Outside noise

[Remi Moses]

With all the hype surrounding our great start, and the media just wondering ( more hoping ) that Luke and the coaching panel have the players feet firmly planted on the ground .
This week in my opinion is our biggest test, as it's just a taste of the hype coming our way, and the way it's handled is very important .

[Torpedo]

The real hype will come if we win against the Saints and the media will spend all next week building up the game against Freo.
Young pups V experienced dockers. It will be a tsunami of media, the likes of which our club hasn't seen in years/decades (at least in connection with a game). Great publicity for the team; the players need to be savvy and level headed and it will be a big opportunity for the club to push memberships. Of course if we lose the Freo game, the media will turn off us pretty smartly. So we have to deal with the hype, use it wisely and get our brand out there, while we have our moment in the sun. Most of all we should enjoy the attention and bask in our new relevancy. It's so ironic.

[Remi Moses]

i guess I'm seeing it from two sides.
1) The life long traumatised pessimist side
2) The extremely young list we currently have

I think we've recruited solid citizen types mainly, who won't get ahead of themselves .

[The Doctor]

We have the best spokesman for the club in Rob Murphy who will be able to handle the brunt of the media spotlight. is there anyone better? He'll give the media something quirky and interesting without giving them any great insight. Meanwhile he'll be shielding the lesser experienced and they can focus on their preparations with minimal distraction. It's perfect really.

[SonofScray]

The next fortnight is an opportunity to exorcise two demons: winning games where we can reasonably expect to beat the opposition, followed up with performing on the bigger stages against equally hot opposition and not putting in a deer in the headlights effort (think Hawthorn final a few years back).

This is a different group, the story is theirs to build, but as a Club with our tail up, these scenarios have bugged me.

[whythelongface]

We have the best spokesman for the club in Rob Murphy who will be able to handle the brunt of the media spotlight. is there anyone better? He'll give the media something quirky and interesting without giving them any great insight. Meanwhile he'll be shielding the lesser experienced and they can focus on their preparations with minimal distraction. It's perfect really.

Murphy is just brilliant with the media. I think he is the best spokesman out of any of the current players going around. He has wit, passion and intelligence. I just loved his interview straight after the game on Sunday when the first line he stated was "how can you not get emotional about footy" - quite brilliant - this just empitomises his passion and overall love for the game.

Remi I agree with you in that the last 5 weeks we have gone in as the underdogs and played with no pressure. This week the pressure is on us and it will be interesting to see how we handle it. A young team can often falter in these types of situations as they ebb and flow through the rigours of week to week football. However this team may continue to surprise and decimate the Saints. A very interesting game indeed. With the loss of M Boyd we field an even more inexperienced team.

[Mofra]

Remi I agree with you in that the last 5 weeks we have gone in as the underdogs and played with no pressure. This week the pressure is on us and it will be interesting to see how we handle it. A young team can often falter in these types of situations as they ebb and flow through the rigours of week to week football. However this team may continue to surprise and decimate the Saints. A very interesting game indeed. With the loss of M Boyd we field an even more inexperienced team.
Starting as favourites is another good thing for us - teaching the team how to deal with a different type of expectation and pressure. I like our development trajectory this year

[KT31]

Starting as favourites is another good thing for us - teaching the team how to deal with a different type of expectation and pressure. I like our development trajectory this year

I agree Mofra, it is something we have have struggled with in the past and it is just as important to learn how to go into a game as favorites just as much as it is being underdogs.
This week is an important learning curve for such a young team.

[Maddog37]

Like Bob said the other night, "we are just starting to rev the engine".

The boys want to win every game and our drafting of solid citizens with a strong competitive spirit gives me the impression that even if we start poorly we can still win well.

[LostDoggy]

Is anybody else feeling slightly uneasy about tomorrow's game?

[bulldogsthru&thru]

There are quite a few
http://m.afl.com.au/news/2015-05-08/beware-the-letdown-favourite-dogs-on-high-alert

[Sedat]

The perfect challenge for us this weekend, and will say a lot about our immediate aspirations for 2015. Being such a young and inexperienced side, the external expectation is that there will be bigger variations between our best and our worst. But there is no reason for our talented and unified group of players not to be able to shatter that myth, and bring optimum output to the contest every week. Even in our loss to Hawthorn, the effort was there (if not the personnel).