binman

A truly trumpian level of debating skills.

Assuming we keep viney (who is much much more consistent) trading brayshaw is on the cards. As it should be. Im probably in a minority but this period is my least favourite part of the year ie straight after the season and prior to official trading. So much gossip and palaver. And I dislike our players being shopped, bagged etc etc. I get invested in them. But putting my trading hat on we have too many inside mids in our best 22. With more in the wings in Jordan and Sparrow. If viney stays Brayshaw is the logical bloke to trade. His only top shelf footy is in the middle and there are two ahead of him, three if you include viney. And perhaps as important outside trac, Maxy and Oliver he is the only player at the dees with any decent trade value whatsoever. Who else gets us say a first round draft pick? A team like the suns or even the blues would love another good inside mid.

Didn't age well.

Oh wrong thread. I thought this was Brad Crouch thread.

Not keep daniher im guessing. Some money to spend.

Great post JG. I listened to Jennings a few times in the ladt part of the year. I found him really engaging and interesting. Good ability to explain things simply. He made a really interesting comment about us after I think the freo loss. Basically that our current game plan is now very defensive (implying, at least that was my sense too defensive). and default play is down tbe line and slow movement. The model players to be clear about their role and play it to the letter. Not much scope for individual creatvity and flair and natural football. Ironic then for goody to criticize his players of boring. To be fair to goody his game plan reflects where the game is at, though there is a question if we have the required skill level and players for thst model (and my answer is no). Leaving the game plan aside though i share your concerns about how easy he is to work with. I'd add i wonder how he goes managing syers who perhaps are a bit different or don't have total buy in to his approach (which every team at every club had). I know he us big on relationships and I've read on here that his players love him. But - and I'll hasten to add that I've never met him so perhaps this is unfair - my feeling is that he may not have tbe highest EQ and may not manage conflict or dissenting views very well. He has always struck me as a my way or the highway sort of person. Which is an outdated 1980s style management not suited to such a big group of people who make an AFL football club in 2020. In his public speaking he struggles to relay a strong message and connect. Whilst pressers etc are a different forum than communicating to his players, i do wonder how effective his messaging is to his players. On this last point many pundits and indeed dl posters have noted that players have often looked confused about their roles. And then you get the strange messaging around his scatter shot approach to selections. I may be wrong, but if not if goody is as committed to learning and personal growth as he says he us then I hope he addresses this opportunity for improvement.

I'm happy to bundle up the ice cream maker my wife bought six years ago (which has yet to be used), the shorts she bought me yesterday and a half eaten jar of Spreewalder pickled gherkins.

What about mine? I got a good ALDI catalogue today

Totally agree LH. I actually think the whole break out narrative is a complete nonsense and has impacted how his career thus far has been viewed, which is by and large he hasn't fulfilled his talent until this year. Even some die hard dees fans on this site underrate both his output and consistency. Part of the issue is that he is obviously super talented and people want to see break out games. But he is the ultimate team player and often has looked to give off goals rather than go for glory himself. If he was less team focused he would have a lot more highlights (and goals) which often is all the peanuts commentators notice or opposition fans see (think Degoey early on). I thought he was close to our best player last year, loved his consistency and i put a big store in players who play well in losing sides so my respect for him grew a lot. And he was terrific in his other season too. He has been amazing this year. Arguably the best season from a dee in a long time. An AA lock a long way out. Obviously that was on the back of the work he put in to get super fit, but even that is sometimes framed as a negative. As in great he did it this year - why hasn't he before? Well for one thing, as you point out Luci he had an ACL in his first year and an interrupted preseason the next year. Also he has the build of a power athlete, not a runner, so i'm sure it takes longer for him to reach peak fitness (i remember reading Burgess saying it can take a player three full preseason of work to get to peak fitness).

Could not agree more. Her fellow 'experts' should be totally embarrassed how much knowledgeable and switched on and verses in the modern game she is. Beyond the knowledge she has developed from playing, it is evident she actually does research about the game in general and the game she is covering, which makes the complete lack of research by peanuts such as Darcy, Ling, Carey and Richardson shamefully obvious. How much do they get paid? Of all the people involved in the coverage of footy across fox and 7 she is by far the best, with Bartel and Hodge the best of the rest (which really is no great compliment). Channel 7 should make her a main caller, not sideline her as boundary rider.

Nailed it.

Great post. His speech was brilliant i thought. I was super impressed. The best I have heard him speak publicly.

Seems logical given goody all but confirmed he would play next year. Any thoughts on where things sit now?

At the start of the bluey broadcast they had pretty slick video intro with a montage of shots of them getting on and off planes and busses and shots of them arriving at different grounds with text super imposed with stuff like 6 flights, 8 stadiums, 64 bus rides, five states etc. You can see it here (it is at the very start):

Seriously, you could not make this [censored] up.

Can confirm. I have heard a rumour though, from a very reliable source, that the club is desperate for him to stay and has put a big money offer to him, but that he has said if they trade his brother he is gone.

This is a good point. Players might be fine with goody, but the best players might be jack of some of their teamates. If I was oliver busting my gut week in, week out I would be far from thrilled with efforts of melksham this year for instance. And a star like trac even if not frustrated by his teamstes, might look around and conclude this group aint going to take me to the mountain top, not matter how good a coach goody is.

Spot on Titan. And also Nudge. Totally agree with your comments. A few random related thoughts: The culture in footy is never make excuses and blame injuries or external factors such as draws etc for poor results. Be that as it may there is no denying we got shafted this year by the AFL in terms of where and when we had to play (no coincidence this was highlighted in the video montage at the sart of the bluey or again by Goody in his speech) You don't reckon the players would have royally [censored] off about that? I do. It is bulltish we had to go to Cairns. We play those two game at Metricon or the Gabba and we make finals. Of that i have no doubt. I'm no making excuses, but with the players, all hubbed together and having no space to think or get outside calming voices, it is easy to imagine angst building and thoughts like the Pies would never get treated like that being verbalized In any year that the team doesn't meet expectations there is going to be a level of discontent In any year, even successful ones, there will be a group of players angry or frustrated with how they have been treated - maybe feel they have been played out of position, didn't get games they felt they should have, other players selected ahead of them, annoyed at the coach for whatever reason (eg thinking he is playing favorites) etc etc That sort of end of season angst has no doubt been the case since 1859, but these days is amplified and made public by social media and the gossip fueled media that feeds off scuttlebutt How best for a player these days to make their angst known? - strategically leak it (perhaps by their player manager) to a family member, friend or associate you know is a total gossip and won't be able to resist telling someone And having done so, that info will find its way to a footy form where a poster will not be able to resist sharing the tidbit - perhaps to grind an axe, perhaps because of an agenda (eg they hate the coach) or most likely they just like sharing gossip (nothing wrong with that - who doesn't like gossip?) This stuff happens every year, and will do so forever - it happened last year with trac for instance and he signed a new 2 year contract. Go figure

I'm confused. No compensation would make up for you crying? And even if it could, who would pay it and what would it be? A thousand smiles? Some chuuckles. Maybe 2000 guffaws?

Yes he was. It wasn't live.

Yep. Add in some of your mates have literally just been sacked, some are going to another club (you know that but few outsiders do) and. there is the usual angst associated with any team that fails to meet expectations. On top of that one of the teams in your resort is playing finals. And you either head home to lock down in Melbourne or stay in the most boring beach town on earth.

I think it was draw your own conclusion about whether the bluey was a pre record

As goody mentioned we have changed our game plan quite a bit this year (no easy thing to do and some players struggle with learning new stuff i reckon). We are much more defensive and the model requires all team buy in to maintain the zone. Part of the defensive shift is much more defence with ball in hand, tempo footy. We are more systems focused than ever and so roles are super important. A combination of learning new systems (which is hard at the best of times) and a model that does not leave much space for playing on instinct is hard yakka. Add in the hub, all the weird selection decisions and not making finals and you get a recipie for discontent. And selling that system whilst also maintains morale and buy in AND being ruthless is a pretty tough ask for any coach.

About?

That's my vibe too jb. He's gonski