CUTTERMAN wrote:Well from what I saw today I'd be surprised if they go another season, so i think their time is about done. Sturt looked pretty fast against Centrals today and on more than a few occasions either Gowans were made to look pretty slow, so the only thing that I can see thay have to add to their team is experience, niggle and a bit of hard in and under. In short Centrals' older players were found wanting and were showed up. To centrals credit I thought they were going to lose all composure and go the biff but they held their heads pretty well.
And I've never written off Centrals, never, how could you.
James Gowans did look pretty slow on the boundary line, showered up and in his causual attire after leaving the game late in the first quarter due to a game ending injury. Chris was down on his recent form today but so were the other fit 17 Centrals blokes on the field. I'm not sure if they are past it just yet Cutterman when they have been regularly getting in the Dogs best players in their first 7 wins of the year and were good enough to make the initial State squad. As a few have said, write the Gowans and Centrals off at your own peril, the real test will be come September.
Absolute 100% full credit to Sturt today, very much enjoyed the way they went about there footy today, very skillfull, team orientated and hard at side that exposed a few weaknesses in a severely undermanned Dogs outfit. Long way to go for Centrals based on today's performance and along with last week against the Eagles and again today, questions have to be asked of the players and where they are at in terms of mind set.
Losing J.Gowans, Sibenaler and Hardy wasn't the difference in the result at the end of the day but it meant the rest of the Dogs structure up field suffered due to the re-shuffling Roy Laird had to do. The dissapointing thing for Centrals after 1/4 time would have to be their lack of intensity around the ball and again, their skill level under pressure (credit to Sturt there) was very poor and is an area they have again been exposed and need to address immediately.
Once again, can't speak highly enough of the quality way in which Sturt went about it today. Have seen them live 4 or 5 times this year and they have won games comfortably without putting close to 4 quarters of consistant football together. Today, Luke Norman would have been extremely proud of the solid, 4 quarter effort put in by all 21 blokes who wore a Double Blue jumper today but now the onus would be on them to perform like that on a more consistant basis from week to week.
One player in particular Centrals have missed in recent weeks is their co-captain Paul Thomas. By no means does 1 player make a difference to a side that performed the way Central did today but his desire, commitment and determination is something the Dogs are sorely missing at present. The one thing that has so far and will continue to test Central is injuries. In recent years they have only had 1 or 2 serious injuries and hardly copped 'regular' injuries throughout the minor round.
So far this year they have had players unavailable at various times like Paul Thomas (fractured finger), Andrew Hayes (back now but just playing 2nd game after groin injury), Daniel Havelberg (hamstring), Richie Cochrane (hamstring), Ian Callinan (had hamstring issues earlier in the year), Ash Duncan (hamstring), Trent Goodrem (ankle), Daniel Schell (missed the start of the year with hamstring/groin), James Moss (hip) and now losing Hardy, J.Gowans and Sibenaler the Dogs are experiencing a higher number of injuries to key personel than in more recent years. At no stage this year I think they have had their best available 21 on the park.
. Real tough guy, punching someone when they're not looking. 
