Lucifers Hero

My first reaction is Boooooooooo to finals at 'Boo Stadium' because of the obvious advantage it gives WCE. But then Tigers, Hawks and Pies have had that advantage with little travel and 'Home' finals at the G for eons. I just hope that Eagles get eliminated early in the finals series so we don't have to listen to their supporters and watch the biased umpiring. And that the AFL negotiate a deal that if finals are in WA that they make adjustments to quarantine rules so that opp fans can attend.

Not by the coaches. Scored 6 in the AFLCA votes. Split 4/2. Thankfully the coaches don't look at Player Ratings or stats. They look at Impact and playing their role.

Clean sweep of the Coaches votes: 10 Oliver 7 Viney 6 May 3 Petracca 2 Weideman 2 Salem No surprises. Rapt for Sam for the recognition. It was a mature game. Petracca 2nd on the Leader Board with a game in hand. They may as well give the Brownlow to Neale now. But in terms of other podium finishes we are at the stage where our players will start taking votes from each other. My guess on vote split: 5/5 Oliver 4/3 Vine 4/2 May 3 Petracca 2 or 1/1 Weideman/Salem Salem's votes might surprise some who were quite critical of his game.

Yeah, I saw your post and chuckled a bit wondering if you would open this thread... Salem is one of my faves so I can't fault him. But even I was surprised to hear how valued he is and how much work op coaches put into him. Unfortunately not having our people at the ground the only feedback we get is what the camera or commentators show. From what I saw last night quite a few hits or plays involving us weren't replayed. So its hard to tell how much pressure is on players to dispose of the ball. Even harder as there seems to be little overhead camera vision.

I have a vague recollection that woo hoo man outed himself after that Adelaide game - there might be a post in the PostGame thread.

Gisele Gazelle like

Another Qld game for the Saints! Very comfortably settled up there. Looks like the AFL have made the Gabba their 'Home' ground. Finals advantage perhaps?

LOL. Good pick up. Clearly I shouldn't post before the morning espresso!

"Its all about me", perhaps?

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.