Footy has changed over the last few years. I hate to say it, but look at Collingwood, Hawthorn, and Port Adelaide (all teams I depise). All of those teams are young sides that made it all the way.

Some comments about Thompson - come on! He's more concerned about his biceps than kicking goals.

And Kenny, god! I've never liked his style of play. Be a leader Kenny. Take the initiative.

Knights, Van Berlo. I'd donate my left kidney to keep them on board.

Hentchy - I hope to god he makes it this year, but I won't hold my breath.

Someone commented on our defence. Come on guys, defence doesn't kick goals. A solid flow from the midfield into the forward makes games (that's why Geelong won last year). Geelong's defence was absolute ****e.

Anyone who mentioned the word "promising" might as well say the Crows suck.

My prediction is... another top 8 finish. But that's it. We'll miss you Roo.

'R' - Rebuilding, we are rebuilding, and think it's unnecessary and petty to deny it or refuse to say it publicly. WE ARE REBUILDING!!! It isn't a poisoned chalice to admit rebuilding because Port have openly admitted they were rebuilding and look at their drastic improvement in 2007.

I don't think we'll slide significantly in 2008, but would shock if we were to make the 8. Unless there is rapid and significant improvement from new talent introduced into the side or significant improvement from our mid range players, who hopefully can step up.

In fact, I would prefer that we didn't make the 8 and promote the youngsters, give them a chance to develop to take us forward, rather than maybe making the 8 with some of the players that whilst serviceable and up to the level right at this point, aren't going to help the club take the next step, in order to meet unrealistic expectations the organisation as a whole has been guilty of in the past.

We are still relying too heavily on our midfield, which as Kristy mentioned is ageing. Think we have two ruckman who have a bit of footy under their belts now in Maric and Griffen, the addition of Biglands to assist (although I am not sure if Rhett should be playing too many games in 08) and some talented youngsters in Sellar and Tippett who by all reports have the ability and need to first be injury free then given oppurtunity, I think we'll be ok in this area without expecting too much as they still have a fair bit to learn.

Our defence is sound.

Our forward line, is not! Extremely concerning. Can't see us consistently kicking 100 points plus a game. Getting rid of Welsh doesn't help short term but we need to develop some fresh talent in this area and quickly.
A change in gamestyle would also assist in this area, quicker ball movement, risk taking and delivery into the forward line creates space and 1 on 1 contests which will lead to more scoring oppurtunites. If we continue with some of the crap we served up last year, which made us almost the most boring team in the competition to watch apart from maybe Sydney, then we will struggle to kick 10 goals a game. That chip style 'Tempo football' craze has passed, teams are awake to it, yet we didn't seem to know any other way last year. Once again, I'd prefer to see us get thumped trying to play attacking footy rather than an honourable loss playing 'basketball crap'.

Patience is going to be a virtue for the 2008 Adelaide fan, I hope everyone can ride it through.

I never have been, nor ever will be a Neil Craig fan. However, the club needs to support Neil in this difficult period. History suggests that when things go pear shaped the clubs first option has always been to fire the bullets at the man in charge. I understand it can be the easy option to blame the coach however the clubs needs to find 'strength in adversity' and this is achieved through stability in as many facets of the football department as possible.

As I said, long season ahead, but this can be appeased if I see youth being given an oppurtunity, a better style of play (attacking) and experienced players stepping up to the next level and picking up some of the slack that at times has been left to too few to deal with.

Prediction: 8 - 10 wins, 9-12th on the ladder.

Personally I think it's time for the likes of Douglas, Symes and Vince to really step up. They've shown that they're a cut above SANFL level but haven't really proven they can take it to the next level yet.

We may be hovering mid-table for the next couple of seasons or so but it will sure be interesting watching the young ones develop.

Interesting that you mentioned that you weren't a big fan of Craig. Any particular reason for this?

I believe (maybe wrongly) that Craig had to push for a flag while we were close enough and as a consequence the younger players may have been denied the opportunities they perhaps should have gotten.

However, now that the club is officially rebuilding, let's wait for a couple of years at least to assess how effective Craig really is at developing a list.