I'm sure there has been someone, somewhere that has said something alnog those lines at one point in time......but to imply that it was a widespread belief, is flat out BS.
@kruddler You do realise people are free to go back and see what was written, I suspect you're betting they won't be bothered. But they will all remember the debates around KPPs and Rucks, it must be burned into their retina!
Our state is now completely out of control regarding serious crimes in particular stabbings and home invasions.
When the bough breaks ...........Scott definitely made some tweaks, they really got us on the counter and outside by backing themselves to sit a couple off the contest.
Started off like we wanted to really win it, finished like we were still being coached by Voss.
We played Hawthorn a while back in the rain and got spanked, tonight we didn't handle the slippery conditions again. It's clearly an issue that needs to be addressed.
What is also of serious concern to me is that some of our players who have been adequate for many weeks, crumbled under the pressure and did some extremely stupid things.
Young & Cottrell were braindead tonite, some of the things they did completely defy logic. Kemp going for the left foot checkside from the right forward pocket only to kick the ball in the middle and float it across goal to the opposite pocket where Cottrell took a chest mark. From the set shot, Cottrell kicked across the body and hit the post - two appalling choices let down by poor skills. I also wasn't impressed with Cottrell laughing when he hit the post, seriously champ, this is a cut-throat final which requres a little more focus than what you showed.
We got a few bum decisions from the umpires but that is not why we lost, we failed to maintain the pressure & chase like we have seen for many weeks.
Fraser got a coaching lesson tonite, we were all over them early and made them look second-rate, Scott made some subtle changes and they stormed back into the match.
Yes, it's been a really weird year for us with plenty to like but this elimination final showed just how far off the pace our list is and how we cannot cut corners in our pursuit for the ultimate success.
Fraser didnt adjust the long kicks to Harry. Not sure how many marks he took but every mark he didnt mark it, when the bal hit the ground Geel punished us by taking it away. They needed to put it bed because Geel were waiting for it every single time.
Our fwd line looked dysfunctional by large tonight, Stewart seem to gobble up everything, we played into their hands (literally).
Again, I don’t believe that I ever suggested that we were top heavy. I did point out that our ratio of talls to smalls in 2025 was similar to most other clubs.
For the record, I’m a two ruckmen kind of guy … provided that the two ruckmen can both have an impact when they’re not rucking.
This debate has waged in many threads but ill summarise as follows from my memory:
We havent recruited enough talls often enough was one perspective along with too many smalls.
The opposing perspective was that we have recruited plenty of each type but all of them have shortfalls at AFL level, which results in we need more of everything.
Sometimes the argument was then paraphrased into assuming that this meant we had enough, but the reality (according to me) is, that we were gambling on our good players staying fit, because they were all guns, and then trying to fill the gaps between them. This rehash and paraphrasing is why it was a never ending debate, because as we see in this topic, the opposing viewpoint was dismissed because it was transformed into a different argument about who was more right, rather than what was more right.
Which was the most pressing need? Turns out, that both was correct on this years evidence. Im not sure we have missed the talls, but getting in Ainsworth, Florent, Hayward, Evans, Jagga and co was tantamount to turning things around because we got halfway through a list build, sacked the list manager, sacked the coach because we needed to win, and ended up with a mish mash of aging players that couldnt help us take the next step any longer and failed to fill the gaps.
I think thats about as close as it gets to summarising. The irony is not lost on me, that last season, we delisted Harry Lemmy to go with the departing JSOS, TDK and Curnow situation, and still managed to cover those absences with a delisted free agent in Wade Derkson, a draftee in Harry Dean, and what was already here, and this was the doomsday scenario of losing Weitering for an elongated period of time. Still, we do need more quality talls as on history we got a bit lucky with Mckay and Pittonet being robust, and we could use some more grunt through the running players. With Walker coming in, and hopefully HOF returning, that means we need a more project ruck forward through the draft again and as we saw on the weekend another medium swing type because Mcgovern, Haynes and Newman arent getting any younger.
i wasnt going to mention it but Mark had a heart issue in 2022 which came out of the blue. Cant help but think this is a similar issue as any other situation he would have replied to our messages.I have conversed a lot with EB (Mark) via PM about many topics, footy, family, food, cars, trips etc. I am very concerned and I am missing his contributions to this site and the PM's.
Im must say im quite affected by his absence and what it means. I never met the man in person but i really liked him nevertheless - was never personal regardless what came his way smart thinker and empathetic whenever there was a personal issue.
A massive loss to the site.
