Pates

Boy the umps really do seem to be giving the Saints a dream run. That wasn't a mark yet the umpire further down the field paid it....

Agree, GWS don't seem to have anything more than a gritty victory in their bag right now. Saints are keeping the pressure on them whenever it looks like GWS are starting to get a run on.

No match fixing, they're just really bad at their jobs.

Greene may be a little f-wit but he can do some bloody good things. Knew exactly what he was doing as soon as that ball was floating towards him.

JC is not the saviour, he is a naughty (inaccurate) boy.

GWS should have at least 2-3 more goals, their finishing has been atrocious.

Plus side GWS always start slow and are only a kick and a bit behind. Negative they have missed some very gettable chances.

Did he just fake an injury so Hill could take the kick? He looked fine walking off! And GWS, kick straight you muppets!

GWS missing some really good chances early, not great signs. ?

The lisfranc injury sounds familiar, I thought that was the one that Mitch Clark had with us (hopefully if ti is it's a significantly lower severity).

Will he still be eligible? I forget what the maximum amount of games you can play is.

I've chosen the obvious choices, Saints really should be beating GWS and as for the Dogs, I can picture Jesse Hogan having a shot from directly in front to win the game after the siren and missing. We have to do our job, and just beat Essendon. I think they may come out with a bit of fight, they seem to love nothing more than turning things on for us even when they play pure $h!t against everyone else.

I hate to say it for Jonesy but I think his time is up at the club. That said, I would like the club to put it in Nathan's hands. We've given a few the push over the years and it stank up our culture, one thing there is little doubt in my mind is that Jones is well loved by his teammates. Pushing someone who has given his heart and sole for the club out the door could fracture relationships. Tell him the ball is in his court, lay it out honestly that in all likelihood he is not in the best 22 next year and if he wishes to continue then perhaps we make him a sort of playing coach (along the lines of Cross). He would probably show enough to make up the necessary games to get to his 300, and he could act as a mentor for the younger players at Casey.

Well done to the club off-field this year, for all the doom and gloom that happened early (and I was extremely worried) it has appeared we have actually managed things very well.

Well should Nev retire at the end of this year then the enduring image of him could be him putting his body on the line in a tight do or die match which we won. I really like what we've seen of Lockhart this year so I hope him not getting a game is due to a desired match up, I would have him ahead of Smith otherwise (although admittedly Smith has looked less like a headless chook lately). Hibbo back to face his old team, he was poor early in the year but he's come back into the form we know he capable of from about round 7 onwards. Get it done Dees!

I get what you mean by saying it's co-operative and I wouldn't be against that model going forward as I feel like that it was create a stronger, more stable competition across the board (every second year there's talk of a team being being "one their knees") which you would hope would bridge the gap between the rich and poor clubs. As I said though clubs that have managed their finances and clubs well would obviously feel as though they are "propping up" the lowly clubs and would have cause to feel it's unfairly diminishing their earnings.

Zero doubt that we should be getting our marquee fixtures next year. I could see a possibility of sharing the gate receipts equally for the blockbusters to even out the pie. I remember Nick Reiwoldt put forward an interesting idea a while back, obviously aimed at assisting the Saints and other clubs that don't draw big crowds. He basically said that the money generated by the competition is created by all the clubs existing and that they should therefor share the pot of gold that comes from it in a similar way to the way they share the TV rights. The Pros are that it would create a more equitable competition for the bottom line of ALL clubs, means each club would be able to spend more equally on operating costs and footy department costs. Also should mean it's less likely for clubs to be on their knees like we, and other clubs like North, Saints, Brisbane have been in the past. The Cons are that it creates a communistic style of running things, meaning clubs that have managed themselves well and got into strong positions to have larger crowds don't get to reap the benefits of it. I would also be willing to bet it'll happen just as we start to get big crowds regularly at the G! I wonder if there could be a middle ground for this idea where there could be a cap on what a club can earn from a single crowd and that the leftovers after the cap goes into a pot to be spread out evenly across the clubs. I'm not sure how they would manage it with Geelong given they own their stadium. As for what we get next year, looking at those double ups I'm not sure they would be the best/worst. Freo look like they might be on the up a bit, at the very least they have become hard to beat. Saints are always tough for us. Pies could be a contender should they get their list fit. And even GC are no longer easy beats.

I hate this new policy of releasing the teams the day before, at the very least I think they should be releasing a squad.

No excuses, but zero doubt that heavily disadvantaged us. We looked sluggish the whole game, question for me is why didn't we fly with Freo straight after their game so that we could at least have the day to prepare?

You’re London aren’t you? If so try 5:10am! ? This time slot we’re in is easily the worst for everything, low drawing and low interest, always on Fox Footy. Ironically I would’ve thought this match would have relatively high interest given it’s a final 8 determining match. As for my enthusiasm, I’m going to struggle to be up for the start of the game. Will probably watch the second half if the scores look good. And your prediction would be the most appropriate thing to happen this year. To add to it, we be in front and have the percentage with 2min so go and concede two late soft goals, one after the siren after a soft 50m penalty.

If he’s fit I guess it’s a good opportunity for his development to play in a do or die match. I just hope they are taking to long term approach with him as I’d hate for anything to muck up his preparation for 2021.

I really liked seeing him down there, it looked like a football (soccer) manager type thing where he was able to give directions to the players immediately when they came off/on. I’d like to see him stick with it this week and have Richo upstairs watching for patterns and structures.

Twice Lewis put his body on the line hard against the Hawks at crucial moments. He may not have been amazing, I would’ve called it a serviceable performance, but he did things that you expect of leaders at the right time Nobody front up against Eagles, if you can pick one player out of the 22 that day that did anything positive I’ll be impressed.

Interesting bump of my old thread, I really wanted to be wrong and have one of those “eat humble pie” moments but it’s sad to see he is now at stage where he’s behind Jackson and Brown as a picked tall forward. I wasn’t keen on a switch happening earlier this year because he’s been training g with the forwards, but if he’s still with us next year I think a switch back to defence might be the best option for him.

I know he has been quiet in recent weeks but I’m genuinely miffed at the suggestions of dropping Weid. This is our last chance dance, he’s clearly made a positive impact on the team this year and a key forward target, and people want to drop him to bring in TMac who has shown exactly sweet FA? I don’t get it at all.