dees_rule_4eva

A good ruckman for a number of seasons?! Get your hand off it. He's had ONE good season, which he duly was rewarded with AA selection. One good season a ruckman does not make. He was embarrassingly bad on the weekend, to the point where we may as well have been a man down. He cannot get to a contest around the ground, and his pathetic body work in marking contests makes Paul Johnson look like a superstar. Jamar got out marked at one stage in our defensive 50 by CHRIS MASTEN. Masten is a quality player, but he is NOT a marking threat against a ruckman in a one-on-one situation. It was deplorable. Gawn in, Jamar out - ASAP.

Old Dee, WJ is one of the rare breed on this forum who have copious amounts of common sense.I completely agree with him that in times like these, the kids who are physically ready to play AFL should be exposed to the game. That is to say, players like Gawn, Tapscott, Kent, Strauss, Jetta - even Davis. Why keep playing the players who have proved time after time that they cannot compete to AFL standard? Sylvia is a prime example. Taking up a spot in the team when he does not deserve it. For the record, the only point at which I personally would call for the sacking of senior officials would be once they've had a chance to see their plans through. In the case of our senior coach, that would involve him coaching more than 24 AFL games.

Unbelievable selection for me. Toumpas is not ready, that was painfully obvious. Nicholson was horrible. Rodan actually gave us something in the first half unlike others. Bizarre. I'm happy with the in's, not with the out's though.

Jamar is a problem, and has been for a while. Is massively ineffectual in the ruck, and is a dinosaur around the ground. Has had one good season in a decade long career. I'd prefer sticking Fitzpatrick in the ruck and finding out what he's made of. Or Spencer. When Gawn is right to go, he becomes number one ruck. It's not going to solve our multitude of problems but it'll make me happy.

I for one will be stoked, and will celebrate. The fact that it will be another win provoked by a gutless performance the week before will make it a little less enjoyable, but enjoyable none-the-less. It's the 20 weeks afterwards that will show where we're at.

I am not kidding myself RR - I completely agree that there is a massive culture problem. I don't believe I used the term "knee-jerk" in my post either, so I'm not sure how I've insulted you. Change or die you say? Change everything now, after Round 1, and I guarantee the Club will go further and further backwards until the end of the season. At the end of the season, or even after a good chunk of the season, if things haven't improved and we are still a laughing stock, then make changes. Mass firings at this point in the season will only kill our Club. Which I don't want to see, no matter how angry I am.

Yep, appreciate all of that IWS. I certainly want the Club to do something to fix what happened on Sunday, I'm just not a fan of the old "sack them" mentality, as if that will really solve anything. Completely agree with your point that if you can't "get up" for the first game of a new season, and your best player in every regard was a debutant, then we have serious problems. I'm with you. There was a point in the game less than 10 minutes in, where James Frawley just jogged along while his opponent in Westhoff, sprinted to get the ball and dish off a handball to Hartlett, who goaled from 55. Why did this happen? I don't want to single out Chip, as there were plenty of others in the same boat, but its Round 1. If you aren't motivated to work hard and stop your opponent 10 minutes into the game, will you ever be? The whole thing was bizarre.

I am reading post after post of "sack Neeld, McLardy, Schwab, the Board, everyone". Do the people posting this stuff actually love our club? I assume you all do, because you are spending time venting your frustration here. What some people are failing to recognise is that by sacking all these people, our Club won't exist. Do you actually want that? I know I don't. I appreciate we are at one of the lowest points in memory, but I still love our Club, and I still want to go to the footy next week. I'm as frustrated as anyone on here, and Sunday was downright pathetic, disgusting, unacceptable, and all of the other words that have been used. But the answer is not to sack everyone. It doesn't achieve anything - the last 7 years should have taught you that. Sacking Daniher got us nowhere. Sacking Bailey got us nowhere. Sacking Neeld won't help either. Neither will sacking McLardy. Now more than ever the Club needs unity and stability on the inside. Sacking people will only make it worse (and yes, it can get worse). I can tell you exactly what happened on Sunday. An attitude problem. The entire Club was guilty of believing their own crap. "We've had a fantastic pre-season". "We're setting elite standards on the track". "The training & rehab programs are unrecognisable to last year". "The wheel turns quickly". Etc. Etc. That may all be so, but what all the players and coaching staff seemed to forget was that you still have to work hard and play the game to get a result. It seemed as if everyone rocked up to the ground thinking "We're so much better than last year, we'll cruise to a win today". I am hoping that it was just a massive reality check for them all. Just because you set high standards in training, and you train really well, doesn't mean everything will "just click" on game day. Work hard on game day, and maybe you will see some results. Don't turn up and expect things to happen, because as we saw on Sunday, thats crap. There may be many problems after Round 1, but sacking people is not going to fix the attitude problem that we saw on Sunday. I'm rambling now - my two cents worth anyway. Agree with me or don't!

I've noticed a couple of people mentioning that they can't wait for the season to start 2pm Sunday. I for one, want to see as many Dees fans at the G' as possible on Sunday, so I thought I'd make sure you all know ... It is 1.10pm bounce on Sunday!! Not 2 or 2.30pm! 1.10pm!! BE THERE!!

B: Garland, Frawley, Dunn HB: Watts, Gillies, Grimes C: Jetta, Jones, Howe HF: Blease, Dawes, Sylvia F: Davey, Clark, Byrnes FOLL: Jamar, Rodan, McKenzie INT: Viney, Toumpas, Sellar SUB: Terlich EMERG: Strauss, Tapscott, Macdonald I'm assuming that Clark and Dawes will play, while Trengove and McDonald will miss. M. Jones a bit unlucky, but has time. Pederson to come in if one of Dawes/Clark don't play. With the pre-season that Sellar has had, he gets a spot ahead of Pedo. It's not a terrible team on paper. Plenty of goal-kicking power up forward, and the backs look solid enough. Mid is still our problem, with the exception of Nathan Jones.

For starters Davey, Dunn, Gysberts & Cook have not all left as yet. Davey will stay, as stated by Neeld yesterday on SEN. I'd say Dunn will also stay, no indication from the Club that he is in danger of being moved on. That leaves Gysberts & Cook, who have not been mentioned formally by the Club as yet - but are both the topic of conversation on the rumour mill. So your mass exodus theory is a little flawed at this stage (although it may well prove to be the case). Gysberts, while showing potential, has not really proved anything at this stage and I wouldn't be heartbroken if he was moved on. I think he has alot of talent but needs to put on some serious size before he can mix it with the big boys on a consistent basis. As for Cook, I really don't think we're losing anything here (apart from wasting a #12 draft pick).

That sums it up really. I don't want any player in our team who doesn't put in 100%, no matter the circumstance. The fact that some of our players recently kicked in $30,000 of their own money to help the Club build a better playing list - that says to me that there are some genuine believers in this Neeld system. Moloney does not fit this game style, as he is far too one-dimensional. At another Club, probably will do well but as Jaded said, not going to help us win more games.

Spot on Billy. If there are players who don't want to do the work required, then they can leave - I have no issues with that. There are players out there who would bust their balls to get an opportunity to play AFL. If Moloney doesn't like what Neeld is preaching, I have no problem with him leaving. Ahhhhhh .... if only we had 22 players like Nathan Jones & Mitch Clark!!

Classy player with pace - he would have been a good pickup. Has the traits that most of our players don't.

Brilliant, am now wishing I never bought tickets haha. More looking forward to Perth in general, as I hear its really quite a nice city. Thanks for the info mate, maybe we'll see you there! Cheers