Bad News

[Magpie.girl]

I was at cricket training this week and one of our boys was there (he used to play at the club) and I was talking to him about this year, and about Josh and Anth. He said that Josh's injury is worse than the club is saying and they don't expect him to play for at least the first month of the season. Anth has started running, but he is also someone who is really struggling and they don't know what he will be able to do this year.
With Josh, Anth and Heath out, as well as Licas ankle, the 5 recruits that have all got injuries, we haven't started off too well.
Lets hope that some of the kids will have boom years. Didak, Cloke and with chipper back. Guy Richards will hopefully get a turn. This year may really tell us whether Judkins is as good as his reputation suggests. As they say, the strength of a club is not it's top 6 players, but its bottom 6.

Pies R Us

[Spidergirl]

are you saying this years injury excuse will replace the rebuilding one?

[Pies rock]

Spidergirl, when it comes to football knowledge, you have proven yourself as an ignorant fool. Unless you actually 'know' what you are talking about, don't comment. You think that in the last two seasons the club should have been playing finals football do you??? After Tony Shaw delivered us one of the worst lists in the history of the game, two clean outs was going to suddenly turn it into a brilliant, unstoppable machine that will lead to a dynasty of flags was it? If u can't understand that these young players will take a couple of years to develop, then your intelligence is at a lower level than I thought. We suffered from the worst recruiting I have ever seen. The likes of Marty Warry, Brad Cassidy, Dwayne Griffen, Frankie Raso etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, put our club back years. Now how the hell do u expect us over the last two seasons to suddenly become a contender? To be in the position we are now - on the brink of finals action and possibly being a flag contender in a couple of years is a credit to the current football department. I am far from being a blind optimist and see that we still have a way to go, but ur unfounded and totally baseless bagging of our club is starting to piss me off...

[MarkT]

My F*c*en oath they should have been playing finals footy in the last 2 years. The writing with our list was clearly on the wall a long time ago and the failure to do anything effective about it was an indefensible disgrace. Luckily most of the "guilty" are gone and we have rebuilt our list.

We cannot change the past, but we cannot afford not to learn from it. Three years ago the damage had been done and we had to rebuild after the prior pathetic attempt at the exact same concept. One of the reasons we slid so far was our collective inactivity in redressing areas of obvious deficiency. It took a man of Eddie's caliber to make things happen.

I can understand anyone who has grown impatient with excuses because they have been too voluminous and too readily accepted for too damn long. I am more than happy with most of the corrections made in recent years.

I still believe the administration has let "us" down in one regard. The failure to recruit a ruck option for the current season was frankly weak in my opinion and if it is the difference between final football this year and not playing in September, then, in my humble opinion, it will have been an enormous error and one which cannot be justified with “long term approach” excuses.

In addition, the fact that we have to rely almost entirely on the young guns is all the proof you need to see that not every stone has ben left unturned. We may have done an admirable job in many reragards but perfection is not something we should just dismiss as impossible. Perfection should be our aim. If you don't aim for it you have no hope of getting anywhere near it.

Having said that, we are clearly headed in the right direction and we have loaded our list with the type of player who will see us achieve sustained success IF things go right AND we continue to trade and draft well.

I must say, though, that I get frustrated by Collingwood supporters who assume we will be successful once again and are willing to wait. The F/n wait is over! If we do not make the finals this year there can be no excuses and I for one intend making some noise about it. I expect significant improvement this year and we should make the finals. If injuries legitimately prevent us from achieving what we should the so be it. You cannot control everything and we will have accept that fate has once again been unkind to the Magpies. If, however there are reasons similar to past years then those responsible will have to account for their decisions.

Fortunately I have great confidence in our President and absolute belief in his passion and integrity. I am more skeptical about some of our sheep supporters who jump on anyone who questions a decision.

The time for excuses is over and the time for action has arrived. We must now show the Football world that we are to be feared. The finances are in order and improving still, the playing list is all quality and we have reason to be optimistic. Personally I cannot wait for the season to start so we can stop talking and start walking the walk.

Anyway, that’s the end of my ramble. Now I’m going to have another string coffee and calm down.



[This message has been edited by MarkT (edited 11 February 2002).]