Dr. Gonzo
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Everything posted by Dr. Gonzo
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I disagree but that is probably down to our individual expectations. When I look at team sports and the other sports I follow closely (NFL and NBA) not making Championship games (ie Prelim finals) for teams who should realistically be expecting to compete for the title is a failure. You need to make those games to give yourself a chance and then that's where luck can come into play to an extent. Failing to make the final four one season can happen without being emblematic of performance concerns, failing to make the final four in 5 of the last 6 seasons is a clear sign you have underperformed and is more than disappointing, it is a failure. This year has been a trainwreck but it is not in isolation. After the 2022 finals you could say, well we were pretty cooked and limped into finals so straight sets while frustrating is understandable if they back it up next year. Next year comes and we go out in straight sets again turning up unprepared and what seemed a bit she'll shocked by Collingwood (even before the Gus incident) a team who has our number. We played better against Carlton but still couldn't capitalise and out in straight sets again. Ok 2 strikes isn't great but let's see how they rebound next year. Now in 2024 things are falling apart at the seams. So it's not one year of poor performance in isolation, the club needs to be assessed on results this year in the context of the previous two years and the failure to make a Prelim in that time.
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I don't listen to the media, I don't watch anything footy related other than the games anymore. I form my opinions based on what I see on the field and what I see coming out of the club. Watching a team who should still be challenging for top 4 get shown up on multiple occasions this season including by an underperforming Lions on our home deck, a bottom 4 WCE team and a severely undermanned Collingwood and just rolling over to lose to a flakey Freo by almost 100 points is more than enough evidence to base on opinion on, I don't need media charlatans forming an opinion for me. We have a fundamental difference of opinion around what a high performing culture is and whether we have one. In professional sport, the only thing that matters is winning. Success will be measured differently based on where a club is at but when teams are matured and settled and have a group of players who can be considered AA worthy then the goal must be competing in Prelims each year for the duration of the teams window. You can come up with all the excuses you want, the fact is we have made a Prelim once since 2018 and have not been a challenger in those years we missed. It is clear to me our club has deficiencies which are preventing them from taking that next step to become perennial challengers. A part of that is personnel but the larger more important part is mindset. Until we get the mindset right we will just be making up the numbers.
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Arrogance is the shadow side of strength, you need to be strong and forthright without showing hubris.
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Home and away is the qualifying rounds and finals are where you stamp your credentials and where you are ultimately judged. Failing to make a Prelim the last two seasons is underperforming regardless of what happened prior to that. "Top 4 after H&A" is a meaningless metric, the only thing it does is give us a better opportunity to succeed in finals, something we failed to capitalise on in 22-23.
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So rather than reflect on the reason this team has under performed for 5 of the last 6 seasons (and 6 of the last 8 really) and identify where we need to improve as a club to get to the level we want to be, you're willing to write it off as just bad luck? Seems like head in the sand stuff to me, excuses which foster a poor culture. I think the issue is we are looking at culture from different angles. You're looking at it from the point of view of the happiness, for lack of a better word, of the players - their relationships with each other and the coaches. On this measure I think we are quite good, at least that is the commentary in the media from players/ex-players. However I'm looking at culture as the driving force to get the best out of the players/club, a high performance environment that is built for success. On this measure I think our culture isn't great, we don't have the killer instinct needed for sustained success in elite sport. The results speak for themselves, you can blame one year of underperforming on bad luck but you can't blame 75% of the last 8 years or last 4 years on bad luck. There will always be unfortunate variables impacting teams but the good ones roll with the punches and get on with it, they don't make excuses for poor results. Injuries, inaccuracy, weather, opponents, travel, fatigue whatever it is it is just excuses in the long run. And making excuses is weak in my view.
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Yes, I don't think scores from clearance is really the key metric here. Clearance allows teams to play the territory game so while they may not score direct from clearance it gives them more inside 50s and more time in forward half which leads to more scoring opportunities.
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It's not about any given year, it's about sustained performance. If last year were an outlier then yes, you could write it off. But when you look at our performance since 2019 (this year included) 2021 is the outlier. We do not have the culture for sustained success, not at the moment. Maybe we are still building it, the proof of the pudding will be in the eating. You didn't really address my underlying point though - what takes us from having a good culture to a great culture? What is impeding that? It's not just "bad luck".
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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.
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
