Jaded No More

Jordan Lewis is very good friends with Buckley, and Max. Total conflict of interest. I really don’t get the hate for Watson. He isn’t the best public speaker but he is a champion player who went thru a lot of turmoil and was captain of his club. He would know more than most about toxic cultures and regrouping after bad times. He has also been out of the game long enough to have no association with any possible candidates on a personal level and has no affiliation to any of our players like Lewis for example. You need neutral unbiased voices in this process if you want it to run properly. Peter Jackson was Essendon’s CEO before he was ours and that never got brought up. So why is it an issue that Guerra was an Essendon fan?

Caro trying to turn Buckley off us so he can go coach for her bestie Gale at Tassie. I don’t mind her but in this case she’s just trying to advance her own agenda.

Why the hell would anyone in a starting 22 of a club that is not West Coast, choose to go to West Coast?

He’s playing waaay more midfield time now. So kicking a bag is less likely regardless. Would be lovely to see him kick 6 on Sicily and 10 on Maynard. We can dream.

Why do people take issue with Watson? I think it's important to have an ex player/captain on the panel, especially one who went through a lot of upheaval from a cultural standpoint. And if anyone thinks he would vote for Hird you are deluded. Hird ruined his career and robbed him of a Brownlow.

Step 1: get more Pickett Step 2: world domination

I think all indication was that he would see out the season. I am not sure if the timing change was because we got spooked by Carlton potentially sacking Voss and leaving us in a race for a new coach, or perhaps the St Kilda loss debacle, or maybe even that we got a strong indication from our preferred candidate that he's keen on the role. Either way I also believe that expectations were a post season review, and I am sure Goody at least hoped that he would continue on as coach into next year, but he definitely would have known that his position was being reviewed. Not just his either, the entire Footy Department was/is under review. I also believe that the board was divided on this decision, so would have given him no indication one way or another until a decision was made. But he was presenting to the board regularly, so there is no doubt he knew his role was being reviewed. In the end I think his unwavering belief in the group was his undoing. He died on the 'this group can be successful again' hill. His loyalty and love for his players was reciprocated off the field, but on it, that belief was delivering us way too many loses.

So you don't think he knew his position was at risk? I have no doubt he was blind sighted by the timing, but I strongly believe that he knew his role was under review and not 100% safe.

Probably sick of losing like we all are

Goody has been around footy long enough to know that you live and die by results. He would have known his job was not safe after a 0-5 start, following a bad off season where a review was undertaken and pointed to issues with Goody (amongst other issues), and after a bottom 4 finish in 2024 and two straight set exists prior. He maybe didn't think he'd be getting sacked 3 weeks out from the end of the season, but he is not a stupid man, and to suggest he didn't know he was in trouble especially after we lost to St Kilda in Alice, a [censored] side in Carlton and then that debacle against St Kilda the second time around, is naïve. The outcome of the review last year was that we were good enough to play finals in 2025. That was the expectations and Goody and the board agreed on that. When it became obvious we won't play finals yet again, despite Goody's strong belief that we are not too far away, his position became almost untenable. Does the board still believe we are not far away from success again? Perhaps. But with a new coach coming in, my guess is that they are open to going into a mini rebuild. The problem doesn't lie in the board and the coach not being aligned, the problem was that they were aligned on their expectations, and the expectations were not met. Had Goody said we needed to rebuild 2 years ago, it's very possible he would still be in the job today, but he was adamant we could play finals after a poor 2024 where perhaps injuries didn't help after a pretty promising start. 2025 was a no excuse year.

Droppable offense. Hope you told Chaplin.

Clarry in hoops is vomit inducing. Tell him horizontal stripes are very unflattering please.

I think we lost both players in the succession plan unexpectedly in Gus and Nibbler. Gus would be our captain today if he hadn't retired, and Nibbler would be next in line. Chin is someone I know is rated very highly for his leadership qualities and abilities to unite the group both old and young. Could be a dark horse for the future.

Would that perhaps be the quarter we scored 7 goals against a finals contender perhaps? It’s almost like when Clarry plays well we are a better team.

I’ve read a lot of mind boggling hot takes on this site over the years. This is certainly an opinion. Not a good one. Or a smart one. Or one anchored in facts, common sense or logic, but an opinion nonetheless.

So if you're lucky to win it, like say McRae or Beveridge was, it counts, but if you're unlucky to just miss out, like say Buckley or Lyon it doesn't? We operate in an industry where every year 17 clubs lose. It took us 57 years to win a grand final, 21 years earlier we got smacked in one. Winning premierships is the most difficult matrix to judge coaches on, because it happens so rarely to just about every club even those with the luxury of AFL support in terms of fixture, home ground advantage and draft / academy picks. The problem for us over the last two years is that we haven't been in the race. You need to be making finals and finishing top 4 to give yourself a chance, we haven't done that. A new coach is not guaranteed to win us a flag, just as Goodwin was not guaranteed to win us another one. It's about getting a new voice that can maximise our chances of being in a position to compete. To get back into finals with a game plan that stacks up against the better sides, while getting the most out of our current list. I can make a million cases where rookie coaches failed, and failed miserably. Including at Melbourne. Just as you can make a case that second time round coaches have also failed. The success rate of coaches is literally 1 in 18 per year if we only judge them on flags won.

Experienced senior coaches, especially premiership winning ones, don't go through the same vetting process as assistants when trying to get another senior role. Simpson and Longmire would not put themselves through rounds and rounds of presentations and interviews, only to be told sorry but no. We will likely go through a process of interviewing some good assistant coaches as a preliminary process, having already spoken with Buckley. And if one of them really impresses, then Buckley might have more work on his hands. Just because the job is Buckley's to lose, doesn't mean he can't or won't lose out to a new name. But Longmire and Simpson were never going to put themselves into a process without being told they are going to get the job after some formalities and a power point presentation to the board. Buckley is not in the same space as those two, as he's been out of the coaching game for a while. If Buckley goes through a quicker process than some other candidates we might approach, it's only because he's had a longer lead time to get himself ready for a role that he likely knew was coming. I have no doubt we've spoken with him, Longmire and Simpson (don't believe the media spin from them) throughout the year before we sacked Goody.

Pickett can sleep soundly, because every incoming coach would die to coach him and would be so spectacularly happy to have him part of the long term future. I know he was very close to Goody, but he shouldn't worry that a new coach will love him any less. He also still has Matty Whelan there. If Buckley is our next coach, I hope he learnt a whole lot of what not to do working in an organisation where systemic racism was a big issue. Again, thank god for Matty Whelan doing such a marvellous job!

He's had too many injury setbacks at the back end of the season to debut. Otherwise I reckon he would have definitely played a few games this season. Which is a shame for him. It would be a wild take to give Kentfield a go, but I'm here for it.

I don't want to drag this out because we are on the wrong thread, but just so we are clear at no point did I mention that Clarry shouldn't take responsibility for his behaviour, nor that I am happy with his output. He is not happy with it either. But that is a totally separate issue to the one we are discussing. Regardless of who is at fault, fitness has been a major issue and has impacted his output and it will get better and so will his output with it. And I don't know that comparing players to Bont and Neale, is going to get us anywhere. I wish all our players were Bont and Neale level professional, but they are part of the 1% not the 99%. Clarry and Trac were with them once. I hope they can get back to that.

He missed half of 2023 with the hamstring, came back for finals and injured his knee but kept playing. Missed the entire 2024 pre season, for both publicly known reasons and also reasons a lot of the public doesn't and will never know. Came back to play round 1 2024, and broke his hand. His hand was so badly broken he couldn't lift weights for nearly the entire year. It was insane to not put him straight into surgery, but there were reasons why we wanted to keep him playing and focused on footy. It was not good for him physically, but actually it really helped him mentally which was rightly the priority. He also injured his PCL again at the back end of 2024. So essentially he's had no continuity with his body for 18+ months. He completed a full pre season this year, but as we know from guys like Tmac, Viney, Lever etc when you miss so much footy with persistent injuries especially entire pre-seasons, it takes a really long time to get back to peak fitness. The problem for Oliver is that to play his role effectively he has to be 100% fit aerobically. Not 99% fit, but 100% fit. Until 2023 we never saw him battle injuries that impacted his fitness. Yes he had ongoing shoulder issues, but they didn't prevent him from running, doing weights and so on, and he didn't miss entire pre seasons as a result. I think it is a credit to both him and Trac for doing so much work this pre-season to get through a whole year without any soft tissue injuries given how much footy they missed. Although in the grand scheme of things Trac missed 6 months, but was very fit prior to injury. Clarry has battled for almost 3 times that long with a variety of issues that impacted his fitness. As the year has gone on you can see that Clarry has naturally improved his fitness due to playing more and more games, and that has really improved his game. I agree that footy is moving away from needing multiple contested beasts, but you always need players who can win the ball and use their hands to release others out wide. That will never change, and it will be even more noticeable come finals. Viney is at the back end of his career and his skills will never get better. Trac has his own mental demons to deal with, and we have no idea if he will ever over come them. Clarry also has mental demons, but from a physical point of view he is only going to get fitter (unless injuries stop him of course). I am not sure who wins us clearances if he leaves, when we all agree that Viney and Trac need to play predominantly different roles in the future. Do I think Langford, Lindsay, Kosi and Windsor will be good mids? Absolutely. Will they ever get to the contested winning abilities of Clarry? That is a big unknown.

Agreed I am not sure if we made him sub with the plan of taking Adams off, but it made no sense as height wise they are not like for like. Sparrow is actually a good sub option as he can play multiple roles, half forward, wing and inside mid. Even half back at a pinch. He is a low impact player, but will be happy to fill any sort of role.

Gotten better as the season has gone on because he is finally getting closer to full fitness after missing so much footy. Spent more TOG today as well than he has in a while. Oliver will be back to his best with another full uninterrupted pre season under his belt. I have no doubt about that. His quick hands in close are going to become more important the less we play Viney and Trac as midfielders and the more we try to get Kosi Windsor etc on ball to use their speed and skills.