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Crowd was over 3500 at Kinetic Stadium yesterday

Biggest Dolphins crowd since the Ben Cousins game. Only other game I remember that big in the past 20 years would be the elimination final in 2006. As for this:

"I'd have thought given James Rendell's courage in playing today, you'd have wanted to make a fist of it just for his sake if nothing else......but the trademark Frankston intensity, tackling and attack on the loose ball was just nowhere to be seen."

Can you imagine how difficult the week was for the team, dealing with one of their mates' dad's passing away? It's a very difficult thing to deal with as a footy club, there is so much emotion and the performance on the field the next game can go either way.

Sorry, Wally the old memory is fading I must have thought was at Willy but of course it was at  Port.

Buckley had 29 touches and 4 goals in a massive Seagulls win over the old enemy Port in what was to be his last playing season.,

"Can you imagine how difficult the week was for the team, dealing with one of their mates' dad's passing away? It's a very difficult thing to deal with as a footy club, there is so much emotion and the performance on the field the next game can go either way."

1982 VFA GF Caulfield vs Northcote. Bears player Darren Skilton was killed in a car accident a week before the game, and those boys were a collective mess when the game came around. They started ok but ran out of steam in the last quarter. Every one of them said it was the worst week of their lives and the emotion of it all took its toll.

Hopefully the Dolphs can put up a good showing against Gold Coast this week

Northcote beat oakleigh in the 2nd semi which was a high scoring game. Caulfield  upset oakleigh in the preliminary final. The darren Skilton tragedy I remember it. Northcote won a thriller with a late goal from paul Hepburn . Remember the 1982 second division series very well. Unfortunately for the dragons the premiers from second division in 1982 were not promoted.

Paul, yeah I can imagine. I've played in a team where one of the boys lost his old man two days before a final. It galvanised us and we put on a show, because anything less wouldn't have been respectful in our eyes. Footy is a tough game, and yes every team will have numerous traumas in a season that they have to deal with.

Don't get the wrong idea, I still love our boys and I believe in them. I've been disappointed in my son before, doesn't mean I don't love him either :)

Life is tough.....ultimately history records wins and losses and doesn't care about our traumas. Obviously within the club we care, a lot, but the display on Sunday wasn't good enough and Danny Ryan said exactly that in his podcast. You know the club Paul, you know what we have to overcome to get credibility in this league. The entire league in its' current format is questionable going into the future, and for clubs like ours, some on-field success is going to be a necessity to ensure our future......don't be sucked in by a few good crowds.

I've been involved in a team who had to deal with something similar to this where they've performed well, and another where they've been exhausted by the time the game starts. It's obvious what happened on the weekend - they weren't being disrespectful, they just weren't able to bring what they usually bring. I feel sympathy for them, they're the ones hurting the most because they would have desperately wanted to play a great game for their mate.

Sandringham champion VFA footballer and YCW fulltime worker, Paul Ladds, died in a car accident on 21 August 1967 on the eve of the finals,

Ladds a 22 years old  Centre Half Back had been runners up in the Liston Trophy the year before and a few weeks later after the accident was again second in the Liston to Jim Sullivan of Coburg after missing the last round.

This was a massive blow to the club lose such a young star to a drunken driver on the eve of the finals Sandy did win the first semi against Preston but lost the prelim to eventual premiers Dandenong

.I must admit apart from family this was one of the saddest funerals I have ever been to with some of his friends having to be restrained from jumping into his grave at Cheltenham cemetery.

Sandringham still has  the Paul Ladds Memorial Trophy for most votes in the Liston by a Sandy player.