Crock Hamill gone

[Matt79]

At least one 'expert' is predicting just this The Dream is over

Nice to see an article that will fire the Saints up the day before they play us!

[SimonH]

The fact is that St Kilda have a strong core of their list, almost all of whom aren't too old, and will be fielding a talented 22 on Saturday night. They need more mental application and a stronger team ethos (and to avoid injuries) more than they need a clean-out.

Plenty of people said after 2005 that Collingwood were at the start of a long, dismal spiral and it was only by root-and-branch cleaning out of their list and several years of pain that they could go anywhere. Come 2008, they have plenty of the 2005 class still running around for them; just sensible incremental trading, and most importantly canny drafting and getting the most out of the young'uns on their list, have done it for them.

You could write a book as to why St Kilda have failed so consistently where other teams would have succeeded from a similar position. In fact, someone probably has. Backward-looking steps like letting Gehrig occupy a list spot for another year, that should have gone to a youngster with potential (a la Plugger 2002), don't help either.

[NMWBloods]

Not looking quite so silly now - at least they would have got something of value if they'd traded these three last year. I reckon I got this one just right.

Arguing with yourself looks silly though!