Jaded No More

And yet we continue to be their [censored]. I am SO sick of losing to them, about as sick as playing against them at Etihad always and forever, even when it is our home game.

Agreed. We don't need to rush Weideman. Who would he even replace in the side? He isn't a Dawes or Pedersen replacement, and the last thing we need is even more inexperience. As it is our inexperience leads to a lack of composure which has cost us games this season (North, Hawks to name a few). Oscar McDonald is filling a role that we currently don't have a better alternative for. Yes people will scream for Dunn, but Dunn can't zone off, he doesn't understand two-way running and isn't even tall enough to play on many of today's key forwards. We need to keep developing players in every area of the ground. When Garland and Dunn play everybody screams that they are no good and belong to the old culture of losing. So we try to bring in new players, and then everybody screams that they aren't ready. When do people suggest we give these guys experience? When we are trying to make top 4? When we are in contention for a flag? The time is now. We are improving slowly and building, but finals are probably unrealistic. This is the perfect time, with a new coach coming in next season and an adjusted game plan, to develop these players. Funny I don't see many people calling for Hunt and Wagner to go back to the VFL, although they leak probably as many goals every week, playing on lesser opponents. People see what they want to see, and Oscar bashing seems the flavour of the month. He is so raw, yes, but he is no worse than his brother or Frawley was at this stage of their career. We have two choices; play him and see if he cuts it with more experience (if he doesn't we don't need to waste list space on him going forward), or let him go back to the VFL where he dominates and live under an illusion that he will be great one day by some miracle despite getting no AFL exposure.

He looks slow but hard to know if that's the long term effects of the injury or lacking senior match conditioning. But what he has which is priceless, is a footy brain and an ability to work through situations. If he stays fit and healthy and can improve his speed off the mark, I think he will be a wonderful addition to our team, and wouldn't that be great!

First game live for me this year and I have to ask wtf has happened to our backline? For 2 years it was the only passable area of the ground for us, but the whole thing seems to have lost the plot. I guess we only have 2 experienced players in there now. Jetta is a gun who needs to be locked into a long term contract. Tom Mac has surely been kidnapped by aliens who sucked all the defensive skills out of him. He has lost it, his defensive efforts are becoming laughable. The rest of the backline is riddled with inexperienced kids all of whom I rate and think have a long term future, but obviously it's a slow work in progress. Hunt is by far the most impressive. I think he'll be great. Oscar is so inexperienced. How you expect a 6 game player playing one of the hardest positions in the game, not to stuff up, I'm not sure. I just hope he doesn't go the way of his brother with the crazy brain fades. Overall I am more worried about McDonald senior than McDonald junior.

He's been fantastic this year. A different player. All credit to him, nobody has ever been under more pressure to perform than poor Watts. He has been bashed for his entire career and rather than letting it break him, he let it make him. If that doesn't make him a tough bastard, I don't know what does.

They are the reigning premiers. They are a lot more experienced and they just know how to grind you down. I thought we played really well despite a really disappointing last quarter kicking just 1 point. We had a lot go against us today and some players who basically didn't turn up, namely Garlett. We also would have been a lot better off playing Pedersen who can take a mark, than butter hands Dawes, especially in this weather. Not sure if Pedersen is sick, but if he was fit it was a costly mistake to leave him out. A lot of positives today, I thought Frost was very good down back. Vince amazing, Tyson likewise. It was a strong effort and a much improved effort than the slop we've served up against them for 10 years. And lastly, I hope, although I know we are too weak to do so, that we give the AFL a please explain re: the umpires. The most one sided disgusting biased performance I've seen in a long time. What a joke.

The umpires are a bunch of cheating fuckwits. We can't beat Hawthorn and 4 umps!

I think I just fell off my chair at the G! ProDee giving Watts a compliment. Maybe hell has frozen over! Tyson is having a wonderful game. I'm glad we took it up to them and didn't lie down and let them smash us like we have for the last 10 years. They and the umpires treat us with contempt and I'm sick of it. We deserve to be in this game and not because we are a pack of cheats who get favored by the umpires every week. I don't know if we can win this, but I sure as hell hope we keep up the fight and come close!

Best on for us by a mile. When he went into the ruck we really struggled around the ground.

They're in control. They know how to play wet weather footy. We don't. They know how to man up. We don't. They know how to take a contested mark. We don't. They are smart. We are not. Not looking good.

First night back in Melbourne last night, and I had to sleep with 3 blankets. WTF is this cold?! It is just as cold in Melbourne as it is in Tassie, and it absolutely poured all evening here.

A North - Sydney GF would put me to sleep. Seriously, would be a nightmare. In fact any game involving North is a goddamn nightmare. Freo are also crap to watch, they are so boring!

Because he is the future and I don't think Dunn is quite getting the whole zone defence thing. Obviously to us supporters we don't know what is happening behind closed doors, but it seems to me that he isn't fitting in with this new defensive structure which is why he isn't getting regular games.

Jamar didn't get a farewell game, so I'm thinking Roos and sentiments don't go hand in hand. Grimes is a really good depth player, he gives you everything and can fill a number of roles. Whether he is better than depth I don't know. Defensively he is pretty good, but offensively he can be hit and miss. I think if anything Hunt has taken his role, and his superior leg speed has really helped us improve as a team, which is something Grimes just cannot compete with. I would hope he can get 2 more games, as he has been a wonderful servant of our club and captained us through the worst period in recent history, and did so admirably and graciously. The season is not even half finished, and injuries are starting to mount, not to mention young bodies are starting to tire. Grimes may still be in with a chance to get to 100 games.

Apparently the flu this year is particularly nasty. I got sick towards the end of my trip and it got me so bad, the doctor nearly didn't let me fly. I also heard Tyson had a throat infection, which means around 10 days of antibiotics (plus maybe a couple of shots if they wanna kill it quickly) which is really tiring on the body. Could explain why he seemed so lackluster.

I'm back in this corner of the globe, yes. Didn't miss anything while I was away except footy* and Melbourne coffee. Happy the club waited for me to give Trenners a game, not happy the AFL decided to schedule a game against the Hawks for this weekend. *debatable- only missed the footy when we were winning

So happy for Jack. A long time coming and so well deserved. As I've said before, this feels like the end of our dark period and Jack mirrors that horror journey so well. I just hope this is the end now and we get to enjoy 100 more games from him. My first game of 2016 and I'm just beyond excited to cheer him on, even though I think we will get smashed.

Season is basically done. We are going into the 4 hardest weeks of the season without arguably our best player. Good times.

Someone explain to me please how the [censored] some clubs manage to have one [censored] season and bounce back like Carlton, and I'm still waiting for us to beat a real opposition after 10 years. It is just depressing to see Carlton doing so well. Their list isn't even that good!

North because I can't fucken stand them and I am sick of losing to them and that turd Harvey Hawthorn because I'm sick of being their [censored]. I wanna lemonade their arse Beyoncé style next weekend.

I might be wrong, but I thought you can't trade future picks two years in a row?

Lack of effort from too many key players was super disappointing. But more disappointing still was the lack of effort from our coaching panel. How can Roos continue to [censored] up selection? How can the coaches not have a plan B when we are getting slaughtered on the counterattack? How can they not see then man up the loose man in defence killing us? They only seem to have 2 moves: send Hogan down back (a dumb move since he's our best marking option up forward), and move Garlett to the centre bounce (where he is rarely effective). I understand that too many players were down on output and you can't do much with that, but to begin with we needed to make more changes to keep fresh legs. We needed to prepare for Port's counterattack from the backline, which is basically their only move of the last 3 seasons. To lose so comprehensively in effort and in the box is something I hoped we were past. For all the millions we spend on a box full of experienced coaches, I thought they were as much to blame today as the 22 on the field.

Thanks for the laugh

So many problems today. Got completely outcoached. Had no idea how to stop that deadbeat Westhoff, no idea how to stop the quick run off half back, no idea how to prevent so many goals over the back. Had numerous key players who couldn't get near it today including Viney, Vince, Tyson, Garlett, Kennedy, Newton, Harmed and so forth. Most of our midfield couldn't win a clearance which was the most costly aspect. We also cost ourselves dearly in selection again. Didn't make enough changes, didn't bring enough support in the ruck. We needed Pedersen but for some reason went short with Newton who is so poor it isn't funny. As a result we got smacked in the air down back, lost numerous clearances, and continuously got smashed by a loose man in defence. A combination of terrible dumb coaching, awful effort from 90% of the team and a complete lack of run killed us today. We are not a finals team and we are about to start a long stretch of very difficult games. This was a golden opportunity blown.

Harsh on Jones. I thought he tried hard but was a lone hand as he has been for the last 9 years. He can't do it alone and it is a shame that the rest of the leadership group did SFA today.