Finally time to inject speed.

[Breadcrawl]

Either way your septum will thank you.

Bomber goes for injection into the stomach doesn't he?

[3.14159]

What we need to inject into this team is tall, fast, hard bodied and skilled mid-fielders.
A player (or 5) that can clear a stoppage.
Forwards who can kick goals and a new general down back.

Apart from that we're doing all right!

[Pebbles Rocks]

Smoking speed is akin to eating a steak through your ass

[35forever]

And here I thought it was best delivered by the nasal method (or 'brushing the teeth').

This whole thread is predicated on the erroneous premise that our list is somehow sub standard. If we get a dozen first rounders who can all run like gazelles we still won't play as a team for 4 quarters or kick straight. We aren't losing because of the players we have, the players we have can beat each & every side in the competition at their best, it's just that getting the best out of a team requires leadership. We HAD great leadership in Malthouse & Maxwell but both are gone. Until we get it again we will continue to fail.

Are you forgetting this team was fourth just two months ago? We were one step away from locking in a top 4 spot when the lack of leadership I speak of reared it's ugly head and we began the slide that continues until right now.

Look at the evidence for Chrissakes! I swear it'll bite your damn noses off in a minute!

We looked frankly pretty damn good in the NAB, our kids damn near knocked off a close-to-full-strength Geelong side first up, and we were looking good until injuries and poor kicking allowed Brisbane to knock us out of contention. That said Dane Swan was already looking below par, and even then I knew that the dumping of 3 of his best mates at the behest of an ex-teammate was the cause, as did anyone who saw the sorry farce that was Copeland night.

In round one we were easily the better side in the first quarter, however errant kicking and some crappy umpiring saw us fail to convert our dominance into scoreboard pressure leaving us but a single point in front at quarter time. We could easily have kicked 5 or 6 in that damn quarter, several shots having fallen short or missing everything. had we done so that infamous 2nd quarter couldn’t have happened, we would've kicked some goals and prevented some of theirs, but with the aid of some even worse umpiring we kicked 1 goal 9 over the next 2 quarters. It wasn't the rout people seemed to think it was though, in general play it was back and forth but Freo took every opportunity and we frittered all of ours, the surest sign there is of a team lacking in confidence.

And it's been the same with whole games, whenever there was a real opportunity we squandered it. All we had to in round 12 was knock off Footscray in the last game of the round and we would've been a game clear in 4th with 9 wins racked up. Again, we weren't outclassed and could just as easily have won the game, we scored just under a hundred points, Cloke & Elliot kicked 10 between them, but we made a huge number of 'clangers' and missed vital shots for goal. Certainly the Collingwood sides of 2010/11, even 2012 would've won that game, they would have been primed properly for it and come out with all guns blazing. They would've been proof against being cocky after the biggest win of the season the week prior, and most importantly they would've found a way to win in the end, the sign of a great team.

How is a rebuild going to change fundamental confidence issues? The whole 'rebuild' story is a pisspoor excuse for lousy performances. No one mentioned the word in 2012, not Bucks, not Eddie, not even people here. The reason for that is that everyone knew we had the players to beat any side, we've beaten every side but Hawthorn in these last 2 lousy seasons, none of the sides around us can say that, but we keep missing the big opportunities, just like last week when the fates conspired to offer us 7th spot even if we lost to Hawthorn, all we had to do was beat Brisbane and GWS, but we somehow managed to be absolutely pantsed by Brisbane. Tossing away what was left of our crappy percentage, and causing us to miss the finals for the first time since 2005.

Sure we lost some great players over the last few years, but that is a natural occurrence at every club, and it's not like we didn’t lose guys in the Malthouse era, but then MM didn't throw away two of the clubs best out of spite only to replace them with guys who haven't played a game this year. Who tosses a champion with a hurt foot to replace him with an untried junior with a hurt foot!?

Don't buy the rebuild nonsense, we won't be dumping guys wholesale for draft picks, and guys who could've been put on the market for first rounders in the last two seasons have lost their currency, if we really were engaged in a serious rebuild we would've bounced guys like Brown, Reid & 'H' for first rounders, but we didn't, there is no rebuild!

We lost several games this year because of terrible kicking, both in general play and in front of goal. How are speedy players going to change that? Our problems are mental, not physical. Have a close look at our season and you cannot fail to see that. Just LOOK!

[Lazza]

[Collingwood Crackerjack]

Is it 7am already?