praha

Worst team in the comp. Deplorable. They actually play like they expect to lose.

Thank christ for our backline. Our midfield is shocking.

No one is flying the flag. Garlett had his head turned off and no one even went over to him. This team has gone back into its shell.

How many inside 50s? 2?

Same team. Zero improvement.

Our team has the combined football iq of an under 10s player.

I'd be very disappointed if we lost by more than 4 goals tonight. Anything less than a crack and some venom would be disastrous. This club needs to turn a corner. Tonight can be that corner. I'm not expecting much, though. I actually predict an 8-10 goal loss. We still can't score and our midfield is inept. If it rains, we might be a chance. Dogs looked flat in the 2nd half today. But Swans are as well drilled as you get.

The Dogs had a great win in a slog against the Swans at the SCG. They were flat in the 2nd half today. Had to be expected that the Saints would come back in some capacity, sure, not necessarily win, but definitely cut the margin. Saints should have won last week against Essendon. We can't win at Etihad, can't beat the Saints, can't win in Perth, can't win in Sydney, can't beat top 8 teams. Saying they've both "gone past us" is completely fair. What have we done to say otherwise? Beat a divided GC at the MCG, and an unsurprisingly fickle Richmond? Get real! Tonight is our test. We need to have a "turnaround" game. Nothing has really suggested the "turnaround" the club needs has happened.

Great win by the Saints. Leaped over us now. Better percentage. If we lose tonight our % could fall to 70% range.

Saints and Bulldogs have both overtaken us. Obviously the Doggies have, but the Saints have shown plenty this year. Last two weeks they've been great.

Cross walking would not be good. He's been an immense help down back and also in the middle. He's tired and limited but he's reliable and committed. Until our depth improves we need the likes of Cross to hang around as long as possible.

GWS needs to start getting people to their games before they start championing the "success" call. Even a premiership this year wouldn't get people to their games. I'm still convinced they'd have been better off going to Canberra and staying there.

It's really not rocket science: play good football and the people will come and watch. Part of Collingwood getting a loaded fixture during an era where media exposure is so important is because they have been good for going on a decade. Geelong, Hawthorn are no different. Carlton was shocking in the 00s and it took them 2-3 years of consistent footy to get back in the limelight. I imagine that this year will be the last that they get so many Friday night games. If Collingwood was in the same situation I can assure you no amount of membership numbers would gift them primetime games and fixturing. It's a myth to suggest that only the "big" team get the benefit of fixturing and exposure. It's the "good" teams, nothing more, nothing less. If the AFL could have predicted how the season would be after 6 rounds, don't you think Footscray would have been on Friday night the past 5 weeks instead of Carlton? A big support base is important. If you play attractive, good, successful football, the fans will come. If the fans don't come you don't get money and can't build a team worthy of playing good, attractive, successful football. What comes first: the chicken or the egg? Melbourne has had a coach and administration handed to it by the AFL. I'm unconvinced that the league's charity helps those at the bottom end of the ladder, both on-field and off. I personally find "equalisation methods" to be nothing more than a PR exercise. The league imo should be more punishing to those clubs with poor administration. I say that because Melbourne has been an indictment on the league for the past four seasons and the turnaround is still a long, long way away. And by "punishing" I mean not directly getting involved. Because Melbourne has been receiving league funds for decades and imo that's created a culture of dependence. It's like when you start a blog: you don't ask, "How can I make money from my blog?" You ask first, "What do I have to do to get an audience? What do I have to provide?" In AFL terms, that answer is good football. Melbourne hasn't had any less access than any of the top teams when it comes to talent. They've just been run by amateurs. No amount of "equalisation" has countered that.

I wonder how people would feel if Melbourne were at the top and raking in the money? Don't forget that Richmond was smothered by debt only a few years ago. Collingwood finished last and was on the brink in 99 until Eddie took over. No amount of big supporter base was helping them at the time. Good management and hard work = success. I completely sympathise with him that big clubs are punished for the ineptness of those at the bottom. Is Melbourne a "minnow" club because it has a small support base, or because it's been run by amateurs? Let's get real, here. I'm not entirely against equalisation but I don't believe in the "throw money at clubs" idea. Hawthorn was on the brink of a merger in 96 and look at where they are now, compared to us. Small clubs don't have an excuse anymore. The audience and support is there.

In Round 1, this was "the strongest team we've fielded in years". In Round 6, we're suddenly "not a very strong team". Jamar is 30+ years old. We need to prepare for life after Jamar. Spencer and Gawn *need* to play and find a place in AFL football. We don't have another choice. Jamar has been dropped. He hasn't been rested. What does he do that's any better than what Spencer can do? Let's not pretend like Jamar has ever been a turning point in a match for us. We need to find a way to get experience into our ruckmen. Spencer has played 5 seasons. Let's compare him to Jamar's first 5 seasons. Hitouts: Jamar - 11.3, 7.3, 7.5, 10.2, 9.7 Spencer - 12, 20.1, 26.6, 28.6 (didn't play in 2011) Disposals: Jamar - 6, 4.7, 3.4, 4.4, 6.2 Spencer - 7.5, 9.3, 10, 8 Spencer undoubtedly needs time in the AFL now. He is Jamar's replacement. Deal with it. Jamar's inclusion in the team isn't going to help us win games. What have we got to lose then? Spencer is the player we drafted to replace White, not Jamar. He's taken long to come on but his time is now. I am encouraged by him being in the side. Spencer isn't great, but Jamar is worse imo seeing as how average he has for a a player with 13 years experience.

10 goal loss. Easily.

Richard Di Natale (news Greens leader) is a Richmond [censored].

Trengove is done. It's going to be very hard for him. I imagine he'll start training again in the pre-season but if it flares up again, he'll retire. I assume he'll take on a role at the club though.

I think we need taller, stronger midfielders. Prestia is great but where does he fit in among Viney, Brayshaw, Jones, Petracca? We'd be far too heavy in the middle, which evidently is our problem now because teams like Freo stitch us up. We need more elite running mids. I'm not sure Prestia would be a good fit for us anymore. Two years ago, sure, but not anymore. We need more of an x-factor in the middle, not Nathan Jones 2.0.

Disagree. The system screwed us, sure, and Adelaide got the better run. But we'd still would have needed to play North in the GF and we just didn't match up well against them. 2002 was a bigger miss. Pundits before the finals series were saying that we were the best Victorian chance to beat Brisbane, and we were. We smashed North in the first week, and should have destroyed the Crows. We were down by 40 at quarter time and came back in two of the best quarters I've ever seen this club play. In the 4th it was a tussle and we lost. THAT was the one that got away. I reckon we'd have beaten the Pies in the Prelim and had a real crack at the Lions.

I'd take Bennell. Garlett has been good this year (albeit not as damaging as we need him to be) and he seems to have turned his career around after a regressive year at Caaaaaarlton. Roos can turn him around. Watts or Howe and our first rounder for Bennell and their second rounder. or Watts + Toumpas for Bennell + first round pick

At the end of the day, we're still harping on about what happens behind the field while we get pummelled by 11 goals. Meanwhile the Dogs have quietly developed their team into an impressive young side of talent despite having lost so much experience. We still haven't quite turned the corner. It's slow steps, sure, but we haven't had our "Beat Sydney in Sydney" moment yet. Last year's win in Adelaide was great but we were still a pretty average side last year. I've heard the "we're on the right track" rhetoric before, I hate to sound so negative and bitter, but I'm just keeping my expectations in check. Viney says when he came to the club that it was "fractured". I'm skeptical of revolutionary change in business (quick, erratic turnover) because it actually leads to more instability and downtime. The entire backend has changed, and the team has essentially changed in a matter of, what, two years? Since middle of 2013, but really the start of 2014. We are still a long, long way off being a great football club, and even further away being simply just a good football team. Fans have every right to be [censored] off about Toumpas over Wines because the club is not in a position now where it can fluff its drafting and development. It HAS to get it right. We don't get a second chance like we did after 2010. If we mess it up again, it's another decade at the bottom and this club can't survive that. Sunday's game showed to me (some here might disagree) that this is still in a way a fractured ball club: I'm not sure the team went out there to win. They went out there to lose, and lose admirably before it broke down. How do you even change that? Who do you hold to account? We bag Neeld on here but remember, he came in with the same criticisms of the club that everyone else has had since. Roos says it and he's a messiah, but when Neeld said it we wondered if he was being too harsh on the club. Yeah, Stynes came in and wiped the debt but it was a bandaid solution. Jim, rest his soul, also oversaw one of the worst periods in the club's history. He should and his colleagues at the time should be held to account for that (and in many cases they were). I'm still shocked at how bad this club has been for so long. A Anyone would think the MFC was a subsidiary of Kruger Industrial Smoothing.

It's a double-edged sword for Carlton. Great exposure but the problem with said exposure is that if the product you're selling is [censored] you're doing more damage to your brand than you imagine. Do you think Carlton would be under the microscope as much had they not been front and center during prime time? They still would be, sure, but now everyone can see how [censored] they are. No one wants to watch [censored] teams. Awful scheduling by the AFL. The only teams IMO that deserve Friday night are Port, Freo, Hawthorn, Sydney, and now even the Bulldogs.

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