steve_f

1/ Possibly we retained Jolly and Armstrong too long when we knew that they were destined to be depth players not first stringers. Better to roll the dice again. We retained Bizzell for depth rather than make do with Bell or Wheatley or Johnson. His 2005 was good but not a patch on his 2002. Didn't play in 2006. 2007?? His form in 2004 suggested that 2002 form was gone. We retained 426 and Lamb too long similarly. 2/ But what I really meant is that we could clear out most of our depth players, confident that if needed, we can pick up ANOTHER TEAM'S "Jolly" or "Arma".

Dapper There is one gem in the article "While Melbourne, Collingwood and St Kilda also reached the finals in 2006, all three ended the season well adrift of the top four with the Saints to start 2007". If we had stayed in the top three, we would have survived one trip West. We had a real chance for top two when the Weagles dropped a few games. With a sense of deja vu, I sat and watched us go down against the first game against the Blues. I may not have seen the second or I may just have blotted it out. We also traditionally have these games against the Doggies at the Dome. The opposition gets a few goals up but for the first quarter and a half do not believe that they can win. As the realisation sets in, they truns it on. Then, the Dees rally to go down by four goals or thereabouts. 1/ Talk not to me of Spirit, confidence, Zeitgiest or the Healing Power of Crystals. I want the players to have the bravery/determination/fear of torture/whatever to run to where they should, to chose the correct attacking option rather than concentrating on not being the one to turn-over the ball which will of course come to pass. 2/ I see that the fitness (in Oldspeak) guys have been turned over. Looking at the gut on Pickett and Motlop in Round 1 last year; good idea. Although it is implausible that they could have sucked that much in always when in view of the continuing elements of the Football Dept. From the pictures of training, Robbo appears closer to his MTOW (maximum take-off weight) which bodes a better year. 3/ Jolly, Armstrong, and others have their premiership medallions. It doesn't mean that they are more than good ordinary players. It means that the Dees have erred in the going for too much depth rather than the top end. Junior at 30 y.o. could embarass you but then he wouldn't be there. 4/ Selection. 426 in lieu of Dunn proved to be a bad as generally expected. A logical criticism but perhaps harsh. Yze, the games-record monkey is riding high on the back of MFC. I used to speculate what the Gergatron did after he migrated south, with the Coach-Goat photo that he had on the inside of his locker door. It is in reality "a short step" not confronting the disabling issue of misplaced loyalty and expectation. On the positive side, we have a good young team of robust midfielders, Dunn and Miller off one his best games. It just frustrates the hell out of me that we could apparently easily improve in some areas by just deciding to do so.

Yes, but curiously, I was always confident with Stretch or later Seecamp at FB.

I will suggest that the Cats were a better team with Excel at FF and Gary Tablett on HFF or the wing where he kicked 14 against Richmond or someone else. With him at FF, the Cats were too reliant at him. They couldn't handle him and should have gone cold-turkey which is sort of getting back around to the subject of the La Wilson's article. But he pick the Cats and Cats picked him; marriage made in ... I'm not sure. What are you going to do when a promising player hits a female staff member? Not recruit an elderly Clarkson, a Nick Pesch, that guy from the Saints, that SA guy from the Maggies. That's what actually hurts you.

Miller was better against the Roos but give me the natural forward against the flood. Down back Miller is behind Carroll, Rivers in a couple of weeks, Dutchy, Warnock in front of Wheatley. Allthough I haven't seen the latter play for a long time.

Sublime