Lucifers Hero

Earlier in this thread the Donations were reported as $280k . Not having much to do I had a look at the balance today and it shows: $214k. proud-to-belong,-proud-to-give/ It seems a cumulative total so am a bit confused as to how it could have gone backwards. Can't imagine anyone would take back a donation so maybe one of the figures is incorrect/typo.

But does he have the right experience? His 20 year AFL coaching career shows little success: 12-13 years as asst coach at bulldogs, collingwood, essendon, carlton and port but generally not during successful years. Then 6-7 years at Saints wallowing around the middle or the bottom of the ladder. Sure, he was a highly regarded assistant to Hinkley but that was 8 years ago. I still find it hard to see what he brings and why we recruited him especially after the bad rap from his own captain at the saints. But I agree with @The Jackson 6responsibility for recruiting Richardson rests with Mahoney, not Pert.

Good question! Not sure what happened to 'team first play' and esprit de corps embedded in 2018. This year I've noticed selfishness come back into the team particularly in the forward line. Missed each time. Melksham was taking crazy angled pot shots from the boundary without even looking for a team mate. Last week TMac was 40 - 50m but signalled to a free player in the goal square (I think Melksham) that he would go for goal. Thankfully, he kicked it. So I wondered whether the pressure has players going self-protective and worried about their stats and own performance and the team suffers as a result. Then trust is lost.

I believe the AFL is footing the bill. I relistened to FC and the numbers given were: Carlton 80, Richmond and Essendon 60, North 91 (8 families) and Bulldogs 89 (6 families). Apparently, if new people from Vic enter a hub the whole team is subjected to the 14 day quarantine again so lets hope we and the other clubs who left players behind don't get to many injuries. For team bonding and morale and fitness of those left behind I would prefer the whole list went as the option seems to have been there.

bennell-and-jones-in-frame-for-demons Can't really see the case for Jones coming in. He has played one AFL game this year vs Carlton and was as slow as treacle. Didn't play in last week's scratch match because of general soreness. Seems very underdone.

Pick 8 became 3 picks: Kozzie (pick 10) and Rivers (pick 28) and Carlton's 2020 4th round pick. So overall the initial deal with North looks fine to me. Would we get a Kozzie and Rivers this year if we kept our 2020 first rounder. Doubt it. Ralph is just headline click baiting.

Apparently, the bulldogs and north took somewhere between 65 and 90 people (Caro on FC) so there is a bit of inconsistency in what is being said about numbers and limits. Hawks took the whole list as did Bulldogs.

Garry Lyon said last night he hasn't developed as the club would have liked. But I ask who is there for Sam to learn from, be mentored by? We have no experienced fwd. We have no fwd coach or a coach who has played forward. Who has been brought into the club to fast track his development? He is a kid and it is widely known that 'talls' develop more slowly than say midfielders. His confidence was shot last year after the media brouhaha over his contract, after which he deleted his social media accounts and he didn't even want to leave home. Not to mention the game winning shot he missed in a game last year.

You have both quoted me out of context. And I acknowledged that Jackson was a future fix. The problem is now, 2020. There were other things we could have done and it is in the part of my post you didn't quote: to get a fwd coach. To spell it out he could have fast-tracked the development of the tall fwds we have, help overcome their deficiencies and develop cohesion in the fwd50 and with the mids. It could have commenced and gained momentum over the off-season. I would imagine Weidemen would be better prepared if there was a specific person to help him/mentor him. There is no-one for him to learn from. I mean really, who ever heard of an AFL club not having a proper Fwd Coach! We chose not to appoint one so there is no use the coach etal lamenting our inability to score in 2020. We had the chance to make it better while building the future in Jackson.

They will do what Crows did with Dangerfield. Say they will match and force Geelong to the negotiating table to get better than the AFL compo pick. No-one ever expected the Crows to go thru with the 'threat'. Ess will do it so they can play tough guy, beat their chests and show their members that they won't let him go cheaply. That is how they play the game. And if he did choose us Ess know we pay more than we want. And, I'm also not a fan of JD. He wants to leave the state.

He won't be on big $ so we can afford him. Being an RFA and technically no need to trade. As an RFA Ess will match whatever $ offer is made as likely will only get a 2nd rnd compo pick for him so will force a trade. So the problem as I see it is their tough line on trades. Last year they demanded a top 10 pick plus a player from Sydney (Heeney or the like) Sydney didn't bite and nothing happened. They will most likely demand Petracca or Oliver as part of a package. Anyone prepared to do that trade? Not me.

100% on all that. Re fwds: hard to do when we don't have a fwd coach or any coaches with fwd experience. Plapp, Stafford and Lewis all have a bit of the fwd coach role but some parts entirely missing from any portfolio. They are deliberate outcomes of last years review. No one responsible or accountable. Too many cooks in the kitchen!

I understand why the club boost defence and not tall fwd stocks at end of 2018 . They rolled the dice on Weideman and TMac but it did not work. No crime for trying. But knowing it didn't work they had the chance to fix the 'tall forward' problem (Jackson won't be a fix for several years) at end of 2019 and did not. To compound that they did not get a fwd coach as part of the coaching restructure so forward line and it and midfield connection is an afterthought and piecemeal attachments to other coaching roles (Plapp, Stafford, Lewis). Goodwin laments the problem of kicking a winnable score. He had a golden opportunity at end of 2019 to boost personnel; players and coaches and did not. I'd be very surprised if any other club has none of the following coaches: forward, ball movement, strategy. Nor do we have any with that experience as players or coaches elsewhere. imv that sits totally on Goodwin and Mahoney. No point them lamenting that we can't score effectively. Not sure why it is a surprise to them. They set it up that way on and off the field.

Clearly our GM Football and the Coach don't think so. They had the chance to fix it in last year's EOS review and did not. On a related note I understand why the club didn't boost the tall fwd stocks at end of 2018. They rolled the dice on Weideman and TMac but it did not work. No crime for trying. But knowing it didn't work they had the chance to fix the 'tall forward' problem (Jackson won't be a fix for several years) at end of 2019 and did not. Goodwin again laments the problem of kicking a winnable score. He had a golden opportunity at end of 2019 to boost personnel; players and coaches and did not. imv that sits totally on him and Mahoney.

Could be wrong, I believe swimming, surfing and golf are approved activities for players in hubs and if so players would be quite happy in Manly..

Ben Matthews is 'Stoppage and Contest' coach, Plapp is 'Midfield' coach. Not sure if Stafford has been cut. Ditto Lewis who was to be a part-time development/skills coach. No Fwd coach. What is worse no coach has forward player or coaching experience. Some say fwd coach is part of Plapp's responsibility. Our coaching structure makes it very obvious where the game emphasis lies: contest, stoppages, defence. Forward play is an afterthought and has been for years. The coaching structure suggests the only investment worthy of the fwd line is 'goal kicking'. And Goodwin laments our fwd efficiency and mid/fwd connection. Blind Freddy can see the paradox.

Don't understand why folks are complaining about the distance to travel to a full AFL sized oval just once per week. There aren't many AFL sized ovals in Sydney, especially in popular residential areas like Manly. I reckon the players prefer to stay in Manly and travel once per week than stay in/around Blacktown. They can swim, surf, golf in very nice surroundings. Hardly a hardship posting.

No. No. And, again No!

HS website has this headline: "Nine Demons won’t enter NSW hub". Can someone get behind the paywall to see who wasn't on the plane. Cheers,

NSW has closed the border to all Victorians effective midnight tomorrow night. Closed to all Melbournians midnight tonight. The AFL had planned to 'pause' the season after round 10 and bring Vic teams home. The season post round 10 is in serious jeopardy. And, if the club thinks it may need any of the players left behind it needs to get them and families out asap.

NSW has closed the border to all Victorians effective midnight tomorrow night. Closed to all Melbournians midnight tonight. The AFL had planned to 'pause' the season after round 10 and bring Vic teams home. The season post round 10 is in serious jeopardy.

Help me out here t-u. We knew by the end of 2019 that TMac and Weideman wasn't working and our fwd line was dysfunctional so I am baffled as to why we didn't fix it then. Recruiting Brown was a band-aid. Jackson could not possibly have an impact for a year or two. So no effective change to Tall Forwards to impact 2020. We did not recruit a Fwd Coach. Instead we hoped that extending Stafford's responsibilities to include 'goal kicking' and recruiting Lewis for skills development would solve the problems. They haven't. And to compound things further, we have no-one on our coaching panel that has ever played as or coached forwards. And now we are 'experimenting' with our fwd line set-up. Clutching at straws! My conclusion is that on and off the field our forward line 'solutions' have been piecemeal at best. So to hear Goodwin say efficiency i50 is poor and we lack fwd/mid connection/cohesion drives me mad. He is the architect of the above decisions. And going by his press conf yesterday he doesn't know how to fix the problems. Its like they are clutching at straws and some serious praying.

I hope Jetta and Jones are going. On every level it would be horrible leaving them behind. If they don't go it would be a terrible way to treat two much loved and loyal servants of our club. The AFL has not limited how many players can go. So I think that anyone who is not injured should go. There will be no scratch matches here so what are they expected to do back in Victoria. At least in Sydney they can keep learning and developing, especially the younger ones and New and Jonesy can mentor them. Even tho some have their cards marked we should do our best to keep developing them and give them some chance of getting to another club next year.

This may sound dramatic but I would let him explore his Free Agency rights. We would only get a 2nd round pick but importantly free up a huge chunk of salary cap which may help get us a KPF. I know a lot of people will shout me down but step back. If his name wasn't Viney would you not look to let him go elsewhere.

Not our worst but he was poor today; rarely read the flight of the ball correctly and made no second efforts. He is terrible below his knees and that is not knew. He cannot bend down which may be his past knee issue but today it looked like poor motivation.