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On a more serious note - the rumour was that other clubs were interested in him… Hardly the kind of ego-breaking news that would come from the Disloyal Despots of Demonland (c). Also, the club pays the players and this is a business that they treat as such - it means more to us of course but don’t imbue too much - you will only get disappointed.

Ollie fan I take it?

Geelong and Hawthorn winning finals… Christians! What does this tell you?! There is no god.

Kate will be someone with the drought breaking flag next to her name and the first women’s flag for the club. Hard to go past that for a defining figure in the club in modern times. Moving on at the right time too, also a virtue. Without being accused of ‘signalling’ or playing with identities (for shame) - it’s also that much harder for a woman in this landscape and she navigated well. Mistakes were made, as they always are, but she bows out with grace and a decade of service to the club.

Who will review the reviews? Coastguard? Honestly, internal reviews are a matter of course, announcing it is like announcing that you shave in the morning. The pressure will build and we will be bringing in a couple of former footy greats from other clubs and Deloitte or a smaller firm to do an external review.

If this was reversed I would say ‘bad luck with that, we will get you a pick in the late thirties.’ But that is just me

Because the picks would be better

We will be paying I reckon maybe a third of his wage if he moves…

We will be eating salary for half a decade all over the shop.

Save for the fact that our best player was actively trying to leave the club, yes it could have been handled by the club… Some of you are twisted around like pretzels right now; just straighten up and give in to the facts. We have a bit of a work to do across the admin, FD, and playing group to get back to where we were.

I don’t have to name names - our best player did an actual ‘ruction’ in trying to leave and implicated the ‘names’ as having dropped standards and professionalism. This is such a silly argument - we are going to have an external review, possibly a new President, probably two new line coaches, and whatever recommendations come from this review that some of you have convinced yourselves will find little that the playing group can do better in both their professional preparation and behaviour… Ahh, might want to look behind who before you backtrack too quickly.

Steven King? Jeez, that’s a real kick in the teeth! - Jeff White

Seriously? Without getting into incidents that would get this post deleted - there has been players behaving an ill manner. That is either quietly condoned or not adequately dealt with, but the ultimate evidence is that of our champion player, our only Norm Smith medallist, so disappointed in our dropping standards and professionalism that he made a right pickle of himself to escape This Club Of Great Leaders (c). I don’t want to say these things… I don’t know what to say…we have some things to fix, and some home truths to sacrifice ourselves to.

And while those 46 hours of leadership are important, they are not formative, only performative. The evidence of recent experiences does not suggest the off-field leadership of our on-field leaders is very strong.

This admin has won more championships than Sam Presti… Those moves would ruin the club fabric and guarantee nothing. Football is not like bball, especially NBA; you get the right one person or two people and you can be in the top tier of the NBA. Not the same in footy. At all.

There is fault on all sides and the media only flavours it. The mental gymnastics on here to absolve the club or to pin it on the media or his advisors is ridiculous . Some of you look like sheep walking on its hind legs.

She was very circumspect about it all but did agree that a review should be done as ’its been 2 years now’ and also said that the club seems overly defensive with reference to its culture and that ‘owning up to things’ is a sign of a good culture.

If we are doing hypothetical counter-factuals - how about this; he leaves as one of the top 5 players in the game and wins a flag for some other club…

Footy teams are very forgiving and malleable for their own. I think you are projecting that damage. Some fans will not get over the injustice of a player’s seeming recalcitrance or disloyalty or ambivalence to appearance keeping. Ah well, I am a forgiver and I will enjoy watching him run around in the red and the blue.

Is this something Ted Lasso would say?

The answer isn’t less access to the media - it’s engaging in the right way. And the leaking that pits club against player (and the reverse from his agents) is obviously happening - regardless about what you think about the embellishment of Morris and Purple.

Squaring that circle…

‘The media started it’ How are people squaring that circle after all that has come out and that guarded and stilted press release? Just surrender yourself to the truth; we got some issues to deal with.

Some nuanced responses, some (ahem) less nuanced - but I appreciate the gravity. I think @JJJ hits the nail pretty close to the head on the type of leader that Max is and how that can be great in some areas (player comfort, self-actualisation, young players allowed to be themselves, etc) and lacking in the areas that a hard arsed, zero compromising leader would be. I suppose I would want some home truths for Max if nothing else - if we are to do a review it should include the playing group and the leadership in the locker room. And of course that would include Jack, Jake, Steven, and Christian. Just a final thought - Max is likened to the great Jimmy Stynes in leadership and values; he even seems to model and imbue it. Stynes was never captain and had some very strong leaders - in personality and style to partner with. One can take that multiple ways and they are probably both right.