DeeSpencer

Caleb has a nice hit up kick in him when he has time to process, his terrible kicks come when he runs in to trouble. Bailey Smith is showing right now how valuable a super quick mid is even if they can’t hit the side of the barn. If - and it’s a decent if - Caleb can become a genuine ball winning mid he should kick it at least as well as Smith. But also that’s why Judd is so important to keep because he has excellent decision making and disposal. King has to find a way to convince him he’ll develop in to a star at Melbourne

Jones was only stoppage coach, with Sam Radford having a big role with the mids and I think we made progress at centre bounces. Not always great at around the ground stoppages. Not sure of the Max relevance, he's still a huge presence around the ground but unless he's taking it out of the ruck his hitouts are all over the shop and have been for years, good luck fixing that for any line coach. Assuming Jones is contracted he won't be going anywhere I'd hope they find another experienced assistant to help him still. Plus King will be hands on with the midfield I'm sure as that's the biggest area for any new coach to put their imprint on. Bassett delivered on what he was really asked to do which was improve our ball movement from the backline. We were miles better this year than last. That came at a cost as we played more assertive. And when the forward/midfield pressure was off it looked bad. It also leaves you more exposed. Our zone never really worked either, but that's a team issue Bassett has actually had more success as a forwards coach, if he stays I hope he's put in that role.

No one is giving us 11 for an uncontracted McVee, be serious people. Early second is the best we can get. King has to go pitch him on moving up the ground in a Geelong style game plan that sees the ball shared quickly and skilfully that suits Judd. Give me 2 years and I’ll have you as the next Max Holmes is the message I’d sell if I was King.

Simpson who is happy with his Whopper franchises and staying in Perth, horse who is burnt out and 2 guys who did the interviews before being overlooked. That’s what has upset you? Everyone in the afl says this is a serious coach. If he fails it’s more than likely because the club failed him, and no guarantee anyone else would’ve succeeded. You can be angry at the club but don’t be angry at a perfectly good choice

Haven’t heard a better name than Bartel for that strategy job. I can’t imagine Kelly leaves the Cats when he’s now likely the senior assistant. Very hard to get anyone out of Geelong once they’re settled down there. But it would be nice if he can grab someone. Chappy linked to Richmond and I suspect King gives him his blessing for a fresh start. We can’t have slow moving Chappy with our backline again. We need to keep the speed of ball movement going. Target lower level assistants from Hawthorn, GWS, Coll, Freo, Brisbane. Get a diverse group together from across a range of good clubs would be ideal.

I do find it funny there’s so much conjecture about us wanting Buckley when the rumour I think is much stronger was that Bevo was a target if he was available. Who do we hire? The guy who’s spent 6 years and 2 grand finals under Bevo

Nipples

We always planned to have a coach by the prelims. Bucks was meeting Tassie next Tuesday and asked us to wait until Wednesday. It doesn’t make a lot of sense that we wouldn’t wait until Wednesday if we really had Buckley number 1 on our list. Maybe it was the tie breaker. Maybe King is happier to work with our current staff. But I’m not buying that we wouldn’t wait for a time that’s inside our arbitrary time period.

Close relationship with Bucks. But also close relationship with Shocking and a lot of Geelong people were in first on Twitter. My conspiracy: Geel - we’re getting smashed in the media with our coach and star player verbally abusing women Melb - we can help with that, let us have the King up today for an announcement, take you guys off the news, and we’ll let him focus on the Cats for the next 2 weeks once he’s done

The only people who didn’t apply were the 2 Brisbane guys - Daly and Bruce and Enright. I think succession plans account for 2 of them. Possibly with Daly also with a lot on his plate not liking the time frame. And if Cam Bruce pushed hard for the job he could’ve assumed favouritism from Buckley given he’s a former player with his ex team mate as President. The great thing about having Bucks on board is he was a benchmark. If he was by far the best applicant we’d have begged him to take the job. King and apparently others met or even exceeded that benchmark.

After Geelong are out of finals. Hopefully that’s prelim week

I’m a big time Goodwin defender, he’s a very good coach, but honestly the more I look at it the more I think coaching change was necessary and inevitable. If Goodwin was to stay we still needed to overturn the footy department and list. Possibly in such a way that would’ve made Goodwin’s job even harder in future years. Just too many comfortable players yet alone the rumours of unhappy guys. Buckley was never a sure thing. Nor should he have been. Give me this result over Buckley appointed no questions asked any day of the week.

Written and authorised by Buckley’s chief PR strategist

He’s got 2 weeks to steal as much information as possible! Geelong took all they could from us. Even stole our runner! There’s a few players who need a phone call from a new coach, otherwise all we really needed was to show a vision. The existing staff can convey that until King starts

When you balance the Marvel Club handicap of basically not having a genuine home ground vs Collingwood benefits of 17 games at the G they’re roughly equal

Neeld failed because of personality, but the club and list was screwed regardless. Needed a full clean out to rebuild the rebuild. Neeld did us a favour

Did this require its own post

Brad Scott did a very solid job at North (running on the smell of an oily rag), for the best part of 10 years. 211 games: 106 wins, 105 losses. 4 finals series. 2 (back door) prelims. Buckley at Collingwood (with all the resources money can buy). 218 games: 117 wins, 99 losses, 2 draws. 5 finals, 2 prelims and a lost GF. When you handicap for degree of difficulty of the job they’re about equal, especially given they both started in the pre footy cap era. After 4 years away from coaching (the same time period as Bucks) Scott was lauded by his friends in the media as a very sensible solid hire at Essendon. A strong leader. A culture changer. The sensible experienced hire after many journeys through the wilderness since the Sheeds days. But 3 years later where is he at? They spent 2 years building 11 and 11.5 win teams that finished 11th. Then they have an injury list from hell that wipes out a year. No discernible strengths or game plan. No real list directive until maybe Merrett and Ridley give them one now. And despite the experience and wisdom and a bunch of denials there doesn’t seem to be any relationship between the coach and his players - including the highly paid captain - who are desperate to get out. Obviously nothing is guaranteed, and most first time coaches don’t succeed, especially with a less than ideal list set up. But I’d also rather fail spectacularly shooting for something innovative than to be where Essendon are now.

He quit in Feb 2021, to spend more time with his kids. We can round that up!

They did research across the comp and initial chats to form a short list for the formal interviews so they were down to 6 before then. Take out Skipworth that’s 5 that they thought were all worthy candidates. There’s no shortage of things they can do in interviews to test candidates. Aside from them laying out their vision and their level of preparation (training sessions, review methods, coaching structure) you can do things like mock press conferences and player meetings.

It’s a bit of a reach but if you count Kelly’s last two playing years as coaching - which was a big part of what he was at Essendon to do - he’s been in a somewhat coaching role since 2016. Played under Bomber and Scott, coached under Worsfold, Rutten (for a preseason before going F this, I’m going to be a dad for a season) and Scott. To me it’s enough experience, the only thing you’d love would be if he coaches his own side but with the nature of the afl system plenty of good coaches never do.

Think I’m a no on Flanders unless it’s a future 2nd and that’s about it. Hardwick doesn’t trust his contested work or defensive running to be a midfielder or that he has the pace to run off half back. He’s unremarkable on a wing. We could play him on ball and he’d help us short term but I think we have to plan around a Langford/Lindsay midfield. If Langford’s the fulcrum of our future midfield we need pace around him. He reminds me of Cerra when he was leaving Freo and we had interest and I kind of think that’s the level he’ll end up. A midfielder who’s not quite reaching the heights you want.

Let me go on record and say I was. Never liked the Grundy move, saw it as a waste of time. Hated the Lachie Hunter move, just a disaster. Didn’t see the point of Billings. I had some optimism for Fullarton because almost every 200cm athletic guy improves in the ruck in their mid 20’s. If he was able to ruck 20% he had the ability on the lead to get out of the way up forward. Turns out he was the exception. Was all for McAdam but not at the price. And I didn’t like the cost of the Tholstrup trade up that I maintain was never intended for Tholstrup, hence the last minute dash west to meet the parents. And can’t say I was on board with the Lindsay trade up either, just too many picks in a deep draft. We’ve burnt 3 x second rounders and 3 x third rounders on moves that have got us nowhere and if we kept those picks we’d have a bunch of guys going in to years 2, 3, 4 and be a in a stronger position to chase some real difference makers this year.

Sure, but 12.5 game a year for McAdam wasn’t zero. If he was a 3rd rounder not a 2nd I wouldn’t be bothered by the failed trade. Future 2nd rounder that became a great pick was a dud deal from the day it was made

Martin: 11, 12, 13, 3 traded or delisted or whatever it was at age 29. McAdam: 13, 15, 15, 7 traded at age 28. I can see why McAdam was worth more. A year younger and 50 games over 4 years not 40. And the 3 year deal was required to get him. But the future second round pick was always too much. Everything about him said 3rd rounder. Peatling, a far superior player last year. Future 2nd and got a future 3rd and 4th back. Justin Reid drives a hard bargain. There’s no evidence that being nice in trades hurts you down the line either. The other factor with McAdam is he played round 11 last year whilst still underdone, he didn’t look great. Cats didn’t race Martin in at all, debut in round 14. Shane looked phenomenal in preseason tho. Fittest he’d ever been. Total bummer because I still believe in the talent.