2 minutes ago, Wiseblood said:

It's a fair point DZ, and I know @Redleg will be nodding along vigorously.

But when we think about our drafting over the last couple of years, what has been the area we have been crying out to fix?  Our key defensive stocks.  I don't think as a supporter base that we can deny that.  So we went out and fixed it with May and Lever.

From there, I think we have tried to add a little pace and run (Baker and Bedford come to mind, as well as KK) with the picks we've had.  I know some are already bemoaning the pick of Sparrow, which is harsh on a kid in his first year, but who are the players picked after him in the draft that we should of targeted?  Not many have come into their respective sides, let alone brought blistering pace.

I think we will continue to ad

dressthe issue, but we went out and sorted some other areas before that, which is understandable.

May and lever have hardly "fixed" our backline issues... Sparrow is the last sort of player we needed

Just now, Elegt said:

May and lever have hardly "fixed" our backline issues... Sparrow is the last sort of player we needed

Well that's why we recruited them.  I'll look at how it pans out long term, you can cry into your coffee about it now.

Again, who should we have taken other than Sparrow?  Only a handful of players picked after him have played senior footy this year, and none I would class as having 'pace'.

1 minute ago, Wiseblood said:

Well that's why we recruited them.  I'll look at how it pans out long term, you can cry into your coffee about it now.

Again, who should we have taken other than Sparrow?  Only a handful of players picked after him have played senior footy this year, and none I would class as having 'pace'.

Matthew Parker, Nick hind, Sydney stack, jack ross, Michael gibbons

6 minutes ago, Elegt said:

Matthew Parker, Nick hind, Sydney stack, jack ross, Michael gibbons

Two of the players mentioned - Stack and Gibbons - were not taken in either the AFL Draft or the Rookie Draft.  They were supplementary selections.  If they were taken not long after our picks in the Draft, then you have a point.  We aren't taking blokes that high, or even that late, in the draft.  Gibbons is lucky to even be on a list to be honest.

Parker is a medium forward, Hind can't even get a run in the seniors and Ross, who has shown a bit, plays a relatively similar game to Sparrow.

So we didn't 'miss out' on anyone.

And perhaps the biggest one was the year before when Tubby Taylor was very proud of how we got Harrison Petty (No.37) as a steal, yet we all now know how much we need quick forwards like Jack Petruccelle (Pick 38), Gryan Meiers (57), not to mention James Worpel (45).

The whole recruiting thing will now take on greater emphasis as it does when your side underperforms. Four years ago Tubby hit paydirt with Oliver ahead of Parish and rookies such as VDB and Harmes, although his credits have now dried up.

We've done quite well with our VFL selections in the past three years - Hannan, Fritsch, Hore and our Casey loyalty to T.Smith, Keilty and Lockhart and C.Wagner is admirable but in recent times Tubby has shown no knowledge of what lower order longshots to take - Johnstone, Filipovic are examples but there's been no Tom Stewart among our Casey boys either. 

Interesting insight from Lewis

Prevous  to last season in the finals our last one before that was 2006 and we died in the off season and we were reading the same depressing stuff as now where we appear to  have died in the off season . 

History repeating and I'm thinking that I can't face yet another rebuild . I'm too old that I now fear , no, convinced I will never see another Premiership by our mob. Perhaps those 6 premierships back in the fifties and sixties was all she wrote . But hey , we were great then .

But now if I may would like  to add a comment about the rule changes this season .

I feel the runner restricted rule has really worked against us. Whatever changes were made in our structures hadn't  been ingrained enough for us to cope without those runners impressing on us on field , whether our players are just plain dim and not grasp it at all or it maybe just too complicated . Whatever , this rule really helps those teams  better drilled than ours. It really has served those more experienced teams  than ours like Geelong who admire but hate !

Can this affect the players who probably hold the record for fumbles in a game? They appear to play like double amputees with all due respect . 

And if there is any truth in the whispers of disunity in the camp causing disharmony then for Christs sake grow up and start being professional about your  jobs and do what you are paid to do .

Remember it's not about me , it's about we ..

I am hoping that it's all about the umpteen medical Operations our team had , and didn't have an adequate pre-season , but it could be wishful thinking . 

I purchased an AFL footy tour to Alice Springs last week to see us v Eagles and I only hope this season will improve by then . 

3 minutes ago, Vineytime said:

Interesting insight from Lewis

hope Goodwin and his coaching panel have a read... gutsy by Lewis

Just now, demonique said:

Prevous  to last season in the finals our last one before that was 2006 and we died in the off season and we were reading the same depressing stuff as now where we appear to  have died in the off season . 

History repeating and I'm thinking that I can't face yet another rebuild 

The difference between 06 and now is that we were incredibly 'top heavy' with our best players - they were all beginning to head for the twilight of their careers and we didn't have a whole lot of quality waiting in the wings.

We have the opposite here.  Our best players have all pretty much played around or under 100 games, so there is still plenty of improvement to come.

5 minutes ago, Diamond_Jim said:

hope Goodwin and his coaching panel have a read... gutsy by Lewis

I think JLO should move to the coaching team, there’s a lot there he can contribute given his modern experience

3 minutes ago, Wiseblood said:

The difference between 06 and now is that we were incredibly 'top heavy' with our best players - they were all beginning to head for the twilight of their careers and we didn't have a whole lot of quality waiting in the wings.

We have the opposite here.  Our best players have all pretty much played around or under 100 games, so there is still plenty of improvement to come.

I can only hope that our currant coaching staff can turn it around .  I do appreciate the different circumstances re 2006 to this slump , it's just the fear of many that we have , have stalled in their development and the coaching staff haven't got the know how to fix it 

15 minutes ago, Vineytime said:

Interesting insight from Lewis

Spot on Jordan.   This is one of the main reasons we recruited Lewis. .. the guys won 4 flags, has played 300 games,  played under arguably the greatest coach of all time.  His experience is invaluable.

Amazing that the Hawks were 1-5 in 2010 ....  coming off  a season of no finals at and at 1-5  the supporters would have written off the season already and lost faith in Clarkson.  They ended up with 12.5 wins and finished 7th.

I really hope our coaches take note.   We must make big changes to the gameplan.

Edited April 25, 20196 yr by Petraccattack

3 minutes ago, Petraccattack said:

Spot on Jordan.   This is one of the main reasons we recruited Lewis. .. the guys won 4 flags, has played 300 games,  played under arguably the greatest coach of all time.  His experience is invaluable.

I really hope our coaches take note.   We must make big changes to the gameplan.

Would be happy to have him as an assistant coach next year.

I think eberyone is getting over excited... we just have some major structural issues.due to injuries, our structures are not in place. Once some players come back, things will improve.

Seriously we cannot continue to just bomb the ball forward.

Tom Browne article on May sums up our current status!

For a so called leader to turn up so underdone which has resulted in his current injury is  a disgrace  & if true should be docked of his match payments!

Basically traded a gun forward not without his own issues for another lazy  Defender!

One questions were was the monitoring  from our fitness people to ensure he met KPIs upon his return??

 

We’re not seriously paying May $800k are we?

1 hour ago, Wiseblood said:

This just might be the season we had to have to get there.

Agree with his comment from you Wiseblood.

Given our draw we are staring down the barrel of being 2-10 at the bye and even with what I hope will be a late flurry, we seem to be heading for a 6-8 win season.

Finishing bottom six will help our draw next season, but you can't just rest on that and take it for granted that we will bounce back.

We have four huge areas to fix.

1) With Misson retiring and our second half failures this season, it's clear that the appointment of our new fitness guru is major.

2) Tubby may need terminating and definitely needs more help in recruiting. He will probably have up to 10 picks and only one of them (our top pick at 4-6) will be easy to decide in terms of placement overall. He needs to be across all the interstate leagues and our own NAB League. And he will need clear direction on where our list needs improving. 

3) Goody's loyalty and game style. When a side fails dismally to reach expectation, the pressure mounts on the coach. I am sure Goody will respond by tweaking the game plan and toughening up his role players. He has already made a few hard calls on players whom he rated highly (O.Mac and Spargo) and sadly he will have to do the same at the end of the season with a couple of greats (Lewis and Jones) and several fringe players. You would not want to be out of contract at the Dees right now. If I was Weid's manager, I'd just ask for a one-year deal on a base wage! Our game style is not as out of whack as some think at the moment, our big issue is finding someone to lead into space and mark up forward and our two most likely medium-sized marking forwards (Hannan and Joel Smith) along with VDB's grunt have been majorly missed. 

4) Weightroom guru. Watching Weid, Fritsch and O-Mac (previous weeks) being pushed aside so easily just makes you wonder why they haven't bulked up. It's not like it's their first season anymore. Are they skipping sessions? 

But I agree that provided we make good off-season plans, we should bounce back hard and unlike a few years ago, we now have genuine stars - Gawn, Olly (when not going backwards), Angus and Salem as a base along with the courage of Viney and Harmes to take us into the 20s. If that group is backed by a handful of exciting youngsters, then it will be happy Dees again. 

36 minutes ago, Diamond_Jim said:

hope Goodwin and his coaching panel have a read... gutsy by Lewis

He is 100% correct. I reckon Goody and him may have discussed it. We need to get Lewis in the box ASAP

Fitness also looks like a real issue.

In the first half we were keeping up with them and stopping the spread.

You could see our players start to tire as the Tigers got some separation and space to do their thing 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 25, 20196 yr by DeeZee

Being at the game last night I honestly felt like I was watching the Melbourne side that Roos coached in his first year.

We were never trying to win the game...we were just trying to not lose by too much.

 

 

1 hour ago, Wiseblood said:

Two of the players mentioned - Stack and Gibbons - were not taken in either the AFL Draft or the Rookie Draft.  They were supplementary selections.  If they were taken not long after our picks in the Draft, then you have a point.  We aren't taking blokes that high, or even that late, in the draft.  Gibbons is lucky to even be on a list to be honest.

Parker is a medium forward, Hind can't even get a run in the seniors and Ross, who has shown a bit, plays a relatively similar game to Sparrow.

So we didn't 'miss out' on anyone.

stack was highly touted and was u18 all Australian, Parker has pace to burn, hind will get a run soon has been dominating vfl and Ross is quicker than sparrow. Gibbons has always been a queried draft option 

30 minutes ago, Deespicable said:

Agree with his comment from you Wiseblood.

Given our draw we are staring down the barrel of being 2-10 at the bye and even with what I hope will be a late flurry, we seem to be heading for a 6-8 win season.

Finishing bottom six will help our draw next season, but you can't just rest on that and take it for granted that we will bounce back.

We have four huge areas to fix.

1) With Misson retiring and our second half failures this season, it's clear that the appointment of our new fitness guru is major.

2) Tubby may need terminating and definitely needs more help in recruiting. He will probably have up to 10 picks and only one of them (our top pick at 4-6) will be easy to decide in terms of placement overall. He needs to be across all the interstate leagues and our own NAB League. And he will need clear direction on where our list needs improving. 

3) Goody's loyalty and game style. When a side fails dismally to reach expectation, the pressure mounts on the coach. I am sure Goody will respond by tweaking the game plan and toughening up his role players. He has already made a few hard calls on players whom he rated highly (O.Mac and Spargo) and sadly he will have to do the same at the end of the season with a couple of greats (Lewis and Jones) and several fringe players. You would not want to be out of contract at the Dees right now. If I was Weid's manager, I'd just ask for a one-year deal on a base wage! Our game style is not as out of whack as some think at the moment, our big issue is finding someone to lead into space and mark up forward and our two most likely medium-sized marking forwards (Hannan and Joel Smith) along with VDB's grunt have been majorly missed. 

4) Weightroom guru. Watching Weid, Fritsch and O-Mac (previous weeks) being pushed aside so easily just makes you wonder why they haven't bulked up. It's not like it's their first season anymore. Are they skipping sessions? 

But I agree that provided we make good off-season plans, we should bounce back hard and unlike a few years ago, we now have genuine stars - Gawn, Olly (when not going backwards), Angus and Salem as a base along with the courage of Viney and Harmes to take us into the 20s. If that group is backed by a handful of exciting youngsters, then it will be happy Dees again. 

I am pretty sure Omac doesn't want to stuff up his golf swing 

Confidence is a bubble, easily burst - and then you're left with nothing.

5 hours ago, old dee said:

Good clubs keep good players and then there is the MFC.

That's a glib and profoundly untrue statement

For Jordy Lewis to suggest that maybe we need to change the way we play tells me that the players do not have 100% iron clad confidence in our game plan.

He days we are being beaten the same way every week. On the spread.

Goodwins number one ethic of win the contested ball is no good luck bless you have the run and skill to use it.