Best Presser Ever!!

[Bates Mate 4,422]

3 hours ago, Deelectable said:

Finally, the revelations re Clarry were stark. We find now he has been playing with a busted hand, knee and a cracked rib. What an awesome effort from a guy who many said would never play for the club again. To all those people in the media and those on this site who mercilessly got stuck into Oliver hang your collective heads in shame.

I applaud his level of bravery to get out on the field , but seems really dumb for the club to allow him to play while so banged up. I was one who got stuck into Clarry at times this year due to what he has produced on field which has been way below his standard and barely AFL standard recently. He should never have been playing with such injuries I thought we learned our lesson in 2022 by selecting the effectively the same 22 every week when we have able replacements playing good footy at Casey and not manage players after the 10-0 start ,we saw what happened in finals.

[demon3165 2,563]

33 minutes ago, Ollie fan said:

"One of the all time greats" is very accurate. Already 2 coaches' awards. Multiple AA, multiple club champion - 2 Brownlow votes in his first game!!!

That's you opinion not mine.

[FreedFromDesire 573]

1 hour ago, Deelectable said:

Where did I say 'celebrating'? Awesome effort is an entirely different thing. Interesting also that clubs and players in particular can't win. If they play through injury the club is negligent.  Conversely,  if they don't get on the field they're accused of being weak and not toughing it out. Kane Cornes has potted Nick Cox and Todd Marshall for being soft and not cut out for the game. Lose, lose.

I'm new here, so apologies if it came across that way, but wasn't intended to imply you said those exact words. I was more trying to say that, while brave of Clarry, it's not a positive thing in my books that we handled another injury poorly.

AFL players are incredibly tough, sometimes to a fault, and that's why you need strong willed and knowledgeable people handling the decisions around when they should and shouldn't play. I personally believe we've not got that balance right more often than not the last few years. What was mentioned about Clarry's injuries is another example of that in my opinion. I'm not putting the blame on any one person, I understand it's not that simple, but it's a key area I hope we improve on next year.

[The heart beats true 17,734]

4 hours ago, FearTheBeard said:

Simon has always had the ability to say a lot of words that sound good whilst saying absolutely nothing.

You’d be uniquely well positioned to recognise this trait in others.

[Ollie fan 3,027]

45 minutes ago, Bates Mate said:

I applaud his level of bravery to get out on the field , but seems really dumb for the club to allow him to play while so banged up. I was one who got stuck into Clarry at times this year due to what he has produced on field which has been way below his standard and barely AFL standard recently. He should never have been playing with such injuries I thought we learned our lesson in 2022 by selecting the effectively the same 22 every week when we have able replacements playing good footy at Casey and not manage players after the 10-0 start ,we saw what happened in finals.

If you listened, the busted ribs was something that they found after the Port game – I wonder if it was when he got punched right in the chest, which was described by the MRO as, I think mild or moderate😱😤😭

[SFebes 4,860]

1 hour ago, Demon17 said:

Geez give it a rest. Tom Morris  must be loving this.

Of course they would say it - BECAUSE ITS TRUE

Give what a rest?! 
 

and wasn’t that my point…..

[He de mon 861]

3 hours ago, FreedFromDesire said:

I find the news of what Clarry played through more concerning than anything else, and I'm generally pretty positive as a general club outlook.

I suspect, and I am speculating like everyone else on here, that playing Clarrie was as much for his mental health as it was to filling a team need. 

[FreedFromDesire 573]

8 minutes ago, He de mon said:

I suspect, and I am speculating like everyone else on here, that playing Clarrie was as much for his mental health as it was to filling a team need. 

There's definitely been some comments around that hasn't there? I can't remember the exact comments but I vaguely remember someone from the club saying something along those lines recently.

A lot to weigh up though. It surely can't be great for Clarry to be copping constant criticism from supporters, the media, etc for his performance, even when under duress? From a selection integrity point of view, how does it sit with others struggling for opportunity if someone is out of form but being selected for their mental health? For Clarry himself, was it the best plan to stick a band-aid on and put him back out or would it have been better to get him in for the proper surgery and a training load for fitness so he could finish the year off in a positive way?

I don't know answers or course, but those are the questions I have as a supporter and member who cares about Clarry, but also about the culture and performance of our football club.

[Older demon 2,663]

Goody has grown and developed as a coach and that was indeed the best press conference I have heard from him. I alos recognised the voice of one of the journo's Tom Morris himself and it had to be a question about Trac. Simon was polite direct and I thought he put Morris back in his place. The club is in good hands with Simon.

[He de mon 861]

28 minutes ago, FreedFromDesire said:

There's definitely been some comments around that hasn't there? I can't remember the exact comments but I vaguely remember someone from the club saying something along those lines recently.

A lot to weigh up though. It surely can't be great for Clarry to be copping constant criticism from supporters, the media, etc for his performance, even when under duress? From a selection integrity point of view, how does it sit with others struggling for opportunity if someone is out of form but being selected for their mental health? For Clarry himself, was it the best plan to stick a band-aid on and put him back out or would it have been better to get him in for the proper surgery and a training load for fitness so he could finish the year off in a positive way?

I don't know answers or course, but those are the questions I have as a supporter and member who cares about Clarry, but also about the culture and performance of our football club.

He has had a few sub-standard (by Claytons loft standards) games, but his output hasn't been awful and he had some decent games. Who on our list, that is either on the fringe or playing for Casey, would you replace him with? Has his output been worse than others, such as Sparrow? Up until last week we were still in finals contention, and he still adds value, so I can see why they would play him.

[FreedFromDesire 573]

3 minutes ago, He de mon said:

He has had a few sub-standard (by Claytons loft standards) games, but his output hasn't been awful and he had some decent games. Who on our list, that is either on the fringe or playing for Casey, would you replace him with? Has his output been worse than others, such as Sparrow? Up until last week we were still in finals contention, and he still adds value, so I can see why they would play him.

According to Wheelo Ratings, which is by far the best footy stats website, Clarry's player rating has dived thus:

2021 - 17.39
2022 - 18.17
2023 - 16.15
2024 - 10.68

I don't believe it's over the top to say he has underperformed this year by a fair margin. I understand the context around that so I'm not having a go at him at all, I think he's a champion and I think with a full preseason he'll be a star once again next year.

I don't think it's fair to compare him to Sparrow. Sparrow is a depth/utility player, he's nowhere near Clarry's standard. 

In terms of other options - We've had plenty of opportunity to try Rivers in the midfield more, McVee of late, ANB, Salem (when also not injured, that's another story), Kynan Brown, Tholstrup, Windsor, Laurie, Kozzy more in the middle - There really is no shortage of options, I don't think that was a problem at all.

It's just my opinion that both Clarry and the team would have been better served getting him actually fully 100% right in that middle part of the year during the hand injury and letting him launch into the latter part of the season, rather than playing him clearly injured and hampered for a below standard return.

[John Demonic 5,481]

4 minutes ago, FreedFromDesire said:

According to Wheelo Ratings, which is by far the best footy stats website, Clarry's player rating has dived thus:

2021 - 17.39
2022 - 18.17
2023 - 16.15
2024 - 10.68

I don't believe it's over the top to say he has underperformed this year by a fair margin. I understand the context around that so I'm not having a go at him at all, I think he's a champion and I think with a full preseason he'll be a star once again next year.

I know people hate fantasy points and all that, but he's also about 60% of his previous footy fantasy ratings, for the year. $570k when you'd expect him at his best to be $900-1100k. Massive drop off, for various reasons. When he's fit and firing again, we'll have another superstar that leads the comp in various stats- rebuilding shmebuilding Kane Cornes!

Edited August 14 by John Demonic

[DemonWA 3,883]

Great Presser and OP

[layzie 32,689]

We need to be nicer to each other, this stuff is tearing us apart.

[H_T 3,032]

9 hours ago, FreedFromDesire said:

Really looking forward to having a listen to the presser, the positive reactions are a great sign.

However, I'm not sure I'd be celebrating the above? Particularly in the recent context of the handling of both Petracca and May's injuries. There's bravery, and then there's poor management on the behalf of those responsible for such things.

You wouldn't expect anything less from a courage perspective from those 3 players, but we simply must get better as a club with how we go about our player management. I find the news of what Clarry played through more concerning than anything else, and I'm generally pretty positive as a general club outlook.

Given Clarry's struggles to find form given those physical ailments, it's looking a worse and worse decision that they didn't make the decision to get him to full fitness. Of course, there would be other factors, but it's a wider issue the last few years I believe, and the examples we've seen this season have been particularly bad.

Gee, you read like something Tom Morris would write. 

Many players play with niggles including sore ribs, a bung hand/finger and PCL's. Including blue chip footballers.

[DEE fence 4,922]

10 hours ago, Deelectable said:

Would like to have a sizeable wager on Oliver and Petracca lining up in round one next year? Barring unforeseen injury there is a greater likelihood of that happening than the sun coming up in the morning!

Actually think this is a good idea to quieten some of the chicken littles. I'm backing Oliver and Petracca to play at Melbourne next year, I'll even give odds if anyones wants to back against it. 

Reminds me of the Melks/May shenanigans, lots were fearing the worst, but clearly the club and players moved past it.

[FreedFromDesire 573]

9 hours ago, H_T said:

Gee, you read like something Tom Morris would write. 

Many players play with niggles including sore ribs, a bung hand/finger and PCL's. Including blue chip footballers.

Absolutely, and as the season goes on you expect the general soreness to grow. However I believe in the last 3 years we've fallen on the wrong side of the ledger in managing those things. We don't rest or manage players, we play players who are clearly more injured than what should be acceptable, and we bring back injured players seemingly way too early when they're one of those 'best 23' types.

Just my opinion, but I believe that's what ended up costing us in the 2022 and 2023 finals, and also hampered our preparation and then performance in-season this year.

There's always a balance to playing sore players. I just don't think we've got it right.

Not sure why the backhander is necessary. I understand that it's been a tough week for us all, but as a new member I didn't really expect to cop those kinds of things.