Team v Gold Coast

[Munga]

The kids have had alot of games this year, alot more than they were meant to which is great for the club long term. There is no point in destroying their bodies and making them play 22 games in their first year. There are still heaps of games left. Phillips and Coffield will get another crack. Its a balancing act and we were way too young last week hence why we got destroyed.

Finally on page 3 some sense

5 players under 10 games last week

Phillips will become a good player but from my spot on the wing looked tentative at times, which did not look good

Yep. We had too many kids last week. They need to be played in blocks and not all at the same time.

I agree. However this of all weeks would be when to play a younger side. Where was the hardened "Quicksand" Armitage against the bigger Swannies then? McKenzie and Weller were poor last week (Weller all year really) and they stay in. Longer offers nothing around the ground, Hickey had 8 tackles last week and gets dropeed for him. Steele had 5 kicks and 2 tackles, from a damn midfielder. Brown is coming back from a knee and head knock, could he not be rested against the Suns?
Connellan is a livewire and Joyce solid recently. Could they have not come in for any of Weller, McKenzie, Brown or Steele?

Resting kids against the Suns is poor foresight really, developer of youth my foot. There's a damn bye next week too! Everyone likes Richo, but hell he's either being overrun by dumb assistants or he's got the blinkers on. He's dug his own grave if we don't win convincingly. Still, in a few weeks when he's still playing his favourites and we're getting smashed, the faithflul will have no hope to see while the youth and plugging away in the twos. I can handle 9 goal quarters from the best team in the comp when we play promising kids. In the last round of 2003 we played Kosi, Roo, Ball, Clarke, Dal Santo, Fisher, Maguire, Montagna, Goddard.... ALL 20 years old or younger!! ALL at the same time!! We got smashed by 84 points... the very next thing we win the preseason comp and the next 10 games in a row, smashing teams by over 100 points week after week!

Dropping kids before a bye, against the Gold Coast, and not dropping the poor performers... aye that is so very sad. I get the feeling this is the last straw, 4 points but a poor performance and this place will melt like it's never melted before. Maybe there's foresight in playing Armo and Longer to get their trade value up?