DeeSpencer

I can hardly trust Caro but Steve Smith has to take on the Presidency before we appoint a coach, anything else is just nonsense. The Board elect a President. They hire a CEO. Together with input of a subcommittee with a Footy Director/head of footy etc they hire a coach. You can’t have an interim President making moves only to hand over to the incoming President.

It’s far from terrible but the lack of leaders and quality players in their mid 20’s makes me think we’d be smarter to go backwards to go forwards than push hard the other way. There’s a possibility where we transition to new/younger talls as required and Tracc and Oliver get back to near their best but it’s unlikely. We’ve also got to nail recruiting a few ready made players and with our track record since the flag that seems hard to believe in.

In simple terms just get more comfortable playing in space. Attacking and defending. We’ve come along way already but there were some glaring moments against the dogs in the first half and by the end of the game Windsor did a hammy, Disco went off with cramp. That’s tied in to transitioning our midfield but it has to happen even if we stick with our current guys.

FB: May, McDonald?, Adams CHB: Petty, Disco, Derksen?, Lever? Int: Disco, Lever?, Howes/Rivers FF: Melksham?, Kentfield, Jeffo CHF: Mihocek?, Petty, Jeffo Ruck/Fwd: JVR, AJ Small ball: Fritsch, McAdam, Tracc I’m not sure 6 talls fits the modern game unless they can run and have skills. Disco as a much better mover than Lever provides some of that but he needs to improve his ball use. Up forward Jeffo is the interesting one because he’s got untapped speed, agility and skills Collingwood often park Darcy Cameron as a 3rd key defender and we’ve done that with Gawn at times when we’ve played 2 key backs. Langford and Culley are 2 options for marking targets around the ground too. I like seeing Harvey have a go at full forward in 4th quarters the last 2 weeks.

It’s a compelling stat but I also don’t think correlation = causation. So few coaches get a second chance. When they do it’s often Mick at Carlton, Eade at the Suns, Clarko at North where they’re in awful situations just trying to tread water to keep their job. Even if they weren’t good (or good so far for Clarko). And some of the great premiership coaches are done after their stint. Lethal at Brisbane, Bomber at Geelong, Sheeds! Roosy as a serious long term coach. If those guys took jobs in their prime (and Lethal at Brisbane counts like that) they could’ve succeeded.

You can have discussions all you like but the point is to assemble the best panel and listen to what a range of best candidates have to say. There's no way that's happened behind closed doors, not with how much the AFL (and MFC) leaks. I'm not saying we have to subject a Buckley/Simpson/Horse to a full scale interview process, we know what those guys are. But if you're not sitting down with a bunch of the brightest assistant coaches you're missing out on a whole heap of information that can be useful not just for finding the best coach.

I'm still not sold that he's a long term player, but it was a performance against a far better opposition that suggests he will get another 1 year deal. The tackling and strength at the contest were both steps forward that he didn't show a lot against the Eagles (honestly didn't need to).

I'd feel exactly the same with appointing Buckley as Ross Lyon. If your ego is too big for at least a first round of interviews then you probably aren't the man for the job. I doubt Carlton or anyone else are all that worried about missing out on Ross le Boss. Do the interviews, claim family reasons to drop out if it's not going that way. Everyone thought Terry Wallace was a lock to Hawthorn in 2004. They went through the process and Al Clarkson blew them away. 4 flags.

4, 6, 11, 11 (1 less win), 12, 13, Longmuir joints, 3 (loss granny), 4 (lost prelim), 8, sacked as team we on to finish 17th

Adrian Hickmott is doing an incredible job with Hawthorn’s forwards. Gunston - ancient Watson - tiny Ginnivan - part human/part troll Lewis - chronically injured Chol - 2 phones Dear - a teenager He’d be a fantastic choice on merit rather than picking Buckley on reputation.

We’re dumb, but we can’t possibly be appointing Nath Buckley without running a proper process levels of dumb can we? Buckley is an inferior version of Goodwin except rather than a media witch hunt to get him he’s got media fawning all over him. Bucks coached for 10 seasons and 9 out of 10 they went backwards. The only year they improved was the they poached Justin Longmuir to run a great defensive system.

Need a runner in tho. Can’t have May for Windsor. We could leave Sparrow in the starting 22, or drop him entirely but I think sub is a fair compromise. I don’t want to disrupt Casey too much either, those guys are having a good crack at finals. Lindsay in not Kolt is an option too, but I’d like to see Kolt play a little defensive mid.

May for Adams Kolt for Windsor Howes back, Bowey forward, Sparrow sub. It’s not harsh to drop Adams. He’s not ready. You can tell at Casey he’s not ready. He loses concentration and doesn’t seek out the ball. It’s good he got a taste and there were some flashes but he has to take that back to vfl and dominate.

Gawn has barely slowed down and is a legend, no issues with his deal. May still a very good player, been better this year than last, just the up ground defending has been awful at times. If we want to trade him we still can, I’d rather operate from the position of leverage with the deal. Viney deal was moronic at the time. It was a lame attempt at PR that achieved nothing. I’d be all for Jack getting 2 more years at a fair price (1 he deserves and 1 for legacy), instead he’s signed up for 3 more and I’m willing to bet its overs money.

Really starting to believe Luker is our most talented key forward, just a matter of getting the mind and body to afl level. Clean skills, clunking hands, times his leads and jumps. Jeffo might be second most talented too and he’s got tricks that can combine well with Luker too. I’d want a coach that really believes in these 2 if they do the work building their bodies to afl level.

The problem is his turning circle, slow skills/decision making and lack of leap would hurt him down back as much as they do forward. But to play off a forward and crash through packs he’d have some value and he’d find some easier marks. He reminds me of Caminiti at the Saints. Who’s been just fine as a key back, but probably depth in a good side. The big question is now he’s finished biking up if there’s more mobility and speed. Lumps just don’t cut it at afl level unless you’re Hawkins level lump

Pretty much all of that was driven by a certain HS journalist and his sources and we all know who they are. Now that they’ve got their main targets we’ll go back under the radar. There will be some tough calls on veteran players but nothing an experienced assistant can’t handle if the club gets back to supporting a coach properly which we did for most of Goodwin’s time

I'm 179cm, one paced, no aerial game but chuck me in the back pocket and I'll succeed purely on the vibes? What does he say to the coaches when he's had half a dozen goals kicked on him at hafl time?

It's a minor factor. Every club has pros and cons. Carlton are likely to be the only other side in the coaching market. They have better facilities with less travel (although getting from the inner South East where more coaches live to Princes Park every day is a real pain). But they also have 20+ years of incompetence and fire coaches every 3 years.

Canvassing outside opinions about the teams performance is a totally valid thing, that's entirely different to gauging interest in the job. As long as it's not a West Coast scenario where almost all the good candidates pull out I'd have not interest in whether Buckley declares himself interested in April or not. Aside from anything else there's always a good chance he changes his mind anyway. We don't need to go back to the messiah complex. Run the best process, hire the best candidate.

Goodwin was either the man for the job or wasn’t, and the field for the job will be the field. There’s no Hardwick to the Suns level perfect matches here. I’d be a lot more impressed with Smith if he was canvassing experienced footy people to learn more about how as a President he should run a club. That’s a much smarter thing to do than looking for coach replacements in April.

It’s a 45 minute drive twice a week. Given it often takes 20 Minutes from just about anywhere to get to AAMI park with Monash in bound/Punt road traffic the Casey factor is about the biggest overreaction I’ve ever seen. It won’t rule out anyone serious. In fact it might only help us rule out anyone who isn’t committed. The list (especially contracts) and the admin (board, ceo, head of footy) are both much bigger factors.

Our best form this year came when Spargo was back in the team at the start of the year. There’s some chicken and egg there but there’s a lot of hidden value to go a guy who gets to the right spots both in attack and defensively. I don’t think he’s a cream on top player either, he was vital to our build for more than just ‘21z That said, his body hasn’t been right and he’s probably sick of being torched by our mids. I’d imagine we’d get 3rd round compo if he signed for 3 years somewhere which isn’t a great deal for us but isn’t nothing.

2 days a week at Casey wouldn’t have been a deterrent to a bunch of players wanting success after 21 (or 22/23). I suspect the cap was the main factor, both the Covid restriction and then the post covid cap boom. Somehow our sign Clarry early for 900k turned in to him making 1.7. We completely struck out on our bargain basement buys. Even a couple of useful role players would’ve helped. Lever, May and Langdon came when we were storming up the ladder with young talent, we are now back in our natural order of things right towards the bottom of the recruiting ladder. Hopefully we can nail some of the bargain buys this year.

Ankle this year, knee the year before, foot in 22. 2 ACL’s in his career. Captaincy seems over, it’s now weighing up what he gives off field vs diminishing returns on field