dee-tox

What McLure is saying on the surface is correct. But 'culture' covers a multitude of sins and the comments are a tad simplistic. In sport, the best teams win for a number of reasons. Normally, it is having a team that can have more members on a given day execute their skills under pressure than the other team. What allows them to do that varies per team. Having the talent in the first place, having the willingness to do it, the right leadership and coaching, the courage to lay it all on the line, performing when it matters, gameplan, physical conditioning, age, etc. If you ultimately don't have the skill is your culture poor? Absolutely not. There are many examples of teams with lesser ability performing above expectations. They've done all they could to bridge the gap. Our own 1987 team a case in point. One could argue our culture under Northey was close to the best in the league. There was a ruthless determination among that team to perform. Ultimately, Carlton had the better team though. Same goes with Daniher's 1998 and 2000 teams. It is easy easy to throw everything into the same bucket and generalise. St Kilda has 100 years of bad culture? No, their teams under Alves were amazing. Culture, like most other things, can change for the better or for the worse. It can change for the better as it did under Checker Hughes, Norm Smith, Barassi, Northey and Daniher. But many other things are at play as well.

I understand what you are saying, but if Baker is needed to play 60 percent on a wing we are in trouble IMO. His lack of contested ability, defensive ability and the fact he can't play more than a quarter should result in opposition teams going through his wing and exposing us. With Vanders, his contested ability is great and he does put pressure on the opposition but his ball use is generally poor which doesn't augur well for our forwards!

I think this may be the short-term solution. For the wing you need to be reasonable overhead and good one on one which Melksham is. The other decent options of Fritta, Rivers, Salem, etc you are robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Given Jordon hasn't played a game yet and Sparrow has only played seven then writing both off is premature speculation. Now @Elegtif you were to suggest Baker (23 in May) won't make it then I would agree with you!

Seems the positivity from the Richmond game has dried up. But today's loss shouldn't be all doom and gloom either. As usual, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. The worry is our depth players are seemingly a fair way off the mark. That's both experienced players (Jetta, Melksham, Jones, AvB, Harmes, TMac, etc) and our inexperienced players (Baker, Jordon, Petty, Bowey, Laurie, Spargo, Sparrow, Jackson, Chandler, Lockhart, etc). With a full strength team you may be able to cover this and have six to eight players play a role. Depends on your game plan a bit as well. But any given year you're likely to have at least 20 percent of your list injured. Having 10-12 blokes of the above calibre in your 22 spells trouble. The positive aspect is given the current ability of Gawn, Langdon, Oliver, Petracca, Salem, Brayshaw, Hibberd, Lever, Viney, B. Brown (potentially), Fritta etc.) you may be able to win more games than you lose. And if four or five guys move up in class then you could really challenge.

By the sounds of the comments in this thread, Robinson is having the desired effect. Throw in a few controversial selections to rile people up. It doesn't matter. It's just an opinion.

We signed Harmes for five years and look how that turned out! :)

You never know I guess. Unlikely that he can come in straight away. AFL fitness is a massive step up. Then again there are a few cases of VFL players making the step albeit with a full preseason!

Think we'll finish top six if we can plug the gaps. We still need to find two tall forwards, a wingman, a small defender, two consistent small forwards, and a couple of flanker types rotating through the midfield. That's quite a few ifs!

A 24-year old, 195cm mature wingman that is good overhead. Sounds like the club have identified a pressing need!

Always remember Tommy Lahiff saying the best player he ever saw was Demon Jack Mueller. Four-time premiership player and a couple of Blueys. Gawn might be the best ruckman we've had but is surely behind Barassi, Norm Smith, Flower, Warne Smith, Mueller, Lyon, Neitz, Dixon, Spencer, Bob Johnson and many others!

Likes: Lever, Jordon, Chandler, Max, Oliver, Langdon, Petracca. Jones in last quarter. Dislikes: Hunts tackling, Baker's second half, Harmes' free kicks, Nev going with 195cm forwards!

People underestimate Barassi. If the Norm Smith medal existed in the 50s and 60s RDB would have five of them!

There ain't much to excited about. unfortunately. Jordon OK. Lever and May not bad. Salem, Oliver and Petracca haven't touched it. Gawn and Harmes turn it over.

Yeah, nah, Positives Jordon, Lever and May. Not much else unfortunately

Nice goal from Jordon, Lever good. Spargo ok

Jordon, with an o. Let's spell his name correctly, please.

Ah, no! Clayton Oliver won a Morrish Medal! Redman played two pretty ordinary TAC Cup games at the end of 2019.

Oskar is the new Oscar!

This is a big call! What have trackwatchers seen that justifies this? Just playing devil's advocate, he was drafted on virtually no exposed TAC Cup form although he apparently did well in pre-season practice matches leading up to the cancelled competition. What we know is he is an amazing athlete, that he is decent overhead and has an awkward kicking action. What other traits make him a round one starter? I sometimes wonder if fans forget how difficult it is for anyone, let alone teenagers, to make that transition from underage football to the big time...

The three most memorable are the 1987 finals run where we beat Footscay, then North by 118 points and the Swans by 70-odd. That was peak optimism as a supporter The campaign for the whole season was do it for Robbie after he wanted to retire at the end of 86. Round 22 1987 - Footscray vs Melbourne - YouTube VFL Elimination Final 1987 - North Melbourne v Melbourne - YouTube 1987 AFL Semi Final Melbourne Vs Sydney - 1st Half - YouTube

Ah, so there were initially good intentions! That makes the genocide that happened later much more palatable! Most of the evil that is done in this world is done by those with good intentions.

Bizarre response Cranky. Just because something happened in one part of Australia and not in another part it means it didn't happen?

I never know if Biff is extracting the urine when he posts but effectively wiping out a whole species of people like what happened in Tasmania doesn't sound like a harm minimization policy! In Tasmania, there were around 15,000 Palawa people pre-colonisation. In the ensuing 30 years that number dropped to an estimated 400 people (full blooded Palawa's). That 400 was further reduced to around a dozen over the next decade with most dying in internment camps. Of that initial group, 200 were rounded up and put on Hunter or Flinders Island so they couldn't escape. It is true that many died from European introduced diseases, but also subject to horrendous violence at the hands of settlers. In what is known as the 'Black War', up to 1,000 Palawa and around 200 whites were killed in guerilla warfare. White folks were given legal immunity by the Governor of the day to kill aborigines. Also, rewards were given to settlers for the capture of aborigines and bounties were also paid. One of the reasons for the Black War apparently was that among the colonists, there were six times more men than women and the settlers took to raping native people due to a lack of white women! The locals, perhaps understandably, didn't take too kindly to that! Anyway, the Black War was an act of genocide no doubt. Here's an example: In 1827, two shepherds were killed by natives near Launceston, and settlers with the help of the 40th Regiment launched a reprisal attack at dawn that saw as many as 70 Aboriginal men, women and children slaughtered. Seventy unarmed men, women and children! Imagine if that happened today! So Biff, your statement: "The British policy was to protect Aboriginal people from harm as much as possible at the time... and to kill a “native” was punishable by death in the 18thC and beyond..." is absolute bollocks! You are extracting the urine!

Looks magnificent! What I like is he doesn't lean back like a few of our other blokes. Almost Alan Johnson-like!