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...and win that game... If we average 80 points for in the first two months that would be a huge sign we have improved and can have a good second half of the season. But we have an Ablett-led team first up, then GWS trying to impress Canberra, then an Adelaide team trying to impress a coach, then a Tigers team that is expecting a top 6 finish, then three of the best teams in the land in the next 3 games... I can envision winning a majority of those games, and I can also envision being 'in the lead in the last quarter' in a number of these games but, as a lot of you are missing, being 'in the lead in the last quarter' is not the same as winning the game...

You are right; we played St Kilda on 22 March last year. On 21st of March we reported: And a week later after Rd 1 we reported: So there was a boost from the Rd 1 Tent at the game, but not overly significant. One must keep in mind that that game was at Etihad... It is difficult to read the tea leaves I will admit but there was a definite 'Roos Effect' that has diminished a year on.

A bit over a thousand behind last year. It's a lot to get over, Peter... They need to win games of football for us to get 40k let alone 50k.

Guys, can you stop derailing the thread...

Ah, one thing - we have emergencies for every position but the threshold to use them is 0% so the only times they would be used is if there are late changes - an injury 5 minutes in won't change the named player to the emergency (which is a new aspect of UF). I am ambivalent, just letting people know that the Emergencies are only for late changes.

No, no, no, as sweet and sour dee found out - you must discuss their performance at that training... You can't just post about players. You have to post about how they were training, ask how they were training, comment on who is seeing them train, defend those who are seeing them train from those who are seeing them train, or comment on those that are defending the people who are seeing them train from the people who are commenting on the people who are seeing them train...

This is a training thread from two days ago - it's dead. Let it die. Let it find peace. There is no information from that training remotely relevant or important enough to warrant more internet space. Let the thread go. It's done.

GC, GWS away, Adel away, Ricmond, Freo, Sydney, and Hawthorn... That's the troubling part.

Ouch. Is he one who doesn't talk to you much?

So you can imagine what they thought of his fitness levels...

Last year was a success relative to the nonsense before it - just look at the numbers in my sig. This year hasn't started yet - I was never very bullish about this season because our best talents are far too young to be taking us up the ladder. With that said - the mindset of the team is worrying when we win the contested and uncontested footy but have fewer forward entries - that makes me think blokes don't trust themselves and each other and that is what coaches get paid to instil. Let's see how we go...

The hardest thing is getting the pill in the first place... As for Round 1 - I am much more comfortable than this time last year when we were getting an even more enormous share of uncontested possies but doing even less with it. I love that we are winning the contested possession, and I love that we are working hard to get uncontested possies, but until we do something with it - it is nothing but 'good stats.'

Viney has come in and had to be the 3rd best mid in his first year, and the 6th best mid in his 2nd and 3rd years. Of course he looks out of his depth at times - he is out of his depth. Nathan Jones had similar criticisms and he had enough internal drive to improve and become accustomed to the responsibility he had to burden.

There was one moment in the first where he could have turned about 45 degrees and kicked into our forward line from a centre clearance and instead handpassed it to Lumumba flat footed 4 metres behind him. HL tried to get some momentum up to kick it but ended up handpassing it to no-one. Go forward, Jack! He has forgotten now to play aggressive footy. I have a stick figure of a bloke in my team, hasn't won a hard ball in his life, gets the footy from hard running, and when he gets the footy he pierces the opponents hearts with his decision making. Gets it, loses his blokes footing with a shimmy, runs 15m, kicks it straight up the guts to a lead or has another bounce and backs himself, and then trusts his forward to win a one on one or two on two. Roos played footy when he played footy, but he is coaching the footy out of these blokes, or maybe their confidence is so shot they don't believe they, and their temammates, are footballers anymore...

I am more concerned with the basic desire to get the ball forward and how that has been seemingly beaten out of the players. Talk about Footy 101; that is in the mission statement... Get the ball forward as that is how you score and win the game. 16 more contested possies, 35 more uncontested possies - those are healthy numbers. Then we get to 4 less Inside 50s and losing the game... This team needs to go forward to go forward.

He had troubles with interest and fitness. And the odd injury. He is originally from Tathra on the South Coast of NSW and Ainslie brought him up 4 years ago and it took him a couple years to show something to get noticed with. He was overweight and interested in other things aswell as footy. How it relates to these teenagers that he has 'gone past' that we took in the draft is that he was well away from prying eyes when he had his issues with his footy.

If you have a rule where the clubs can't re-sign their own players during the season then you remove this constant pressure on the player and the club to 'get it done asap.' If you are forced to wait until the season ends, then that will mitigate the pressure and the sideshow we saw with Frawley and might now see with Howe.

Let's cool it with the 'troll' accusations... Reid is just trying to deflect blame with the 'everyone else was doing it' brush. Pure Essendon. They would like themselves absolved and everyone else indicted and they could hartily justify it to themselves and each other too. This is a club that organised this and 'lost' the receipts, and think they should escape penalties based on the fact that we don't know exactly what they took because they have no records of what they took... I am certain all other clubs have been touched by peptides, but the systemic experimentation and conspiratorial running of a scheme seems to be Essendon's issue alone. I am not going to throw the rest of the league or the AFL admin into their corrupt basket. And, Old Dee says, let's not confuse incompetence with corruption.

So smoking weed is equivalent to hanging out with bikies and whatever else that loser Swan has gotten himself, and others, into? And HL actually asked the AFL about the ramifications of second hand smoke...what kind of 'loose cannon' does that? Nick Maxwell said that Collingwood tolerate Swan but have told him that he must not fraternise with the younger players, what a healthy situation that is...

Not only should they be banned from revealing it, they should be banned from re-signing any player in the last 6 months of their contract. You get to sign up your player until March and then that's it - the footy starts and contracts can be dealt with later. Again, the US Sports do this aspect far better. Extensions are allowed but the above occurs and teams must then allow their players contract to expire before signing them up again. Penalties apply for breaching these rules.

A whole lot of people, including some on here, say we tanked after being in front when the final siren went...

Please don't read anyone's opinion that the club can be insular and short sighted as a slight on 'nineteen' and anyone, including yourself, that gives their time for the club.

Are you taking the [censored]?

I am loving the lack of kids in the AFL for the Dees. We play them way too early, on not enough form.

That is not 'the old logo' - it is still the logo, the are using the MFC overlap for reasons raised on here - it is hard to make the logo/emblem look good on the jumper, some merch and promotional tools. Bartlett has already said that there was a great deal of support for the emblem. I like it, I don't have as much of a problem with a constellation as TSFKA does, and it is busy and arrogant because that is the history of this club. By all means create other logos and use them as required - it really is a nothing issue we constantly harp about.