3 valuable contributions. Bravo, GozzMan, for a timely assessment of our club - steeped in reality.
And that reality now sees the Dawks, Bumbers, Tiggers, Pussy Cats and probably the Kangabies of the Melbourne based clubs... ahead of us. Then you throw in the Fluffy Ducks, Powerless, D1ckers of the interstate clubs and we really are falling off the pace.
With all due respect Baggers, seriously mate how the fark can you say Kanganothings, Tiggers and Dees are ahead of us. Last time I checked, we finished ahead of all of them on the ladder this year. We pantsed the all hype no substance Tiggers in a final (whether we deserved to be there or not we were). The Dees are crap trucks, Roos has a monumental task, we will see how good a coach he really is. Kangas are the October November Premiers every year, puuuuurlease!
Mate... reality is that without the Bumbers this year, we would no have participated in the finals. The Tiggers finished 5th. And we finished 9th. Dont know where you get the Dees stuff from?? We beat the Kangabies by a pt to make the finals.... reckon they'd have smacked the Tiggers big time.
We got a leg up this year (thank you, Bumbers). It won't happen next year.
the Bombers cheated, pure and simple. We lost 2 games to them by a goal in the last minute when their drug fuelled bodies ran over the top of us. That's the reason why PED's are banned and sides get penalised to prevent such unfair advantages. Without that unfair advantage we won those 2 games, win 13 matches and finish in the 8 in our own right. That's the reality.
We finished above North, and beat them, beat Richmond twice including a final. Don't see them ahead of us. Neither are Essendon ahead of us as they had to cheat to do it so please don't include them. We have no clue how good they are. I'm sure if we took PED's like them we'd be a big flag chance.
Not everything is negative as posters seem to enjoy making out.
I like the idea of one ruck and the relief such as Casboult. I also like, and prefer, a spine of Jamison FB, Watson, who does ok each time he plays, at CHB, Henderson CHF and Waite FF. That means though we have to play the 2 rucks as well, who can slow up our mobility.
Maybe the other thing we can do is move Waite to the wing, as Richmond did with Richo late in his career, and play Casboult rather than a 2nd ruckman. Waite would play there well and it might just improve our midfield a bit too.
I like the idea of one ruck too, which is why Jesse White partnered with Kruezer would have been ideal. I prefer Warnock in over Casboult though, unless by some miracle he learns how to kick this off season. Rowe just runs out of puff too quick. Warnock trumps him too. Increasing Waites workload= bad idea. Already made of Glass and it robs us of some serious scoring power.
Depends what you want to do. To me it's either two KPF's or two rucks. Two of each just slows us up. I always prefer two KPFs as you have to score to win. more important than a few extra tapouts. Warnock and Kreuzer are useless as forwards.
Running around on the wing would be less physical than the bash and crash of being a KPF for Waite. Only do that though if we decide to play if we decided to play both Henderson and Casboult forward, the latter rucking, with Watson in defence.
As for Rowe, after another year after cancer treatment his tank may improve quite a bit.
I like the idea of one ruck and the relief such as Casboult. I also like, and prefer, a spine of Jamison FB, Watson, who does ok each time he plays, at CHB, Henderson CHF and Waite FF. That means though we have to play the 2 rucks as well, who can slow up our mobility.
Maybe the other thing we can do is move Waite to the wing, as Richmond did with Richo late in his career, and play Casboult rather than a 2nd ruckman. Waite would play there well and it might just improve our midfield a bit too.
The only consistency I noticed was how inconsistent we were
Still struggle to beat the top sides, still lose dumb games to sides below us. Still struggling to win more than 3 in a row. Still don't have a forward line to match the best.
Surprised how anyone can say it was a pass, we finished 6th*
(*= 9th)
We got into the finals in 8th as the side we replaced cheated to get there. No ifs or buts on that. Those same cheats used their unfair advantage to overrun us very late in games after we had big leads. Without drugs we win 13 H & A games.
Season is half a pass mark if that's possible as our consistency was the equivalent of a yo-yo. Great, exciting, hard at times, weak, soft and mentally inept other times. We have it but there is still a way to go in regards to culture as well as consistent work ethic and attitude.
Like the idea of getting Jesse White as well as Daisy. Martin would be nice, maybe we can do a deal with one of the Amigos, but in the end it all posturing and negotiation and will probably stay at Richmond.
Do we need to trade for White? I think he is more a cameo type than what we need (solid 4 qtr player) but we're not in a position to be super picky and I must say the list does seem better for those inclusions.
Re: White. You're probably right. Unfortunately there's not alot of choices out there and those types aren't easy to pick up. Generally looking for someone to simply back up Henderson though when he goes back to the forward line rather than a real spearhead. That he should do ok. Maybe we could look at a key defender too, like maybe Delaney, although Watson looked more and more like he could do the job over time
As for the "never-say-die" attitude our's are selective. Some days we fight other days we just hoist the white flag early. It was the greatest roller-coaster season ever, wonderful highs combined with some of the greatest sh1t imaginable. We had the thrilll of the last few weeks, taking Essendon's spot, finishing above Collingwood, winning a final against Richmond, how much better does that get even if we were possibly one of the worst side ever to finish 6th??? Then we had the game we had to have against Sydney to make sure the problems and cracks weren't wallpapered over and forcing us into change we had to have. Season of getting highly excited at times only be be dumped on our head into deep depression just as we thought things were getting better. Always frustrating.
Like the idea of getting Jesse White as well as Daisy. Martin would be nice, maybe we can do a deal with one of the Amigos, but in the end it all posturing and negotiation and will probably stay at Richmond.
McInness' name has popped up for a bit for criticism. We should remember that he didn't do a pre-season owing to his his knee reco. Will be much better for a full pre-season. Shouldn't really have been out there this year... but there wasn't anyone else!! (Laids too slow; White injured).
And some of the same can be applied to Murph who also didn't have a full pre season.
Yes, exactly. He's been bagged, as a young bloke, for a bad few weeks despite coming of a knee reco. Has played some impressive footy at this club quite often and will again but as most supporters only have 10 sec memories this has been forgotten as usual.
I don't think it's unreasonable to think that about half-a-dozen of the blokes who took the field tonight have played their last game in navy blue.
I think that's fanciful to be honest. Realistically a cub can recruit two or three good players in any one off season, on top of that they can draft or rookie three or four promising kids who may or may not make the grade, so any cuts to the list are limited to 6 or 8 players, any more and you just replace hacks with hacks. There were at least four senior listed players not in last night's side, maybe as many as five or six, who will probably play very little senior football if they stay on the list, offhand I'd name Ellard, Joseph, Rowe, Mitchell, Davies and McCarthy as almost certain to be delisted, and Laidler and Hampson must be on shaky ground. Most if not all of the players who played last night will still be on the list next season.
Probably right on nearly all counts. Rowe will play next year. We signed for the extra year during the season.
That was a roller coaster season. We varied between commitment and skill, and total lack of commitment, work ethic and skill. sometimes within the same game. Not alot in-between. Had some good wins, terrible losses, the thrill of taking Essendope's place in the finals with that stirring last qtr after a gutless first half against Port, knocking out Richmond in the same fashion, finishing above Collingwood, then insipid efforts like tonight with no ticker or want. Importantly we got the thrill of winning a final but the playing like dogs the next week so the cracks aren't wallpapered over.
All of the above summed up the club. Certainly ability, as we've shown quite, even in some losses, but a lack of consistent work ethic, consistent attitude and culture making that ability often worthless.
Not sure how much farther we can go, always in with a chance in two horse races and you never know!
But after today regardless of what happens I am sort of satisfied, there is no team left in the finals that I really hate and stamping Nthmond's papers under the guidance of the past Collingwood super-coach after being invited to do so by EFC is just about as good as it gets without winning a flag!
Are we now officially the only team to win a final from 9th position, yet another tick on the Carlton FC honor board? If not, at least Nthmond have the dishonor of being ejected from the finals by the 9th place side!
Alot more irony in that last sentence than you could imagine.
Our footy team is one strange cat. crap and good from week to week, sh1t and good in the same game, capable of being mentally weak and mentally very strong within the same game, and now into the second week of the finals and in with a chance.
Must say we have been good against top sides this year most time without necessarily winning. Those above small crap patches got us in alot of those games and we got robbed blind against the Hawks.
Bells kicking wasn't great at all but he found the ball when others couldn't and moved fast for a big kid in the second half. Needs work but is what we need.
It's why, for all the frustration at times, players like Bell and Robbo are so important in tough finals.
We learnt how important Waite and Betts are too and why I'd be happy to pay the latter good $$$$
? We beat the Kangabies by a pt to make the finals.... reckon they'd have smacked the Tiggers big time.
