rjay

I think we're kidding ourselves if we think we can beat the odds. We have this year and next to win a flag and then it gets a lot harder. If Freo crash this year then our chances of being a force long term lift significantly. Add some clever recruiting and father/son selections and that will hold us up. I'm concerned that we will be on the way down when Tassie come into the comp and that will hold us down longer. We can't rely on ageing champions, our contested style does not lead to longevity. We will need a lot of luck to go any longer than the current cycle.

To get a reaction... There are enough of us true believers on board who love this team. I just let these sorts of comments go and feel sorry for the people who can't share the joy. ...and I'm one who was pretty ambivalent about it at the start.

Tonight then after that next week then after that the next week. Sorry, but I'm one of those one game at a time people...

Stengel is a smart player. I don't think Saad was the right match up but not sure they have anyone else with leg speed in their defensive half. On that subject Doherty looks to be struggling and Weitering had a shocker... Another on the Cats side Tuohy is getting caught out a lot...33yo and might have gone one too many. edit: I notice Saad had a heap of metres gained wonder how much came back with interest...

A fair comparison 'A F', the only difference is that Sam didn't mind body contact. ...but back to Saad, he tried hard to lose them the game.

Carltons bottom 10 players are VFL standard. Some good high end talent. Geelong are looking old...without Cameron & playing a better opposition they would have been smashed.

I hope they send him to Clarry again.... He won't get the same result this time. Clarry is a very competitive footballer and would be storing the last meeting at the back of his mind. Plus he's fit this time.

...and they persisted with playing him in the wrong position at Casey stunting his development.

One of them could have been though, the one were he toe poked the ball. He didn't want to put his head down and get his body anywhere near or in line with it. I understand why, but as a footballer in any division let alone AFL it's one where you would put your body on the line. Is it asking too much these days? I don't know 'Red', I know at the time I made a comment and a few seconds later so did Hodge.

Sure did 'Red'...he's very outside. ...but I wonder if we can say this anymore with the focus on concussion. The game is going to have to make some very big decisions going forward.

At some stage the game will become non contact, probably not in my lifetime. Otherwise it will go the way of the Gladiators. Things change, nothing stays the same.

We are totally in agreement on this...if a player puts himself at risk like this they need to get at least a 4 week suspension to have a good think.

Let's hope Ross goes all out defence...

I guess my question is...has he done anything in his career to show he's capable of doing the heavy lifting?

I haven't taken any notice of the Hawks over the last few years but didn't see O'Meara as an inside extractor in the past. Maybe he's put this into his game to make up for what injury has taken away???

Was just thinking the same before I read this thread 'old dee'...

...and here I thought either 'Stuie' or 'Lord Nev' were back. It's only Tom Morris.

That's great news 'BDA', looking forward to the mens season to start then more to come after that. Let's hope it's "Back to Back" for the girls.

We all know that Oliver is the best player in the game...Robbo still hasn't figured it out.

...but we were & are not a team in development. Lyon & Clarkson are often portrayed as not being development coaches. This is shortsighted & unfair...they built their teams, developed a game style & were hunting flags, they had their team & it was hard to get into. We were shooting for a flag & you don't win those from the bottom half of the 8. Unfortunately we didn't have the luxury to rest our top players, we were fighting for our spot all the way. Again you listed a bunch of players who could have come in but how about making the changes. Which key players do we rest & who replaces them? Would Tomo come in for Lever? post knee reco he just hasn't had the agility to play that type of role. J Smith was injured as usual & Turner was unfortunate in his debut game to cop a bad injury that was confidence sapping. McVee couldn't get a kick in a stampede in 2022 but another year at Casey & a good preseason now it looks like we might have a player. Bedford & Chandler weren't coming in for key players, they might give ANB or Spargo a break, hardly keys. JVR wasn't ready, we might have had no choice if Max didn't come up as our tall options were limited. Maj retiring put a big hole in the tall options bucket.

It's easy to name the players struggling with injury. Now name the players you would replace them with and tell me how they would make us better?

No, you can't get off that easily. So many are blaming Goodwin & the FD when I believe they had no realistic options. If you are going to blame the FD as you did then tell us what changes you would have made? ...and why they would have made us better. Not just say as others have, bring in fresh legs. We could have brought in Chandler or Bedford but neither would have changed our fortunes, that would be fiddling around the edges. At the end of the day, you can't replace champions, that's why they're champions...

Dunstan, a player that the Saints moved on despite those votes. He had played 5 games for us, no votes and wasn't able to reach anything like that 12 vote form. He's purely a break glass player... Weid, been tried enough. Making changes would not have helped and may have made us worse.

How could we, we were fighting for a place in the top 4. Again, name the changes you would have made and tell me why they would have made us better?

One of the modern myths in football...