hemingway

No it’s not, he’s a footballer. Footballers and immature and bad behaviour go hand in hand. Familiar bedfellows.

Fair enough. It’s about what he will add to the team. One for all and all for one. It’s all about The Team.

Great response. Your positivity is infectious. I hope your predictions are right but I have been to this place so often. Top 8 yes, but beyond that I’m not so sure.

Key questions. 1) will he fit into our forward structure ? 2) will he remain fit? And avoid further knee trouble. We need a settled team line-up with a game plan that does not revolve around Brown. Success will require a multi-pronged attack.

A creed is a statement that has an aspirational quality. A game plan is a plan for winning, an implementational strategy. Putting into place individual and team tactics to maximise performance and nullify your opponents. Much prefer the word “tactics” to game plan.

High performing organisations may have creeds, mission statements, and any number of motherhood statements. However they are not top organisations because of such statements. They are organisations that have appointed talented people and developed that talent. They recruit people that can grow into leaders of the organisation. As a result, they attract the best because everyone wants to be part of the organisation. It’s history and culture of success becomes a way of being and individually and collectively people are driven to work hard and perform at a high level. People are ingrained with this philosophy and way of working. Working as a team is a natural organic thing. There is innate talent/skills and this talent is nurtured and developed. There is mutual respect between team members and these individuals assist one another to achieve their goals. Norm Smith Esprit de Corps as commented on by Lucifer is an effective explanation of success. It’s as good as anything. Slogans will always be used in organisations but it comes about as a result of the people you hire, train, coach, and, the people you place in leadership positions. Then success becomes innate to the organisation and follows almost naturally.

Sadly, he was an absolute liability at Full Back. Every time he went for the ball, supporters had their heart in their mouths. Good physique but no intensity or footy brains. Used to call him Rollo.

First level Public seating in the old Olympic (northern) Stand. I did not see my father much during the week but he always took me to the footy with his footballing mates. They were otherwise unconnected and all worked in different occupations. But they loved meeting at the footy. With a thermos of red Ned and also a thermos of coffee topped up with brandy to wash down the rock cakes. I remember the smell of the brandy always turned heads. When not at the MCG which always seemed luxurious, it was standing on beer tins in the outer at the suburban grounds. What a cultural experience! Drunkenness , fights and abuse from home ground fans. I first heard and learnt swear words and I think I heard the F word for the first time at Victoria Park. But being a young boy surrounded by my Dads footy mates, I felt safe and I felt like an adult. My whole week was thinking about the game on Saturday. By the time Saturday band around my excitement was palpable. Back to the MCG, the Smokers Stand seemed distant and not a place to aspire to. Stuck up, snobbish and rule bound. I remember one match when I was invited into the Ladies Stand/ Grey Smith Stand, with my view obscured by a post, surrounded by ladies with their blankets, the wives of the Smokers. I felt completely out of place and hated it. I could not wait to return to the Northern Stand with my fathers mates.

Billy’s drop kicks on the run were something else.

Bernie Massey’s drop kicks were also prodigious kicking out as Full Back.

As mentioned there were some great exponents of the drop kick but much fewer with the stab. Very few players tried the stab pass. Billy Goggin was a great stab kick. There were a few great Demons who never drop kicked. Brian Roet, Brian Dixon, Geoff Tunbridge, Graeme Wise, Terry Gleeson and Bob Johnson to name a few

Emphasis on the word moderate rather than old bugger pineapple. Moderately aged gent, seasoned supporter, well aged supporter. Senior supporter, long-time supporter. But I give you credit for your diplomacy. As you get older feelings become important. Because you still feel young but notice the furniture is sagging and bits start to fall off or stop working. That’s why some of us are greeting desperate as we watch the sands of time passing. No more rebuilds, false dawns, just win a bloody flag and give us back our pride. NOW

Just looked at Wikipedia and Roy Park was a pretty incredible guy. As a teenager, I remember hearing a number of old guys of the day say that he was the greatest schoolboy footballer and cricketer they had ever seen. Served in WW1 and played for Uni, Dees and North. A little guy at 5ft 5 he kicked lots of goals but retired after being suspended for 4 weeks for hitting a player. He maintained he did not commit the offence and was outraged by the suspension. Clearly a man of principle. His Test career was one test and a first ball duck. His wife dropped her knitting and missed his entire Test career. Served as an administrator and his son in law was ex Test cricketer and Sec of the MCC, Ian Johnson. His entry in Wikipedia is worth a read for history buffs.

I knew you would reason OD.

In his era, a famous Melbourne boy, great cricketer, handy footballer, Doctor. Played sport in in the early part of last century. Attended Wesley College and Melb Uni. A renaissance man. Played test cricket (one test?) and VFL footballer (Uni?).

You have sold out OD. Very disappointed. Not like you. You have to keep some things sacred to stop the slow and invidious creep of commercialism and the second rate TV and media folk, advertisers and the AFL fat cats who will sell their mother down the road for a few dollars. Increasingly, we have to choose our line in the sand to say no to the infidels. Those who are happy to trade away traditions for marketing reasons and money. OD, I know somewhere within your being is decency and your football soul. It’s there, just need to give it a shake and not lay down and be raped by the entertainers and money sharks.

I am becoming a sentimental old fool, but I like the numbers and think they are so much part of the history and culture of the game. Think Flower and Barassi and you think and visualise number 2 & 31. They are mutually inclusive. I think at one stage a few years ago there was a suggestion that the Commissariat was thinking of ditching the numbers and just use surnames ( no doubt also freeing up space for more advertising). If they ever did enact such an edict, it would really be time for a people’s revolution.

Agree, the Club showed considerable patience and faith in Oscar, however, there was little improvement to warrant retaining him on the list. He was never going to be a key position player or a pacy flanker. And he was too easily exploited by his opponents. Having said that I hope he gets picked up and has the opportunity to prove people wrong.

It would be nice to see Kobe make it. The father-son thing is always full of sentiment and even romance. The surname provides a sentimental connection to player and club. Ablett, Viney, Daicos, Rioli, Daniher, the list goes on and on. And now Farmer. However, it is unrealistic to think that Kobe will be another Wiz who had freakish skills and ball sense. The list of father - son connections to a club is a long one. The Demons have had lots of them and generally the son has been a disappointment I hope that the Club has done its homework and think that he has the capacity to be an AFL player and not been influenced by his surname. Hopefully, the club has taken a thoroughly professional and objective view of its invitation to train. We now have a number of pacy smalls that seem to fill our need for this type of player. I don’t really see where Kobe would fit in and it would be surprising to see him jump ahead of our current crop of small pacy types. Let’s hope the club sees development opportunities that others don’t.

From memory his knee did not help and he was slow on the ground, lacking agility. But a good overhead mark and great kick. One of the longest I have ever seen kicking for goal. Incredible follow through.

I wonder if one day we can have a discussion or debate without references to how hopeless, fragile, weak, pathetic our club was or still is. By the way, great work Dieter. It’s amazing how our memories and opinions are not always backed up by the Stats. Truth and our so called facts are clouded by our own memories and filters. My memory is that Darren Bennett was an inconsistent and problematic player. He did not seem to suit the team structure or the team structure did not suit him. But blow me down, he kicked 87 goals in a season. Amazing.

Agree. We have the mix but do we or can we develop The Team ? The Tigers are the best example in recent years. They have this tangible quality that is displayed on the field but also an intangible quality that somehow exists in the ether. The players, coaches and officials (Gale) seem to reflect it. The end result is that they have a bunch of super talented individuals, but together, they play as a great team. Dusty is an example of individual brilliance but first and foremost he is a team player. Cochin another. Great leadership, great culture, great team.

Maybe fake news Chook if it came from Fox.

Agree OD. Talk about Premiership Windows is a load of cods. Just another device to talk about nothing. Like predicting the share market. Just guesswork and opinion. I cant remember talk about premiership windows when the Dogs or Tigers got up. They won enough games to get into the finals and when they did they had opportunity, luck, were injury free and played great footy, like we did for two finals matches in 2018. You can retroactively go back and place teams in PW to fit the narrative but for a predictor for the future it seems very dodgy. Just go out there and consistently win games and become a successful club. Please! Time is running out for many.

Take your word for it, but Charles seemed much taller than 175