Dr. Gonzo

Where did you hear that? That is an immense amount of cash for 2 games. Good on the club if they've managed that. And you're right with our Academy due to be setup there (as much as I think the academies are a crock) it will help with that too. I used to be totally against the NT games taking an swyl position. Now I actually think it would be good if we could get 3 or 4 games there similar to the Tassie deals. If we could get $6.4m over 2 years instead of $3.2m it would go a hell of a long way to sorting us out for the long term both on and off field

Last year was different I think we only had 3 interstate + the 2 NT games.

How many?

We dominated them all over the ground for 2.5 quarters and then again for much of the last. The margin flattered them, if this was at the G/not in tropical conditions we would've murdered them by 70-80 points (similar to GC game). Hogan was awesome as were Hunt and Watts early too (he faded a bit in the second half). Viney never stopped running that kid is a machine.

His dad's Irish surely we can get him into our "multicultural Academy"

I didn't think there was much wrong with the umps yesterday. A couple of howlers each way but otherwise pretty consistent.

Yep our percentage is an indicator of that.

Watts was brilliant yesterday and had had a great season to date. I had him out the door last year (and the year before) but to his credit he has really turned it around and it's started to click. Good on him he deserves to have a successful career and has proved the doubters wrong. He needs to continue it for the rest of the season and into next year now

The Crows are a pretty good team and we took it up to them. They've got more class which showed out in the end. The game was there for the taking but we didn't have that little bit extra to snatch it. Next year we'll be winning these games. Dawes was terrible especially early. We couldve used Oliver around the contests today especially in the first and third.

Yes but usually when they are actually out of contract. Hogan still has a year to run on his. If he puts off talks until the end of NEXT season then the writing will be on the wall.

Takes you back to the 80's when the Pies and Tigers almost sent themselves to the wall trying to lure players between Punt Rd and Hoddle St. Good times .

Maybe, depends what he wants.

They were well behind us earlier in the year, pretty good effort to get where they are now even considering their on field performances.

And the journos benefit by having copy to print. It's a mutually beneficial arrangement.

They market Robbo as "the man of the people". NewsCorp sees "the people" as foul-mouthed, overweight, barely literate drunk bogans. There's your answer.

Money talks though

I wouldn't be against it necessarily. Why not? Could help players and clubs .

Cop out.

Your wishing for something without being able to articulate how it might work in reality. You can't even name one person who fits your description that we should be targeting?

There is a middle ground - I support expansion but also think the concessions went a bit far AND it is clearly AFL policy that the northern expansion clubs (particularly those in NSW) can't afford to bottom out. How is that fair in a COMPETITION where certain teams are regarded as expendable and others are regarded as required to be permanently challenging. The AFL will do whatever they need to to ensure these clubs are "successful" and if that means manipulating things so they get even more leg ups down the track it will happen. Effectively what I'm saying is the AFL is going to guarantee premierships for certain clubs to cement their expansion and GWS will absolutely win a flag (or 3) in the next 10 years.

So who should we target? If you can't answer the question then why bother moping and whinging about it. Who is out of contract that is a realistic option?

Membership numbers are huge for sponsors- it gives them access to a database to direct market to via email/post.

Looking very far ahead here, but the Grand Final is on our home ground so if it comes to that we should have that going for us at least.

Next year we definitely need to make finals. Another thing that needs to be taken into account when looking at our improvement is our %. 2013 - 2 wins 50% 2014 - 4 wins 70% 2015 - 7 wins 77% 2016 (to date) - 6 wins 103% Even if we only win another 2-3 games if we can maintain our % above say 90-95% (based on increased offense not a dour defensive game style) I think it will be another step forward, albeit a baby step. We have a tough run home but to date we've eradicated the 90-100 point losses which has been a hallmark of our failure over the last decade. Overall we are improving arent we are aiming for sustainable improvement but it's not coming as quick as some (including myself) would like - but I am confident we're on the right track. There are comparisons to the Bailey-era & supporters suffering PTSD (or MFCSS/MSDS) won't believe it til they see it but there are differences to that team, not least of which is the type of players we have now compared to then.

Couldn't coach though