JJJ

Smith has a lot of physical development left in him. His kicking penetration will improve.

Should never have been ours to trade. We were blinded by arrogance and thought we could replicate 21. It caused a lot of division internally and will be discussed a lot as a part of the review of footy ops.

I’ve heard similar. We are the highest $$ offer. My understanding is that he is most likely to stay at GWS. If he doesn’t come to us at least we’ve gone down swinging!!

I’m not saying it makes sense. Just saying the crowd size is not a thing for some. I don’t the club sees his selection to play for us as a lay down misere. Nor should we.

Get the same pay to play with your mates or move 2hours away from family and friends? Not sure the size of the crowds is a massive thing for a young player.

He has a pretty good attitude so I expect he’ll take this opportunity to continue his physical evolution. His ability to find the footy needs to improve along with his fitness. He’ll never be prolific but getting involved in more strings of play would help him and Casey/Melbourne as he is pretty good with ball in hand.

He had a very tough preseason but managed to play very well. Happy for him. I’m 99% sure Maxy would’ve been in his ear to play on.

You’re correct. Modern journo’s MO. It is true though, we’ve sounded him out. I like players that hit the scoreboard and Membrey does that clearly. Whether Father Time is about to catch up with him is the question I have. Handy player to have on the list though.

This was fait accompli. There are people in the club and on the board who are well aware that we’ve plummeted down the ladder in many areas. This can only be seen as a positive. Shows that as a club we have some self awareness.

Sounds like most AFL club executives.

Be that as it may, we’re still in his managers ear.

We haven’t given up.

Essendon have him very high on their board at the moment. Plenty of water to pass under the bridge before the draft though.

I think there’s a body of evidence that suggests Gawn is not going to sit down with a player and read them the riot act like Selwood used to do. Selwood was so hardline and uncompromising in his approach to attitude and focus that he intimidated 1st year players but it had a positive effect on the standards they upheld. Geelong officials were a little worried that once he left there would be a void. Does all that make Gawn a bad leader? Nope. Maybe we needed to better complement him with different leaders from the playing group and a harder line from the coaching staff. I think you can take it to the bank that Gawn’s concerns relate to culture just like Trac. But I do take your point that he has been captain during some interesting developments to say the least. I have a lot of faith in some of our younger players. Faith that they will step up in terms of performance and also step up their leadership. They will help drive the club forward next season and will be future leaders of the club. Ultimately, I would like Lever to be next in line but still think Gawn is the next option for next season. By which stage we have righted the ship or potentially another player has stepped up to the plate.

Some predictable responses from the “nothing to see here!” types. Which is fine, you’re entitled to your opinion. The fact of the matter, fact, is that Trac has been unhappy for a while. Well before the media got hold of it. It’s also fact that he has caused division within the ranks which will take time and effort to repair. Has he received poor advice? Absolutely. Has he committed to the club to see out the remainder of his contract? Nope. Will his feedback result in changes? Seemingly so. Across the club potentially. Will he get back to the pre injury Trac? He will do everything in his power to get back.

I’d leave it with Max for now. I think our next captain is in the U/24 group.

There were some full blown crazies on that forum who thought Demonland was where the Leftist would hang out. Strawberry Fields was what Demonland was referred to at the time. I stopped posting there after a while as I couldn’t handle the rhetoric and constant arguing. Hopefully the club does what’s necessary to keep us all sane and we can avoid an ‘Ology like decline.

I could. It wouldn’t do it as I work in a field where this is not allowed but yes, I could. The technology exists as do the people who can use it. I was showed how to check what Google has on me and it’s outrageous the level of knowledge they have. In addition I am not interested in arguing with you. You seem to have an axe to grind. I was merely pointing out that access to an email address is the least of your concerns if privacy is an issue.

I am not going to do that. Doesn’t change the fact that I and others could find out granular details.

Was the email addressed to you?

Let’s put it in a corporate sense shall we? MFC forecast a profitable year (IE top 4, commercial coverage for partners, expanding membership & additional external revenue) yet have delivered 14th position, a PR nightmare, our best players looking at options and generally mixed messaging to our membership/partners re culture/brand etc. What organisation wouldn’t see the above and think a review was needed, one which is over and above what we normally do at seasons end. We’ve missed the mark by a wide margin. We are damaged goods again. The best bit is, it’s a win-win. We run a review and it finds problems we can address. Win! We run a review and it says there’s nothing to see here and our [censored] season was an act of god. Win! I think people are misinterpreting a desire for a review with a desire to see certain people burned at the stake. It’s [censored] depressing to read some comments on here. They show how our society has lost the ability to have constructive conversations. We all support the same club and yet people can’t see the other side of a discussion.

This is a slight overreaction. There’s no personalisation. Just an email address. This is akin to receiving a flyer in your letterbox back in the day. I could find out more about you in an hour if I wanted. Just using your Demonland user name as a reference point. Add to that, the enormous amount of information that’s in your Google profile. (You don’t need a Google account to have a profile. They can accurately profile individuals without it)

This. What do you think our commercial partners are thinking with the kitchen on fire, perceived or otherwise, and no leadership from the club? The answer to that is pretty obvious. The “any coverage is good coverage” no longer applies. Corporations don’t like to be associated with organisations that aren’t considered standard bearers. A bit of leadership, a review and some transparency would go a long way.

I think this whole thing started because it was a closed shop to even get nominated for the board. I remember sitting at a function where the current board of the day (2018ish) stated the reason for this was stability. But, the idea of elected officials unopposed for a significant period of time doesn’t sit well with me. As I said, I haven’t supported Peter historically but that doesn’t mean he is wrong in this case. I’d support an external review as I think it will show us where we are going wrong but I also wouldn’t feel super comfortable with him winning a seat on the board. Can’t start fractured.

It’s hard to argue with what he says and I have never supported anything Peter has said or done so far. My partner recently showed me the Benny Gale interview when he took over as CEO of Richmond. This was a person who strived for the best and mapped out the way to get there. A strategic plan is more than stating a few objectives on a whiteboard. We seem to promise a lot at board level and deliver 3/5’s of FA. Least of all any plan and/or strategy. And we do this under the veil of darkness or secrecy. Here is the Gale interview for those who can’t remember: