Tolstoys Nudge

Sorry folks my phone was having a panic-attack or something and posts are popping of clones everywhere 🫤

Well for me that idiotic trade radio is place to start — what an absolute joke SEN have become. This entire Trac/Clarry monster-story was in actual fact, what would’ve years ago been considered a non-starter. Yet now look at the hoopla it’s caused — and damage it may do to the fabric of the team. Club should’ve been more cautious for mine they were naive and stupid on both counts, but the media have shown direct mal-intent to gain clicks and push two greats from our club and its abhorrent to me in every way. Players are always fine to look after their own wicket, that’s fine — but if we listed every player who’s tried to sneak out of a long term deal it’d be a mile long and inc many of the absolute greats, 90% of which wound-up staying and ultimately seeing some sort of success. Winning fixes everything, so keys hope 25’ draw & 90% of list doing 90% of preseason helps us to do that, but obv 95% of it is down the coaching/playing group. I remain optimistic, but it’s certainly not the same optimism I had 6wks ago. We have the talent, new coaches and depth players will help, but we’ve got to get it right!

And for anyone whom disagrees that’s totally fine and expected — but 5yrs ago NONE of this would’ve hit media street and when it did they’d of been told to say mum is the word until it’s real, but now agents with multiple players at a club are so power-laden they just blast away in order to manufacture an outcome! Edmund, That peasant McClure esp, Morris — ALL of them know who’s driving this narrative and yet SAY it’s coming form sources at the club, by which they mean the PLAYER via his agent. Melb didn’t lie, they told Clarry they’d assess trade value since he had met with clubs and that that assessment would dictate the action — market was tested and Geelong had no currency, so the agent then tried to win the Infowars to get their player their desired outcome EXACTLY what happened Trac albeit diff circumstances and desired outcomes which to me where never to leave Melb but that’s pure guesswork on that front. BUT that’s the current world we live in, it’s lobbying and the era of player power perception wise, but again, thank GOD almighty Melbourne didn’t cave and just throw away an ATG that’s EVERY chance of getting back to his best despite some minor pro-ported behavioural setbacks. Again all entitled to their opinion, but I can verify 💯 that Morris himself insinuated to me ALL his info in Trac saga was from his camp, NOT the club!!!

This is my exact point - THE MEDIA create a narrative that they KNOW is perpetuated by and is aligned to the view of player agents, they pile-on and do All they CAN to get it to reality, knowing full well what they are saying is all done in an attempt to force the MFC into a lesser trade for Clarry, with the strategic ideal of having the rumours become fact, the Pert calls etc it’s ALL an attempt to get the dees to accept a LESSER trade, and yet thankfully we haven’t! And yet still Edmund gets on radio and reports we’re shooting it down when alll we EVER did in first place was talk to a few clubs to assess value when we KNEW Claz had met with cats since last year. But agents leak and leak in the hope of furthering a narrative ergo what political lobbyists do for their employers meanwhile Joe Public thinks it’s something it’s not.. Be mindful they seemingly very nearly got it done as well, but the wiser minds like TL, JT, Goody etc prevailed. when I talk about browbeating THIS is exactly what I mean — a weeks worth of hysteria that in reality was posturing form a player agent to get his player out of a 6yr contract!

Us!!! Be issue the media have already driven the narrative we’re ‘shopping him around’ therefore he’s worth nothing, well nothing close to what he’s actually worth and thus any trade would be CRIMINAL cus it’d be a future first, for an all time great level player all cus we don’t want the attention and extra care Clazz brings which even if u true is now the narrative! Again, this is a case of the media driving the narrative to where we are now forced to either accept a poor trade or keep him and either way our list and culture are ultimately what suffers! Whereas if player driven, we could drive a herd bargain and ask for 2 top 15 picks — but media have ensured that the perception now is that the CLUB is driving this even if untrue.. if GP DID mention to few clubs ‘Claz is up for right deal’ so WHAT — it should never get out but clubs make sure it does cus (ie cats) if they leak it our market position is undercut and we become snookered!

And for the record. I support the CLUB — not the individuals within it.. be it Pert, Roffey, Richo, Trac etc so when I talk about fighting back it’s about barking up for my CLUB not anyone within it — Sitting back and letting them undermine the fabric of our club merely cus they enjoy piling on!!! It’s abhorrent and I’m not going to sit back and let my club be their whipping boy

That’s part of the issue — most of the leaks don’t come from the club, but the throng of external parties involved ie player mgmt, other club insiders, etc — this isn’t to do with the club not having issues, this is about how ridiculously we’ve been treated for 18mths partly because we continually just take it

Agreed.. but it’s a very small fraction of the whole — my issue more goes to the Edmund, Morris, Cleary’s of the world.. Cooney’s idiotic take before the mega-trade and ergo his nonsensical mega-trade inc ridding ourselves of the coach was merely the straw that broke the camels back for me

I agree, unless of course we found a star somehow but outside of pick 5, it’d be my next!l if we pulled it off.

Morning Demonlanders, I don’t know about you, but I’ve had an absolute GUTFUL of the AFL Media continually beating up on our club. It’s been happening for eons, to the point where it’s now becoming clear the agenda to undermine our club is very real. If I was to list a reasonable sample of their [censored], it’d simply take up too much space but whether it is on the airwaves, X or websites it’s seemingly unified in its entity and goal of picking on a club who’s going through enough. Unfortunately— Most footy pundits take the word of these muppets & do little research of their own or have the ability to seek out people whom may know differently. Our club has definitely done some things to create questions, but this Oliver and Kos latest is just absolutely media driven tripe!!! And even if it does push through to become reality — The fact our club is always the target isn’t an accident, it’s an agenda & the fight we rarely fight or push back is 💯 a factor. Why don’t you think the Pies are never targeted? Because IMAGINE the backlash if they copped even 10% of what MFC have? Answer is — it just wouldn’t happen such is the fear of the backlash. Therefore, I am proposing we build a small but fierce coalition, to commit to fighting back to namely trade radio, SEN in general for perpetrating this grovel and make them fear again putting our club in the crosshairs for likes. Adam Cooney today is the last straw. Yes, it is bottom barrel journalism — or entertainment more like, but it serves them well as it gets clicks, ears and eyeballs for the copious amount of articles they then produce off the back of it. So, through this thread — anyone who stays ‘count me in’ will be called upon to get on the phone, smash the text or X feed & begin to brutalise to these peasants and call them out! I for one am willing to commit time each day to ensuring I do my part, but we cannot simply sit here and take it anymore. Anytime a post, article or talkback piece comes to fruition, we need to hit them with some sort of response that at the very least shows we are not going to let them continue this targeted harassment of our club. All to would take is 15-20 like-minded Demonlanders to fully commit to this & we’d at least make them realise their carefully constructed half-truths and manipulation makes it appear as though there are leaks when in reality this garbage gets brought forth from weak secondary sources and other clubs whom are happy to release info knowing it will appear as though it’s from the Dees end. But none of us can fight alone, it has to be strategic and have a punchline that pierces the media-filth armour. So anyone who’s fed up and wants to do something about it, let me know. The commitment has to be real and involve multiple posts, texts, calls & comments on the various forums in order to penetrate in any meaningful manner, but I know there is plenty of vitriolic ppl here whom are very very capable of making a rancour-infused stand to fight back and not be the taciturn mopes they believe we are. Turning off and ignoring it just is not the answer anymore, it has to be a visible, tangible pushback to do anything at all even if it serves only to be therapeutic to our footy souls. I’m certainly ready to fight like hell and defend our club — this is beyond a joke!!!

He’s a quality operator and known to have some serious tactical chops and belief so hopefully challenges things and brings some newness

Let’s not forget it’s welcome home for NB — Dees man originally as a player!

Bassett replacing Stafford not McQualter is my take — Sloane could easily be a line coach right now based on his exp imho

Like the guy a lot — intrigued by what he would add.. things looking up for 25 already

Glad we’re adding Bassett — if we can nab Sloane I think that’ll prove to be two excellent additions. Tis also great to see we got ahead of this one and knew it was coming instead of being caught out! Really like Sloane culturally and think he can add energy and who know what Bassett has tactically but has some big fans in the industry!!!

Goody with a strong Board and - for me - one more left-field thinker and strong opinion assistant, would be a very similar level coach to BS -- Possesses similar temperament but hasn't yet shown a recent ability to adapt a gameplan year to year but more on a 2yr swing so next year should show us where he is at assuming he gets 90% doing 90% of pre-season.

I am only going by that one story re Saints -- for me it feels like a pipe dream considering how highly rated he is but if Saints are having a crack we had better be as well...

Fair points mate, your opinion makes sense but for me age is a major factor w/Houston and fact he has a kick efficiency of 67% career means he definitely fills need but we've moved off him after he baulked and our Pick became 5 and I'd definitely prefer pick 5 as I am infatuated with Josh Smilie and think he can be a genuine 250 game stud for us as a hybrid mid/fwd he has so much Power and aggression its uncanny! But have always thought Finn was the ideal line breaking kicker we needed so maybe I am biased!

I'd prefer Boyd or Crossley but Campbell has shown he can compete at the level and would be much much needed depth so fact he comes free and doesn't cost a draft pick puts him into the frame for me, 100! Its a depth role only and allows Verrall to continue to develop...

They might be able to swing their Noble pick from GC

Edited my post -- but 1-60 seems solid hahaha Out of Contract but not free agent, so that does push trade value down a little so a third rounder next year could be enough but with bidding war of 6 clubs I'd say a pick this year in 30's but who knows

He is worth A LOT more than that.. Pick somewhere 30-45 this year or 20-35 next year imho Finals form was solid, which upped the value! Player rating of 9 this year but late he was hitting an avg of 12.3 which is excellent. 16 Coaches Votes this year!

Perhaps our best trade-in will be if we can somehow get another top-15 pick, feels like a list-changing draft ala Kos/Jackson so if we can get that pick 14 were chasing or anything else, which is something we've always done well, that will bear potential fruit down the line greater than anything else. FWIW I think getting Membrey, Derkson, Daniel, Owies combo would be solid enough w/youth added to make a massive overall change to the list depth without obv seeing topline like Lever/May which can't be expected most years.. Preuss/Soldo/Crossley as ruck depth would also be something I'd love to see, kid from SA who's a Ruck is also in our current 2nd pick draft range as well.

74% disp eff and 66% kicking eff career, lowest being this year but his inside 50's this year was way up to 4 a game from 3 per game so that works hand in hand really. For a line breaker that's running at speed, that is v solid. He takes the kicks most never even attempt which hurts him but that is GWS coaches encouraging him to do so most likely. Comp to Nibbler for instance who went at 53% Kick Eff this year at similar i50 per game (less though 3.4 vs Finn 3.8) Salem for instance goes 72% Career but has only 2 i50 per game and LY went at 68% kicking eff.. Gus is his closest demon career wise and Gus wasn't sprinting 80% of time he kicked.. 20 Coaches votes this year for me means he has gone form prospect to pro -- but we all have our opinions that is what makes the world go round haha

Fair enough.. but if he was a Demon it'd be a game-changer for me & i'd be hyped-up like a 90's rap MC 🤩 2024 Disposals: 22.9 / 346m gained 2024 Player rating: 11.65 (for perspective, that is similar to say Daniels at GWS, and is better than Langdon has ever had best of 10.1 same exact best rating as Salem coincidentally in his entire career, Finn has played 50 games) So I think saying he is a tease might be a little harsh for a 3rd year player. But get where you are coming from! For further ref only, Trac goes i50 more than anyone just about and therefore his kicking (which is inconsistent we know) is 55% for career @4.9 i50's per game.. His kicks go 17m on avg, Finn's 16m.