Dr. Gonzo

Pretty interesting thread on the Freo BF board. Seems were both looking at same issues with our teams heading into round 1, namely key forwards/forward line. https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/changes-rnd-1-vs-demons.1257077/ Maxy SHOULD dominate in the ruck then it's gonna come down to a battle of the midfields I think.

How does a kid whose dad played senior footy for a number of years qualify as an Academy pick? Similar to Blakey with the Swans it's an absolute joke. A lot of the kids who qualify for these academues are just typical kids who love footy and have the same chance as every other kid. Look at the one Collingwood drafted last year (Reef McInnes) only qualifies cos his mum was born overseas but his dad? He played with Oakleigh Chargers, where do the academies come into it? It's a joke and the only reason they were bought in was because the Vic clubs started whinging about the northern academies. Instead of fixing those they extend it across the comp! Makes the competition a joke when the draft is now compromised every year. As an example I was born in Australia, grew up watching and playing footy from 5 years old - yet my kids would qualify for these NGAs because my wife was born in the Philippines. It's a joke.

2 sets of twins!! Geez mate congratulations and good luck! Can you renew/sign up online? Cuts to staff would've definitely impacted membership Dept might be easier to go through the website?

I'd love to know how many "unique" members we've had over the last day 5 years. I'd say there's probably 25-30k who sign up every year then another 20k or so who might sign up then drop off depending on form, personal circumstances or whatever else might impact it. 50k should be out base membership, we cannot drop below that. We need to get that up to 60k and then be stretching ourselves to hit 70-75k members. Of course only results will get us that but I don't understand supporters who won't dig in to support the club even with a token membership (3 game etc)

True that forward line is not much better than VFL standard

Maybe they should play him out of the square instead of up on the wing? Just a thought

So Oliver goes down with potential concussion. Are we more likely to think "ah let's just sub him off, we've got James Jordon to replace him" Also, re the player subbed off being unable to play the following week how does that work for the GF? Effectively you'll have a 23rd man you can sub on at anytime.

Of course coaches want it, they want to be able to have total control and losing players limits their capacity to make moves. How about this - instead of the interchange we revert back to subs only. They can have 4, 6 or even 8 players sitting on the bench - hell why not the whole squad? But they can only come on as a sub, interchange is out. I'm sure the coaches will love that idea.

Let's see if they play angry Saturday week. I don't mean start throwing haymakers I mean attack the ball and the contest with ferocity, do the 1%ers with aggression and be dialled in.

by the way 1990 was the only time since 1964 we have won 15 games in a H&A season (we won 16) - (actually it was the only time since 1958). Every other club (except GC) has done it since 1999. Last time won 15 games in a season Adelaide - 2017 Brisbane - 2019 Carlton - 2000 Collingwood - 2019 Essendon - 2001 Fremantle - 2015 Geelong - 2019 GWS - 2016 Hawthorn - 2016 North Melbourne - 1999 Port - 2004 Richmond - 2019 St.Kilda - 2009 Sydney - 2016 West Coast - 2018 Bulldogs - 2016

And when we do start hitting some good form, win a few games, make finals etc - we tend to think "see, we told you it would come" and rest on our laurels and fall in a heap. Why? Changing personnel doesn't fix it so how does the club sort it out? Again I agree with McClure the change and culture has to be driven by the players. Coach, FD, CEO, Pres, Board etc can create the right environment but ultimately it is up to the players to drive it. What I want is consistency of performance. Results are just a by-product of this and they will come if the performance is consistent. And that means consistency across contests, quarters, games and ultimately seasons. Once it is ingrained it is much easier to maintain. I thought we were getting there in 2018, I don't know what the hell has happened since then.

Being passionate about winning isn't the issue. If poor performances occur as a one-off you can excuse it but when it's a repeated pattern of behaviour (and I'm not talking about the practice match) then there is an issue. Take the well told story of Ablett Jnr - thought he was doing everything he needed to do to be the best he could be. Was given some home truths by his peers who told him he wasn't doing enough, pushing himself enough, preparing well enough - took it on board and became the best player in the comp. Not everyone will be the best in the comp but everyone needs to push themselves to be the best they can be and the team as a whole needs to work to being the best team (ie working together as a group and working for each other). I don't see that in our team, the 1%ers etc If they did that there's no reason they couldn't be consistent top 4 finishers and from there who knows? As it is they can't even make finals except for one season. Finals should be a given, not the goal.

vs Carlton 2016 vs North in Tas 2017 vs Coll 2017 vs Sydney 2018 vs Sydney 2020 vs Freo 2020

And yet even during those years we lost games to lower ranked teams and had runs of losses that cost us the double chance. There's a game I have a vhs replay of from 1990 against the Blues and the commentators refer to an article during the week referencing Collingwood players who had called us soft. We can out breathing fire in the Blues game and were up by 50 points or so just after half time. We went on to sneak in by a goal.

Rubbish.

That doesn't explain our losses to teams below us on the ladder.

A broken clock is still right twice a day. Our culture is poor and it does need to be driven by the players. Poor culture is failing to turn up for key games, it's giving teams a look in, it's failing to put the foot on their throat. It's been around for years and it's something that seems to be inherent in the club because changing players and coaches doesn't seem to fix it.

Forget the preseason what about last season?

Ben Brown is our best forward

AFL members with club support go on sale 10am Tues 16th March I believe

Careful, you don't want to be labelled a virtue signalling, snowflake, woke, leftard

I don't get why they wouldn't at least split the field with Gawn, Jackson and TMac spaced across the width of the field. All three (or at least two) of them were standing right next to each making it so easy to defend. Spread the opposition and give our players space to work in.

You gonna chuck in "snowflake" and "cuck" to get alt-right bingo?

As long as they're not specifically excluding women I don't see the problem. There are female only coterie groups, what's the difference? https://www.essendonfc.com.au/fans/coteries

Yeah theres some other great sports docos on there (the All or Nothing series) one was on the Aussie cricket team, theres a few following around NFL and EPL teams for a season as well. Would be great to get an MFC dedicated one, great publicity for clubs like ours. I think Eddie was already trying to get a Collingwood one up and running but they've obviously gone with a more generic one first time up.