Standard Deviation

He lied to a respected member of this forum, and dragged this out to join a team where he has less opportunities. I hope he ends up trundling round the WAFL over there.

Yeah, fair enough. I'm choosing to see the silver lining in that if they manage to go round a third time through further academy/free agent additions then I'll at least I won't be on my own in disliking them so much.

I don't know about this narrative, it makes it sound like Brisbane are battlers against the odds. They've had extraordinary good luck with father/sons coupled with an Academy that really does give them something of a leg up. It's hard to go back to back, and it's impressive they've done it (even though, as I've been clear in other posts about, I absolutely hate them). But let's not start getting rosy about it, they're no underdog.

Dayne Zorko now has two premiership medals. If anyone ever tells me the world is a fair place that rewards the good, this will be my response.

I definitely want him to sign, but this feels like it's going uncomfortably long. End of the season passed. New coach was hired. It sounds like there hasn't been a huge offer from another club to weigh up. What is the trigger for this to happen? I really hope it's not midfield minutes that's the sticking point, I like McVee as a player and I want to believe he's happy to play where the coach thinks he works best.

The forward line of this team is a beautiful thing, love watching it in action. Also I used to get frustrated with Paxy's decision making, but this season she's been excellent - if anything she's too unselfish going inside fifty. Impressed with Taylor's game today too. Overall a lot to like, we're definitely amongst the best but North are the pace setters here and the path to the premiership is going to be through them.

Collingwood being gone makes me extremely happy, but I don't think I could ever say I love a team Dayne Zorko plays for, I'd be too busy dry heaving. I'm a simple man at heart - Demons first, every other team last.

I swear I'm the odd one out here, but while I'm glad to be rid of the Pies I have zero love or affinity for the [censored] Lions. The fans I've met of theirs are toxic wankers, they've got ridiculous draft concessions from their academy, and they're coming off a premiership to another top 5 draft pick. A pox on all their [censored] houses.

Saints beat Adelaide week one, and we just torched them. Too early to be sure if Adelaide has gone to water, but looking real good for us nonetheless.

On a less emotional note, we seemed unable to adjust once they started kicking straight up the middle. I'd kill for coaches and onfield leadership that can make the adjustment to stop something like this, they kept it going for long enough to overtake out margin, then they tweaked it to be a bit more defensive. We needed to force them wide and slow them down, and couldn't. This is pretty much what I want most from the incoming coach - teaching the team, or building a team, that can adapt.

I am sick of losing to these [censored] pieces of [censored]. I thought I didn't care at this point with the season gone, but losing this after being in a winning position has infuriated me. I genuinely hate them.

Demonland presents Schrodinger's coach : the veteran coach who is obviously still hungry for glory while at the same time will promptly decline any coaching position he has to go through a standard process for. I don't mind the club sounding out potentials, but in recent times clubs courting coaches (Lyon, Clarkson) hasn't led to success. I don't believe Buckley is the man, but if he is then he should go through the same process as an assistant at another club who is hungry, if only to prove that he wants the job and has the new ideas needed - it's easy to point out the flaws from the outside, 2/3rd of this forum can see what's going wrong with the team, doesn't mean he can fix them. If the club runs a proper process and Bucks is the choice, then I'll be much more confident in him than I am now. I've still yet to see the logic as to why we need a veteran coach though, in recent years the path to success has been through former assistants with new ideas. Someone further up the chain here made the comment there's a few posters regretting wanting Goodwin gone with some of the alternatives being offered, even if we end up with Buckley I'm not going to be one of those. My impression of the team's direction was we'd continue to bob around between 9th and 14th for a few years before retirements had the wheels come off, bleeding supporters as we did so. I'd rather take the risk of blowing it up quickly and starting again than just watch us slowly decline.

I'm genuinely surprised by the amount of support for Buckley 2.0 here. I don't have an insight into the inner sanctum of the club, but if there have been cultural issues Buckley's record at Collingwood doesn't suggest to me he's the best choice. I'd prefer the club to steer clear of veteran coaches here, the game evolves and none of the clubs which have got a second time coach in recent times have moved the needle much on performance. We're paying out Goodwin so the price tag of a former senior coach is also going to come at the expense of other aspects of the football program.

For me a coach/CEO/player leaving or being sacked doesn't impact me as negatively as an ugly loss does. The club is bigger than any given individual, whether supporter or personnel, but a loss like the Saints one hurts the club. It feeds a media narrative about the club, it gives ammunition to other supporters and if you're as invested as we on Demonland are it stings at a personal level. I haven't agreed with every coach sacking we've made or player we've traded out (or even in sometimes) but I don't remember them with the same pain as some of the losses, and I've never felt happy with a dismissal in the way I feel happy about even the most lacklustre of wins (except maybe one dire game against the Lions almost a decade ago at the MCG which I hope noone else remembers). In the end, we aren't performing well, it doesn't feel like we're improving and the coach has ultimate responsibility for that for mine. Players seemed to love Goodwin, but that wasn't translating into success anymore so hopefully whoever the next coach is finds the missing pieces for us.

You're not going to hear me try and argue that the players aren't part of the problem, but this is Goodwin's team. He's been in the box seat for long enough that the lack of leadership is on him - we just made history in the worst of ways. Maybe Goodwin's wildly unlucky and has inherited/recruited the footballers with the worst leadership in AFL history to ever grace the field, but I reckon it's more likely the leadership failings come down to the coaching box. We're bottom four with what was once a decent list, coach must be accountable for that.