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An insider's POV - Comments from Russell Robertson


deanox

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Deanox, I think people need to stop bringing up Junior's retirement, as at best he would have played one more year with us and that would have been in Bailey's last year.

We are now under a new Coach and Junior has no relevance to this situation.

PS. I agreed at the time with Junior retiring as he was 34 and constantly injured.

Redleg, I agree. The calf injury he struggled with in his final year with us was probably the reason hee was encouraged to retire. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

I only acknowledge it because I think he was out last true leader in that sense. I wish we had the benefit of a couple of juniors on the list now. I think bringing in rodan and Byrnes was done for that reason and I hope we bring a couple more this year. If we only turn over 6 players on list this year I'd be happy for us to bring in 2 kids, 2 middle age players and 2 old veterans. On field and on track teachers and mentors is what we need to add.

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GWS is less than 5 years into its life as an AFL club. Meanwhile the Melbourne Football Club after 150 plus years in the system looks just as bad as a club with less than 5 years in. Zero comparison with coaching.

I only agree in part. For the past two years have had the vast majority of an entire age group plus Callan Ward and Phat Phil's son and a couple of mature key position players to boot. And they have gone backwards significantly this year IMO.

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Further, Sheedy's ego became a huge problem at Essendon IMO and it will so again at GWS

Didn't Jackson make the call to end Sheedy's rein at Essendon? Tough decision to make, given the Sheedy legacy at Windy Hill.

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there's no answer to how long..... How long is a piece of string? Who knows......We'll only know when we get to the end....

I agree that what we are producing just isn't good enough.... But again.... I don't think moving Neeld on is going to change this..... It's a thing only time will change.....

Clarkson didn't turn the hawks around in 1.5 years..... More like 4 years (which is really fast).... And we all know that west coast where tanking.....

It must be super hard to change the culture of a club, without the support of the supporters..... Considering that the supporter are the ones that drive the culture..... We have an overly conservative and analytical supporter base, that are he'll bend on keeping the norm.... If we want change, then we need to change..... It's the only way.... Otherwise we'll continue to just make up the numbers until our dyeing day....

I couldn't care less whether we move Neeld on.... But he has my support until we do.....

... thats right, the on-field are team values & disciplines. the culture isn't anywhere near about the 'team', as the "Club"...

this is why I've been banging on about "It" for a couple of years Now, & "It" starts with Us...

'We are', this 'Club' has been conservative from its MCC Roots,, except when a secretary was recruited from 'Tigerland', who in turn brought a DemonHeart to the club & they turned the 'Conservatives' culture over on It's Head...

Smith who learnt Under 'Checker',,, carried on the fierce approach, & reignited the Fire... they, the MCC, & we have All let it slip back to petty flowers yet again....

.

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Again, some good posts of late.

Unfortunately, there is only one outcome possible when performances are so bad that a critical mass is reached.

I hope we turn such a massive corner that Jackson has more than the few options he has, but I don't see it happening.

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Agree the first two lines.

As to the third line, are you advocating interference in football matters by the CEO?

No. But you should remember Jackson is already planning a restructure of the FD where the General Manager - Footy Ops will report to him.

And given we are allegedly facing a $2-3 million loss this year, I would expect the CEO to have proper line of sight/awareness over any decisions in regard the playing list.

We have just recently jettisoned a CEO who had 4 direct reports from the FD but did not have a clue about a supplements program and was allegedly not aware that a former coach and FD head were transpiring to play for a PP some years ago.

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No. But you should remember Jackson is already planning a restructure of the FD where the General Manager - Footy Ops will report to him.

And given we are allegedly facing a $2-3 million loss this year, I would expect the CEO to have proper line of sight/awareness over any decisions in regard the playing list.

We have just recently jettisoned a CEO who had 4 direct reports from the FD but did not have a clue about a supplements program and was allegedly not aware that a former coach and FD head were transpiring to play for a PP some years ago.

Some more real gems there RR.

Keep it up! :lol:

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Didn't Jackson make the call to end Sheedy's rein at Essendon? Tough decision to make, given the Sheedy legacy at Windy Hill.

Yup.

Not afraid to make the tough calls. Is about 50 light years ahead of Cameron Schwab as both a CEO and as a leader.

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Yup.

Not afraid to make the tough calls. Is about 50 light years ahead of Cameron Schwab as both a CEO and as a leader.

Jackson makes Schwab look like a childish amateur. So glad this shift was made. Hope Jackson stays beyond his 6 mths contract.

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While I don't like what is going on, this thread has given me some perspective.

The thing I keep going on about is how will we be better? ( ie win more games with an interim coach for the rest of the year and then we have a new coach next year and the whole process will start again. ) What happens next year when we don't win a single game, sack the coach again?

How destabilising would this be for some of the players - 4 years, 5 coaches - Bailey, Viney, Neeld, Interim, New

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Redleg, I agree. The calf injury he struggled with in his final year with us was probably the reason hee was encouraged to retire. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

I only acknowledge it because I think he was out last true leader in that sense. I wish we had the benefit of a couple of juniors on the list now. I think bringing in rodan and Byrnes was done for that reason and I hope we bring a couple more this year. If we only turn over 6 players on list this year I'd be happy for us to bring in 2 kids, 2 middle age players and 2 old veterans. On field and on track teachers and mentors is what we need to add.

Agree that is the reason we brought those guys in, the difference of course was that Junior was a quality player.

I don't believe Byrnes was anything other than an ordinary player in a great side and Rodan's best was long ago. Gillies has stunned me with his lack of performance. Were the Hawks joking when they made a play for him the year before and were the Cats joking when they fought like hell to stop him going?

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Jackson makes Schwab look like a childish amateur. So glad this shift was made. Hope Jackson stays beyond his 6 mths contract.

He has indicated he may stay a lot longer to get the job done.

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No worries Jack. They are pretty easy to understand concepts but some people really struggle with them. Fancy that.

I confess that I struggle to get my head around a former coach and FD Head transpiring to do anything let alone get a PP.

Is it a new version of a transpiracy theory or something like that?

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He has indicated he may stay a lot longer to get the job done.

I still reckon he should leave eventually but six months mightn't be enough to get this ship righted.

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He has indicated he may stay a lot longer to get the job done.

.... lets hope so.

we need some continuity, in the top administering spots of this club.

& IMO we need successful people from Other AFL clubs, to bring in a known Footy intelligence to our situation. lets go outside the Northern Stand, for our people running this old club.

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