John Worsfold - will not get a new contract in 2021

And those under 40 are wondering what the hell is a fondue?

Are we talking cheese or chocolate?

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It’s a progression, from one to the other. A newly developed complimentary fondue is rubber based and might have prevented the birth of a lot of those under-40.

I think Draper could do a job if he was given a game.

Would just have to dial his game right back to the basics.

So yes, he isn’t ready for elevation. But if TBC was unavailable I think the conversation at the selection panel would be getting more interesting.

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Not sure if we disagree or if you’re just continuing the conversation? But yeah, I reckon one reason we are better is because we aren’t playing “kick it to Daniher” and then ■■■■■■■■ and moaning that he was double teamed and didn’t get a free or that he missed an easy shot at goal. If his injury was holding him back then at least we know part of the problem, but when he comes back in he needs to be treated by other players like they treat Stewart or Smack and be ignored as often as not.
Looney did well in the 2’s today and would certainly come in but Belly should be good to go.
The young guys need to be looked at in isolation as their output has varied, but I think most will become good players and we will benefit from giving them games now - a blessing in disguise if you will, unless you had Guelfi/Redman in your best 22 instead of Zaka and Parish at the start of the year.
Problem is I come into this thread to “chat” but it’s pretty divided and most people seem to be defending some kind of position or their ability to predict the future.
My position on Woosha was pretty much “why not?” until about round 7 at which point I conceded we had to try something new, which we did, and things have improved significantly. Not enough to fix the season (could scrape in still, ask me in 2 weeks time) but we look like a significantly better team than we were last year, and if we can finish on 11-12 wins then that’ll be 9-10 from the last 14 which is pretty bad ■■■ and you’d think the team would want Woosha to lead them for another season.
But then chances are we have a couple of honorable losses and only win 3 more games this year, just can’t pick this side.
Other question is, if not Woosha, then who?

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If you are close enough ask him…if not don’t worry be happy!

I’ll tell you what’s even funnier.

Those that bagged the club, Worsfold, Video guy, boot studder, Neeld, the universe now saying ‘told you so…they did what we wanted and started winning’.

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You’re probably right but time will tell. Results so far have probably left a few disheartened. DKP is obviously a special case.

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If you look at where we are right now, I think we are better situated with regards to winning a flag (next year) than we were at the start of the year, we just took some rather large backward steps but we have taken a few leaps since hitting our rock bottom.

Basically we have played like a top 4 team the past 5 games which is better than we played last year, and is great for Worsfold.

As you said, time will tell though. This could all come crashing down as soon as the Kangaroos/Pies games, who won’t be taking us lightly - at which point the questions will be asked of Woosha again. And while we are looking the goods now, other teams will also improve and figure us out by next year, so it’s a matter of how we can keep getting better.

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To be fair , i think anyone who bagged neeld had it spot on , well jusging by the last 5 weeks results :joy::joy:

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Teams already have us worked out we have to develop a way to play slowly and effectively when it happens and i think we have progressed on that.

We are a run and gun team that wants to bring the ball through the middle. That’s basically what happened Thursday but once West Coast plugged up the middle it became more difficult for us to score.

The good thing is that even though they slowed our scoring and reduced the deficit it was more of a slow grind rather than what would have happened previous years where they would have stopped our scoring completely and steam rolled us in the end.

Maybe the club is finally gaining some real resilience, i’m not sure yet and won’t be convinced until it’s basically a fact but maybe this crappy year will end up being the making of these guys.

If we are to become a legitimate team though we need to be able to beat good teams when they shut down our run and gun, which good teams will do.

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Enter Sydney, stage left, (looking menacing.)

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Do you think scraping into the 8 made 2017 a successful year?

Hard to say. Probably more par for the course; we finished 7th (a position we’ve not eclipsed for 15 years) and we lost our first final (also something we have done for almost 15 years).

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One of the difficult things to do is isolate a year and then decide it’s success or not. If you do that then you run the risk of being like the media: everything is black and white and a team is bad one year so they decide how they will finish the next then get all shocked when they do better than expected.

Sometimes a year on it’s own can look bad but then you go back after time and realise just how much that year defined what happened later.

So on it’s own, no this year was not successful but it may set up the next 3 years with the development of the team, development of coaches, development of game plans and development of the younger players.

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We debuted 2 young kids all year, put heavy midfield minutes into Jobe, Myers, Howlett, etc, which didn’t stack up at all in finals. Then had half the guys we’d built the year on retire, like they were always going to.

I’m confident this year will do more to set up flag 17, regardless of where we finish.

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Agreed. As per Richardon’s comments…

We’ve knocked off WC away, now for North

That’s the point I’m making
If we end up 9th in 2018.

But end up knowing that Redman, Guelfi, Francis, Ridley, Mutch, Clarke, Langford can play, and play well, at AFL level
Knowing we can outwork Crows, GWS, WCE, Port, Geelong.
Knowing we can win on the road
Knowing we only really have Goddard and Baguley retirements to plan for before about 2020-21
Knowing we can identify guys off other lists with untapped capability, and unlock that potential (like Stringer, Saad, Smith - altho we did this with Stewart in 2017 too).

Then it’s a far more successful year than last year. IMHO.

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All fair points but time will have to tell on it all (hence the “don’t toot your own horn just yet” comment).

That’s why the next 2 weeks will tell us a lot about ourselves.

Kangas and Pies know what to do to restrict us. They aren’t over confident “locked in the top 4” teams that underestimate us/don’t care what style we bring, they are teams with 8/9 wins to our 6 who are desperate to hold on to their ladder positions (jeez, I just realised 2 games separate the top 9, talk about the haves and have nots).

Beating these teams will be massive for us, losing will put us back in the box.

Finishing 9th would still be massive from here, and give us a hell of a lot of confidence going into next year, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves, we could still mess up and get to the end of the year not knowing where we stand going forward.

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And that’s why backward steps are necessary sometimes.