10 minutes ago, Viscount Cardwell said:

what a waste of the last 2 pages !

So true, My Lord.

I used to pride myself on my pedantry but I now realise that I am a mere beginner.

19 minutes ago, monoccular said:

So true, My Lord.

I used to pride myself on my pedantry but I now realise that I am a mere beginner.

Now that us a great Meme!!!

2 hours ago, Gator said:

Onley is from Shepparton.

Thats annoyment... lol

Spot on.. there's definitely a good representation of Gippy lads... and McLennan too. ( so too apparently some bloke at the Suns 🙄🙄🤔)

But you're absolutely correct.

18 hours ago, Where Demons Dare said:

Skills weren't great to be honest today. But it's a new game plan and everyone is still figuring each other out with the massive turnover of staff and players this off season. Our composure will improve in the coming weeks. Even Kingy is absorbing a lot as head coach, I expected him to be more demonstrative and loud, barking instructions but he was quite tame.

Must say this is my one worry for next season. A fast transition gameplan depends on kicks hitting their targets if they don't the turnovers will kill you. Goody started the transition gameplan over the past two preseasons but the turnovers killed us until he gave up on it mid season 2024 and suffered through it this season where it started to show signs of getting better. Hopefully with a couple of the chief culprits out of the team and a few new skilled players in we will be pleasantly surprised next season but if they don't fix missing targets I fear it will be another grim year.

23 minutes ago, Its Time Again said:

Must say this is my one worry for next season. A fast transition gameplan depends on kicks hitting their targets if they don't the turnovers will kill you. Goody started the transition gameplan over the past two preseasons but the turnovers killed us until he gave up on it mid season 2024 and suffered through it this season where it started to show signs of getting better. Hopefully with a couple of the chief culprits out of the team and a few new skilled players in we will be pleasantly surprised next season but if they don't fix missing targets I fear it will be another grim year.

The boys had also done an epic 6km run followed by a hike up Mt. Buffalo the day before... so they can be forgiven if their skills weren't elite at training the following day. We have to remember they're doing a lot of physically demanding tasks outside of main training to help them become more resilient and use teamwork to achieve results. Gotta love team building, it's the quickest way to bring everyone together.

2 hours ago, monoccular said:

So true, My Lord.

I used to pride myself on my pedantry but I now realise that I am a mere beginner.

One does not simply misuse the Boromir meme. It is folly.

Now that’s pedantry!

3 hours ago, Viscount Cardwell said:

what a waste of the last 2 pages !

He is the count after all

4 hours ago, Its Time Again said:

Hopefully with a couple of the chief culprits out of the team and a few new skilled players in we will be pleasantly surprised next season but if they don't fix missing targets I fear it will be another grim year.

Suspect it will take longer than a year. Though with the emphasis on rebuilding around younger players, I personally think we're looking at 5 or 6 years before we're seriously contending again.

Personally, I loved the conversation about language development and the word "learnings". Disappointed that in the course of varied correspondence, no one opined about the Lacan and the limits of language! Guess it is almost the holiday...

I'm sure I'm not the Onley one...!

Edited Friday at 11:261 day by DeelightfulPlay
Pun

1 hour ago, bing181 said:

Suspect it will take longer than a year. Though with the emphasis on rebuilding around younger players, I personally think we're looking at 5 or 6 years before we're seriously contending again.

I'm hoping that the work Goody put in on the transition game isn't wasted and they will pick it up quicker than if that work had never been done. Of course there will be differences but fingers crossed. And I'm also hoping that the new players bring greater skills which will help decrease the turnovers already. I'm not even thinking when we'll be contenders again. I'm just hoping for some significant improvements in style of play so at least I can stomach watching them again.

6 hours ago, Its Time Again said:

I'm hoping that the work Goody put in on the transition game isn't wasted and they will pick it up quicker than if that work had never been done.

Sure, but we’ve now got a lot of younger players carrying senior-player responsibilities, or expected to in the near future. Apart from the outliers (Daicos, Ashcroft), most young players take four to five seasons — and pre-seasons — before they really hit their straps and start seriously impacting games. No amount of work on the transition game is going to turn JVR, Kentfield or Jefferson into 50-goal-a-year forwards overnight.

Over the next couple of seasons we’re going to lose (or come close to losing) Max, May, Viney, McDonald, Melksham, and perhaps/probably Lever, plus the new boys Steele and Mihocek. At the moment, there’s no-one even close to filling those shoes.

Still, as always, we live in hope.

21 hours ago, Axis of Bob said:

One of my pet peeves is people complaining about the word 'learnings'.

In a teaching context, a learning is a student-oriented term that refers to the information by its importance to the student, whilst a lesson is a teacher-oriented term that refers to the information based on its delivery. It's a shift in the education from being teacher-oriented to student-oriented, and our language didn't have a good way of making that distinction as it happened. Students are taught a lesson by a teacher but there's no guarantee that this lesson results in learning. The learning comes from the student.

For a coach, the lesson is unimportant in this context. The lesson is a team kicking 8 straight goals against you. The important thing for the players is the learning, which is an improved knowledge on how to make better decisions.

Interesting viewpoint. I hadn't thought of that way, but it makes sense. I've worked in tertiary education for the last 30 years and I've come to realize that there is a distinction between my teaching and the students' learning. I can control my end, but have less control over theirs. But if my role makes no difference, then I might as well give up. If they don't want to learn, well, you can't lead a horse to water. But I don't. Every semester break I try to unpack what didn't work last semester and make it better (not always successfully).

But these are my kids at university who don't even know why they're there half the time. Here we're talking about kids who have worked probably half their lives to get a shot at playing in the AFL. We shouldn't have to worry about their motivation. But as Demonland proves, we do. A lot.

And we can all name players who we think are motivated, and players that coast (rightly or wrongly). But that's why I think development is something we need to be investing much more in (time, money, people). Every year we want our team to get better. New players come in, from the draft and trades, but once they're in our system, it's our job to give them every advantage to succeed. Not that that all will, but once we start writing off players, then we might as well just pay them out.

We will all be Onley fans soon

36 minutes ago, Ugottobekidding said:

We will all be Onley fans soon

The Onley Fans joke count must be rivalling the number of pages in the Luke Jackson departure thread

Got to hand it to JT and team. They really do their research and include all kids even if not in the combine or on other clubs radar

In a shallow year, it seems crazy this guy didn’t get drafted given his attributes. I know it’s easy to say this before he has played a game but I am genuinely excited by this guy

9 hours ago, DeelightfulPlay said:

Personally, I loved the conversation about language development and the word "learnings". Disappointed that in the course of varied correspondence, no one opined about the Lacan and the limits of language! Guess it is almost the holiday...

I'm sure I'm not the Onley one...!

D, are you really surprised that Lacanian concepts were not discussed here?

2 hours ago, Neil Crompton said:

D, are you really surprised that Lacanian concepts were not discussed here?

NC, we had conversations occurring in Latin last week. Is a bit of Critical Theory too far a stretch for the talents of Demonland? 😆

Edited Friday at 23:401 day by DeelightfulPlay