Expectations and all the guff that goes with it.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Expectations and all the guff that goes with it.

What alternate universe do you inhabit?

I fully believe we were. If we had the injury list that the Pies had in the Prelim then we would have taken the Saints. Our side was hanging together by a thread and still led the Saints at half time. Picken had Goddard covered he only got on top when the two concussions finally took its toll and he had to go off. Again their Brilliant Blonde so called Match Winner had the luxury of playing on a man with broken bones. We have the best Full Back in the Comp who could hardly walk and finished on the bench. Addison and Wood had broken ribs. Murphy had half a knee left. All in all we had 8 players who required immediate surgury. The result was a mere 4 goals!

Take them injuries away add Cooney and believe me we win simple as that. I'll never agree with anyone who says the Saints were better last year. I dont care what happened throughout the year, we had them covered early in the year and they only snatched the win out of our own stupidity.

Is that a better explanation or am I still from outer space?

[Mantis]

Re: Expectations and all the guff that goes with it.

I fully believe we were. If we had the injury list that the Pies had in the Prelim then we would have taken the Saints. Our side was hanging together by a thread and still led the Saints at half time. Picken had Goddard covered he only got on top when the two concussions finally took its toll and he had to go off. Again their Brilliant Blonde so called Match Winner had the luxury of playing on a man with broken bones. We have the best Full Back in the Comp who could hardly walk and finished on the bench. Addison and Wood had broken ribs. Murphy had half a knee left. All in all we had 8 players who required immediate surgury. The result was a mere 4 goals!

Picken had to be shifted to play on Hayes in the 2nd half (and curbed his influence) as he was tearing us a new arse which allowed Goddard a free run at it.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Expectations and all the guff that goes with it.

Picken had to be shifted to play on Hayes in the 2nd half (and curbed his influence) as he was tearing us a new arse which allowed Goddard a free run at it.

Ta Mantis thought he played on him all night for some reason.

[Sedat]

Re: Expectations and all the guff that goes with it.

Whilst luck with injuries to key players certainly played a big part in our inability to progress to a GF berth in the last 3 years (especially in 2008 and 2010), that is not the only issue that has prevented us from progressing to the big dance. For the last 3 seasons now we have shown a complete and utter inability to handle the significant lift in intensity from Round 22 to the first week of the finals - Hawthorn frankly embarrased us in 2008, an ailing Geelong limped to September but burst out of the blocks against a fully fit and healthy Dogs line up in 2009, and Collingwood unsurprisingly beat up on us in 2010. Our dreadful QF's should not be glossed over when talking about the September success that has eluded us, and it is highlighted even more by the fact that we invariably bounce back hard the following week against weaker opposition and perform strongly against white-hot opposition in PF week.

For it to have happened 3 years in a row, it is an issue that we cannot sweep under the carpet and pretend doesn't happen - 2010 was understandable considering the injuries to missing key players and those on the field, but 2008 and especially 2009 were unacceptable QF performances from an intensity perspective. If we can snag the double-chance again in 2011, I would like to think that the playing group will come out and absolutely terrorise their opponent the following week and book themselves a crucial week off and a softer PF opponent for their efforts.

[Cyberdoggie]

Re: Expectations and all the guff that goes with it.

It's ok for us and the coaches to say they will rest people throughout the year, or manage their work load etc, but when it comes to the regular season, if your not thrashing everyone you come up against, every game becomes critical. So inevitably you want your best players out there every week.

In my opinion they never rest players pro-actively. It's only if they look absolutely fatigued or they are playing poorly.

You won't see us resting Barry every 3rd week or anything to give him a chance to recover his old bones. He'll get 1 week off on the side of the bye week and that will be it.

Perhaps with some of the veteran there should be a policy in place that every 5 weeks or so they sit out a game mandatory.
Also helps rotate the squad a bit and gives experience to more players in case you get what happened last year where Hooper had to play his first game in a final.

[mjp]

Re: Expectations and all the guff that goes with it.

Is that a better explanation or am I still from outer space?

We didn't beat anyone in the top 4. You are still from outer space.

[mjp]

Re: Expectations and all the guff that goes with it.

In my opinion they never rest players pro-actively. It's only if they look absolutely fatigued or they are playing poorly.

A team will dare to do this soon and will succeed because of it.

One thing though: Any player with incentives in their contract will HATE it and could potentially make an appeal to the AFL about any contract kickers missed...with the full support of the PA.

[Greystache]

Re: Expectations and all the guff that goes with it.

A team will dare to do this soon and will succeed because of it.

One thing though: Any player with incentives in their contract will HATE it and could potentially make an appeal to the AFL about any contract kickers missed...with the full support of the PA.

We should just follow the Cricket Australia model, if you are rested in the interests of you and the team then it's considered a match played and payments are made accordingly.

[Mantis]

Re: Expectations and all the guff that goes with it.

We should just follow the Cricket Australia model, if you are rested in the interests of you and the team then it's considered a match played and payments are made accordingly.

But with the CA model there is no salary cap to deal with which would make your proposal almost impossible to implement.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Expectations and all the guff that goes with it.

We didn't beat anyone in the top 4. You are still from outer space.

Games against top 4 sides.

NAB Final: I know its Pre Season but after the Saints lost the previous year and they havnt had much success as well you cant say that they took it easy. They wanted it as much as us, but they met our Full Side and we smashed them.

Round 1: Collingwood last year when organised and ready near impossible to defeat, we were always going to have a letdown after winning the NAB Final anyway.

Round 6: Dominate the Saints all game bar 5 minutes of complete stupidity. We lost it ourselves lose by 3.

Round 20: Geelong were lucky to get us then. We cant count this we wouldve lost to Wunghnu Seconds that day we were spent.

[Mantis]

Re: Expectations and all the guff that goes with it.

Games against top 4 sides.

NAB Final: I know its Pre Season but after the Saints lost the previous year and they havnt had much success as well you cant say that they took it easy. They wanted it as much as us, but they met our Full Side and we smashed them..

But we didn't meet their full side, Hayes who owns us didn't play and S.Fisher went off injured very early on.

Round 1: Collingwood last year when organised and ready near impossible to defeat, we were always going to have a letdown after winning the NAB Final anyway.

Round 6: Dominate the Saints all game bar 5 minutes of complete stupidity. We lost it ourselves lose by 3.

Round 20: Geelong were lucky to get us then. We cant count this we wouldve lost to Wunghnu Seconds that day we were spent.

You missed the 2nd Collingwood game in rd 11 when we were pounded for 3 qtrs... what was the excuse that day?

[LostDoggy]

Re: Expectations and all the guff that goes with it.

Enough of that anyway it's a new year and the confidence is high!!!!

[SlimPickens]

Re: Expectations and all the guff that goes with it.

Games against top 4 sides.

NAB Final: I know its Pre Season but after the Saints lost the previous year and they havnt had much success as well you cant say that they took it easy. They wanted it as much as us, but they met our Full Side and we smashed them.

Round 1: Collingwood last year when organised and ready near impossible to defeat, we were always going to have a letdown after winning the NAB Final anyway.

Round 6: Dominate the Saints all game bar 5 minutes of complete stupidity. We lost it ourselves lose by 3.

Round 20: Geelong were lucky to get us then. We cant count this we wouldve lost to Wunghnu Seconds that day we were spent.

Some lovely excuses there. Quite frankly i'm sick of excuses!

[LostDoggy]

Re: Expectations and all the guff that goes with it.

But we didn't meet their full side, Hayes who owns us didn't play and S.Fisher went off injured very early on.


Them two dont account for 8 or 9 goals.

You missed the 2nd Collingwood game in rd 11 when we were pounded for 3 qtrs... what was the excuse that day?

Fair enough but we didnt lose by much if I remember another 5 mins and we wouldve won by a couple of goals.

I've never said we were better than the Pies but the other two? Yes.

[Greystache]

Re: Expectations and all the guff that goes with it.

But with the CA model there is no salary cap to deal with which would make your proposal almost impossible to implement.

We're only talking about a handful of games where players are getting senior match payments that they wouldn't otherwise get had we not rested players. It's not a great deal of money, and no salary cap it cut so fine as to not have some wiggle room, you can't afford to in case every player hit their trigger points for incentives or players win individual awards (eg Brownlow, AA selection etc.)