Make no mistake, our pride has been restored with one of our club's most important victories at the MCG tonight.

Not only have we taken a big step towards avoiding the dreaded wooden spoon, but this victory will surely go a long way towards 'teaching the guys how to win', which is far more important than gaining a supposedly 'talented' youngster via the national draft.

We only need to look at how valuable those 3 games we won at the back-end of last season were at 'teaching the guys how to win'.

As anyone would testify, the way we attacked the season-proper this year after last year's barnstorming end to the season should be all the proof you need that a few wins at the end of the season can perform wonders.

In fact, I think that if we can win next week against Essendon*, then we'll be able to finish the season in a terrific 14th place, and avoid the ignominy of a priority pick altogether!

Tonight's great win against a severely under-strength Collingwood also shows that, talent-wise, we're pretty much good to go.

All we need now is for the young kids to spend another summer in the gym, put on 10kgs of muscle, learn to run quicker, learn to kick more accurately, grow taller, remove the fundamental weaknesses from their games and develop innate leadership qualities, and we're set to launch an assault on the finals.

Work ethic, pride in the jumper, beating the 'old enemy' in a must-win round 20 clash for 15th spot, and a warm fuzzy feeling when you read the names on your locker... these are the building blocks for success in the modern game.

Forget your so-called draft and early picks and talent... that's what St Kilda tried, and look where it's getting them! The Bulldogs also foolishly thought that early picks could deliver them the talent around which to build a team! Poor deluded souls.

Give me the Geelong model anyday.

Well done blueboys! You were absolutely pathetic when we needed wins when our finals chances were still alive... but this end of season resurgence has warmed my heart indeed.

Hopefully, Hawthorn and Collingwood keep losing, and we can secure 14th spot and pick 5 in the national draft. Let them have 1 and 3, and 2 and 4 respectively! Losers.

This is a win I'll remember forever! Well, until next week anyway.

JohnM,

It is posts like this that drive people away from this site.

What are you suggesting the coaching staff and players should have done tonight?

Please spell it out.

Should we have deliberately tanked tonight?

What if we don't have the 15th worst list in the AFL, what is it is in fact the 11th best? Then we are getting a player 3 or 4 places higher in the draft than we may have. The argument goes both ways.

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oh i get it now he's taking the piss

Enjoyed the win myself and was happy to see our younger players do so well..Adam Bentick was terrific and while Collingwood were missing some quality players I think the form of our young players was encouraging and would give everyone connected with the club a lift.
John is entitled to his opinion and I enjoy his work but disagree with his not so subtle view on the meaning of the win or negative effects on our draft prospects....I'll take the win and savour the efforts of the youngsters and look forward to the Essendon* game...

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"When you have the attitude of a champion, you see adversity as your
training partner."
- Conor Gillen

If the Hawks win we're still in the running for 1st pick.














But they won't.

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"One of my favorite philosophical tenets is that people will agree with you only if they already agree with you. You do not change people's minds." - Frank Zappa

yep, agree ... dawks wont win again this season so i reckon we can shove those spoons up our antagonists' ass!!!!!!

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... an eagle flew out of the night. he was something to observe, came in close i heard a voice, bending stretching every nerve, had to listen had no choice ...

Once they lost Williams the Hawks also lost any chance they had of winning any more games.

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"One of my favorite philosophical tenets is that people will agree with you only if they already agree with you. You do not change people's minds." - Frank Zappa

we will beat Essendon* next week too..

You might be right. This is where the tanking argument gets interesting

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"One of my favorite philosophical tenets is that people will agree with you only if they already agree with you. You do not change people's minds." - Frank Zappa

I'm sure Hawks & Magpies won't win another game this year. They know how to use the system to their advantage. We're too stupid & believe short term pride is more imprtant than the long term picture.

Jarusa, you ask me what the club should have done tonight? Frankly, I couldn't give a rats about tonight in isolation. I think it's meaningless.

A nice happy feeling that'll be gone in a few days.

I'm more concerned about our season as a whole, where it leaves us and where we're heading.

We've been terrible when it mattered. Awful, with a percentage to prove it. Now that the heat's off, we look a bit better. It's going to take a lot more than us (with a full strength side) beating collingwood with around 8 key players missing for me to get warm and fuzzy about our prospects.

How is this helping us going forward? It's just like last season. Short on talent, eke out some wins, maybe finish in no-man's land.

Forgive me if I'd rather we

(a) played decent football when the finals were still a possibility, or

(b) bottomed out to get the best picks in the national and pre-season draft.

I'll take either. What I don't want is neither.

If people would rather rosy posts about how bright our future looks, well... I'm not going to provide them just for the sake of us all feeling a bit better.

I try to always see both sides of any discussion, and stay fair-minded. But, fair dinkum, if our club is dumb enough to miss out on a PP, then well, don't expect me to be happy about it.

Saints fans I know weren't exactly pleased when Timmy Watson was coaching them to all those two seasons of misery. Now, they're practically bestowing him with life-membership.

Hey - it's just an opinion. You say the club should try and win, I say we should try and drop our next two games.

Surely people can be mature enough to handle a difference of opinion, yes? Otherwise, let's just have an 'I agree' emoticon and save ourselves a lot of typing.

alright then,

tell us exactly what we should have done this week to acheive your goal.

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Can someone please declare this thread a "Tank free zone"?

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"One of my favorite philosophical tenets is that people will agree with you only if they already agree with you. You do not change people's minds." - Frank Zappa

So true BW....

Pagan has said it all year we lack TALENT.....

Worse thing that could happen is if we win another game this year and miss out on a PP by half a game....

Jaroos, I normally respect your opinion, but this statement is just plain ridiculous!!

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When Dick became President, it was as if everyone at Carlton came out of the hailstorm and into the sunshine - Stephen Kernahan

YARRAN!!





.

it is very easy to say what is the most logical or the best way forward.

But John, how do you propose we acheive it?

What if we do win another game?

What will you do?

Will you rip up your membership?

Is all hope lost?

Your initial post whether it is sarcastic or not is basically saying to a large proportion of supporters 'you are stupid'.

We all understand the logic, don't rub our noses in it. And when you propose a 'better way forward' spell out exactly how we should do it.

SHOULD WE DELIBERATELY TANK OR NOT?

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You do what they're doing. Rest senior players that are carrying injuries. Play kids. Employ tactics that make sure you lose.

OK then - John, you are not taking into acount:

1) That the Hawks run home is much more difficult then ours
2) The woods have half their players out due to injury - who did they leave out who should have played.

Look, I love to get a PP. However, some of the young players have matured and Fish is back. This means we are better now. What is the club to do? Tell the players to loose? no club would do that. It's just "bad luck".

The good news is that there is a good chance we loose the last 2 games and get a PP. So its not the end of the world. Look at the positives - the only reason we are doing bettre lately is Simmo, Betts, AB, Fish and Waite. And this is not that bad ... is it? Rebuilding is never a one season effort. We picked up Eddie in the PSD with a late pick. So...

You might not have noticed, but a lot of people I respect have stopped posting on this board or do the bare minimum because of the situation this club is in at the moment and the attitude of many supporters such as yourself.

People have been driven away.

That is a fact.

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Who exactly are they resting? Except for Tarrant who has been under the knife (is not been rested) and who would not have made a difference the way has been palying. So who???