leucopogon

Carlton poached the best player on the planet which helped them enormously. I don't see improvement of the same level as Carlton by us unless we do something similar. Will never happen. edit: perhaps if we snared Goddard, Steve Johnson and Sewel as free agents at the end of this season we might improve.

The list is atrocious and like it or not we are going to have to rebuild again. Now we're going to potentially be coming into our window when GCS and GWS are entering theirs. Good luck to us hey?

And with free agency coming in to make it easier for good players to leave clubs for greener pastures in the twilight of their careers... it seems all set up to just make the strong clubs stronger and the weak clubs like ourselves weaker. Will be interesting to see how free agency pans out over the next 4-5 years.

Being completely sincere, that's such a sad story. What a crap day hey? I've got a 4 year old son who I have been steering towards being a Dee fan, but is it fair on him? I don't think so. I'm going to let him choose for himself I think.

Get ready to be very [censored] off next weekend my friend, because, mark my words, we are gonna get a hiding over here in Perth. The press conference gave me an insight into what I think neeld is trying to do with our group. As far as I can tell he believes 100% that games are won or lost at stoppages and has identified that our clearance group is not up to scratch, hence the not being surprised at the outcome of today's game quote. His game plan of boundary hugging is probably designed to get as many stoppages as possible in the form of throw-ins and congestion leading to ball-ups in the tight confines of the boundary line so that our players get as much real-world practice in stoppage football as possible. He seem to have a clear vision of where he wants to take us which surprisingly gives me a ray of hope on this depressing day. The disappointing thing as a supporter is the slow, ugly football that we are likely to serve up in this "learning phase" and the hidings we're likely to suffer as a result. My expectations of the season have been appropriately dialled right back and I see bottom 3 as an almost certainty this season. edit: what I'm going to be most interested to see is if we're able to beat GCS and GWS this year using this new game plan. That will be a real barometer for the club.

Here here!

Anybody else sick to death of rebuilding? Carlton got in Judd to set the bar for their young guns, we got in Mitch Clark, we need to poach an out and out superstar or two otherwise our present rebuild will all be for nothing.

Sad when you miss the Daniher days, feeling bloody sick

actually almost relieved by this result as any expectations it was going to be an interesting season are now evaporated. I can concentrate on things other than MFC and AFL

High draft picks = Fools gold for us. This footy department is rotten to the core. I think we need to move heaven and earth to get in as many free agents from successful clubs (read: Hawthorn, Geelong, Pies) to try and set a bloody example for our youngsters.

If I was Neeld I would have said to the seniors you're playing for your career in this quarter, don't expect another game of AFL football if you don't earn it in the next 30 minutes

can't wait to see what happens next week, we'll give 186 a run i reckon

abc commentary team laying into our senior "non-leaders" what a joke of a list we have

Thought we'd be 2 wins at halfway, i think we'll be 0 wins now

Direct message sent. Cheers!

I'm definitely interested. Let me know. Cheers P.S. I'm in Perth, so not sure if that's gonna work for you or not?

that mcdonald guy looks classy, too bad he's a f/s for north. Jesse Hogan would be up there for mine as well, looks great. Martin looks a bit lightly built for modern day AFL

dees best and fairest? Jamar dees best 1st year player? Magner goals clark will kick? 54 games jurrah will play? 8 dees surprise of the year? Dunn to have breakout year premiers? Hawthorn first coach to get sacked? Voss biggest off field controversy? Hopefully something to do with any other club except MFC games won by gws? 0

"MFC - Where are we honestly at" off topic trying to trace the mental frailties of our supporter base to the failed merger of 1996 Crikey.

Yeah dee-luded, but Ali ended up landing a knock-out blow with that tactic. Where's ours?

Spot on, but you forgot one: 3. The false dawn: team plays accountable, hard fought footy and provides a stirring enough performance to get the fans excited that we may have finally turned the corner. Funny how these games often happen against the Pies. I now await 4. The "media bake inspired rebound win". Too bad we have to wait 2 weeks for Rd 1 as I'm sure if it was this coming weekend, the intense media scrutiny would have fired us right up for a good showing against the Lions. Not so sure it will last for two whole weeks though.

nominate at least one maybe both this year because they'll be high picks if my predictions for bottom 2 or 3 come true

The sad thing is dee-luded, I can't even say with any confidence who our good stock is. Frawley, Clark, Jones, Howe and Tapscott are the only ones that really stand out for me. Maybe add Jack Trengove (but I'm far from convinced about him). Blease, Strauss, Watts, Martin, McKenzie, Bail, Morton, Grimes, Bennell, Gysberts, Jetta etc all underwhelm me either because of their inconsitencies (or deficiencies in one or more facets of their game) or bad luck with injuries. We need to clear out our senior core, they are all duds except Jamar but what good is a million hit outs a game when we still get smashed in the clearances?

I'll bite, as I said in the post Port match thread: we're in another rebuild/reboot. I can't see Neeld tolerating the list clogging team of pea hearts that have been assembled in the Daniher/Bailey era so I expect they'll be cleared out progressively from the end of this season onwards. Maybe free agency will be good for us if it means we can get in ready mades easier. I'm beginning to think we were sold a bill of goods with our most recent bottoming out/rebuild using high draft picks strategy. There's just too much that can go (and has gone) wrong. Expecting bottom 2 or 3 this year.

Play like you practice and practice like you play, you spend the final two weeks of pre-season getting pantsed and that's what I'm fully expecting to happen round 1. As some of the others posted earlier, our missing list from tonight hardly fills me with confidence.