Demon Dynasty

Hey guys. Happy new year to you all. Been in Hawaii for a while and just returned. Anything interesting happened in AFL/Demonland while i was away?

The news that we can't lure a successor and the recent statement from PJ is the best news i've heard since the Roos appointment was announced. "It’s an important decision and not one we are going to rush as a club. If we have to wait a year to find the best candidate, we are comfortable in doing so."... Peter Jackson 14 October 2013 ...If there was to be a public mention of a successor and a big push so early into the Roos appointment then at the very least, this should have been the official line from day one. And, as i have argued strongly before, mention of a successor should never have been made public at all IMO, at least not until certain criteria/benchmarks/hurdles were met by Roos within the first 2 years (approx). Afterall, we did employ him to coach as well surely!!?? If he wasn't keen on doing the hard yards over 2 or 3 years (at least) then we should never have made the appointment. I'm assuming this is not the case with fingers and toes crossed and i will remain positive that Roos is in this boots and all unless proven otherwise. This club was in a parlous state and still is. Fix the problems on the field (which will no doubt have a run off effect financially off the field as well), get the club competitive and earn some respect over at least 2 seasons (ie., show the AFL and all concerned that it wasn't a flash in the pan). THEN... start talking successor. You might also find that with that new respect and a "winning" culture, some decent candidates on offer in a year or two might be more willing to seriously consider joining us instead of staying where they are or taking up other offers. The same can be said of prospective player talent/trades who might be available in a few years time. The following terms/quotes aren't used often because they aren't true. "Build it and they will come", "Success breeds success", "Genius is 1% talent and 99% percent hard work (Einstein). Finally we might be getting on with focussing 110% of our attention to the massive task of making this club competitive and, in the short term, making the most of the draft period etc. Honour before honours!!

To those who are a bit non plussed or worse re Col leaving, i wouldn't be overly worried. Roos will bring a "team" factor to the Demons that's been missing for decades. Individual greatness and effort will also be needed and will need a decent replacement/improvement soldier for Col, but Roos will find a way and build and improve on the loss plus some. Roos is not about to sit back and just allow things to continue "as you were". We are in good hands. Just throw as much $ and support at the club as you can, sit back, and enjoy what's to come. We finally have a bloke in charge who can turn things around. Won't happen overnight but it will happen. The day of the MFC accepting medicority is dead. Col moving on is just part of a much bigger Roos driven picture and winning culture. ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOS!!!!

This has been my concern from day one of the Roos announcement. The appointment i love. However, the public (and behind scenes) announcement that we are on a mission to appoint a successor from the get go is flawed IMO. It paints everyone into a corner and on a path that this "must" happen asap. Whereas a better option, i would have thought, was to have Roos at least "achieve" a pass mark on a short term set target. eg., say something like.... "finish somewhere between 9th to 12th by end of year 2". Once this is acheived (with maybe other benchmarks linked to some sort of target like this) you then move on to the successor phase beginning year 3 onwards and a slow withdrawal of Roos as head coach with his replacement taking over once Roos & Co. are happy that all is well. The new man taking over in say year 4 or 5. IMO it's a massive ask for Roos, Jackson & Co. just to get the club to being a consistently competitive unit, week in and week out within a few years, let alone trying to find and put in place a number of candidate/assistants from day one, start grooming them, then choosing and setting a preferred one on a path to replace Roos ASAP. If Roos were coming into a reasonable AFL club set up/culture i would say no probs. But the MFC has been a galaxy away from anything resembling a 'reasonable' footy club for at least 3 years now. And as we can see already, the window for the best possible option may open up in 6, 12 or 18 months. In addition, if the club shows some significant improvement, the list of potential candidates and their enthusiasm to join us, may well grow from it's present state. With the existing P.J. strategy, it would seem we are almost locked into a 'selection phase' now with whatever might be available in the next few months only. I could be off the mark. P.J. and Roos might be quite flexible on this and might be in no hurry whatsoever. I hope so. Don't get me wrong, i'm 100% behind the Roos appointment and have already re-joined/increased $ spend on membership, Something i've never done so early pre-season. Hec, I'm so wrapped I've even signed son myself and son up in the Demon Army for the first time. It's just that i believe we can't afford any distractions from the main game in the first few years of his coaching tenure. And that main game, as i'm sure most would agree, is to right what was a seriously listing MFC ship. 100% of everyone's efforts will be needed just to do so. IMHO the successor plan is a good 'medium term' idea, but a premature distraction early on in the Roos tenure. Get some respect back into the Club first. Worry about the new guy (and who's available/willing/appropriate) sometime after that's been acheived.

This isn't a new scenario. We've been snuffed by the likes of the Pies, Bombers and Blues (and to a lessor extent the Cats) for years. That's how they became strong winning culture clubs while we wallowed and scrounged our way as bottom feeders, looking for the scraps for decades. Nothing's changed. The big boys don't wish to give up the power they acheived from back then. Who would. We've been part of the dumbass mediocrity clubs within the VFL (now AFL) that accepted this carp and we (with the other small fry) continued to roll over on it for decades. I would also include the Hawks in here. They secured the Morning Peninsula zone in the late 60's which produced a prolific breeding ground for them and many a great footballer. Some insignificant ones as well. You know, minor name players the likes of Knights, Mathews and Dermy, just to name a few Extract courtesy of wikipedia.... From the mid-1960s, Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon (and to a lesser extent Geelong) perennially dominated the competition because their greater wealth allowed them to monopolise top country players and build up greater playing strength than was previously possible, while Footscray, St Kilda and Fitrroy were in grave danger of folding. The VFL's response was to zone rural Victoria and the Riverina of New South Wales in a similar manner to metropolitan Melbourne. Because of the sparseness of Australia's rural population, the country zones related not to the player's address, but rather to the league in which he played. This difference made zone boundaries impossible to adjust and was a critical component of the failure of country zoning. Because the VFL was aware that discrepancies existed in the strength of each zone, it was originally planned that the zones would be rotated every year so that each club would obtain a chance of receiving the best young country players. However, Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon had productive zones and were naturally unwilling to give them up for less productive ones, so the zones remained the same from the inception of country zoning until it was abolished in 1986. There was also no provision for demographic changes which occurred in the various country zones, which exacerbated the problems mentioned above.

I wouldn't be so eager to replace Sylvia with a HB. Maybe one more year to see what he can offer under Roos but i'd rather consider replacing him with a better outside ball user as well as targeting another 2 to 3 solid insiders to assist Jones and Viney. But they would want to be prolific ball winners in and under if replacing Sylvia as he does a pretty good job for us here. Alternatively, if he's on the move anyway, replace with someone who uses the ball very effectively with limited opportunites. That's the key in todays highly congested stoppage/rolling scrum style of game. I believe our defense is looking pretty solid at this point. No need for another running HB with limited lifespan who wont be around during a potential premiership window in Shaw. We need elite ball users by hand and foot thwough the middle and i'd be looking at someone like Tayte Pears* who's out of contract. Only 23, had the best 'average' disposal efficiency percentage in the AFL this year at 86% (for players who've played more than a handfull of games), ranked 14th overall. Is more of an outside uncontested ball winner but that's exactly what we need as well as an additional 2 to 3 insiders IMO. http://www.essendonfc.com.au/news/2013-07-04/pears-hopeful-on-new-deal We have Jones boy, Viney (to grow into another inside mid role) and to a lessor extent possibly Trengove (can't see it though) for the next 5 years or so at least. Toumpas, Pears, Clisby, Kent and Pickles would be very handy outside runners drifting forward and back to help out. The option for Sylvia, doesn't have to be Tayte, but we need much better ball users (efficiency wise) than Col (ranked 568th in the leauge). I note that Jetta (18th), Strauss (19th), Pedo (77th) and Clisby (87th) were the only boys to rank in the top 100 in the league in this stat. Obviously Jetta and Strauss having such limited game time may not be a true reflection of their ability here so they fall into the 'handfull of games' area where the jury is out. Col does get a fair amount of it. Ranked 7th to round 15 in contested and uncontested (within the club). He was also ranked 3rd in the tackle count to that point of the season. So his big body and work ethic is there in and around the stoppages. His biggest difficiency at this point i believe is his disposal efficiency % where he's ranked 30th (club) and (568 league) at around 63.5% (team's average to round 15 was 70.9%). I believe the league average is approx 73%. Can Roos and co improve Col's percentage by about 10% to get it to the team's average at this late stage? The entire team needs a 4.2% improvement overall to get to AFL average. Not that insurmountable. However, to get to AFL average Col would need to see an improvement in his disposal efficiency by a massive 15%! That's more than 3 times what's required from a team point of view. I have faith that Roos can achieve the team average improvement to approx league average in a season or 2. Not sure he can work that kind of miracle, or even close to it, with Col given the late stage he's at career wise, however i think Sylvia's done enough to at least have a season under Roos. Who knows, he might surprise everyone with this area of his game but his heart/head would need to be in the right place. Roos and co are more than capable of sorting all this anyway so i'll defer to their learned judgement. * Provided he receives WADA / ASADA clearance

Getting Roos on board is a game changer, not just for Watts but for the entire club. This is one part of that change and there's many big pieces of the puzzle that will come together over the next few seasons under the watchful eye of P.J. and the wisdom of Roos. I have faith that Roos will get the job done and we'll see a different attitude and level of commitment from Watts next year (and some others). Without Roos on board I doubt I would ever have believed this to be the case. And I don't think Watts would have had that belief either. We'd be seeing him running around in a different guernsey and some on here, including myself, wouldn't have given two hoots.

They'll be putting their foot up Chappy's bum I wld think. May have cost them a shot at the flag. Pathetic umpiring in the last 20 minutes of the 2nd which brought the Hawks back from the brink (they were rattled) and some poor play from experienced players like Hunt and Kelly didn't help. Rivers started the doubts/rot going as well with his woeful kick on the full when under no pressure. They played panick footy after that. Pods and Hawkins had little impact overhead and pods gave them nothing higher up the ground like he usually does. Both got towelled up by their opponents once the ball hit the deck. The Hawks won more of the clearances out of the middle and with a strangling forward press in that last quarter. Fresher legs probably played a part as well. IMO Scott also managed the older brigade poorly by not resting a heap of them just before the finals a la Lyon (Freo). I cant think of a worse GF than Hawks vs Freo. Freo will eventually get trounced and the game itself will be an absolute yawn for the first half until the Hawks finally break the shackles after half time. Oh, my mistake there's an equally worse GF match up looming and thats if the Swannies somehow scrape through. They'll get smashed from the 2nd quarter onwards I reckon. Cant see either team getting within 8+ goals of the Hawks at this point. I cant watch another round of Hawks backslapping their way into the rooms yet again after running around the G with another cup. Such a bunch of chuckers/cheaters and arrogant pricks. 2014 roll on.

You're assumption of ignorance by others in some of the basic ASADA/WADA official processes/protocol is an astounding assumption in itself. Well done. Oh, and i never said the process wouldn't run its course, whatever that may be. Whilst i wouldn't be surprised to see 1 or 2 "token" infraction notices being issued to scape goats by year's end or over the off season, with more than likely a 6 month max suspension (and possibly a few more being given suspended sentence infractions), I look forward with interest in seeing how your prediction of impending disaster will hurl itself upon the AFL and the soon to be "essentially" broke Bombers in the next 12 months. Sorry but i'm more than happy to agree to disagree with your impending doom call. I will happily ban myself from this site for the equivelent of the maximum length of suspension given IF your prediction of at least (approx) 10 Bomber players are given 2 year suspension infraction notices. And no, 1,2 or 3 won't qualify

I agree. Certainly none that you, i, the general public or anyone other than those that "need to know" will ever officially be made aware of

:wub: Jeepers. There's a heap of man love going around this place lately. So different to the last few years. Wonder how Biff is handling all this!

Are you insinuating that the sun once shone out of Brian's....ummm?

Not from me you didn't CB

I think you'll find that the AFL/ASADA may have already settled on things Jack. Bombers out of the finals at just the right time for AFL. That is, maximise revenue during regular season but just in time to avoid any tainting of finals series and allow a clean run in the press, back again WITHOUT player infractions/suspensions to start 2014 season in full swing. All about minimising losses and maximising revenue. Nothing unusual though. Big Business practises and those pulling the strings at same will almost always closely follow a path towards maximising the almighty $.

No ill will towards Brian. As was already mentioned it was our incompetance that brought him to the club. I am rejoicing though as we finally have some genuine football people running the club who know what it takes to compete at AFL level. Roos in particular. Didn't win a GF by identifying and employing 2nd or 3rd bananas in critical roles throughout the Swans' FD. It's finally happening and if I was 20 years younger I'd be attempting cartwheels right now!!

Thanks for a great effort Neil. Personally I think if we had put Craigy as head coach, 2 assistants in waiting and Neeld as 3rd banana mid field line coach, I think we would have seen a much better outcome for all concerned. The damage/impact on the player's belief and psyche was already done and season well & truly cooked by the time he took over. A genuine no nonsense person/man manager and father figure /mentor around the club who will be missed. So much experience lost.

Well there has yet to be a successful brain transplant that i'm aware of other than Frankenstein's monster and well. I'm pretty sure we've had a few successful heart transplants though. Look you never know..... and the reaction by Demon fans if this does take place, well i'm not sure, it might be something between ecstasy and jaw dropping disbelief a little like...

Sure mate. Nothing new really. Looking forward to more family time and to just kick back and chill in the next month or so. Although he did say he "woudn't say no to nothing" or something like that. Looking forward to indigenous game. Asked about the upcoming Roos appointment. Some regret about the timing. Saw Sydney and Roos as an ideal alternative option some years back if he had decided to have moved from the Demons at some point in the past.... "would have been an honour to have played under (him)". Phil Krakouer advising him that it's a long time out of the game, to stay fit and in good shape just in case he has a change of heart. Been a bright light over the years and at least gave us some class, precision, run and creativity when he was on. Unfortunate timing. Good luck to Aaron from here.

Aaron on SEN 1116 now

This is an excellent point HH. Given the low ebb the club had reached we needed at least 2 years of list management and rebuilding/coaching with clear air under Roos before (publicly) announcing a succession plan for say year4. Assuming PJ, Roos & Co are as smart as everyone is suggesting, there has to be a process. Consisting of obvious aspects such as selection (2 or more potential assistants that could eventually be handed the reigns), assessment of potential candidates' under various conditions. Possibly even occasional match day coaching in year 3 (both candidates) under the watch of Roos etc. IMO if the job is to be carried out with the best possible assistant being chosen the club needed to allow at least 4 years, ie 2 under Roos (clear air) and 2 for the succession process. Starting the succession process from day 1 is a mistake IMO. Roos will have enough issues to deal with in his first 6 months without the burden of succession planning being placed on his mantle so early. This is one aspect of the set up that could have been better managed by PJ IMO.

Casey doing it the hard way with most attacks from HB rather than out of the middle. Many of the disposals from HB aren't to our man or our advantage allowing Werribee to run it back in and spot up easy targets i50 or deep to the danger zone far too often. Sound familiar?

Great work off HB. Taggert (lol) body work and better read on flight of ball won him the contest and eventual goal. Coach wld hav to luv that passage

Who put the big hit on KC?

What a hit! Smith again