer anything. Why should 'they' be dropped and who would you be dropping them for?

How do you figure that?

Neither was I my friend. Just taking the mickey and not doing much of a job of it. ?

HOW DARE THEY LAUGH ABOUT THIS SEASON!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!?! CHANGES NEED TO BE MADE?!>?!?!>!>!>!>@>!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Teams that can't beat top 8 sides aren't relevant. You're right about that. The problem is that we DID beat Top 8 sides. As Pennant points out, and I'm ignoring the H&A aspect here, we knocked off five of them, two of which were done in the pressure cooker of finals. That's a pretty handy record if you ask me. It took us a while to do it in 2018, but then we went on and beat four of them in a row. That's nothing to sneeze at. This season has been forgettable and we're lucky to beat anyone, but as someone else pointed out, we still knocked off Fremantle while they were inside the Top 8. I guess it's not exactly the same, but I think this stat is a little irrelevant if you look at ALL the stats and not just limit it to anything prior to finals.

I assume that SWYL is still peddling this one, almost a year after it happened? I admire his persistence and marvel at his stubborness.

Is the kid going to be any good? If we miss out and he's only just a half decent player then I'm not fussed if we miss out.

T Mac in horrible form (until the last few weeks), Weideman not taking the strides we anticipated, Vanders doesn't play, Hannan misses most of the season and Melksham has also spent plenty of time on the sidelines. ANB, Spargo and Garlett have done Sweet FA and, really, only Trac and Hunt have seemed dangerous most weeks. Add in a midfield that hasn't functioned as well either, and a game plan that's all about the 'chaos' ball, and you add it together to get a very dysfunctional forward line. Some is down to poor luck with injuries, some of it down to not adapting and a little bit of stubborness as well that took them half the year to acknowledge with the assistant coaching change.

It was always going to happen. Saints have basically gone nowhere in his time at the helm. You can only put up with that for so long.

Hunt and Petracca are two others who have lifted their games as well. Having said that, it would be nice to add a few more names to the list. It's one of the myriad of reasons why we're having a season to forget.

I can see the logic behind his move to half back/wing - he is a good reader of the player, good overhead and generally a beautiful kick of the footy. But you watch his second half up forward and you wonder why he was ever moved from there in the first place. With Tom Mac out for the year you would hope he spends more time forward for the last six games of the year.

Depends how you look at it. We have been able to blood a few players who have shown something this year. While inconsistent, as younger and inexperienced players can, guys like Lockhart, Baker, Petty and to a lesser extent, Dunkley, have shown that they have the ability in the coming years to become good AFL players. The problem is that they aren't really ready to be, but with the injuries and form we've had, we haven't had much choice. Another gain could be that we've seen enough of some players. ANB surely moves on at the end of the year (although I have this sinking feeling that he'll be there in 2020). Stretch and JKH will probably go as well. We can look to let some go and fill in the gaps on our list as best we can. The season has been a shocker, but I think we have the ability to bounce back next year if we get a clear run at it.

I agree, Clint. He was terrific in the second half. If Weideman doesn't get up for next week, I'd leave him there.

Goodwin said, I believe in his press conference, that he will be picking sides to win games for the rest of the season. And so he should.

It's tough at the moment. If we're being honest we are an average side that is playing some pretty average footy. After last season it can be a bitter pill to swallow. However, this is not 2013. This is not a list where we are going 'who are the good players and how the hell are we going to improve?' This is a list that has been smashed from pillar to post and we've never really gotten out of the starting gate. Look at the side we had in yesterday. We are still missing some quality players - Tom Mac, Jake Melksham, Vanders and Marty Hore come to mind. We have players who had off season surgery and it took them weeks to get going. We still have players in the side who have had long stints on the sidelines and are clearly down on fitness and form (Lever, Jetta, Hannan etc.). We are also playing blokes who are showing something but don't have the consistency to perform week in, week out (Petty, Lockhart, Dunkley, Preuss). Then, on top of that, we are forced to play blokes who are either on their last legs (Jones, Lewis) or who shouldn't have any business being in the side to begin with (ANB). Add it all up and you get the season we're having. To me it's an anomaly - we have been building well since 2015. It's not as if we stunk it up and then pulled 2018 out of the bag. It's been quite the opposite. There are clear reasons why this season has been a failure, but this time we have the personnel to turn it around quickly. We aren't relying on a Matt Jones or Dean Terlich to finish Top 5 in our B&F. Not only that, but the holes in our side are clear - we could use more support for Tom Mac up forward, although the hope is that Weideman kicks on in 2020, and we know that we need some small forwards to support that. We could also use a little more pace in midfield. But these are fixable issues if we make the right moves. We don't have 5 or 6 half decent players and the rest are terrible. That couldn't be further from the truth. Again, this season has been tough to watch, but it's not the end of the world. Far from it. We can turn things around very quickly IF we do the right things over pre-season, such as who we draft and trade in to the club, and hopefully we don't have another awful run with injuries. I have no doubt that we'll bounce back in 2020.

It has immensely, Steve. How have you been going big fella?