The recycled ones

[wallbanger]

Just a quick observation, one that annoyed me at the game and was backed up again by the statistics in this mornings paper.

Much had been made prior to the GF of the club's recent ability to draft or trade for 'quality' players from other clubs, and the manner in which RL had managed to forge them together with the homegrown talent into a great unit.

Collectively, I thought the group of 'other club rejects' were all amongst our worst players yesterday, and the statistics show that. Ray, King, Gardiner, Dempster, Schneider were all poor in my opinion. The only two who could hold there heads up were Dawson (solid without being spectacular) and Gram (if you put him in the same category), who was fantastic.

Is there a reason why these players were let go by their original clubs? Is there something to the theory that good players are not simply let go? I know that Bulldogs supporters saw Ray as fragile under the pressure of big games, something that has come out in this finals series.

Is it time to give that practice away, or now that we have got so close is this trade period the time to try and snare one or two established players to get us over the line?

[FortiusQuoFidelius]

Just a quick observation, one that annoyed me at the game and was backed up again by the statistics in this mornings paper.

Much had been made prior to the GF of the club's recent ability to draft or trade for 'quality' players from other clubs, and the manner in which RL had managed to forge them together with the homegrown talent into a great unit.

Collectively, I thought the group of 'other club rejects' were all amongst our worst players yesterday, and the statistics show that. Ray, King, Gardiner, Dempster, Schneider were all poor in my opinion. The only two who could hold there heads up were Dawson (solid without being spectacular) and Gram (if you put him in the same category), who was fantastic.

Is there a reason why these players were let go by their original clubs? Is there something to the theory that good players are not simply let go? I know that Bulldogs supporters saw Ray as fragile under the pressure of big games, something that has come out in this finals series.

Is it time to give that practice away, or now that we have got so close is this trade period the time to try and snare one or two established players to get us over the line?

Proves there is a reason why their previous clubs let them go...

[Winmar Sensational]

Gardiner and King can probably be excused because of weather, they had a lot of hit outs. I think Kingy should now hang em up. Get McEvoy in and leave him in, mobile can take a grab and can push forward. There were some worrying signs from Ray early, Spider man actually could have won us the flag if he'd kicked straight, but playing in starvation corner he wasn't the worst. Dawson does more good than bad, but there is still something about him that makes me nervous. He shouldn't be number one in D, hopefully Goose still has some good footy in him. Gram proved a lot of people wrong, was very, very good.

Dempster is not much chop, I'd rather Gwilt, Armitage should play all year next year.

[mick13]

If Schneider kicked straight we'd be bowing down to him right now.

[Milton66]

All this thread proves is that there are idiots who are quick to turn on players to help justify the loss.

[Offbe]

Just a quick observation, one that annoyed me at the game and was backed up again by the statistics in this mornings paper.

Much had been made prior to the GF of the club's recent ability to draft or trade for 'quality' players from other clubs, and the manner in which RL had managed to forge them together with the homegrown talent into a great unit.

Collectively, I thought the group of 'other club rejects' were all amongst our worst players yesterday, and the statistics show that. Ray, King, Gardiner, Dempster, Schneider were all poor in my opinion. The only two who could hold there heads up were Dawson (solid without being spectacular) and Gram (if you put him in the same category), who was fantastic.

Is there a reason why these players were let go by their original clubs? Is there something to the theory that good players are not simply let go? I know that Bulldogs supporters saw Ray as fragile under the pressure of big games, something that has come out in this finals series.

Is it time to give that practice away, or now that we have got so close is this trade period the time to try and snare one or two established players to get us over the line?

That is all very harsh man. We wouldn't even have got to a Grand Final unless those guys were in the team. I will forgive your comments because I know your heart hurts (like mine) from yesterday and you are just lashing out trying to find scapegoats.

[wallbanger]

"If Schneider had've kicked straight we'd be bowing to him"....hmmmm, yeah, we'd have a premiership Cup too that WE DON"T HAVE. He didn't kick straight, that was the problem.

I'm not here to hang players or try and justify the loss - the reason for it was simple, we didn't kick straight. To bury your head in the sand and have the attitude "well we dominated all year and made the Grand Final and should've won it" is ridiculous IMO. If I was looking for scapegoats there'd be others I'd be having a go at first, but that's not the answer either.

Yes, I am angry and pissed off and suffering the brunt of ridicule as we all probably are from idiotic Geelong supporters - and yes, the strength of my loyalty to this club is tested again, and of course, like every time before and like every one of us on here, we will continue to support them next year and the year after that in the hope and knowledge that one day we will get there - and how sweet that day will be.

The point of the post was that these recycled players were amongst the worst performed on the biggest day - which was one of the main reason why they were brought to the club, because of finals experience. You would have to say that was pretty much the deciding factor for putting Dempster into the team.

The question now becomes - do we try and top up again, or do we instead turn the focus to Geary, Steven, Lynch and the likes to ensure we make it again in 2010?

[Milton66]

Why the F*** would people care what opposition supporters say?

Harden up people. No one can give it to you today. It's not as if we lost by 10 goals.

[spert]

Stuff the theories -we lost and it wasn't just bad kicking for goal as that was only one of many reasons. A few of our players have no overdrive gear and it was needed in the last quarter..you could see the Cats just willing themselves a bit harder, which in a close game makes a big difference.

[marksnsparks]

Jeez people, we had a 23-3 season and these 'rejects' were instrumental in getting us there.

Lets not throw the baby out with the bathwater. As someone else said, we lost because we couldn't kick straight. In every other way we kicked Geelong's arse.

Let's not hit the panic button. As many home grown players were poor on Saturday IMHO.

[saintly_safes]

Stuff the theories -we lost and it wasn't just bad kicking for goal as that was only one of many reasons. A few of our players have no overdrive gear and it was needed in the last quarter..you could see the Cats just willing themselves a bit harder, which in a close game makes a big difference.

I totally agree, they had the will & beleif in themselves when it really counted & we didnt .