Nasher

I may be stating the obvious, but there are 8 teams in the competition who have the same or worse win/loss record as us at the moment. If we reckon this loss to St Kilda was any worse than most of the losses that have occurred to any team this season, then I think we're getting carried away with the emotion/disappointment of losing a bit too much. The Essendon one I accept was definitely a bad one.

All teams lose sometimes. If he leaves because we don't play at our best from time to time, he's in for a very frustrating and unfulfilling career.

This thread amounts to "Good players who play well against us". Harvey and Riewoldt have 700 games between them, but nah, must just be Melbourne they play well against.

With Mitch King out for the season, promoting Michie is an option if we want it. I know it feels a bit "been there done that", but by all accounts he's been as good as all the other names in contention. We obviously kept him around for a reason, and he's in form and apparently playing in a role we are about to have a vacancy in (Salem's). I wouldn't rule it out.

12 scoring shots to 4.

About time! I've already shifted position on a couple of players this year - namely Matt Jones and Pedersen who I think are close to having earned a new contract. Dawes, Grimes and Terlich the most vulnerable at this early stage. I expect a low number of changes this year, relative to the past.

Out: Salem, Harmes, Hunt In: Trengove, MJones, Oliver The ins depend on the Casey outcome. ANB may play where I have Trenners or Jones, but Oliver is a must play now. I'm assuming Salem and Harmes will miss through injury. Can't see them dropping Kent. Sure, he was totally terrible, but it was on the back of some great form. We've seen that he can go cold and then hot again from week to week - needs several weeks of bad form to lose his place I reckon. Hopefully as he gains experience, he learns how to work his way in to a game when he's struggling, because right now the wheels just fall off completely.

Pathetic rabble after a loss, "finals not out of the question" after a win mate. You should know that by now.

Funny old competition. GC's % was 121.1% before this. Ours is still a very respectable 102%; and Hawthorn who are a game clear have a paltry % of 91.8%. It feels like we're the worst side on Earth during and immediately after a loss, but in reality we're well and truly amongst it among the middle grounders, with several of them looking like they may fall away - particularly GC. Our season is still very well positioned really. There are some clubs who are in real trouble now, and finally we're not bloody one of them.

Nah, they're being crushed. No bouncing back from this, confidence will be sapped. GC are ripe for the picking I reckon (aware this is the MFC we are talking about though of course)

And I've got to say, the Hawks getting flogged by GWS definitely took the edge off my grumps this afternoon.

Heh. It'd be ironic if we stayed in 10th after winning two weeks in a row, then finally move up a spot the week we lose.

Lazy is too harsh a word I think as it implies a degree of it being intentional. I don't think the players are thinking "nah, I can't be stuffed competing for the ball today", but yeah, for whatever reason, we were a gear below the Saints today.

The idea of a plan 'B' is fundamentally flawed, IMO. The players are drilled and drilled and drilled to get them to play a certain way ("plan 'A'") - there's not enough time in the day to learn a totally different second one. This is doubly true in the case of a very young side who have a hard enough time getting plan 'A' right. Plan 'B' is to tweak plan 'A' and educate on the fly until the players get it right. Hogan and Roos said nearly identical things in the post match pressers - "we were trying hard but couldn't play the way we wanted to play" (paraphrasing).

Ah, the old "we are slow" again. Name a team who didn't look "slow" when they played like crap. We aren't slow. We haven't looked remotely slow in the last three weeks. We just failed to work hard enough today.

The lads at Casey who have been struggling to get in should go in to tomorrow's game slobbering like hyenas. There are spots ripe for the picking.

Golden opportunity for ANB, Trenners, Matt Jones, Oliver and Brayshaw. Good luck lads, best two (at least) this week are in.

If only the supporters hadn't thought we might win.

Well I've freed myself of an expectation of a win, which is a relief. Hopefully we can at least restore a little bit of respect. What a bitter disappointment.

And yet, we're not. We were on top in the first, no reason we can't get on top again.

I was going to say something similar. It wasn't one long rebuild, it was three - two botched rebuilds and one that finally looks to be bearing fruit. Any club would have to be woefully incompetent to spend as much time in the wilderness as we did (as we were). I reckon only Carlton have been managed as bad as us over the years.

Bennell looked last year to have turned in to a decent player. Even so, I agree that you could hardly say it was a misjudgement that burnt us. He'd be competing with Jetta now, who I am very happy with. Vince and Garlett to me though are examples that all clubs can make gross errors of judgement sometimes, particularly in clubs with "rigid" coaches at the helm (and I think Neeld, Malthouse and Sanderson all belonged in this category). It seems so hard to believe that both players were told they had no future at their clubs. I reckon Roos, Viney and Taylor still wouldn't believe their luck. I sure can't - I was happy with picking up Garlett as an AFL grade goal sneak, but he's an even better player than I thought. I didn't know he tackled and attacked the way he does, and I didn't know his skills translated to five minute blitzes in the midfield with class ball use. Exciting things happen when he is near the ball. And all this basically for free - thanks again Mick. Look forward to hearing he's re-signed soon!

Don't worry. By round 10 Hawthorn will have started an unstoppable roll towards another flag and everything will return to normal. Seriously though, while the game last night was rubbish, it was one game and it happens sometimes. It doesn't undo the good work both these teams have done to get where they are. I'm reluctant to dismiss either side as contenders just on the back of one game, even if that game was awful. It also shows that even decent sides play shocking games sometimes. North were a long way off, but Footscray outdid them for being off the boil. I hope everyone has learned their lesson and I never see a "we won, but we'd never have beaten xxx side playing that way" after a narrow win ever again.

Why use a (sort of) positive thread about one player on our list to take an unprovoked personal swipe at another player who has nothing to do with the topic at hand? Rubbish post.