Ollie fan

This is a great post

Mitchell is a good coach but now that people are noticing Hawthorn, they will get figured out very quickly. Longmire is a great coach - but let's see how Sydney goes now that they have a few injuries. I suspect they will provide clear proof of why we went out in straight sets last year: injuries will kill any club. In fact, to loss the two finals by less than a goal each, one to the eventual premier, was actually a real feather in Goody's cap. Fagan has an unbelievable list, a huge home ground advantage, and still hasn't won a premiership. Longmuir has a great great midfield but is still unproven. Bevo also has a great list which is doing well now, but let's wait and see. We have been two players down from our first 22 since before the season started. That not only is a big loss, but it limits our depth, and our capacity to manage players. Clarry is still at 50% at best. We have now lost our best player for the remainder of the season. The fact that we got within a goal of Brisbane up there, and two points from flag fancy GWS, is another tribute to how Goody gets the absolute best out of what he has. As for tactics: he changed the way the whole league plays with his whole-team defence and his use of wingers and high half-forwards. Last year there was a huge chorus of people saying out success was all due to Yze. Sure, he was handed a disaster, but has he really shown that he was the brains behind our success? Lose Goody at our peril.

It's been clear for weeks that our season is shot. Losing Trac was a step too far. I don't blame Goody at all. I know everyone is going to be calling for his head but he has not had enough good players -simple. No Gus, Smith out, Trac gone now, Oliver at 50%, Petty well below par following his foot injury, Brown has gone on too long..... what Goody HAS done is bring in new players, and that sets us up for a real crack next year. Yes, get the surgeries done now.

If you rotated ruckmen from the bench, you are immediately playing with half a man down as the general rotations require all four bench sports to be rotated. Not to mention that both men play best when they are on the field for long periods. Blind Freddy would realise that. You couldn't have both Jordon and Bedford as taggers - you need to have creative players; yes, have a tagger but you should only have one. So keeping them both is not realistic. Maybe this year we could have used one or other of them as a tagger but last year, it wasn't necessary or appropriate - don't forget (well, Cranky, you will forget, or perhaps you will use this as another opportunity to bag anyone and everyone) that until we lost 90% of our forward line due to injury, we were a top four team that even after losing those players, lost two finals by less than a goal each, including to the eventual premier. There was no scope or reason to play either of them as a tagger given the success we were having. That is why they weren't played and looked for opportunity elsewhere. But perhaps Goody should have realised that we would lose one player for ever and one player due to off-field misbehaviour; that Clarry would for many reasons including a severe hand injury be far less effective than usual and that Trac would suffer life-threatening injuries. How he didn't foresee all that is beyond me and deserving of severe criticism. (I know you are not smart enough to realise it so I'll spell it out for you: the last sentence was IRONY).

I think that's right. Really, our season is shot. We were in trouble from when our list was reduced by two players without replacement before the season even began, and by losing Trac - an absolute key - from mid season. Syndesmosis can be nasty. Let's get him - and the rest of the team - right for next year.

Arguing your case!!!! Arguing your case!!!!???? We have asked you several times to tell us what we should have done, not just what you think we did wrong. You consistently dodged that question. Don't talk about "arguing your case"!! And as for your personal shots about people like me being happy with these "dud trades": I am VERY happy that after decades of supporting - yes, Cranky, supporting not carping - I have of recent years been able to go to the games - yes, I do go - and almost always see a competitive and committed team with a good chance of winning. I am VERY happy about that.

Precisely. But Demonsterative, he won't. It's easier to just criticise.

Great. Completely ignoring my request that you actually suggest what we should have done, but just returning to your absolutely mindless c..p bagging everyone in sight. Well done.

If you really think that we have had the money and contract availability to attract a topline trade, tell us the facts and figures. Instead of this CONSTANT carping. Where in your posts is there one line of SUPPORT for the club, or its staff, or its players. You are a classic example of, with friends like this, who needs enemies. One problem the club does have is that we don't have a lot of contract space because the coaches - who you also consistently revile - manage to get our good players to commit to the club long-term. I can't imagine why, given that our coaches, like our staff and our players, are no good (according to you).

Hear hear

My comment was directed at your constant carping, this time in a totally unrelated thread. However: would Meek have been happy to come to Casey? (Because that is all we can promise a backup ruckman). Ginnivan apparently played a great game last week but in general terms I don't see him replacing either Kossie (who is far more brilliant) or Chandler (who is far more disciplined in the role he plays). I certainly can't comment on what we had to offer ANY potential trade player in terms of money, contract length, an almost guaranteed place in the team etc etc etc

You can't help yourself, can you; you must complain - this time, in a thread about Jason Taylor's recruiting in 2021 you talk about Tim Lamb's trades in various years.

That's wasn't my point. You said they should be dropped as a" wake up call " - which can only be for not trying.

There are so many things wrong with this that it's hard to know where to begin. I'll take just one: that when Jackson left, Rivers should have become a mid. Who would he have replaced? (This was at the start of 2023, remember). Gus, Trac, Clarry, or Jack? A "wake up call" - the implication is that the players you mention weren't trying. Do you even watch the games? Of course, on Demonland it was a proven scientific fact that Petty wasn't trying because he was waiting and determined to go to Adelaide.....er..... well...... It just might have been that after a very serious foot injury, of the type that takes about 2 years before the player regains full confidence, he was struggling... Actually, why do I bother?

EVERY team has bad losses. Look at Sydney today. We do too, for many reasons. The fact that we have been competitive, especially against GWS today, in the circumstances we are in (Gus and Trac out, Gawn limited, Clarry still not at his best) shows our character and ability.

It looked to me like it was (unfortunately) a perfect tap from their ruck to Green which nobody could have defended. Oliver was in position to break away himself if Max had won the tap.

Is this a joke? Irony?

Binman, this is a ridiculous post. You assume logic, intelligence and self-awareness on the part of Dland posters. Are you crazy?

Which is a 9.77sec 100m if he sustained it (but I'm not saying he could sustain it!)

Hawthorn's defence is worse than ours - look at points against. Yes, they are playing better than us but they have not lost their two top players. Go back a couple of weeks to our narrow loss v Brisbane - compare that to anything Hawthorn has done. Your comment about Lever is a joke, I take it. It can't be a serious comment. Yes, I know he was terrible last week but that is one game.

That's as may be. The excuse "it happens anyway... it is a fact of life" is no reason for anyone to actually do it. It is a bulldust line.

I would loooooove that

You really are cranky, aren't you? - and that is putting it as kindly as I can. You say $200k as if it is a fortune. It isn't. They have to live their entire lives around football, in their diet, activities, social life, everything. There is often charitable work involved. They go on to the football field and literally risk their lives - ask Trac. They get baked from pillar to post and it is a rare player who doesn't have a"niggle" ie constant minor pain. Which in turn becomes a wrecked knee/shoulder/whatever in later life. Their sporting life is limited to usually no more than a decade. $200k is reasonable pay but not generous. And no, it is NOT right that there should be such vitriol.

Exactly. It is really good player development to let him have a brief taste of top level football so he knows what it is like and what is required.

The problem with Montagna is, noone has any idea whether he can manage a coaching team, inspire players, maintain team cohesion, etc. - there is s great deal more to coaching than just tactics. And this is true of all the others, who have only ever been assistants. We KNOW that Goody can formulate an overall strategy, and can get and keep the loyalty of his players.