JP_

Okay, I know we're all hurting - no-one likes to lose - but let's keep everything in perspective. I'm seeing a lot of nonsense on here like: - It was the second biggest loss of all time! - It was the fourth highest score against of all time! - It was out biggest ever loss to Geelong in the 150-odd years our clubs have existed! And similar factually accurate drivel. Well of course things will look back if you only focus on the facts, but let's keep things in perspective. We're a young team and 31 goal losses are just part of the learning curve. Need I remind you of what happened to the last team that lost by 31 goals? Just 8 short years later and they made the finals. Patience is a virtue. In 8 years, that could be us playing finals guys. Don't lose sight of the big picture. And besides it wasn't all doom-and-gloom today. Fact is we were on the path to a 32 goal drubbing at stages there today (now that would be cause for alarm) but I'm proud of the way we fought through it. Would have been easy to just give up, but I'm pleased with the way our older heads stood up in the last five minutes to prevent a real thrashing from happening. And those criticising Dean Bailey? Don't forget it was his move to put two extra players in defence for the last 3 minutes of the game that prevented us from conceding a record score. Why isn't he getting any credit for that? So enough with the negativity. Let's stop focussing so much on reality and try to stay positive.

I think one idea would be to change it so that the top 2 teams in division 2 still have a chance to play finals. Teams 5 and 6 in Div 1 could play teams 1 and 2 from Div 2 in a kind of "finals playoff", which means it would almost be like the present system (1-4 double chance, 5-8 instant elimination). You still retain the incentives for promotion / relegation (because the most realistic chance at a premiership still comes from playing in Div 1), but at least it means that (theoretically) every team still has a shot at the premiership if they're good enough. But I'm still not sure if this system (or even the one that Schwab has proposed) would eliminate meaningless end of season games between teams with nothing to play for.

Ugh, think we're done.

Yeah, if you don't mind paying $15 for a monthly subscription, liveafl.tv might be a good option. Can watch every game live, plus they put all the replays up later which means you can also watch the Adelaide game if you want. I'm living in Prague at the moment (getting up at 6am tomorrow to watch the North game!) and it's been a god-send.

It's okay, we're five goals down, we can start the game now.

I was going to say before the game that I bet we concede the first four goals and end up losing by that margin. What is it with our starts?

I don't think anyone expects Hale to be a world-beater, but he fills a glaring need and there aren't many available capable of filling it any better. He also allows us to be a bit more flexible with Jamar, meaning (hopefully?) we can throw him up forward to snag the occasional goal even if Hale can't manage it. On the other hand, we have to recognise that we are in the stronger negotiating position here. If Melbourne is Hale's nominated destination (any idea if that's true?) then North will have to deal, or else face the prospect of having a VFL player eating up $400,000 of the salary cap during a time where wages are likely to be inflated (putting pressure on the cap) by the introduction two expansion teams and free-agency. For that reason North would be stupid not to take pick 31, and we would be stupid to offer anything more. Surely a swap of first round picks should only be entertained if North agree to pick up half his salary.

The other alternative would be to do what we did with Newton and Meesen last year: delist with the promise of a rookie spot. That option might depend on whether or not the player has to agree though.

There's always the possibility of delisting a player (to free up the mandatory three spots) and then redrafting him, which is something that St. Kilda did relatively recently (with Callaghan I think it was). I suppose it comes down to whether we believe the 36th player on our list is worth pick 50 or so, depending on how the draft order pans out. In any case, there's no sense worrying about it in round seven. As the season progresses, the stocks of players always rise and fall based on performance, so the choice may be easier by the end of the year. I mean, 8 weeks ago we probably didn't hold out great hopes for guys like Bail or McKenzie to be retained at the end of the year, but look at where they are in the pecking order now (hopefully Hughes is in a similar place 8 weeks from now). Give it another 14 weeks (make that 17, after we win the GF) and I think the options might be a bit more clear.

Did he even really walk out though? Seems to have been at the very least a mutual decision, as the club were apparently motivated enough to seal a trade for him before trade week even began! Surprised Carlton weren't more suspicious about how eager we were to let him go, actually, but obviously we couldn't have thought that he'd ever be able to recapture anything like his best form. Based on his performances with Carlton so far, you'd have to say we were probably right.

I think we really missed a key forward today. When you're being scragged and can't find any loose men to pass to, it's always handy to have a big guy to aim at as a kind of "get out" kick (like North did by just constantly aiming at Hale and McIntosh in the goal-square). Why didn't Jamar spend more time up there?

Yeah, we're a team that needs space to run and North just suffocate us. But that's how North are every week: great pressure and discipline, but they just suck the life out of every game they play in. Everyone's going on about how boring St. Kilda and Adelaide are, but I'd challenge anyone to watch the first half and say that North aren't every bit as bad. They were the same under Laidley, actually, and I can't think of a single memorable game they've played in since Pagan. All we can do is put that game behind us and focus on next week, where there might actually some prospect of watching a proper game of footy.

Started up a new league: 683211 Everyone welcome, even if you're already part of another Demonland league.

Bring on 2011!

Yeah but how many of them are occurring during training vs in game situations? Not much you can do about Bell and Jurrah, but what about all the other blokes out at the moment? I think there's been a tendency on this site to rush to blame the fitness staff for injuries they clearly have little control over, but as we spill into our fourth straight season with a horrific injury list I think the "bad luck" explanation is starting to wear a little thin. Given our recent history with long-term injuries I think it's perfectly valid to question the training techniques and / or injury management processes the club has implemented. EDIT: Facilities might also be an issue.

Score?

Can't think of many positives, but I'll give it a try: It was a first round pre-season match and we were playing interstate, against probably the only team in the country desperate to do well in it. We weren't ready for a proper contest and it showed, but surely we won't carry that sort of attitude into round 1. All of our best / senior players were terrible. There is no way that players like Sylvia, Davey, Green, McDonald, Jurrah etc. are going to play half that badly every week, and some of the younger players did okay in their absence. It's one thing to lose to Freo by 8 goals without any contribution from key players, but it'd be much worse to lose to Freo by 8 goals if the better players were actually carrying the team. Joel MacDonald: BOG for me, and he's going to be a damn useful player for this club if we manage not to coach all the Brisbane out of him. Scully: 1st year, half a pre-season, and was still one of our best players. Fitness allowing, we're going to see a lot of him this year. Most of the young players had their moments. Frawley is going to be a damned good player, Maric showed more than most here are willing to give him credit for, Spencer doesn't look like a complete unco (except for when he tries to kick it), Martin is going to be an important swing player and at least knows how to make a contest, Trengove couldn't get near it but showed a lot of poise and maturity under terrible circumstances, Jetta has the ability if he could only stop making simple mistakes, Jordie McK showed something in the half he was given and I saw nothing tonight to suggest that Grimes won't be a gun. Normally young players are the first to fall away when things aren't going well, but I thought most of our young blokes stood up alright under the circumstances. Well it was a bit of a stretch, but I think that's the best I can do. Might sleep off these beers before I come back with a list of the negatives.

Yeah, there's no point in taking a KPP just for the sake of it. When you have a look and the kind of KPP that have been taken from 6-25 in recent years you'll notice that the failure rate is pretty damn high (I'll ignore last 3 years because they haven't had time to develop yet. I've also bolded the KP forwards): 2006: #6 - Mitch Thorp (Haw) #8 - Ben Reid (Coll) #10 - Nathan Brown (Coll) #11 - Andrejs Everitt (WB) #24 - Brent Renouf (Haw) 2005: #6 - Beau Dowler (Haw) #7 - Patrick Ryder (Ess) #18 - Max Bailey (Haw) #24 - Cleve Hughes (Rich) 2004: #6 - Tom Williams (WB) #8 - John Meesen (Adel) #16 - Adam Pattison (Rich) #17 - Cameron Wood (Bris) #19 - Ryan Willits (PA) #23 - Sean Rusling (Coll) 2003: #6 - Kepler Bradley (Ess) #12 - Ryan Murphy (Frem) #14 - Fergus Watts (Adel) #17 - Billy Morrison (Coll) #18 - Llane Spaanderman (Bris) #24 - Chad Jones (NM) 2002: #9 - Hamish McIntosh (NM) #10 - Jason Laycock (Ess) #12 - Jay Schulz (Rich) #15 - Nicholas Smith (Melb) #20 - Will Minson (WB) #21 - Bo Nixon (Coll) #23 - Tom Lonergan (Geel) #24 - Paul Johnson (WC) Not too many world-beaters there, particularly with regards to KP forwards - doesn't bode well for Butcher, Talia or Black. So best to go for best available early in the draft, imho. You can draft for specific needs with later picks.

Right now that I'm completely beyond caring whether Luke Ball ends up with us or not, but I am glad to see that we're not going to stand aside and just watch him manipulate the process for his own ends. Even if coming out like this provokes another team into doing something rash and taking him early (Port with 9 or Essendon with 10) that's still really good for us. Either way, I can't see him making it to Collingwood at 30 and that's gotta be good for everybody concerned.

I'd almost be tempted to draft him out of spite. Whatever the case, we should definitely be coming out and saying that we're still seriously considering drafting him with pick 11: Essendon being forced to use pick 10 on him would be a win for us.

I'd say we're a pretty good chance of getting Ball atm. He's only been linked with Essendon and Collingwood so far and they both traded first round picks away today (for Williams and Jolly respectively) so I'm not sure if they'd be able to offer St. Kilda enough to get a deal over the line tomorrow. Presuming he's beyond reconciliation with the saints (which is what one of their football dept. people reportedly came out and said) I can't see how we wouldn't be best placed in the league to get him right now.

McLean + Bell + pick 50 for picks 11 + 27 would be nice.

Maric has resigned as well.

Doocy's a lost cause, but gained some respect for Kilmeade when this happened: Fox and Friends is a show that manages to be both banal and offensive simultaneously, which is actually a pretty good description of the tweets I'm reading on Jeff's page. I'm hoping it's all fake, but some of the [censored] on there is really beyond excuse. He either doesn't realise that his posts are going out to a general audience or he doesn't care, but either way he needs to pull his head in. I always thought that he was a fantastic servant of the club who copped a lot of unfair criticism from fans on this forum and others, but it's pretty hard to defend him when he's casually broadcasting cheap shots like this against the club from behind a mobile phone. Poor form, Jeff.

I don't think they ever listed him. Basically they tried to was sneak him into the draft before anyone had the chance to notice him, but they stuffed up the paper-work so that he wasn't elligible for the national draft and we pinched him with the first pick in the PSD. Their loss, I suppose, and I look forward to them looking on for the next decade and lamenting what might have been.