tanking

so st kilda have dropped del santo and milne for tonight's game against the mighty dockers and replaced them with two debutants. i find this pretty interesting from the perspective of a member of one of the teams already being accused of tanking. tonight's game is a quite winnable one for the saints and being played in melbourne so one would expect them to field their strongest team. i'm sure if freo or the e-girls headed into a home match against low ranked opposition by dropping a key midfielder and their leading goal kicker, the cries of 'tankers' would be deafening. yet, presumably because they're four spots on the ladder higher than us, there's no such slur aimed at the saints. nor should their be. i don't believe for a moment that they're tanking but neither are we. it's time the afl stepped in, preferably today, and announced changes to the way the draft picks are allocated to the bottom teams. i remember a lottery system for the bottom four clubs being talked about in 2001 when we finished bottom and yet 7 years later the problem's still not fixed. i have no doubt that carlton tanked last year and reaped substantial benefits for doing so but i don't believe it's common. nevertheless, the temptation to tank and the opportunity for it to be a topic of discussion needs to be removed by the afl. in my opinion.