Lucifers Hero

He makes some interesting comments about Salem. He likes how Melb put the ball into his hands as he is our best user. And that Jade Rawlings knows his game and North will come after Salem to minimise his impact. And he said watch out if they go after Salem dees players will come out swinging as they absolutely love that guy! Just shows how much we don't know about the value of a player within club land and behind the scenes stuff. Maybe we should look more closely at how much attention Salem gets as he tends to go under the radar for fans and not appreciated for what he does.

Cunnington, Ziebel and now Brown injured. They will put Brown on ice to preserve his trade value. And they are gung ho for the draft north-s-shift-in-recruiiting policy so they will want the best draft picks they can get. I think they have put the cue in the rack.

OMG! Explains everything!

Had no idea who Crocker was till last night. He is now up there with my most hated players from other clubs. Ruffs up Lockhart who is 11cm and 7kg smaller(who to his credit held his own), crunched May in the head, pushed Hibberd in the back then turned, kicked a goal and pranced around as if they had just won the premiership. Faux tough guy. Approaching thug status.

Really liked Sam's game. His confidence is growing by the week. He is using his body more in contests, making good positions and loved the confident snap at goal. He may have some up and down games but he has only played 36! And I like the strut he is showing.

Folks think that 2018 was an aberration for Gus. It wasn't! He had an outstanding 2015; his first year, he played 21 games and just missed the top 10 in the b&f. It was the year before Oliver arrived and Gus had a lot of midfield time. Injured most of 2016/2017 and the whole club had a poor 2019. He is just coming into his prime: 24 yo and approaching 100 games. There would be many clubs who would take him and happily build their midfield around him. As I said a few days ago it will be our loss if we trade him.

Not breaches as such but some players seem to be getting a bit 'high and mighty' and Richmond seem to be the main culprits. league-fed-up-infuriated-richmond-demands "The AFL has become increasingly frustrated at Richmond players for some weird, wacky requests and bills that have been sent to league HQ. Other clubs are aware of the AFL’s frustrations in Queensland as the league does its best to keep the season running. One high-ranking club official said: “The AFL is off them massively. Self-entitlement is huge.” It was a Richmond person who inquired about bringing a puppy to Queensland, which prompted the AFL to issue a strict edict last month to clubs telling them this is no holiday. It’s also understood at least a few Tigers players asked the AFL to reimburse them for Coles online orders too". Entitlement indeed! Unsure if this applies is Richmond but it beggars belief that people would do this: "Nine journalist Sam McClure on Wednesday said the AFL was “fed up” after some players had put in requests for carpenters to alter apartments..." Come back to Victoria folks for a dose of reality.

A watershed game for Oliver. The start of becoming not just a star but elite. That was a very damaging performance. He played like an angry lad; 22 of his 34 disposals were contested. And it was great to see him burst out of the packs and to kick a goal. It will be huge for his confidence. Commentators saying that is Danger like aren't giving Oliver enough credit. Danger wasn't playing like Oliver when he was 22. Portend of great things to come.

I usually don't mind King but he annoyed me with the post game comments: 1. He said Goodwin shouldn't have mentioned the lack of umpire protection for Max. What BS! Hardwick carries on about it (was it Cotchin?). Ratten recently talked about protecting the ball carrier (can't recall who) and Carlton are all fussed about lack of protection for Cripps. All are valid but King says nothing about those but tries to put the heat on us. Rubbish comments. On this it was good to hear Goodwin say the club had talked to the powers to be (I assume he means umpires) about lack of protection for Max. Handled the right way, behind closed doors. Because nothing is happening he took it to the press conf. Very happy about that. 2. That the AFL need to make a statement about sling tackles and give ANB 3 or 4 weeks. Yeah right. Its always Melbourne when the AFL need to 'make a statement'.

In the last qtr when Jackson took the ball out of the ruck took a few steps facing directly at goals and kicked beautifully he looked very Nic Nat like. Not saying he will be a Nic but he will be a joy to watch in years to come - Gisele like in his movements.

A piece of trivia: This whole season only 1 or 2 teams that were behind at 3/4 time won the game. So watch the 3/4 score folks and if in front hope we hang on...if behind go to bed or have another drink! It will delay the pain.

LOL. I thought that but wasn't brave enough to be so direct! Bravo, rjay!

Its not only the midfield. TMac and Melksham seem more concerned on kicking the goals themselves than team play, even tho they are low probability shots. At the risk of releasing a great hue and cry against me: our ex-captains have been culprits for their whole careers. And that rubs off on the new arrivals setting off a new cycle of selfish play. The coach needs to find a circuit breaker once and for all. As an aside it sounds a bit like Bernie has gone in to bat for his mate.

I did say I hadn't looked at the stats... Even so, not sure comparing stats is valid as Hannan plays as a fwd and Jones as a wing man/midfielder so he should have much higher stats. In case you ask I wasn't suggesting Hannan take on Jones' wingman role; more his position in the 22 and juggle the magnets to fit him in, especially as we have so many inside mids being played out of position and Jones is one of them.

Football functions: List management (we have an unbalanced list with many poorly skilled players); fitness and medical (fixed in 2019 review) coaching panel (I've commented far to many times on its deficiencies), game plan/strategy development/endorsement (what can I say), analytics (repaired in 2019 review) player development (many of our players have stagnated or just not developed) player contract management (we have put a lot of players on 4/5 year contracts and it could come back to bite us (TMac, Tomlinson, Harmes, Brayshaw). He is responsible for hiring the people to head up those functions and ensure their programs are consistent with each other and the overall football strategy, then monitor their achievements. Football people: I didn't mean relationships with specific people. When there are regular reviews of functions they result in continuous improvement of those functions. That the 2019 review was forced upon him says something broke down in that process. That suggests to me he hasn't selected the right people for some functions and/or he had/has not adequately managed their performance. Managing people and their performance is a simple process: role and KPI definition, delegation, monitoring, correction. Can't see that overall it has been done well. Some areas have improved since the review some have not.

Looking again at the teams I can't believe we dropped Hannan but kept Jones. At least Hannan chases, tackles, looks for targets and has a few goal assists. Haven't looked at stats, just trusting my eyes.

Morris neglected to mention the taxes for exceeding the soft cap. Soft Cap Tax The tax, which has been set following intense discussions and significant pushback from some wealthy clubs l...has a rate of 100 per cent (per dollar over), or double the amount, when club goes over the cap by between $100,000 and $250,000 just once. But if a club repeats the over-spend between $100,000 and $250,000, then it will be hit with a tax of 150 per cent in the second year, and 200 per cent in the third year. For clubs that exceed the cap by more than half a million, the tax rates are enormous: 200 per cent (year one), 300 per cent in the second year and then a whopping 400 per cent in the third year". So even if we find the cash to pay out contracts we either pay the hefty tax or reduce the money for coaching/fitness/development. Hardly an enticing scenario with which to attract a new coach.

All good in theory but Brayshaw has two years to run on his contract. What if he doesn't want to go. He has a long term partner in Melbourne (Danny Frawley's daughter) who may not want to leave the state. Many things to consider before trading someone in contract.

I have been highly critical of Mahoney for a long time but do recognise his strengths: Administration, negotiation and media performance. I believe he is a highly regarded administrator and rightly so. My observations of the last 10 years, especially the last 5 are that managing football functions and football people are not among his strengths. If I ever needed more convincing the coaching outcomes (or lack of) of last year's FD review sealed my doubts. He strengths may one day make him a very good CEO and or very successful in AFL HQ but imv not in the football side of club land.

A bit of talk on here of Goodwin playing favourites. I find it staggering that a coach under so much pressure to salvage the season would do that. And I would hope the selection panel (Mahoney, Richardson, etc) would pull him into line. So I can only assume that the panel has other reasons for the selections. Having said that I don't get the mucking around with the regular structural changes fwd and now back with little attempt to settle a team and develop cohesion across each line and connection up and down the field. No wonder our ball movement is so bad and we turn it over between the 50m arcs. I see we have gone in without a 'crumber' and no true small fwd (I don't count ANB as either). Already I have the feeling the plan is to be defensive and play to 'not lose' rather than play to win. Sigh...

Our Balance Sheet strength is underwritten by: the Bentleigh Club but it is 'illiquid'. Its market value is well over that in the Balance Sheet but it would be hard to sell at a fair value in the short/medium term. Property of any sort is going nowhere in Victoria, especially a 'development' site requiring sizeable borrowings as banks are getting toey. the cash/investments from the sale of Leighoak. This was earmarked to help fund our new facilities. We contribute then the AFL and other governments contribute. The only way we can get cash from the Bentleigh Club without selling is to borrow against it. But where would we get the cash to fund the borrowing? Pokies money is all but gone. As key financial stakeholders do we members/donators want the club to borrow or use the Leighoak monies to pay out contracts? imv, no, it only weakens us financially going forward. Morris is parroting something he was told but doesn't understand what he is saying.

Without trying to defend Roos I thought part of the reason for Goodwin as understudy was to give him time to develop relationships with all players while not having to worry about all the other coaching stuff. So there was less need for Roos to do so as his tenure was limited. Re the last para. There is a selection committee and while a coach may be protective of a player with a personal issues etc one would hope that at some point the team comes first and if there are good relationships it can be explained to the player in a respectful way. I've been suggesting Neil Balme or equivalent for the last 2.5 years.

Other 'gorilla' fwds have slimmed down in recent years: Hawkins, Dixon, Kennedy (WCE). It has been suggested Buddy slim down. So it would be going against the trend if we bulked up TMac. Given that he has had foot and knee problems carrying extra weight doesn't seem helpful.

Goodwin's role is only coaching and some player development. Various coaches say coaching is about 30% of the job. They leave training, development plans etc to assistants. List management, fitness, player contracts, football operations, player welfare and football analysts all report directly to Mahoney, GM Football. So I feel the structure is ok but we don't have the right people in coaching, development or GM Football. Mahoney has been at the club for our darkest decade. There comes a time when someone is no longer part of the solution; they are part of the problem. So I agree we should be looking for a new GM Football. But also new assistant coaches and better development staff.

I can't see the article but we had 4 in 2016: Oliver, Petracca, OMac, Harmes and Roos put in a big plug for Hunt in the last few rounds. None since.