Dr. Gonzo

The argument was they needed percentage to finish top 4 which is incorrect. If the Hawks beat the Lions they finish top 4 and get the double chance. Lose and they don't. Percentage is irrelevant to that. Had Collingwood won on Saturday night Geelong may have been in 1st and Adelaide 2nd. So this talk about home final is grasping at best. Hawks destiny is in their own hands now as it relates to the double chance, and all this grasping at straws to try and justify why our performance in the last 4 minutes was commendable is laughable. We were pathetic on the weekend, that's the end of the story.

Also because he takes a heap of contested marks and gets his fair share of free kicks, both of which count towards this stat.

It's only a big deal if Smith has an issue with it. If not then I agree, nothing to see here but we don't know Smith's view. Edit although @rpfc is correct, Smith must be part of the coach selection process as he will be the long term leader.

Exactly. Percentage is irrelevant to their top 4 aspirations as well. If they beat Brisbane they are top 4, if they lose they're not. So not sure where this "they needed percentage" argument is coming from.

Of course percentage is important but fair to say the heat was well and truly out of the game. Anyone watching the game could see we never threatened and it all came down to our absolute garbage disposal, setup and forward 50 entries. I'm not sure what the point of this "we matched them after quarter time" argument is; we were putrid, they weren't much better but had more polish and so put the score on the board when it mattered. With 4 minutes left in the game we were down by 9 goals.

Except theirs mattered whereas we were already down by 50 points.

It's useless trying to massage stats to make yourself feel better about where the team is at but whatever floats your boat I guess.

Most of those reasons come back to coaching.

We kicked 3 goals in the last 4 minutes. Take that out and your stats don't look so good.

I thought starting Melksham as sub was an inspired choice.

Coming back from concussion.

They didn't even stop to do a proper review. What a shambles of a competition.

Now it explains our forward setups 😂

https://www.archivebuttons.com/articles?article=https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/awkward-scenes-in-simon-goodwin-s-kitchen-and-a-power-play-in-the-boardroom-20250815-p5mn6a.html

What is the reason for Watson being chosen? Where did that even come from? Just having worked/played in dysfunctional environments and being out of the game for a long time isn't enough to qualify someone otherwise we'd have people bashing down the door to join. It's a strange call and even stranger knowing it came at the behest of Guerra, our new CEO who hasn't started yet, who has no footy experience and has links to Essendon being touted as a potential board member in recent years.

Essendon were perennial contenders under Sheedy. When they did have a down year, like 1992, they bounced back quickly. Not sure what relevance this has to Goodwin.

Lewis also understands our playing group and club culture.

On top of that they haven't even had a strategic plan for the last two seasons after failing to deliver on every point of the last one (you could argue they met the onfield performance target but technically they didn't). Some may see strategic plans as a bit of a [censored] and they probably are to an extent but they also provide some guidance to boards around their aims and direction and holds them to account.

I don't mind her either but she (and Sheahan and Greg Baum also) always has an agenda - usually it's the AFL's agenda.

The timing was ok, they probably should have extended him to end of 2025 instead of 2026 in hindsight. What a joke.

Having worked for one in the past I can attest to this.

"Pay out a compo claim or we will stop taking your money" not sure how that would work exactly

Each decision must be judged on its own merits. You can't agree with sacking Goodwin now but then change your mind in 12-24 months time because the new guy isn't panning out. As it stands, the decision to sack Goodwin was the correct one. The team has been going backwards for years. He's only won finals in 2 of his 9 years as coach. We lost games to teams we should in no way be losing to on a consistent basis. It was clear that no matter how much "love" the players had for him they were either not responding or unable to implement what he was asking them to do. He played favourites and was too stubborn with positional changes etc The last 2 years he's been coaching to save himself instead of coaching for the future. The time was right regardless of how upset people (including players) might feel about the decision. The performance of the next coach is irrelevant to whether the decision was correct now. It could be the decision to part ways was correct but the decision on who to appoint was wrong, who knows. I also don't buy the financial argument, we have bled members/attendees and it would have continued next season with Goodwin costing us far more than what we are losing by paying him out.

Goodwin had to go, the performance over a sustained period was evidence of that. The success or otherwise of our next coach is irrelevant to whether that decision was right or not.