Undeeterred

I think we've established that, despite the awesomeness that is Mitch Clark, you need more than one key forward target to get anywhere near success. Of our current options that you mention: Watts is best down back. Jurrah is a good chance of not playing again. Ricky Bobby is going to GC. Garland has proven he is a defender. Howe will be a mid. Sylvia is a running flanker. Trengove can't kick a goal from 40 out. Jamar can't kick at all. You are left with Martin, Rivers, Sellar, Bate and Dunn as your key forward options. Yes, we need Cloke.

No need to hang cr@p all over him peeps.

I can sort of picture him doing the Stuart Dew thing at Hawthorn and jagging them another flag...

Let's be honest. Most of us probably thought 10 goals was about par. The betting line was 50.5 points, so that's a good indication. When we were that far behind at 3QT, did anybody expect us to kick 8 goals in the last quarter? Losing sucks, but we are moving in the right direction. We were never going to win today and anybody who says they were realistically expecting us to is kidding themselves.

Yeah, don't reckon he'd have had 8 tackles too many times before.

As so often, 4 goals to none in the first quarter,when the game is there to be won, turns out to be essentially the final margin... Actually not a bad result, given the expectations of most of us. We'll do them next year with a full team.

Good on the boys for at least playing the game out. Could easily have been done by more than 10 goals...

Part of the plan. Go with a good team for a half, to prove we can. But make sure we don't risk draft picks by playing the whole game out and maybe actually winning. Lol.

Jones, Trengove, Grimes, MacDonald, Rivers, McDonald, Blease, Strass, Jetta, Green and Bate have literally had 1-2 touches each in the third quarter. And Sylvia... Statless after I stuck up for him.

Did they put chains on their legs at half time or something? How do you go from level pegging to 6 goals down in 15 minutes??

You'd think we'd have learnt.

Didn't Beau Wilkes pop up with a few last time we played as well?

Surely they jest...

Good to see Grimes and Trenners getting a lot of it.

Sylvia has 6 tackles to half time. Get off his back.

That's actually a really good point - always good to remember that players are people and the club isn't just swapping footy cards or something.

Having said that, Mods, is there any reason my thread was deleted?

Didn't see this thread when I posted mine - sorry.

I do - wonder how he feels about it. I reckon they're probably giving him 6 weeks off his ankle, and making him lift weights and eat lots of chicken. He'll be abit more built, and his ankle will be right in October and he'll be ready to run... Makes sense, I suppose.

Fair enough. We disagree entirely. Watching our absolutely shite team in the last few years, Rivers is one of the few who (1) consistenty beats his player and (2) busts his chops, no matter what, against a constant stream of I-50s. He is a touch slow, I'll admit, but he is probably the best reader of the play in our team, and far better than a below average player who deserves to be swept out this year, as you are suggesting.

You are like that annoying kid in primary school who says 'I know you are, I said you are, but what am I' every time anybody opens their mouth.

Ouch.

But being a quality long serving footballer makes you worth signing. Rivers is above the bar.

It's an interesting question. I hadn't thought as far as the team v individual angle of that question. I'm certainly not saying there is evidence that alcohol helps your performance. But, I guess what I'm probably saying is that there is an excessive focus on 'rules'. I think that employers generally should have no say and no input into what you do in your private time, provided it doesn't harm your ability to do your job, and isn't illegal. Football clubs are no different to banks or building companies or retailers or anything else in that sense, they are just employers in the end. If players turn up drunk, or so fat they can't run, then clearly their performance is being hindered and, in a football context, they will be lining up to get sacked pretty smartly. That argument doesn't hold for Swan. What better performance could Collingwood possibly ask for? Does anybody really think he'd get 50 touches every week instead of 40 if he went to bed at 10pm every night?

I think its irrelevant that these guys are paid to be professional athletes, when considering their after hours activities. Firstly, he's not our player, so why do we care what he does? And if he was, then it is the same thing as in any other job - if you perform, then you keep your job. Clearly, getting on the pi55 doesn't make a pinch of [censored] difference to Swan's 'on-the-job' performance, so who cares what he gets up to??? And to those who say footballers are role models and shouldn't behave like this, I say (1) we probably need to look elsewhere for role models anyway and (2) how many of you can say you never go out for drinks after work?