A win a loss

and the voices in the Bluebagger darkness, what do they think now?

Has Denis lost the playing group? Are we playing spiritless, headless, get me outta here football?

Is it just the new season and give it a few more weeks and the group will rebel?

Or can we see an improvement?

Stronger bodies at the contest? More pressure? Better tackles?

I'm very happy so far. That first quarter last night was bad BUT Freo were supercharged (and I knew they'd not be able to keep that up, top 4 that crap side are not) and everything went against us. Still we did not hang out heads.

Does this mean the lads had a bit of a listen to Denis & co at halftime? maybe got a bit stirred up by him? Or is it a case of -

- when things go right its because the other team don't care, when things go wrong it's because we're crap?

I think we are showing signs of better a far better side than last year. Murph has been good. Tex, Simmo etf are all showing signs they are DEVELOPING well, in fact I put last night's loss down to our senior players.

I think they didn't like the kitchen last night but the young boys kept going.

Full marks to Dylan.

Houla's a @#$%&! tough blouse, that bump knocked him into starlight and yet he kept going.

Fev is a worry - he keeps this up game after game and people might have to start respecting his footballing efforts!!!!!

Last night could have been a horror story in fact given some of the gloom it should have been a horror story. For mine though, it wasn't. It was a young side in a distant land running into a side all fire-up and hellbent on roving it's own courage. That young side copped it sweet, got on with it and played by far the better football for more than half a game.

Anywhere but Subie and we would have won that game.

Give us a year or - we are still a young side and have to be patient - and we'll smash that side over there!

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This type of slight is alien in the more cultured part of the world - Walsh. Its up there with mad dogs, Englishmen and the midday sun!

Really wrapped, I posted early on in last nights game (after first quarter) that I didn't want to have too wait for the conference during the week when Stevens and Co made excuses for a 80 point loss, that the time to do something was then and now.

To their credit (and for whatever reason) they did. That should give them confidence.

My opinion is that we need a two prong strategy with our team development this season -

- develop our young guys further
- perform in a manner that will encourage an established player too the mighty blues next year.

Based on performance one and two this year I believe we maybe on our way.

PS - I hesitated on bringing Walks too my squad for the dream team, and left in Wells, Walker shitted all over Wells in points afterday yesterdays game. Well done Andrew Walker, a game that you really took a giant leap forward.

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Supporting the Blues No Matter What

I wanted to win one of the first three. So I'll definately take a win and a narrow away loss that we probably should have won except for a forgettable first quarter.

Edit

I should probably add that to take the next step and end this ridculous Deluca experiement. It's tolerable (barely) when Fish is there to stretch the defence and bring Waite into the game.

But Fish is out, and Deluca doesn't stretch the defence, and that leaves Fev to do it on his own like the last two years. We won't win many games that way. It is time to bring in Setanta and see if he can make our forward line three dimensional again.

Haven't watched teh game or listened to it yet, but to lose by 15pts is a great effort, even if our first quarter was a 2005 effort.

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Mjonc signing off at 8888

Two very different gmes.

We jumped the demons, and physically out muscled/ran them. We played with confidence, and knew we could win. When they came back at us, we held our nerve and scored the necessary goals.

The Shockers had been beat up in the media all week (Stan Alves on 3LO had been over in perth and said it was unlike anything he'd received or could remember over here) and they came out and smashed us in the first quarter. How did we react? We fought. We fought to get even (second qurater) and then we beat then in the second half.

I felt we finished full of running, and this despite, Houligan getting smashed, Fev looking like some wounded digger, and the seagulls knocking down Murphy.

I sense a growing confidence from the boys, and think we are going to surprise a lot of teams this year.

Apart from the first half last night, the team plan looks good, and the boys are clearly physically bigger.

Which all leads me to looking forward to playing Sydney at home.

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"Two roads diverged in a wood,
and I,
I took the one less travelled by,
and that has made all the difference."

Robert Frost

Second year in a row we've struck the Dockers over there after they've come off a shocker & been heavily scrutinised in the media. They were always going to come out fired up & who was on the end of it & went right on with it, unlike what many around here would have predicted!

If you'd told me we'd only go down by 15 points I'd have taken that- especially after the way we started.

If some of our leaders who let us down last night can play like they did last week & give more support to the younger players, their confidence will rise & we should see more results like last week.

Midfield pressure is the key.

If they can pressure the ball carriers we can force turnovers.

In the current climate, with everyone playing possession footy, it could be the key to a few hard-fought wins.

The signs were there last night that old Carlton is still lurking around, but if they come out to play as new Carlton we will whack a few sides this year.

Happy so far, we could have been 0-2 with a precentage in 30's. I like that fact that even though last nights game looked like it was going to be a blowout and we had gone all defensive like last year in the 1st half, to come out in the 2nd half and have real crack and real them in was awesome

what actually happened with murphy .. can someone describe the incident ?

was it malicious .. how did he react, did anyone retaliate ?


guess we should get used to the kid being a target !

he still got plenty of touches .. so well done marc .. keep it up


,, go blues ..

It was well behind play, by a known sniper. You figure it out.

One of the first players in there to remonstrate was Nick Stevens, and the assailant was a mate of his from Port days. I didn't see it, but we can fill in the blanks.

We should have come out more physical at the start like they did.

Sure they took some cheap shots, but in particular the images of Farmer both hands in the air looking up to whatever just gets under my skin.

I wanted too grab them and belt them from my living room.

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Supporting the Blues No Matter What

Same, except I was at my nan's. If Farmer was really a religious man he wouldn't do anything like that. I'm not a religious man myself but he deserves a mighty whack across the head.

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29 different attributes,
And only 7 that you like;
20 ways to see the world,
Or 20 ways to start a fight.

The flower kicked it out of bounds on the full from 15 metres in from the boundary 4 minutes later.

I only caught the second half on TV and was pretty impressed with the way we ran out the game. Something that stood out was after the final siren the cameras went on to Fev and he looked genuinely upset and hurt that we lost. If he can focus that passion and it rubs off on other players and they generate some real pride in the jumper then it's all looking good from here on.

Walker is going to be a gem.

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I'm shocked to be sitting here

We all know we need more than a year... but Denis wont be here IMO.

For starters were playing a game he didnt want us playing for 3 years.. which means he was wrong for THREE YEARS.. and he could not really believe in this gameplan if he took 3 years to change.

The other thing is .. its a long , long , long , long season dannyboy....

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

This idea he didn't want this 'gameplan' but somehow has capitualted? What is that based on?

From the two games I've seen (1 live. 1 tellie) this years 'gameplan' is a development of the whizzfizz gameplan he tried to impliment last year. The added feature being the short kick. The hassling, the pressure, the coralling the opponents runners out wide, the amount of running and pressure this entails, were all features pre-existing.

In my eyes the 'gameplan' is being honed, which is smart really isn't it? As you develop the kids, as you add more talent and depth, you add more depth/skills to the 'gameplan' - expectations rise. Not a concession of 'wrong' merely a coach doing his job.

As for long long long long long long long long long (is that enough for you) season. Funny how it was meant to have been a long long (you add 'em i can't be bothered) preseason with players unhappy etc etc etc.

Wasn't your comment 'Pagan gone by round 12?' So really you mean a long long long long long (keep going) half a season.

I 'm happy so far. Beat the swannies (which we can) and I'll be very happy.

As for Tex, gee I am happy with him. Are you?

And Fev, if he keeps this up he will be a superstar.

Lance is doing well so far - to my surprise I'll admit.

Can't wait for young Kennedy to get it.

Maybe Bower at some stage.

Things are moving along.


I wonder how many Geelong fans wanted Bombers head say 3 years ago?

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This type of slight is alien in the more cultured part of the world - Walsh. Its up there with mad dogs, Englishmen and the midday sun!

I'm looking for improvement rather than expecting to win every week...I think Freo was a tough ask on the rebound and the coach under the pump....the game was over at half time but we didnt fall away like we have in the past so thats improvement ..

Youngsters have improved but we wont know all the answers until Blackwell, Russell, Kennedy, Bower, Edwards etc are all fixtures....I think our depth is better and we have some decent rookies in Jackson, Flint and Aisake ready to take the next step....another three years to go I would think and all I want is steady progress.....Silvangi to replace Pagan as coach I would expect and he will have a very good team that should win a flag or two...good times ahead barring major injuries to two key players..Murphy and Kennedy....next draft should give us a couple of slippery skilled midfielders and perhaps a young ruckman of quality and that could be the drafting taken care of...

re: gameplan...its a running game now starting from fullback in many cases....its been forced upon us and not by by our own design....

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

forced upon us when? If you mean this year

Who was coaching us last summer?

Seen the Roos running game from the 90's?

The other way to look at it is that we now have the runners for his running game.

Tex, Carrots, Simmo, AB, Fisher, Betts, Murph - thats 7 runners, by this I mean they cover a lot of territory, (of various speeds) added to the older guys in the last 3 years - and more to come.

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This type of slight is alien in the more cultured part of the world - Walsh. Its up there with mad dogs, Englishmen and the midday sun!

you should have seen it it the social club

ahaha, yeh that was funny as gez, Farmer wat a clown.