Red But Mostly Blue

I'm not sure Demonland can have it both ways. Can't pin our 'bad culture'/poor performance this year on him, then deny his role in our recent success/'21 flag If both are true, to an extent, then we owe him thanks for helping return the Dees to some relevance and success. Nothing lasts forever. CEO is a hard gig. Lots of pressure and the pitchforks come out quick. Thanks for your contributions, Gary.

CEOs.... tricky prospect. If you happen to be at the top when you're winning, you get praise - even though it's arguable you didn't do much to achieve on-field success. That's on the players, coaches and fitness staff. Pert was a part of our flag in 21. How much depends on how much you think CEOs actually do in this space. If he's responsible for culture, then he was as much part of the overall culture that led to that flag, as he is to where the culture is today - again, depending on how much is true, and what you believe. There has been tangible progress for our home base, financials are good, membership is good, so there's that. And that certainly falls within the CEO ambit. Anyhoo, all that to say, we've now lost our Pres and CEO after a tough year, and that can't be a coincidence. Heaps of clubs go through lean patches and do not have change at that level because it's easier to point the finger at the coach. It's clear there is a view that there must be change. Perhaps the review was revealing that. Hopefully we trade up and bring in someone excellent who will achieve the things we have identified need addressing.

Yes, with respect to the other stuff. But given the microscopic level scrutiny we have received with everything, I hope this is bundled together with the other issues.

All the best, Tommo. Always tried hard, and had some really good games. Occasionally unfairly blamed when in truth he was not alone. Bit of a sliding doors guy. He was there in 2021 when we were flying high, and did his ACL. Up to then he was playing really well, and may very well have become a premiership player - and perhaps not in this position. Obviously hard to imagine our premiership team any different to the one we fielded, but you never know. There would not have been cause to drop him if he continued playing well, and we were winning - which we were. Anyway, he copped a bad injury, probably given slightly misleading assurances regarding being a required player. I think he still has some good footy for a team in need of someone like him. Go well, Tommo! Thanks for your time in the red and blue.

This is a really frustrating outcome. We had a need for Wade - who hasn't played a senior game yet, and wanted to come home to his family. We correctly let ANB (as a required player and within contract) go. GWS held onto Wade for no valid reason. Probably speaks more to their culture than ours - wonder if that will be examined.

I think we have enough forward firepower next year. It's actually a pretty dynamic and dangerous lineup. JVR has developed nicely, and one of my frustrations was having him rucking so much. Useful, but not as useful as him continuing to develop his forward craft. We have brought in extra ruck assistance for Max, which may free up JVR. Disco had a good year and a mostly clear run with injuries, which has helped. He will continue to develop next year. He's just a kid, who's been converted from the backline. He's a great kick and gets into some good spots. With some mentorship and another year, again, he will be useful, Add to that Fritta, Melk (both elite kicks and smart players), Kozzie, Chandler and Trac floating in alongside Max, to get a chopout from ruck, I think that looks pretty good. The issue was the midfield and delivery. We were owned in the midfield most of the year, and still have not mastered the art of lowering the eyes and spearing passes to guys like Melk, Fritta, JVR and Disco who are pretty good at making space. They can't kick many goals if they aren't getting delivery. We need to keep working on midfield, delivery and playing smart.

Well, that was certainly refreshing. I’ll take some good media, thank you very much. I think there are more positives than this, how young the team is, Viney having a bigger year etc. The reference to Clarry may have an asterisk depending on whether you believe what’s still being said. Who knows, but if he is playing for us next year I’m sure it’ll be a huge year. I think we’ll have a good year, we just need to be smart about some trades/recruits and off field stuff

Not a bad approach! haha might be a good way to condense a lot of nonsense into 2-3 minutes of things that actually happened, rather than days of conjecture and hyperbole.

Never said he was squeaky clean. Other clubs have similar 'issues' and yet don't have to go through this!! Therein lies my issue. If Clarry/Trac had issues, fine, but we could have internalised them better to protect OUR brand and ability to obtain fair compensation should we trade either of them.

100% ??? How do you know that?? And we don't know whether Clarry has gone "off the rails"? That's a rumour I wouldn't be pushing... It could be he has had some missteps (as originally reported, at the Brownlow/doc appointments), who knows? We don't know the magnitude and we still don't know who is actually pushing it. What I do know is that the trade talk has seemed at odds with Clarry's very recent comments in this space. So the leaks, and the way we have "shopped" him has been very poor. Whether he deserves to be traded or not (and I agree, club comes first), you look after the club and ensure we get the best return possible - which WILL NOT happen in this case. With Trac, it would appear some was driven by branding/diva attitude, but again, how to tell? We had so many mixed messages from the club. Seems he had some issues with the club - which given how things have gone/are going, maybe deserved to be heard? Probably should have been aired out better, but it doesn't mean he was wrong.

For sure. Don't get me wrong though, I am more lamenting the situation of (potentially) losing Clarry. Despite Brad's assurances. And 100% - while I think we have handled both cases very poorly (with Clarry, some of our acts have contributed to us having zero bargaining power), I do not absolve Trac or Clarry of blame. Both have contributed to the situation, and ultimately our inability to bring in important trades. Not everything is true, but some of it certainly is. and ultimately, I just want this all to settle down and have a normal, maybe even 'boring', uneventful offseason where everyone just puts their heads down, to focus on a flag in 2025. Or at the very least building back some trust, consistency and momentum towards success, on and off the field.

This is relentless. Exhausting. Disheartening. MFC: Just tell us what we're going to do and be done with it. If we're going to give one of our greatest ever players the old heave ho, for nothing, for reasons unknown because the comms team is a mess/messages are mixed/bins are on fire everywhere - then whatever. Just do it. Clarry is my favourite player and I'll be gutted if it goes, but I am tired of all this that I almost don't care anymore. And the opinion of us long-term members doesn't seem to matter. They don't listen. It's their job to run the footy club. But in my humble opinion, things are not being run well, and there is plenty of proof. Trac and Clarry debacles are recent examples. It's like the plane has been going down for a while now, we've had the oxygen, but now we know nothing's going to change so I'm just going to stare out the window until it's done. What a sh*t show.

Clarry is going to build upon his health and happiness with a HUGE preseason to start next year FIT and FURIOUS. He'll take this holistic wellbeing to bring out the midfield beast we all know and love in 2025 destroying oppo everywhere, and likely claiming, another, Bluey, AA and AFLCA. He is not going anywhere except for the gym and a few rounds of golf with the lads. You can take that to the bank.

Exactly right. I think people have already forgotten that we have very little depth. Our #2s finished 17th and can't really say anybody there was banging down the door on a regular basis to perform better than Clarry. While Clarry was certainly not fit, I think his performances were judged against his prior years - which is obviously a crazy high bar.

We just don't know this, though. We don't know ALL the facts, and likely won't. What if it isn't as easy as that? What if it is Pert acting alone? And we just hand over one of the best players we have EVER had, and we only find out later it was a colossal stuff up? We can't reverse trades. It wouldn't be the first time a club, or even our club, has done something stupid. As with almost everything, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. Clarry has not been perfect, but seems to be trying, as attested to by all at the club throughout the year, but maybe he's offsided someone and this is personal. What I am saying (aside from my personal preference to keep him, giving him the benefit of the doubt - as I have seen him improve this year and looks happy and healthy - something to work with in the offseason) is that if we were to trade him, it should not have been done like this, because the poor way the club handles this will give us ZERO for him - we may as well keep him and see what we can do. By all accounts he does not want to leave. We can (in my opinion) deal with him and his 'issues' professionally, as other clubs seem to do without trashing their stars and reputation. Group the boys together, reset and commit together. No player is above the club. Agree. And we DO have to fix and improve our culture. But given we don't know everything about what has happened, it doesn't mean we just throw Clarry to the curb, for nothing, assuming it will fix things.