Go Ds

Question: Is AFL perfect? Maybe somewhere in the 80s / 90s it was. But these days it is too stop-start. It's interesting to see SANFL viewers endorse it. I'm guessing this will make games flow a bit better, get rid of the howler "insufficient intent" decisions and lessen the importance of excelling at winning stoppages. Anyway if thats the biggest rule change for next year I doubt many will end up disappointed.

Hi 'Pod' People, Any idea when you'll do the next podcast? After the draft? Just before Round 1 next year? I'd love to know.

There's a book called Don't Just Do Something Sit There. I'm happy for us to have most ideas on the table. But let's not go crazy. Maybe trading Trac, Clarry, May and Viney , a la Blight, turns out to be a masterstroke. But let's make sure every possible big change is given proper consideration. (Most years most clubs trade in and out players and whether it's bad luck or bad decisions we've shown post-flag this alone guarantees nothing.)

Okay. But who? Curnow? Is anyone else a chance to want to move across to us?

To paraphrase Homer 'That man's never eaten from a cheese platter his whole life!"

Yes, but at the end of 2022 we actually moved on Wiedeman. We went into 2023 with Brown having played a lot of games in 2022, MacDonald still playing forward , now Petty and JVR set to play forward and possibly the resting ruckman of the 'Gawndy' pair. Thats a lot of talls! So make McKay our highest paid player to be one of five or six talls up forward in a close-knit , recent premiership side? Huh? You're being blinded by hindsight.

When? Carlton's finished above is the last three years. As I said elsewhere we probably felt Fritsch, Kosi, BBB, TMac, Wiedeman and then Petty, JVr, Melksham and even Smith would tide us over.

Who? 17 other clubs? What's that? Maybe a dozen possibilities? And maybe no one's interested in going to a side that's languishing or still in the same city. There may be no real options.

It's always an educated guess. It's easy to use lazy stats and say that a coach years ago with 2 flags is better than Bucks because of those flags even though he (Buckley) actually underachieved. Or perhaps we underated the players Buckley coached. Who knows? It does look like he knows what he's talking about and he's had time to reflect, without getting too rusty. Admittedly every coach appointment for decades would have been carefully and diligently decided, as this one will be too. Then again for better or worse we might end up with a Mark Neeld or a Leigh Matthews. Fingers crossed the latter.

Yep... hindsight - a helpful teacher but lousy critics. I bet there would be some fascinating stuff in the archives on here. I keep hearing that CHF/talls take quite some time to develop. We drafted one at #9 in about 2016 and obviously were patient. Just imagine if we traded Wiedeman at the end of 2020 and in the five years since he'd kicked 300 goals; on here we'd read about it daily. Anyway at the end of 21 we had a flag, Brown and TMac going ok and still a bit of hope for Wiedeman. At the end of 22 we still had Brown , TMac, JVR on the horizon and lots of people confident Petty could become a good forward. I'm not sure what we should have done since. But certainly we've tried a few players forward and recruited Jefferson. What terrible oversights have we made? It's so easy to knock out recruiting, for example. But I bet few can usually show proof of their original doubts or provide better alternatives.

What price did the bookies offer in March that we'd make finals? 3.50?! If that's delusional I don't think I'll ever have a bet again ; I couldn't bet on most races or back a team to win this year's flag until maybe now.

Thought so. But still... you're right about coaches. There's a few great ones about but all taken. There's no real reason why Buckley's coaching ability can't get a flag with us. Most tried coaches don't return ....and the ones that got within a goal of a flag sure deserve extra merit than someone like Hinkley or Leon Cameron.

Sheedy must be in his 70s - too old. Pagan and Malthouse got nowhere with Carlton. They too would be past retirement age.

Well we did have scoring problems - rushing it inside 50, not finding good positions and only managing behinds. Maybe it would've helped if we had got Lade months ago. 😁

There's a trade period in mid October, yes? Even then other eliminated clubs would already be using right now gaining whatever advantage they can formulating every detail of next year's battle plan earlier. Of course a coach change is the biggest way of well.... changing. But the sooner the better.

Not the ABC GPO Box number 9994 , which I'm not mistaken was adopted cos Don Bradman's average is 99.94?

They talk about momentum in matches. I think it's similar with team progress. It may well have been a few players or coaching staff started cutting corners slightly post-flag and this turned into more people cruising and/or developing larger , lazier habits. It didn't want the coach change but at least we will have fresh pairs of eyes finding where the flaws are or finding the tiny low-hanging-fruit wins which end up leapfrogging us way up the ladder. I'd certainly prefer a glass-half-full expectation for next year.

Or just show them how well your share portfolio is going or a photo of your ski chalet.

Hey! Its not a hill I want to die on. I couldn't stand my friend's ex 'despite' her being a woman and 'despite' her being non-Anglo. (Everyone now despises her!) She claimed I disliked her because of race rather being neurotic, pushy, callous and intolerant; it's not fair to claim people hate Caro just cos she's a woman, either. I'm also sure some people sometimes are just sexist. I've seen enough, especially on Facebook. Honestly I don't watch much AFLW - the low scoring is hard to enjoy. But look at the comments section for many articles about it and the sexism jumps off the screen.

Perhaps. I'm not joining protests or anything. Most of the time it's just a quick observation that I'm not dwelling on. Of course it's opinion but so many times I'll hear/ read commentators that are just as , or more annoying, then the woman ones and there's way less whining. Anyway I'm not fazed. If you were on my Christmas card list you still would be.

Why wouldn't it be stressful? Surely there would be goals in each of the early years; at least 2 wins in year one, a percentage higher than 50 that year, the first year players not being cooked a lot earlier than other teams, accumulated strength and fitness and skills improvement over the years , not losing the guns after 2 or 3 years...... I'm sure it won't be anything goes. (Oh and most coaches are highly competitive and also theyd know a lot of the early stuff will sow the seeds for what follows.) Also Buckley would love his current arrangement. I'm sure he's paid quite handsomely for every hour he's seen/heard on Foxtel. If those few hundred hours aren't enough I'm sure he could have speaker engagements and do some stuff with football clubs too. I can't help but think it's all very cushy, and it wouldn't surprise me if Garry Lyon decided long ago that while he misses out on the glory and millions more he'd rather enjoy an easier life away from coaching. Obviously others will be more ambitious.

I don't know what it is. He was okay when he shared a segment on 360 with Whatley, Robbo and a fellow player such as Jordan Lewis. But as much as try to not get annoyed with people on the telly I agree he's just not the right fit on OTC

I'd almost agree. But for years experts told him what to eat, how to get fitter, get stronger, had him using or wearing the best technology/equipment etc, improve his strokes and skills, and, yes, even mentally tough. Then suddenly he decided to stop following the experts and start following BS on social media which even had him missing an Australian Open. That sounds kinda weak-minded.

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 .....