Dr. Gonzo

Of course it bloody shouldn't, what an absolute farce of a decision. Can add it to the pile of AFL "decisions" that our club has been on the wrong end of.

Culture drives performance, if you are not performing then there is something in your culture that needs improvement. We have underperformed in 4 of the last 5 years and are looking at another season of underperformance this year. We have the off field issues which I won't go into at the risk of being banned but which everyone is well aware of. How much of that was excused because we were winning? Is that a good culture? Blaming bad luck in sport is a cop out. You make your own luck. I'm not saying we should be burning the place down if we don't win the flag every year but we should be competing in Prelims every year we are in our window. We haven't and have underperformed and part of that needs to be looked at from a cultural perspective. Yes we may have good training standards, good relationships between coaches, players and staff, good environment for the players which they feel happy and comfortable with - but do we have the ruthless "win at all costs" mentality that is needed to succeed in elite sport? I don't think we do and it is apparent in the way we play, the way we fail to put lowly teams away and give them a sniff of victory, the way we panic in front of hostile crowds, the way we second guess ourselves against physically aggressive teams, our arrogance towards the game and the opposition. That arrogance has been apparent for many years, remember around 2016/17 our players mouthing off to the Saints players about playing finals and then we subsequently missed the finals? And this was after a decade outside finals! If we are honest with ourselves we would say we have a good culture, maybe a very good culture - but we do not have a great culture. If we want that consistent high performance and success we will be doing everything we can to achieve it including implementing non negotiable standards and a ruthless mentality. We talk a lot about it but we cannot do it, or if we do we cannot sustain it. We also talk a lot about respecting the game, respecting the opposition but we don't or at least when we do we cannot sustain it. If we could sustain those things (ruthlessness and respecting the game and the opposition) we would be a consistently high performing team. In 5 of the last 6 years (this year included) that hasn't been the case. Edit - that culture and mentality is club wide, it is not just on the players or footy dept. It also comes from the way our club presents itself in the media, the way we stand up for ourselves against the AFL and other clubs. You don't have to come out swinging every time but you don't have to meekly accept the status quo either.

Yes. Other clubs use the media to do their dirty work and fight the AFL using public sentiment. The more you roll over and cop it the more you will continue to cop.

Amateur Football League Absolute Farce League What a joke, policy on the run and once again we get shafted by it. I'm assuming the clubs response will be crickets but I'll see what comes out. Won't hold my breath though.

If that is what she said she must be held to account. Not only is it wrong, her entire premise is wrong. "Should have been called play on" is not a thing. Either it is called play on or it is not. If the players encroached before the umpire called play on it is 50. The play recommences when the umpire calls it, not when the players deem it to have happened.

Who would know because the clubs can't comment on it and the media aren't allowed to report on it other than by allusion.

I don't necessarily agree with umpires fronting the media but coaches and players are made to and have to answer for their mistakes, how is that different? I do think commentary teams should have an ex-umpire to call upon to explain or critique decisions. Half the commentators don't even know the rules.

That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about discussion of umpiring and umpiring decisions in the media or by coaches, players etc

The start of any solution is admitting there is a problem and discussing the errors when they occur, not merely shutting down discussion because we can't be critical of umpires and saying "it won't change anyway, stop whingeing"

Exactly, Melbourne under different admin many moons ago were told not to rock the boat or we would be punished via the fixture. That is dollars to clubs as well as the ability to grow your supporter base. Can NMFC afford to rock the boat, even with Clarko at the helm? Especially with their Tassie deal ending in a few years?

Holding people accountable is not abuse. Who says lower attendances won't happen? Even if attendances don't drop due to club allegiance viewership most certainly could drop as people become disengaged with neutral games. How many people on here have said they rarely watch games other than Melbourne? And these are diehard supporters that bother posting on a footy forum. The AFL will cook the goose that laid the golden egg if they are not careful.

Kind of a microcosm of society in general 😉

They see blatant indiscretions and don't pay them, how do you account for that? They are far too easily swayed by parochial crowds and umpire different players to different standards (ie the superstar tax which is clear as day). You then also have different umpires interpreting rules differently which then is another cause of inconsistency. You have rules in the books which are only sometimes paid eg "dissent" rule. Earlier in the year you could argue it cost Freo a game, similar last year in the Blues/GWS game - yet in most other games there is blatant dissent from players that goes unpunished. Why? It is either a rule or it is not, if it is a rule pay it. Otherwise it will get paid 1 time in a thousand at a critical moment and cost a team who will rightly be furious when the other 999 don't get paid.

Supporter dissatisfaction will place pressure on the AFL to fix the issue, especially if it is actually voiced in the media and not shouted down by the AFL mouthpieces like Whateley. If it doesn't the AFL risks supporter disengagement which will lead to lower attendances and lower viewers which will mean upset sponsors/broadcasters and less money in the AFL's pockets. Maybe that will force them to change to. Saying "nothing will change, stop whingeing" is such a facile argument. For someone who doesn't care much and tells others to stop whingeing you certainly seem to post enough on here. I think you care a bit more than you're letting on.

You're comparing skill errors to umpiring decisions 😵‍💫 And don't give me this garbage "players make poor decisions too" yes players are competing, umpires are adjudicating - it is a completely different level of pressure.

AFL will revoke the accreditation of journos who don't toe the party line https://www.afl.com.au/news/126891/afl-considers-accreditation-ban-of-the-make-up-media

Gee I wonder why? Perhaps that filters down to them from above, ie different clubs held to different standards by the AFL, different clubs given priority in things like fixturing, payments outside the cap, academy picks etc, different clubs/players held to different standards at the tribunal etc The game is run in an extremely amateur manner and by that I don't mean the lack of money I mean it's still run like a suburban comp with vested interests playing favourites.

Geelong may not have won many flags since 2011 but they've consistently competed for them. Prelims in 2013, 2016, 2017, 2019 & 2021 and runners-up in 2020. In my mind that is consistent high performance. We have not stayed top 4 after 2021. We finished top 4 after the home and away season but that is only the qualifying period for Finals. Top 4 means making Prelims and we did not do that in 2022 or 2023, hence our respective draft positions.

A good culture means consistent high performance. Consistent high performance in the AFL means competing for flags. Competing for flags means making/being competitive in Preliminary finals at the minimum. Not winning flags the last couple of years doesn't make us a failure. Not making Prelims does and that should be the expectation of our supporters.

Still very angry with the last month if footy but i think we must back Goodwin in to get things right. Sacking him before his contract is up would be disastrous and would set the club back a decade. HOWEVER the footy dept must get a shakeup. Assistant coaches need a freshen up and for the love of god get a proper forwards coach in. I would also like a ball movement coach (eg Caracella). With Petracca done we should be looking to send any players who need it off for surgery early so they are ready day 1 preseason. Viney I'm looking at you.

Maybe use him as a follower/ruck rover type with Max playing a defensive ruck (ie playing ruck but drifting more down back up to the wing) and letting Grundy have more freedom to play around the ground? Have them take one side of the ground each (ie a wing each floating into the corridor depending which side the ball is) creating targets down the line on each side of the ground? Similar to what we did when we had Hogan/TMac leading up from deep forward on alternate wings as marking targets.

Yep, and he clearly felt Pert's comment about "best culture in his 40 years in the game" was a jab at him.

Never mind the stuff he presided over at Collingwood (Didak, Shaw etc) What a nothing article, can't believe these guys get paid for this. Not that there's anything wrong in there but there's nothing insightful either. Just rehashing and listing a bunch of issues from the past year or so. No incisive commentary on it. No fresh take. Just a few paragraphs of hot air which sums up Malthouse to a tee. Compared to the buffoons that are his peers in the AFL he comes across as someone who is highly intelligent because he is articulate. He's not, he's just another boofhead with a better vocabulary.

Very nice 😉

Australian Football is a contact sport, always has been.