Ah Sheeds.

He has had the last laugh on us plenty of times but I took great satisfaction in him getting up on the premiership dais in 2013 wearing his Giants scarf to create a photo opportunity with Buddy. 

I felt awesome schadenfreude when Buddy snubbed him and went to a football club with actual soul.

22 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

They won't get bucketful of first round picks but they will continue to get academy selections like their mates the Swans who topped up with Heeney and Mills after just missing out on a flag.

As well as that Gonzo they can trade out failed draft picks to clubs looking for scraps (Carlton etc) A couple of their decent players seeking new homes won't come cheap either. 

Their biggest issue is that they're not a proper footy club ... a club should have a heart,  a soul along with hungry & demanding supporters,  a strong culture and a clear vision on where that club is heading.

They've got plenty of talented individuals though ... I can see them hovering thereabouts (finals) but that's about it.  In this finals series the Crows smashed them early and the Tigers smashed them after half time.  Both games were in hostile territory ... there's a pointer.

Let's be frank they look like winning a flag in the next few years - more likely than most teams including us unfortunately 

31 minutes ago, Macca said:

As well as that Gonzo they can trade out failed draft picks to clubs looking for scraps (Carlton etc) A couple of their decent players seeking new homes won't come cheap either. 

Their biggest issue is that they're not a proper footy club ... a club should have a heart,  a soul along with hungry & demanding supporters,  a strong culture and a clear vision on where that club is heading.

They've got plenty of talented individuals though ... I can see them hovering thereabouts (finals) but that's about it.  In this finals series the Crows smashed them early and the Tigers smashed them after half time.  Both games were in hostile territory ... there's a pointer.

I hope so - they do seem to lack the intangible that every other expansion club has had. If the go flagless for another decade or 5 that'd be just great.

6 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

I hope so - they do seem to lack the intangible that every other expansion club has had. If the go flagless for another decade or 5 that'd be just great.

For a top 4 team their 1st half against the Crows and yesterday's 2nd half against Richmond were woeful.  They wilted when the game was there to be won. 

They've got enough pure talent to continue to make the finals but there's often a big gap between top 4,  top 2 and then winning the whole thing. 

Put it this way,  many of the intangibles that the Crows & Tigers have,  GWS doesn't have.  And those intangibles can't necessarily be manufactured.

They're ahead of us though ... if we can bridge the gap talent wise,  we'll go past them.  We need to pick up 3 - 4 good players in the off-season.  1 or 2 of those 3 or 4 good players might be project players though (draftees)

10 hours ago, Macca said:

For a top 4 team their 1st half against the Crows and yesterday's 2nd half against Richmond were woeful.  They wilted when the game was there to be won. 

They've got enough pure talent to continue to make the finals but there's often a big gap between top 4,  top 2 and then winning the whole thing. 

Put it this way,  many of the intangibles that the Crows & Tigers have,  GWS doesn't have.  And those intangibles can't necessarily be manufactured.

They're ahead of us though ... if we can bridge the gap talent wise,  we'll go past them.  We need to pick up 3 - 4 good players in the off-season.  1 or 2 of those 3 or 4 good players might be project players though (draftees)

After the game on Saturday on fox footy they were discussing the difference between the Tigers and GWS as GWS clearly has the better list. They referred to the Richmond players "deciding to be great" something that I think Rance had said in his post game interview. 

In an article on AFL.com.au they also talked about Balme coming in last year and telling the club "you're not that far away" and having a calming influence as people trusted him because he'd been there before.

There were similar comments made during the "1997" doco on the Crows first flag. The players trusted Blight because he'd been there before.

I think we are in a similar position. We have the list to match anyone in the comp on our day, we may need to tweak a couple of things here or there but overall the biggest challenge now is above the shoulders. Will our players decide they want to be great? Will they have the belief that they can be the best?

I'm not sure how long Cameron should be given the keys to a Rolls Royce if he's going to keep crashing it every year.

Don't give me injury lists. They still have more first round picks in their 22 than most (if not all) sides.

If I were the GWS hierarchy, I'd be looking to poach the very best. Someone like Clarkson.

On 24/09/2017 at 8:26 AM, Biffen said:

I'm told Who let the dogs out.

not true, he was on first

2 hours ago, daisycutter said:

not true, he was on first

But Watts is gone and now Who's on first.

 

On 24/09/2017 at 3:52 PM, dl4e said:

GWS are like an immature rabbit in the spotlights. Basically they should be run over.

Post of the thread!!!  

On 9/22/2017 at 1:52 PM, Ungarie boy said:

My boy was involved in the GWS academy this year and consequently I have had a lot more exposure to them.  I'll be cheering loudly for them now, for they have done more for the Canberra and Southern NSW region in the last couple of years than the AFL and all other fly by clubs (North, Sydney, Dee's) put together.  If this then equates to more AFL players in the region, meaning more teams, stronger competitions and then greater opportunity for our kids (hopefully my youngest would benefit from all this) to develop, then that's an even better reason.  Being  involved in coaching and I can categorically state it is so much more difficult for talented players in the Canberra/NSW Region (excluding Murray) to make it - for you don't develop the necessary AFL skills my beating up on consistently weaker opponents.

 

Thats because they have a massive carrot to develop players from that region and there have been a number of very good AFL players come from there.  Take away the draft rights and they couldn't give a stuff about the region.

Being the coach of GWS would be extremely frustrating you have all these talented footballers that believe talent alone will win them a premiership and team football is secondary.

On 24/09/2017 at 11:13 AM, Redleg said:

They may not be the unbeatable juggernaut we all feared. 

A few are at the end or close to it like Stevie, Deledio, Griffin, Shaw and Mummy and they won't get the bucket full of first round picks again. They are now what they are just like every other team. They should have made a GF but haven't. 

They are still talented but lack some real mental toughness.

Agree, their premiership window opened last year and they rightly could have won last year and this year. The fact they didn't might mean them winning one is not guaranteed and they are not a super team like everyone thought they would be.

 

 

On 24/09/2017 at 8:31 PM, rjay said:

I was most happy to see Delidio not make a GF.

I can't stand the Tiges but what I can't stand more is players walking into a premiership team without putting time into it.

It's kind of justice that in the last 2 years both Griffen and now Lids have moved on to greener pastures and found the grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence.

Am I mean spirited for thinking this way?

Since this is a Melbourne website you should be saying Scott Thompson.

18 hours ago, Adzman said:

Agree, their premiership window opened last year and they rightly could have won last year and this year. The fact they didn't might mean them winning one is not guaranteed and they are not a super team like everyone thought they would be.

 

 

Talented players alone do not win Finals. Especially the hard fought ones in the last couple of weeks, Their recruiting personnel need to give this a good hard look. Their players didn't come up hard and tough and what was said about their Coach's tenure by Caroline would not have helped. They will be poaching the right element next year.

My opinion is that Leon Cameron is the worst match day coach in the AFL, he consistently plays to tall and has now cost the Giants two premierships. I think any other coach in the AFL would have won back to back flags with that list. 

Prelim prolly first time I ever gone to footy to watch the crowd. 

Kinda noticed GWS more skilful but Tiges more workmanlike

 

Champion TEAM ....

15 hours ago, Abe said:

My opinion is that Leon Cameron is the worst match day coach in the AFL, he consistently plays to tall and has now cost the Giants two premierships. I think any other coach in the AFL would have won back to back flags with that list. 

good point .. but hell those talls are so good.

I think he plays the boundary line too much as he backs his talls to take the mark. The marking player is then expected to give off the handball to the quick player running past who then repeats the play. Looks great but more often than not the ball ends up out of bounds around the 50 metre line. The opposition are left the corridor to counter attack.

Needs to back his talls in and move the ball in a more centralised zone. If he doesn't think that will work he should as you say go smaller.

Most other clubs would give almost anything for one of their talls so trading is relatively easy if they want to change the game strategy.

Went to watch GWS play Carlton at the Ice Dome known as Docklands. How they were beaten by Carlton is text book as I described above.