Its Time for Another

Your 8-10 wins benchmark is an interesting point. I wonder what it will take for him to decide he's seen enough to stay. 8-10 wins IMHO is a big call. Very much the upper end of what I would expect this year. I wonder what will happen if the group is jelling as a team, they run a couple of the elite teams to close games, cut out the terrible losses but still only win say 5 games. Will that be enough? I know not according to you but what do others think it will take?

OK, lets run a poll on how many pages and replies this topic is going to run for, especially if he leaves. I can't believe the Scully one is still going after over 2 1/2 years and 339 pages and 8450 posts.

He looked miserable in 2012 and possibly slightly less last year but still pretty miserable. As many have said, who could blame him. I don't think it would be fair to him to babble on about it being about money. He has probably suffered more on the field than anyone else being at the pointy end of the defence all these years. I would hate to feel what it's like to turn up to work everyday, do your absolute best and come away feeling like a complete looser. Having said all of that I can't help thinking that if there are real signs that a new regime is actually turning the place around and that this playing group isn't broken beyond repair, then my guess is he is probably more likely than not to stay. Watts said the same thing last year before Roos was appointed and then saw the right things being put in place and gave a very solid commitment with a 3 year contract.

Dr G why bother. He isn't going to hear. He just wants to whinge. He won't separate the debt and revenue of the pokies and clubs to see if they are paying off the debt so there will be large assets and revenue streams in four years. I haven't seen the figures broken down so I don't know the answer but given PJ says they will pay off the debt in four years I assume that they are generating enough revenue to service and pay out the debt. As I understand it the operating debt created this year was in footy operations. But hey whatever he wants to hear.

You're out of date. He didn't take that job. He is now employed by AFLVIC as the talent manager for the Eastern region including managing the Eastern Ranges in the TAC Cup.http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/new-role-for-mark-neeld-20140128-31ktg.html

Rhino, I'm not an accountant but as I understand the debt situation you are way off beam here. It is important to separate the debt situation of the Club's footy operations and it's developing non footy operations. They both have to end up in the same financials but are entirely different. Debt created from football operations is BAD as it is the milestone around the neck you are talking about and money has to be found to pay it off. Debt taken on in order to own long term revenue earning assets is not a problem, especially when those assets pay the debt off on their own and then leave debt free revenue sources for the long term. As I understand it the Club took on something like $5mill in debt when it took over the Bentleigh Club but received an asset who's land value alone, not including the value of the club or its buildings, is over $9mill. Further to that the Club has invested in an increase in pokie machines which has incurred a further debt of $2.7 mill. The revenue from these pokies jumped from $6.9mill last year to $11.1mill this year. According to PJ in the annual report between the Bentleigh and Oakleigh Clubs and their operations they will pay off this debt completely in 4 years time, by 2017. That will leave the Club with an unencumbered asset at the Bentleigh Club with land value that will only go up, of over $9mill and pokies currently generating $11.1mill but by then I would expect it to be much more. As you can see, there is no problem with the non football debt. It is required in the short term (4yrs) in order to create long term assets and income. Assuming and it is a big assumption, given the last 7yrs, the Club becomes competitive over the next couple of years, I am expecting the footy operations and I include, memberships, sponsorships, commercial etc in this, to be generating a surplus.

Nah, that was one quarter. That first quarter against Norf at Etihad. That's it folks..... Don't compare Viv's half with that. He got better as the game went on. Jury is rightly out but I for one am excited. He smacks of a classic Roos pick. Over the years Roos was very kind to Lyon (gave him Schneider for next to nothing and Dempsey for nothing, when he first went to the Saints) and hopefully getting pay back now.

What it smacks of to me is a man who understands culture. His treatment of Trenners and the appointment of the rest of the leadership group shows understanding and respect to the Culture that existed before he came. He has added in his own tweaks in a way that respects what was there before. Unlike his predecessor who came in and smashed the entire place and completely disrespected players who deserved much better. He made it all about himself and what was going to happen after he arrived instead of fixing and enhancing what was already there. Roosy with his experience and reputation could have come in and done that and possibly got away with it for a while but the fact he hasn't just fills me with even more confidence that the man knows football clubs and how to build culture. And without culture you have nothing. As his predecessor and all of us found out.

Interesting, just turned on replay of last years Qualifying Final between Sydney and Hawks. Pre Game interview with John Longmire with him saying to win they have to do what they try to do every week which is play hard contested two way football. Sound familiar? Sound like training drills that have been going on all pre season?

I read somewhere that about $2.7mill is debt for pokie machines that the machines will pay off in the next 12mths. Some of the rest is debt taken over from the Bentleigh Club that I believe the Club takings are supposed to be paying off. The rest I don't know.

I read somewhere that he lost his short term memory after that incident when he was beaten up trying to protect a woman from being beaten up by thugs. Either way it's a horrible way to deteriorate. Especially for one like him.

I have to say WJ that I have found the debate on this topic a surprisingly illuminating window into our society. What a rich ground for Sociologists etc. I fear that the more bigoted comments are much more representative of a lot of our society than we would like to admit. I hope and pray I am wrong but I doubt it. Whether Goodes likes it or not. And I am sure he likes it, he became the face of discrimination last year. I can't think of another example, probably in our history, where the issue of discrimination has been brought more to the front of the national consciousness than that event last year. Notwithstanding Nicky Winmar. Why not take the opportunity to build on the saturation press coverage to further the cause for a year. It's not like there is only ever going to be one Australian of the Year. There will be plenty of opportunity for the type of alternative candidates people have mentioned here. Virtually all of those categories have been richly represented in the past. But what Indigenous personalities have and at such a prime moment in time. Where was the debate about last year's Australian of the Year. I mean come on, seriously, Ita Buttrose.

Very interesting. Just shows how stat's only tell part of the story. The understanding of them is everything. I love stat's and good un ya C & B for putting this thread up, not sure why people have to get so personal about the interpretation. It's all interesting as far as I'm concerned.

Two interesting points from these stats. The huge difference between the top 15 teams i50 differential and the last 3 teams. We have a mountain to climb to get back into the other 15 teams. Interesting to see the teams that are much higher on the scorers ladder than the i50 ladder. Would be interesting to see stat's to see whether this differential is caused by those teams scoring more from the midfield or having stronger power forwards. Collingwood for instance has a much higher i50 rate than it's scoring rate. So having one of the premium power forwards in Cloke hasn't helped them. Perhaps because there is so little support around him. Would also be interesting to see a ladder of i50 targets and their teams. Would give an idea of how much some teams score on a spread and how some score going to power forwards. We are obviously going to be a team with 3 power forwards so you'd expect our stat's to be more concentrated than say even a Freo who really only has Pav as a power forward. Until they get Hogan, perhaps.

LOL

Following on this theme. This experience can be extended to the Club's membership intitiatives in general. Why not hold special info sessions with players and coaches and even Leading Teams and offer them to members only. Wouldn't this be a great enticement for people who are undecided about joining. All Club functions are very expensive. Around $150. I would suggest out of the reach of the majority of members taking families to games and already paying a lot of money. Why can't they have more members only functions that you can go to without having to pay extra.

I went to the 2013 Darwin game. Went up for 4 days. Flew in the Thurs arvo and drove straight down to Kakadu, travelled around there Friday and half of Saturday and shot back up to Darwin just in time for the game Sat night and then half a day in Darwin b4 flying home early arvo. I would highly recommend it. You can get pretty cheap flights if you book ahead and it's a great excuse to see a part of Aus you wouldn't see otherwise. I love seeing AFL games in small venues like the stadium up there. Has a real community footy feel. However, it was far from full. I reckon about 2/3rds full. So what is happening with NT promotion of the game. Can't see why it is worth their while. I doubt MFC will ever develop a big following up there. Talking to people in the crowd there is a very rampant anti Vic feeling amongst people I spoke to there. They will support any team as long as it isn't from Vic. So a lot of Brisbane, Adelaide and Port followers. My negatives are relevant to this topic. I thought the Club's initiatives for members around this game were very, very disappointing. A very wasted opportunity. I contacted the Club at least 4-5 months b4 the game which is when you need to book to get cheap flights and accommodation. I wanted to find out who to book through as Webjet was a sponsor and I think Expedia were as well. They couldn't suggest anyone. All they could offer was that at some stage they were going to organise a two day fishing trip for over $3000. Great if you have the money. Otherwise there was a BBQ and drinks in a designated area at the game for $150. Again, great if you have the money. But as usual where are the initiatives for the majority of rank and file members who want to support the Club but can't afford those sort of charges. As is the case with so many Club functions. I would have loved to have flown up with a plane full of all the other MFC members going up together. I would have loved to have stayed in a hotel with all the other MFC members and followers and the team. Would it be so hard for us to be able to stay with the team and mingle with them over the weekend. A pain in the butt for them but hey, these are die hard supporters flying all the way up to Darwin. And it's a once off. What about some MFC functions that are reasonably priced. Why couldn't they have had a designated area for MFC members without you having to pay for it. You could have bought alcohol and the BBQ and usual venue rates. No great amounts of work there for the Club but it would have made the whole weekend an MFC experience instead of me just flying up with a mate and only turning up to the game to sit on our own.

Right back at you Champ. I watched most home games throughout Roosy's tenure. Like most teams on a good day they played exciting attacking footy. A good day is when you have the ball, have teammates unmarked ahead of you and the opposition are behind you. Then they were attacking. It didn't happen that much. Unless Goodsy got the ball anywhere, then the team became attacking. Otherwise in close contests it was always players flooding behind the ball and a lot of lateral movement to hold possession and control the tempo. Don't know what team you were or were not watching. Personally I hated the flooding, closed down era of footy from 2003 to 2009 of which the Swans were arguably the main proponents. It took Bomber with the Cats to work out how to solve it. The answer has become gut running up and down the ground all day to break the flood. To be fair to Roosy I assume he created a game plan to match his playing list. In '05 and pretty much his whole tenure he had at best a working class midfield without outstanding skills or pace and came up with a game plan that shut down one of the arguably greatest midfields of all time. Horse has an entirely different midfield stacked with speed and elite skills both of which give you the ability to be attacking. What does Roosy have with MFC this year? I would suggest more of the former than the later, so I am expecting defensive shutdown football.

If non boring non tempo footy gives us a few wins this year, then bring it on.

Will be very interesting to see whether Roosy has evolved his game plan compared to the relentless defensive, holding the footy of the Swans. Got to say the Swans are a lot more appealing to watch since Longmire took over. Roosy will always have the defensive mindset first and foremost. But it will be interesting to see if he evolves it into a more attacking system. It sounds from your post that he is doing that which would be a great relief. Swans used to play possession tempo footy under him which meant holding onto the footy a lot and slowing the tempo down. So if you are seeing play on at all costs it indicates a promising change. I have read elsewhere that he has said modern football is relentless running up and down the field. Hopefully after 3 years of observing all teams while commentating he has a better feel for the evolution of the game by all teams than if he had just been coaching one team for that period.

Burgess the fitness guru at Port last year comes straight from a Premier League soccer background. Apparently in soccer they do a lot more repeat sprint training and less distance training. Seems to have worked very well for Port especially into 4th qtrs. I don't know where 300m sprints fit in that type of training. Would be very interested to know the science behind the different methods. I would imagine Misso is all over it. But getting fitness from game simulated running makes most sense to me.

I read somewhere that a number of Clubs were circling. After last year's experience with the ruckmen that Freo snuffled from under our noses the Club must have decided not to take the risk. He also is probably seen as having more upside with exceptional speed. According to Mark Fine he was streets ahead of his Brighton Grammar teammates J Kelly T Boyd &. Salem in a game he saw during the year. Has been under the radar for injury & physical development issues so has missed elite jnr development but has all the attributes to be a gun.

It would be good to find out if he has a fitness or injury issue that is holding him back. He had that op post season so might be under instructions. People are very quick to judge when few of us have any idea what is really going on with individual players injury management. I'm trying to be optimistic here. I would love to see him become a weapon rather than another bust.

I was behind the goals at the Scoreboard end where all the misses took place in the last quarter. Tony Campbell's miss was worse for me than Eishold's. He had Robby on his own on the goal line screaming for the ball with no one near him and Campbell ignored him, blazed away and missed. Still one of the most traumatic events of my life even though we would almost certainly have lost the next week in freak over 32oC heat and with a multitude of key injuries. I went home from the game to my gorgeous Qld girlfriend who told me I was an [censored] for being so upset about a stupid game of sport. I told her we weren't on the same planet and split up with her. I had a bad nights sleep, got up the next morning late and rushed off to a game of footy. Didn't have time to strap my ankles and didn't worry about it. Took a mark on a lead and my right foot went into a divet on the ground as I came down. I kept going and my foot stayed behind. It ended up sticking out sideways. Basically snapped my foot off. Five operations later, my very insignificant footy career was over. I wasn't too upset about the girlfriend but I still suffer to this day from the ankle and the game when I see topics like this and are reminded of it.

I'd rather Roos does whatever it takes to get this team as competitive as it can be. If they get a few of the potentially winnable games in the first few rounds it will do a lot more for memberships than a few meaningless wins in this new NAB Cup comp.