bing181

Plus having to restructure the forward/back line around both McDonald and Pedersen being off for a large slab of it - Frawley went down back when McDonald went off, and Pedersen was already off in any case, so there goes 2 of the 3 who should have been in Dawes' vicinity. Hard to be too creative as a coach when KP players are off and you've already used your sub.

Accept what you want, but for some of us "hurts like hell" and "finishing some arbitrary number on the ladder" are not joined at the hip. Put it another way: I'd much rather finish last but not have to sit through yesterday's debacle, than finish a couple of (meaningless) places higher up the ladder, while putting in the shocker that was Sunday afternoon at Etihad. Our non-performance yesterday says more about where we're at as a club than the ladder position, and THAT's why many of us put "don't care".

We'll be OK ... gallant loss, and in it until final quarter. We only go to pieces in matches we should win, not matches we should lose. If anyone's interested, dig out some of the recent interviews from Michael Rogers - Ozzie cyclist. 2 stage wins at the Giro and one at the TDF this year because at the ripe old age of 34 and after quite a bit of soul-searching following a suspension, he's stopped being scared of winning. Sport: It's a lot between the ears, and it's the weight of expectation that's killing us. Tapscott, Blease out. Maybe Pedersen (nose?), and I'd see what happens this week with Tommy Mac. Was off the ground for treatment at 3/4 time, then for a slab of the last quarter - something's not quite right there. Gawn and Cross in, perhaps Mitchie, but they could also be interested in having one last look at Strauss. Start JKH, then Riley or Mitchie sub.

Discussed in the Poll thread, so no point going on with it here. In any case, you're both a) distorting the figures - only about 1% of Demonlanders even bothered with that poll - and b) misrepresenting their meaning. Though given so very few people even bothered with it, that probably sums up its (in)significance.

27.74% of people who took the poll, just over 1% of supporters on this site. Neither being a majority.

Agree ... and not helped that both T Mac and Pedersen were off for a large slab of the last quarter (injured), and our 3 man forward line (Dawes, Frawley, Pedersen) was reduced to one when Frawley was moved forward to cover for T Mac. On top of which, and with Tapscott already subbed out, rotations almost stopped - I saw a few get waved back on when they were trying to come off.

16% of the time. Though even if he gave it back 30% of the time, he would have done better than a lot of them today.

I'd be asking Blease the questions, not Dawes. When you're running past a teammate under pressure, surely you should be looking for the handball receive ...

Perhaps, but still learning the trade. I'd cut him some slack, especially as you can't question his endeavour. Time's up for a few of his fellow travellers though.

I don't know that it's a half ... though the bottom handful are doing a good job of dragging the rest of the team down to their level (to put it politely).

Anyone who berates the selection committee for not picking Blease should be tied to a chair and made to watch that match on a continuous loop.

Because injured players sit around with their feet up, or pop interstate to visit their family? A bye is a period off. No bye, no period off. Injured or not, it's still up at the crack of dawn, and days spent at the club.

Harmes coming along nicely ... 22 possessions, 8 tackles ... though going by the stats, everyone seems to have put in today.

Casey Scorpions ‏@CaseyScorpions 38s Great win by the boys! Scorps 13-14-92 def Blues 6-14-50. Gawn, Fitzy and Besty all kicked 3 majors.

Good coaching starting to pay off?

Cross listed as emergency. Along with Gawn and Jones. Terlich in, bench Kent, Blease, JKH, Riley. Tapscott and Blease get one more/last chance?

If anyone can find a competition that's anything like as physically (and mentally) demanding as AFL where there's a 22 game season with no breaks, I'd be interested to see it. If we wanted to limit the games to 80 minutes (rugby) or 90 minutes (soccer), perhaps ... Resting players throughout the season is fine in theory, but I don't know that current lists are big enough to keep both a firsts and some semblance of a reserves side ticking over. Not to mention, very few players manage every game in a season in any case, and I can't see how team structures, training and meetings etc. would work with say a third of the players away for half a dozen weeks of each year.

Surely such is the nature of medical science and of predicting outcomes? As of yesterday (Thursday), no-one could even say with any certainty if Cross would be ready to play in 4 days time, yet alone looking at what might happen 3-4 weeks down the track with Hogan. My layman's take on it all is that it's all very well being a boy-mountain, but that's a heck of a load on a still-developing body - Hogan has had a run of (different) injuries since this time last year, and I wonder if he's out of the woods yet.

You only have to look at the tweets from Jones and Dawes to see the esteem he was held in by the players. Good luck Shannon. Future coach somewhere ...

Don't care, as in, it's irrelevant. Doubling (at least) our number of wins, improving our percentage, and being "in" most games - including games against top sides - speaks more about where we're at and the progress we're making, than a number on a ladder. I was hoping for 6-8 wins, but with what happened to Clark, Hogan, Trengove, Dawes (missed quite a few games early on plus the pre-season), Garland and Jamar (ditto) plus Cross, that has turned out to be unrealistic. If half of that little list had managed a more or less full season with full health/fitness, I doubt very much that this thread would exist.

Also, you're getting more riders having a "jour sans" where they have an off day ... rarely had that in the good old days. Not to mention far fewer (almost no) Pro Tour riders testing positive, or even getting picked up through the Biological Passport scheme. Tiernan Locke was the only real recent one, and the (presumed) doping took place before he joined Sky. Biological Passport is interesting in terms of the "there's no evidence" Essendon supporters. No proof, no positive test, no hard evidence even circumstantial - simply blood test results over a long period that could be indicative of doping. I don't know, do the AFL even do blood tests (yet alone monitor them)? I think not.

Agree, but pushing it I think, he's not even training fully at the moment.

Got to remember, Riley had no pre-season, and his fitness/tank will be somewhat compromised as a result. Whether that's it, can't say, but feel it was pretty much eeny meeny miny mo between him and the players you mentioned.

The coach speaks: "Overall it was a terrific effort … that's the sort of standard we want to set as a footy club."

My son still has his 48 jumper hanging on the back of his bedroom door. Lots of broken dreams ... perhaps good that kids learn about that as well, but sad all the same. Hope Liam finds some peace.