Go Ds

I've just heard enough criticism of Caro, Underwood, Daisy Pearce, Laura Kane etc to take their criticism with a grain of salt. Things are rarely black or white - someone can be racist without setting houses on fire and someone can be sexist without assaulting women. Some of the criticism levelled at these women is just ridiculous (even if this time it may not be. I don't know. Surely Buckley isn't just obeying the advice of footy commentators so whatever.)

We really don't know whether right now if those teams are better prospects. Besides they are so many ways we could possibly improve next year (even without choosing Buckley) and then surpass your mentioned teams. The other thing is those other teams may not end up losing their coach(es) for a few years and by then Longmire, Simpson ( and maybe Goodwin, Beveridge, Hinkley and an assistant coach whose stocks have risen even further since then) all push ahead of Buckley for best next coach. A bird in the hand .....

Bucks' best chance of success at Tasmania is if he inherits an 'almost' team like Gold Coast with lots of unrealised potential like Hardwicke did. So, yeah, he'll probably be in his 60s by then. Even if that appealed in having that chance in ,say, 2033 a potential 12 years not coaching ( and potentially a few current coaches becoming legends in the meantime now comparing so much more favourably to a now outoftheloop Buckley.) It's still unlikely. But his best chance of success with Tasmania would be by having a successful stint with Melbourne, as one example, and then moving across next decade.

That just sounds like poor communication given the potential wins both for club and coach. I guess if the 5th and 6th preference asked an honest question and board admitted their unlikelihood that'd be fine. But I hope the board tell - stress that - to the likely contenders it's not just Buckley (and the actual 2nd in line doesn't pull out thinking he was 6th). This is an arena you hope neither side makes silly mistakes in.

Misuse of stats has been discussed a bit recently on here. I think on On The Couch last night someone said 20 of the last 21 premiership coaches were coaching their first team. That proves first-timers can succeed but how many more are there compared to the 'second hand' ones? There are a lot of coaches that after 3 or 4 years every club has decided could never win a flag and he's moved on. Then very occasionally premiership coaches are tried at a new club. Only eleven are in this category this century. Honestly that's a pretty small sample especially given I could easily give four a mulligan: Sheedy with a brand new GWS club, Blight whose heart was never in it in his few months at St Kilda, Bomber Thompson forced to coach and Essendon team with a dozen plus suspended players alongside Hird and our Roosy probably doing as much as he could in three years with our completely rock bottom team. I'm quite happy to see exact stats for the first-timers, second-timers and "flag-elsewhere" coaches. All I know is all are viable. And while statistically Buckey is probably our best option just if another candidate genuinely wows the board I'm very happy to believe he's the right choice.

And maybe he'd love to have to move 100s of KMS - Tasmania is beautiful and some potential coaches will consider the move a neutral or good point. But others would rather not move away to a smaller city,away from most friends and family and a colder climate.

Misuse of stats has been discussed a bit recently on here. I think on On The Couch last night someone said 20 of the last 21 premiership coaches were coaching their first team. That proves first-timers can succeed but how many more are there compared to the 'second hand' ones? There are a lot of coaches that after 3 or 4 years every club has decided could never win a flag and he's moved on. Then very occasionally premiership coaches are tried at a new club. Only eleven are in this category this century. Honestly that's a pretty small sample especially given I could easily give four a mulligan: Sheedy with a brand new GWS club, Blight whose heart was never in it in his few months at St Kilda, Bomber Thompson forced to coach and Essendon team with a dozen plus drugs penalty suspension and our Roos probably doing as much as he could in three years with our completely rock bottom team. I'm quite happy to see exact stats for the first-timers, second-timers and "flag-elsewhere" coaches. All I know is all are viable. And while statistically Buckey is probably our best option just if another candidate genuinely wows the board I'm very happy to believe he's the right choice.

Yep, a lot of vague stats remind me of "a little knowledge is dangerous". In general more marks or more inside 50s leads to more wins. But we've all seen in recent times how counterproductive rushing kicks inside 50 have been. It would be fascinating if - if - someone had been at our every game for the last five years and they recorded our set-up at every kick in. It may well be (alongside what you said about Gawn) that less of our players are finding space outside the arc leaving the full back only someone still close to the opposition goal as the last resort to resume play. Of course it could be poor tactical positioning or too many slow or less fit players but, yeah, if we improve next year, we'll probably have more success with the kickouts.

Correlation often means the two things are connected via another factor . The more glasses of water you have drunk in your life would correlate with dying but that because as you get older you've had more water and the increased chance of dying is because of aging and not the water (even though are connected to the time factor.) I suspect there is some problem with the kick outs. Of course that doesn't mean all kicks should be be long - a player in space 40m away would often be better. Anyway Im guessing the new coach will add this to the list of possible changes.

Yep, I'm having visions of soccer balls ... plus theres your name :)

Wow! It looks like a strong correlation between distance of kick outs and our drop-off in the last few years!

Who said just delistings? You could well be right re six. But what about trades? Did players like Sam Frost, Jack Watts and going back Woewodin snr want to be traded? Weren't Hawthorn 's Hodge , Mitchell and Lewis involuntarily retired? Just because often players stuck in the reserves realise they're gonna be delisted at season's doesn't mean our 'best' 22 are completely safe. We might get a new coach who really wants to shake things up; even moving on one now fading premiership players would be a statement.

While most things are not line ball how would we ever know? Given what's at stake is potentially a six figure sum and maybe a year or two extra in their dream job playing footy giving up a few hours on a Saturday might be an incredibly rational sacrifice.

I'm not sure I'd call it aspersions. It would just be highly recommended players go. The general public at times will do extra to bebetter at their job. Of course they can overdo it or their work doesn't reward them. But especially given hardly any of our players will ever earn comparable money after retiring it just makes sense to basically just turn up.

I strongly disagree here. We're not even into September and it's 4 weeks to the GF. While the team might have known they were unlikely to even reach top 4 I bet they wanted to scrape into the 8, finally win a post-premiership final and forego the resultant extra 3 weeks of holidays in this scenario. Here's Melbourne with the players on notice, team dynamics probably under scrutiny and a new coach with which theyve accumulated none of the brownie points as a buffer. The reserves help showcase the current game plan and give the senior players a chance to watch future players live, including what they do behind the play. Plus it helps form further team bonds and solidarity. While some players would have valid excuses someone who missed today to play golf or watch Netflix might regret that if the new coach decides he doesn't him/them. If I were a player manager I would have told my charge to just go, sit beside his favourite teammates and maybe listen to music for 3 hours. That may prolong their career.

Maybe but can you direct me to a few of his AFL games where at least he held his own after coming on? I'd love to think I've missed a couple.

He was at the Collingwood game too ... taking notes for his new horror about a community who all choke simultaneously!

I dunno. I'd guess most of the seniors just turn up to these finals games every time. The ones missing probably need a bit of an excuse

Umm, I think you may be reading a lot that may not be there Most of those options are recent coaches who genuinely want a break or with very successful clubs with a potential opening soon.

he couldn't believe Irene left Home And Away

Was she beside Buckley? 😂

So what do we make of this for the future? We had the bye so it was probably expected we'd win comfortably .... which we outdid. Some twerp on Facebook claimed only two of the Melbourne-listed players are AFL standard. But they're way off, yes? Plus there'd be a few from today they'll persist with for another year (as well as drafting Yze) So what's the realistic assessment?

Carlton has a similar problem with Curnow and Mackay?

He's talking about Sharp. 😂😂😂

Who expected Gawn to end up here? For years he was that tall guy with the beard or the one with the name you could make "gone" puns from. I really don't know who's the best. But would I be wrong saying Gawn mainly takes workman-like reliable marks over and over. Apart from THAT Geelong preliminary final he's not really a highlights package. That's not necessary but it's yet another way he's just slowly worked his way into this conversation over 15 years