It won't matter if it's round 1 or round 10. Until we can not only compete but handle pre-match expectation and win these hyped up big games then we will remain also-rans.
We deserved this fixture because the AFL knows we fill the 'G even when we are losing. 30 years of crap and we still have nearly 80k rock up last night.
It does matter if it's rd 1 or 10, because having this game in rd 1 ensures that (a) we will always start our season off with a loss, and (b) we will always have to play them twice every year, for 2 losses.
I'd like to see us play someone else in rd 1, until like someone else mentioned, we actuallygrow a pair.
At the end of last year's AGM, I approached Chris Newman, and basically pleaded with him for the team to make a concerted effort to beat Carlscum in rd 1 this year, mentioning the pact that the players had apparently made to take a big scalp. The way he backtracked at a million miles an hour, saying that the media had misquoted them wasn't very encouraging to say the least. There seems to be a huge stumbling block there in the players collective belief, and until we smash it down, unfortunately Carlscum will continue to own us.
