I have been thinking about this for a while, particularly after Simon Goodwin iterated that the club as a whole needed to be more ruthless.

In todays Hun, the following weekly roundup comment was posted re The Demons

"After another putrid performance against Fremantle, the Demons don't deserve to play finals and won't.Why Simon Goodwin and the club hierachy weren't already more RUTHLESS after a sub par 2019, we don't know.

Pretty darn good question. In my view Ruthlessness starts with the Board, CEO, President, then Coaching staff and Players all being ruthless.

Definition of ruthlessness from source Cambridge Dictionary

the quality of not thinking or worrying about any pain caused to others when deciding what you need to do:

So according to this example how have the club responded after a dismal 2019 and arguably a worse 2020 when most player resources have been in tact?

I hark back to my original topic question and ask , What is ruthlessness MFC Style and what needs to be done to change the culture immediately!? In my view the Hun Superladder and observations re the demons are pretty spot on!

 

 

 

Edited September 10, 20204 yr by picket fence

An exorcism?

Been hearing this word since Cameron Bruce blurted it out after our 2002 semi-final loss to the Crows. Still too disappointed to post anything constructive.

You need a period of sustained success so that winning becomes the norm and losing becomes the exception. You get use to the feeling of winning, you end up hating to lose. You have to fear losing. 

1 minute ago, hemingway said:

You need a period of sustained success so that winning becomes the norm and losing becomes the exception. You get use to the feeling of winning, you end up hating to lose. You have to fear losing. 

The reverse to that is pretty scary

A sustained period of losing and that becomes the norm - you have a fear of winning 

Wait a minute - sounds familiar 

As Derm said last night, we are too nice.

The teams others pity us and pat is on the head and none fear. Not even those below us on the ladder.

14 minutes ago, Gorgoroth said:

The teams others pity us and pat is on the head and none fear. Not even those below us on the ladder.

Teams on a losing streak, out of form, key players out, breathe a sigh of relief when they see they're scheduled to play the Mighty Demons. Because they already know how we're going to play and what they have to do to overcome us. They go in with a plan and a positive attitude. We go in not even knowing where the headlights are that we'll eventually be staring into.

Ruthless is a pure mind set, starts with a lot of hard work be ruthless on the expectations at training, then that flows into how you play the execution of your game plan with no exceptions, then finishing off a team you have on the ropes.  If the players bring this and we still offer up poor performances, club needs to be ruthless in addressing the reasons why such as Coach, Footy manager what ever it takes to improve.

As soon as you accept excuses for not performing to the level required your club goes backwards.  You accept circumstances that may effect the result but not the level of effort or execution of game plan like all good clubs a player comes in and knows the role they need to play

Hence, our widespread wish as supporters to rid our team of Goodwin, the current Board, certain players gifted games without acceptable performances, and does the list continue?

18 hours ago, Dee Zephyr said:

Been hearing this word since Cameron Bruce blurted it out after our 2002 semi-final loss to the Crows. Still too disappointed to post anything constructive.

Me too,  that first quarter was devastating, the second and third quarters were euphoric, and then McLeod’s foot came good and they kicked away, not that I remember it or anything

The MFC has no ruthlessness. Our Successful dynasties are too long ago. 
There is no connection now, between then and now

but the “almost is good enough” attitude just repeats itself, for as long as i have been a supporter. 
If we don’t show fight tomorrow then the entire FD should walk. 
We should have booked a Finals berth already. 

1 hour ago, Gorgoroth said:

As Derm said last night, we are too nice.

Hmm, this is hard to change when...

• We tackle someone we get 4-weeks
• We miss connecting with someone and we get 1 week.

 

A ruthless coach would've scrutinised every single second of the disaster 2018 prelim.   

If the players aren't ruthless they shouldn't be on the list.  

 

I first thought of Neale Daniher when Goody trotted out this line.

I distinctly remember him saying we need to be ruthless during a preseason interview  on what was probably off the back of one of our yo-yo down years.

Daniher has managed to rally the whole AFL communiy and the nation around is cause due to his grit and fight but unfortunately even under him we were not able to be ruthless , consistent and where always up and down.

Even in probably the most "ruthless" culture era,  which In my time was John Northey we underperformed in 88,89 and 90 during the H&A season.

 

Frustrating to hear him say ruthless, as wtf had he been doing for the last 4 seasons plu the 2 under Roos????

My read on what Goody has said about being ruthless ties in with what he has been saying all year about showing maturity, and that it needs to be player driven. This means when we are on the field and things aren't going our way, the players need to crack in and overcome whatever obstacles are thrown up. Last year the language was around finding a way to win, this year it is about maturing and being ruthless which are all mindset related. To me this comes down to belief, discipline, trust and an uncompromising will to win and is as important for our bottom 6 as our top 6 players.

19 hours ago, Hogan2014 said:

Frustrating to hear him say ruthless, as wtf had he been doing for the last 4 seasons plu the 2 under Roos????

When i hear the word Ruthless associated with the MFC i actually hear compromising as a word replacement.  We don't quite know the meaning of ruthless.  The players come out angry once in a while.  They then pat each other on the back for jobs well done.  Following week they lose all the anger and put in a pedestrian performance.  Until we learn the meaning of ruthless and stop getting carried away with any win, we are never going to build anything substancial.  Drinking your own bathwater repeatedly is the complete opposite of ruthless. 

*Could have easily replaced it with the word complacency....either works fine!!

Edited September 12, 20204 yr by NeveroddoreveN

7 minutes ago, NeveroddoreveN said:

When i hear the word Ruthless associated with the MFC i actually hear compromising as a word replacement.  We don't quite know the meaning of ruthless.  The players come out angry once in a while.  They then pat each other on the back for jobs well done.  Following week they lose all the anger and put in a pedestrian performance.  Until we learn the meaning of ruthless and stop getting carried away with any win, we are never going to build anything substancial.  Drinking your own bathwater repeatedly is the complete opposite of ruthless.  

Subtle change for mine @NeveroddoreveN

Until we learn the meaning of ruthless ---->Until we continually act the meaning of ruthless.

They all know the meaning of it (whatever that looks like as an individual or as a collective, its about living it when it's hard, tough, and even at times, when you're 6 goals up).

I genuinely cannot remember a time in my 4 decades of supporting that a playing group has ever given me a continual vibe of being able to display it weekly (mind you, nor most clubs, aside from Brisvegas, Hawthorn and Geelong).

The only player that displayed it weekly, I would state would be Neitz. But of course I was 13-26 back then, and idolised his brutal poise

Edited September 12, 20204 yr by Engorged Onion

Just now, Engorged Onion said:

Subtle change for mine @NeveroddoreveN

Until we learn the meaning of ruthless ---->Until we continually act the meaning of ruthless.

They all know the meaning of it (whatever that looks like as an individual or as a collective, its about living it when it's hard, tough, and even at times, when you're 6 goals up).

I genuinely cannot remember a time in my 4 decades of supporting that a playing group has ever given me a continual vibe of being able to display it weekly (mind you, nor most clubs, aside from Brisvegas, Hawthorn and Geelong).

The only player that displayed it weekly, I would state would be Neitz. But of course I was 13-26 back then, and idolised his brutal poise

 

4 minutes ago, Engorged Onion said:

Subtle change for mine @NeveroddoreveN

Until we learn the meaning of ruthless ---->Until we continually act the meaning of ruthless.

They all know the meaning of it (whatever that looks like as an individual or as a collective, its about living it when it's hard, tough, and even at times, when you're 6 goals up).

I genuinely cannot remember a time in my 4 decades of supporting that a playing group has ever given me a continual vibe of being able to display it weekly (mind you, nor most clubs, aside from Brisvegas, Hawthorn and Geelong).

The only player that displayed it weekly, I would state would be Neitz. But of course I was 13-26 back then, and idolised his brutal poise

The key words you use here are continually act.  This needs to happen from the boardroom, to coaches, to players, to the boot studders.  We know what hard times look like there surely comes a time when you stand up as a collective and go, enough is enough!  There are always reasons/excuses...you never hear it from the better teams.  They use their failures as fuel to not fail in future if the same set of circumstances happen to arise.  As a football club we hurt, but we don't seem to learn from many of our mistakes and excuses/reasons are always at arms reach. It is convenient, and i find it a cop out.  Even our supporters look for these reasons/excuses to explain our achievements or lack of them.  As a whole we accept failure way too easily.  Is it culture, is it degree of want, is it just we don't have right people?  I got no clue honestly what is the cure for this club but you are right!

Until we learn to continually act the meaning of ruthless we will come up well short of that. Hiccups are one thing, cycles are another!  We seem pretty entrenched within a cycle, until we get past that we will stay mediocre.

 

Interested to hear other but I think if you asked supporters to name half a dozen values you would like us to stand for I doubt ruthless would come up. Way down from professional, reliable, competitive ,enterrtaining............

I am happy to call this season  a success if someone smacks Toby Greenes  smug head in later today. Can they do at least one thing in the remainder of the season to make me smile ???.

Interesting to me that  he said " ruthless as a whole club" 

When you think that the Bulldogs just had their travel schedule altered so that they don't fly and play on the same day and were " outraged" to be asked ...it made me connect the dots a little. Some yes, but not ALL of this is on Goody and the players. Where the [censored] was the pushback and outrage from our president? There is no WAY the pies, the eagles, Geelong etc etc would have sat back and let that happen. There is no way they would have been asked. That single decision to stay quiet  imo  sent this season into free fall. The players were sold down the river by a gutless president. 

2 minutes ago, Spit Demon said:

I am happy to call this season  a success if someone smacks Toby Greenes  smug head in later today. Can they do at least one thing in the remainder of the season to make me smile ???.

Does it count when Vandenberg shoves his head into the ground giving away a stupid 50!?  

1 minute ago, NeveroddoreveN said:

Does it count when Vandenberg shoves his head into the ground giving away a stupid 50!?  

At this stage I really don't care. I'm dead inside