Apocalypse XXXI

What will Greg Denham say when he finds out about all these GWS lies?

So in effect the AFL is saying to GWS that it can try again but not be so blatant about what they're doing. Fair dinkum. There's so much hypocrisy and lies about the system that the mind truly boggles!

Said now to be going to the Suns. Josh Toy is supposed to be keen to return home to Victoria. I wonder if a trade could be done?

I can remember when Kosi was playing for the Murray Bushrangers about a decade ago and the pundits were comparing him to Neita. It will be interesting and ironical if he ended up at our club. To get him across it might cost us a Matthew Bate and possible swap of a second round draft pick.

No. We can't mention Rooty Hill's wealthiest resident here.

I have no issues with Matt Burgan. He is knowledgable and his articles are interesting, albeit non controversial in view of the fact that he's employed by the club. I'm finding the club website is regularly updated and, apart from the weekly injury information, keeps us well informed.

This is our worst performance for the year by far. Dropped marks, errant handballs and we're getting thumped at the stoppages. Ugh.

Why go for Malthouse when the real brains behind Collingwood's systems is Mark Neeld?

Those stats do tend to debunk the theory about us having such a great fixture. We have played seven games against the top five which is more than anybody else to date this season. Imagine if the number was three or four as it is with some of the others. True, they've been been bad losses but we've been under pressure. Incidentally, Carlton hasn't beaten any of the other top five teams either. Their record is 0-5.

I wouldn't knock Robinson. He's not only doing his job but he's also been quite good to Melbourne questioning some of the scuttlebutt about the club being pushed by some segments of the media. I've noticed that some unsubstantiated rumours, when repeated often enough, become accepted by some as the truth. Robbo has questioned some of these rumour as fact allegations on television and radio whereas others have accepted them as gospel and used them as the basis for 1 + 1 = 3 conclusions.

There's a great deal of irony in this discussion. Before he was dumped by his fellow board members ten years ago, Joseph Gutnik was exploring the idea of playing games in Tasmania to boost the budget. In the end, Hawthorn won the prize and has had a very successful and profitable arrangement ever since. In the meantime, we as a club have, from a playing point of view, unsuccessfully experimented with raising $'s by: 1. Selling home games to Brisbane Lions (massive fail winning only once); 2. Selling home games to Canberra where we ended up mostly playing against the Swans and again giving up home ground advantage; 3. Selling home games to Darwin where we've given away a significant home ground advantage over Port Adelaide to play in steamy, energy-sapping conditions that adversely affect the team's performance for weeks afterwards. This year a fee of the players have come down with illnesses in the fortnight after returning from Darwin. The answer, I believe, is to continue to explore other markets where a game or two can be sold - for e.g New Zealand or even regional areas where the game is strong such as Albury-Wodonga. If it's a money thing then perhaps it's time to demand that Cameron Schwab takes a page out of Campbell Rose's book and takes a bit of a razor to the large office staff at the football club and starts beefing up the football department to provide the players with better coaching and facilities.

Agree entirely. Don't we have a thread for the compulsive obsessive types who have nothing else to discuss 24/7 than one Tom Scully's contractual arrangements?

In: Jordan Gysberts Mark Jamar Out: Clint Bartram Max Gawn

For the sake of clarity you should have added that he was meaning Tom McNamara.

Possibly based on the fact that he kicked five against them last time and kept a dangerous opponent in check. That, and the fact that he would come into the game motivated knowing he's perhaps on his last chance. Who to leave out for him though?

Rightly so. We beat the Suns by 90 points and in our next game against West Coast we stank. We beat Adelaide by 96 points and we followed it up with a rancid effort after half time against North (admittedly we were hobbled by injury). We beat Essendon by 33 points and come up against Collingwood minus Jolly, Swan, Thomas and a few bit players and we put in another shocker. Garry was right in questioning their ability to come up twice in a row. We celebrated when we beat the Bombers. After the Dockers we were much more muted. The measure of out character is to come up next week, then the week after, then ... Time to kick arse.

Oh, Matty Whelan. If only we had someone with his courage and toughness today!

Spot on. We wouldn't need to be playing spuds in the forward line like Bate, Dunn or Newton if we had picked up a Quentin Lynch who, according to people I know in the west, would have been available in a trade last year. In addition, he would provide a target so that players would be kicking more direct to goal rather than fart around like they do these days. Before anyone goes off at such a suggestion, I only suggest him on a short term basis till our young blokes get enough games' experience.

The television programmes last week showed several incidents of sling tackles that were executed in similar fashion to Trengove's on Dangerfield . The point of difference was that the player in question didn't go off the ground for the rest of the match and the club in question didn't furnish a medical report suggesting he was concussed. In this case, the St. Kilda club doctor won't issue such a report so Bartram's in the clear.

The most damning statistic is the one that says St. Kilda scored 11.7.73 out of its score of 16.10.116 from turnovers. Many of those turnovers came about because of dumb play and a lack of preparedness to play direct attacking footy (rather than pressure from the opposition). We are becoming unwatchable.

Depends on what you describe as "risk". Personally, kicking backwards to a defender standing at full back who stands there for several seconds allowing his opponent to close in on him and then stand like a rabbit in the glare of a spotlight, lose possession and watch the ball sail through their goals might be called taking a risk too - especially if he had a man on by himself 40 metres downfield. Those who don't want to even read the words of the article are simply in denial. It was a pathetic effort last night and a definite step backwards for a team that hasn't played a match of this sort in front of its own fans in Melbourne for about five years. Truly pathetic and if we want to get better, we have to accept this. We need to understand where we went wrong and try not to repeat the dose.

No love for Spencer, Fitzpatrick or Gawn, Mr. Redleg?

Glad to read that you know what I'm saying but my emphasis is not on Keath in any way whatsoever. It's important to know that my point is very much that Mitchell was a "slider" because he was very much out of sight and out of mind. It's hard to tell where he might have been in the calculations had he not been injured for most of the year but there's a good case for the argument that he might have been a top 10 contender. Obviously not everybody will see it that way and it's always a risk drafting a player with a recent history of injury. Ask the blokes who drafted Selwood to Geelong and Swift to West Coast.

One of the reasons Mitchell is not rated as highly as he might otherwise is because he was injured (shoulder) for most of the season. He was certainly rated at under 16 level and was well fancied last year. He was considered by Gold Coast as one of its 17 year old selections last year and I reckon the GC Suns regret not taking him against Alex Keath who has taken up cricket

If ever you see a job advertised for our footy department, please don't bother applying.