GS_1905

Just on the Cats its hard not to disagree with you, but they had a number of key players and recruits which will be really difficult to replicate moving forward. Dangerfield and Cameron - both are generational players. Smith and Holmes will not even get close to their legacy. Who replaces them in the forward line? S.Neale looks good, but if their 1&2 is Neale and Oliver Henry they will struggle with their game plan. Cameron probably plays for another 1-2 years but he already looks quite proppy with those guitar string hammies. Mitch Duncan 34 will also retire this year and C.Guthrie is always injured. T.Bruhn has question marks on him as well. Even Blicavs and who i failed to mention is an athletic freak - he is generally Scott's joker card in terms of matchups and aerobic capacity and chop out ruck. He maynot be a superstar, but is the ultimate swingman. I do think their downfall is coming in the next 2-3 years. Is it going to be years and years in irrelevance. Probably not, but they will miss finals for consecutive years before the end of this decade. Write it stone. Pies will have one last shot this year. They'll be there again next year, but will not threaten as GCS, Doggies, Lions and Adelaide will enter their prime (and will remain the main challengers for the next 3-4 years).

Pies and Cats will have their day. When Danger / Cameron / Stewart retire over the next 1-2 years they will fall away quite drastically IMO. I know we said this with Selwood & Hawkins Pies will be sooner than you think. The likes of Pendles, Sidebottom, Mihochek, Howe, Moore will not be there in 1-2 years time and no amount of recruitment / trade will be able to cover that amount of experience.

I think the boardroom is also partially to blame. Pert and Roffney did win us a flag, but clearly lacked the leadership and resolve to get us through the turbulence we faced in the last 2-3 years. Maybe nobody in the industry has/had the foresight to navigate that. Whats not really discussed in public is the absolute rotten luck we got with Clarry, Gus and Trac all being dealt really significant blows. Our engine room full of a-graders were bought to its knees. There is really no contingency to prepare you for that. We needed some stability, and the timing of Goody's re-signing came at the worst possible time. The reality is we probably signed him up for 1 year too long. The other aspect to this - again something that Goody takes an absolute bashing for - is our recruitment and development. This was all set in motion with Roosy and PJ. The inside, contested game. Remember we wanted a list that was built for finals football and when the rebuild kicked off back then, it was about contest. Even to this day, contest is a fundamental of all good sides, its what comes post-contest that we lack in. We overinvested in the contest and stoppage. This was further exposed with the retirement of Gus, who was a good outside player and fall from grace of Salem, who was the other weapon off half-back. Just about everything that could go wrong, did. Goody has changed the gameplan - our ball movement is aligned to the modern way but our execution is letting us down. Bottom line is we wont succeed with the list that we have. Im sure everybody within the club is more than aware of this. We have to make some really hard calls (as does Carlton), which will determine how long we are stuck in this rut. Bottom line: Sacking Goody now or next year will not make up for the deficit in our list profile. He will get us playing the right way, but want be able to teach the 'old dogs, new tricks'.

So i think what we all feel is the goals conceded from frees and we top the list on that one. Its not so much the ingame umpiring tbh, but it makes a mark when there is a goal conceded and this statistic pretty much sums up what we have all been seeing of late.

Well if he goes to Geelong, do you think we are getting anything back? I doubt it. At least with JUH, we can reset his contract and at least have a chance of addressing some gaps in our forward line. Now its not like there is an offer on the table or anything, but at least we have a chance of getting something back that may help us.

I just think Clarry has checked out of MFC unfortunately. It marries up with the media reports of the last two seasons, his onfield performance since he did his hammy 2.5 years ago, lack of energy and inconsistent performance. We see snippets of him really trying but its just too infrequent. I get he is dealing with ongoing MH issues and all, but his application is miles off an AFL player and to me that stems back to the environment is working in more than anything. I also notice that a lot of players don't seem to trust him on field and often burn him in a scoring chain / transition - yes he is a butcher and bad user, but i reckon it's also a bit of the unconscious bias of the team as well. I think the whole team is probably expecting him to request a trade as well. i have no doubt they would have picked up on the vibe and attitude from day-to-day. Will he ever get to his best? i don't know but its unlikely. I will go as far as saying it will never happen in whilst he is wearing the red and blue. It'll just be best for part parties if he is moved on. Trac on the other hand looks to be trying a bit more and is a bit more invested. He is really held back by his mental demons, probably fitness and confidence. I think the effectiveness of his role is also impacted by the massive imbalance in the middle with Clarry being the liability he is. We saw what happened when JV was moved back into the middle after quarter time. The club is really in a tight spot with Clarry. We can't move him elsewhere on the field as he is more of a liability there and it will probably be worse for his market value. We cant drop him either because it will impact his market value also. So, we are forced to play him in the middle and really suffer the consequences with his less that optimal performances.

Agree but Essendon is younger than our squad by a fair margin as is probably lacking an inside bull. Would be interesting to see if they pursue him. I think Trac would be swayed given the commercial appeal of Essendon too. Oliver needs to just get away from the big smoke unfortunately.

I agree it makes sense but unfortunately the players have too much power in this situation. It’ll only take one player doing it before it becomes a thing. I think it was reported that Oliver was going to take a pay cut with Geelong - after we got royally screwed of course.

Some of his picks haven’t stacked up at all. But he did get us a lot of good players in ‘19 draft with LJ and Kozzy which if LJ had of stayed would have been unreal. not his fault mommy came a calling. Rivers also from this draft. ‘20 was a pass (just ) with Bowey and Laurie “21 was JVR and Howes. Probably a pass. ‘22 Jeffo, Seatsn and Adam’s. I’d say this was a poor year. ‘23 We should have gone Caddy over Windsor and/or Logan Morris over Kolt or even Frejdah would have been handy to us. So I think his ‘23 draft could have been better. His 24 draft was good in Langford and XL though. So out of the last 6 years he had two great ones in 2019 and 2024. 2020 and 2021 were pass (probably being a little generous). I think 2023 was ok but could have been better. And 2022 was clearly his worst.

He isn’t that good Geezuz. The comp is loosing the plot. Every player is becoming greedy and wanting long term deals.

I think Trac is damaged goods unfortunately. Most clubs would use this to short change us. Bombers and Hawks could both use his talent. They have trade stock as well. But let’s face it it’s a maximum 1 first rounder and not 2. Maybe a 2nd rounder. I’d take it and run if we could get that. Oliver theoretically can get back to his best but who knows what’s going on in that kids mind. Bottom line is we need to get active and move players on whilst they still have value.

There was a cameo on couch, which basically confirmed what we all saw on Saturday in that the first quarter was embarrassing and was the worst performance of any team this year for an opening quarter. Plenty of cameo's of senior leaders jogging to contests. pointing for handover... all the usual lazy stuff we have become used to seeing the last 2 years. I'm pretty much convinced Oliver has parked himself in second gear and keeping himself fresh for the Cats next season. For somebody that was once the ultimate competitor has become lazy and complacent. We'd be lucky to get him off our books for free end-of-year. I was hoping for 1 or maybe 2 first rounders. That ship has long sailed. The longer we hang onto him the longer our rebuild will drag out. The only thing we can hope for is that we have other clubs interested that may be willing to throw us some picks. Essendon will be without Parish and Shiels so they could be a suitor. Saints are without much inside talent but probably need the cash for Milera. Heck i'd be willing to do a straight swap for JUH. Wouldnt be the worst deal for us.

I disagree. You expect one or two moments of sheer brilliance that shows raw talent. Think Langford kicking three snags a few months ago (against Freo?). XL and his handful of stellar performances in the 1st half. With 50-60 games, you tend to see more consistent high performances from game to game and more involvement in game. For Kolt, he played a few games last year and didn't really have any impact. The one game he did ok was when he took two contested marks and in the f50 against Sydney. I think Kolt will eventually settle into one of the High Half forward roles. I just hope he works on his delivery i50. We cannot afford to have another generation of hack kicks into the forwardline.

Typical re: Bergman. This player would have injected some good transition. Although you can’t rule anything out with players these days. Let’s see what happens at the end of the year. But I think it’s safe to say we have joined the ranks of St Kilda and Carlton in that we are not a destination club. There’s a part of me that thinks Goody still thinks he can turn it around with this list.

The fact that we all struggle to agree and align on a choice for mine is such a tell tale sign of so many of the clubs issues. Had we a strong leadership core, much of the onfield issues (lack of effort, players visibly frustrated, poor execution , goal accuracy) would be nowhere as severe. It also shows how out of whack our age profile is with very few 23-28! Range. Gus was easily and by a fair margin the next captain. Would have been one of the best in the competition. Is it possible for Gawn to be an offield captain? Perhaps we can extend his contract to captain from the sidelines?

Perhaps. But $500k to get him off our list may end up being the exact thing we need to do. I have seen enough of Oliver to know he ain’t got what it takes anymore. So if we can get rid of him and say get in Bergman and end up paying $500k of Oliver salary is that not a win?

That’s fair enough. I’d say we need to temper expectations on all those players. They are not likely to be the stars we expected them to be but can still be solid performers. It’s just not easy finding stars of the competition.

Umpires nice to let Nick Daicos know to get out of the 5 m exclusion zone as he ran right though it.

I’m a broken record I know but the umpiring favouritism for the Pies is so blatant .

Im sorry I don’t buy the most taxing game plan stuff. We are 18th for pressure. 18th. We have one of the best injury lists. let that sink in. The whole year it has been a lack of effort and pressure. That is on the players. Now Goody does t get off scot free, but he is not solely responsible. Choco - poor goal kicking , field kicking and player development . Has to go. Richo - does anybody know what he does? Aside from the Trac blunder which is likely the cause of all this disharmony and lack of cohesion onfield. Has to go. Basset - what has he done? Jonesy - our midfield is unidentifiable- pathetic stoppage setup amd patterns. Has to go. Goody - overseeing all this mess, has to go. Reality is we won’t have the. Ash to make this possible. The cap increases may help us get rid of Goody earlier that planned, but the assistants unfortunately we are stuck with until their contracts run out. Hopefully they are more year -year stuff. Ultimately, I reckon we are years away before competing again.

Or maybe they were never that good.

Nathan Jones has to as well. Our midfield and stoppages are pathetic.

Back your bag Goody, we need change. Start the search now and have the coach ready before preseason starts

Make em walk home.

I don’t want to watch Sam Darcy in May. I reckon he’ll kick 10