Redleg

Its basically I think yes and I think no and that is how it has been since it started. Lot more info on this thread such as horse racing, bananas, frustration with the Dees.

If not for the fact that we let Junior go in a messy way, we would be seriously looking at getting rid of our captain and vice captain. Wont happen, but on form it should.

Well that is it for 2011. Just to add the icing to the cake, the game cut out on my recording 2.5 minutes from the end. Trade and draft week to look forward to. By the way, were the umpires paid employees of Port Power. 28 frees to Port and 13 to us, 6 goals to Port from frees and at least another 2 goals to Port after a Dees free was ignored and a Mark of the Year contender to Howe 10 metres out not paid and then a goal to them on the rebound..

Just had a Hungry Jacks egg muffin and they are not as good as the big yellow M variety. See what this team has done to me, I am writing about breakfast muffins. Oh how I long for the days of the Banana Smoothie.

[bloody joke. All games except ours being shown live on free to air or foxtel on Gold Coast where I am at the moment. Ours on replay on foxtel at 8.30. Unbelievable.

Hope you had a bet on Iconic Princess who won at Geelong today and Man of Magic ran 2nd at Ballarat Wednesday at his first start. When I am away they do well. IP has now won 3 at Geelong on the synthetic.

The weather today was great.. 22 and fine.

Pretty [censored] off. I am in Queensland and there is no live broadcast of our game anywhere. Not foxtel nor free to air. Every other game on the weekend is being shown. Replay on foxtel at 8.30 but that is not satisfactory. I thought all games were shown either on free to air or foxtel throughout the AFL states. Not happy Jan.

Stay out of there or you may not have the fare to get back home.

The players might enjoy being the first team to play a game for four points on the Adelaide oval. It is very scenic.

No it's not. I feel the same.

I think you will hear plenty on the MFc in the next 2 months, some good and some bad.

Well that's it then. One game to watch on TV and support Casey in the finals.

I know that I am not either of you.

Lovely day for the footy. Hope the Dees fans turn up, as it is historic, being the first Dees game against the Suns on the G. As it is our last home game for the year there should be a fair turnout. The other factor that may influence some of the softer fans is that we have a chance to win. Note I didn't say we would win but that we had a chance to win.

He ran at Newcastle. Ran terribly. Trainer said he thinks he is a porn star and wants to mount every other horse and was going nuts and now he will lose them.

If you think Cook with his displays at Casey has shown as much as Butcher in the worst side in the AFL kicking 6 goals, then we are on a completely different page. That is not to say that Cook won't improve but at the moment he has shown nothing IMO. In fact at Skilled Stadium I saw him pull out twice and then he was dropped to the reserves. Butcher is a year older also and could turn out to be a top player. As for the forward line I said that Watts at the moment was the only tall forward we have, but that others might come on. If Butcher came to us we would have two good talls right away plus any others that come on. Pretty simple really.

Butcher was the meat, Salopek could be a spud.

Read my post number 498 and think of meat.

Agree our defence is our bright spot. As you say we need a hard bodied mid or two to turn things around. Oh how I wish we had been harder on Ferguson and virtually forced his move to the Hawks. Then we would be far better off with Sewell in our mid field instead of the 1 extra nothing year we got from Ryan. On another note and this will bring howls I am sure. I would consider trading Jamar home to Port for Butcher and even another lesser player like Maric, Bate to get the deal done. That would give us the big players we need up forward with Cook, McDonald and Fitzy to come. Rationale is Jamar is getting towards 30 and we have Martin, Gawn, Spencer, Fitzpatrick, the shorter McDonald who has rucked and Campbell rookied. The younger ones need developing and we are not a flag contender for at least a couple of years. The first 4 are genuine rucks and not all can play there or in the same team. It is an area that hopefully we will be ok in. Also Jamar often seems to be injured and has a foot problem, that won't go away. A forward line of Watts and maybe no one else as a tall forward is not a winning combination. Butcher, Watts, Jurrah and one of the rucks resting forward with Howe, Petterd, Sylvia etc is a good forward line. That would leave only the mid field for improvement. OK everyone start screaming.

I think I have managed my expectations, they have just proved to be wrong. I thought we would be more competitive when losing, wrong. I thought we would develop a modern gameplan, wrong. I thought more individual players would improve than have improved, for example Gysberts, Grimes, Scully, Petterd, Dunn, Jurrah, Aussie, Bennell, etc, wrong. I know Watts and Martin have been improvers but they are in general in the minority. I also know Grimes was injured but he wasn't playing that well before he got injured, especially in regards to his disposal. I thought Cook would do better at Casey than he has and yes I know he is skinny and young but I wasn't expecting Carey, wrong. I thought we would go into a game against the Suns on the G as absolute certainties, wrong. I thought things were going well off the field and that everyone was focussed and pulling together, wrong. I thought we would finish just inside or outside the eight, wrong. I thought a couple of weeks ago that we would finish with 10.5 wins, wrong. Heaven forbid it could be 7.5 wins and that wouldn't shock me. I didn't think I would ever go to Skilled stadium again and I did and I sat through every second of the game and aslo half the Casey game and I won't ever go back, wrong. I thought we would end the season with me feeling optimistic and I don't at the moment, wrong. I never thought that I would be watching the season be hindered by the possible loss of our priority draft pick, who we suffered so much to get and then end up not caring either way as a cracked patella surfaced, wrong. I never thought that the whole football community would condemn our leadership group and rightly so, wrong. I will stop there as I could go on a lot longer. I understand that one needs to be realistic with an assessment of where we are at but I look at Carlton and note they were last in 2007 yet this will be their third finals in a row, West Coast were last in 2010 and look at them and Essendon who are not great and have a stack of injuries will play finals. Yes you can say that at West Coast the leaders stood up but it is more than that, they play as a disciplined team to a game plan. I understand the need for patience and you know Fan that I have been patient, but after 47 years it is wearing thin. Still as they say in the classics, there is always next year and the next.

Interesting to look at the players featured on the Demonland banner. Three are not playing, three are in poor form and only Chip is going well. Maybe that goes part of the way to explaining our current situation.

I was really hoping that Fitzy would get a game sunday just to see how he went and to give him a feel for it. I have always thought that a player who has had a senior game is more enthusiastic and confident the following pre season. After a senior game they have a sense of belonging and also belief that they can go on with it. Hopefully he gets a chance next week and maybe another along with him. Hope Tom McDonald has a good game.

Glad to hear that. I was still disappointed though I know he is not a sprinter and not all horses handle the synthetic track. Hopefully toady will be better. On another note, I actually have disliked this season far worse than 2008 and 2009. Those seasons had a purpose, this one to me was a train wreck. Can't wait for it to end.

Needs more ground, he is being trained to stay. Hopefully Le Beau Cheval does better saturday.