Chaucer: circa 1380: many a true word hath been spoke in jest.
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Nino is currently out looking for himself.
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Whilst muttering nonsense to himself
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Actually, we’re a Freemason club.
Insert Stonecutters.gif
I thought it was Druids.
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It’s so Essington to make Steve Guttenberg a star.
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I know this is a response to someone else’s post however I was wondering, been thinking about it a couple of days, if you would mind doing me a favour?
Your posts tend to be focused on the negatives of the club, players, coaches and games. Do you think that just once, as a favour to me, you could do one of your write-ups but this time focus on the positives?
Focus on the positives for these areas: club (what is it doing right), coaches (where have they been strong), players (who has improved and who is developing well), games (what games have impressed you and why).
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In this case: No it hathn’t.
I can understand JD06’s frustration. Year after year we have had our expectations raised by some really excellent performances, only to be dashed by one or two pathetic performances against teams we were well capable of beating. It gets him down and it gets me down, especially when I read the posts here from those who can find “positives” in the most abject loss. Sometimes there are no positives.
But being realistic doesn’t mean being relentlessly negative. It hasn’t been a good year, but it hasn’t been all bad. Some of the losses in the first part of the year were unforgivable, but then we came out and beat Geelong comprehensively, GWS and Brisbane at their homes, West Coast in Perth and North Melbourne and Sydney at Docklands, both teams that are hard at it and always give us hell.
Worsfold is on the whole an excellent coach, but he’s poor on game day. Just how poor was demonstrated on Saturday when, after we had struggled with no effective key forward all day, he switched Hooker with 10 minutes to go! What a waste of time, when the game was lost already. Even so he made an impact, which only showed that if the switch had been made at ¾ time we might have actually won.
We’re at least two players off being a top team. A really solid key position player is a must, even more important than a big midfielder. The mindset is improving, and with a couple of extra players I think we can make a real move.
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JFC Dont encourage him
Super easy. Positives:
Fantastically solid off field. New training base is awesome and room to grow. Finally have world class training facilities which will help on field and also to attract new talent.
Amazing effort to recover from the ‘saga’ era in terms of finances, sponsors and even on field stuff. We all know it would have literally killed many other clubs and the fact we have survived is great, and to be back to a position of ‘strength’ within five years is truly a credit.
LOVE our trading and recruiting over the past five years. Dealt a tough hand with penalties and all that other crap but we have drafted in players like Merrett, Parish, Langford, McGrath who all appear to be the ‘real deal’… hoping Laverde, Francis and some others join that list.
We have also done well looking for alternative talent and the likes of McKenna make it sweeter! Finally developed some ‘depth’ by bringing in players like Dea, Brown and Smack who can play a role. The recruitment of SSS was awe-inspiring and I have posted before… but possibly our greatest trade period ever. Just incredible stuff and all have delivered!
The highlight games for me have been our wins against Sydney and GWS. Both were clinics in aggression around the ball, fast ball movement and not trying to be ‘perfect’ but instead rely on numbers and work ethic to get the ball downfield. Absolutely the blue print of how we should play.
Kelly has done some nice work around the stoppages and I think he can coach. Clearly getting rid of Neeld had a positive impact, so potentially we have got some strong voices in there but they weren’t being heard. Overall though, I can’t really find much positive about our coaching. It hasn’t been a highlight, nor addressed our weaknesses from last year (kick ins anyone?!!)
I love the state of our list. Again hard to find positive or list who has gone forwards because that is half the problem, I see a lot of guys who have stagnated. I think Saad has been more consistent for us than he was. I think Smith has elevated his game to a new level. Heppell has grown as a leader immensely. I like how Guelfi is developing. Langford got a chance to show his class and hopefully has broken through that level and will to continue to grow.
Overall the disappointment of this season is on the back of my very high beliefs in our list, our players and our club. I think there are a laundry list of positives and I can talk for just as long about the good things about our club as the bad. The problem being that there is no point waxing about good things when year after year it leads to ultimate futility. Further it is my very strong opinion that we are very very very close to sustained success. We are missing just a few players (back up ruck, maybe a tagger/defensive midfield, back up key forward) and a great coach from being a powerhouse. I feel very optimistic about the future but they need to make the hard calls over summer imho.
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This. Also frustrated because it is not the first time this year that it has happened. It is like he only has one ‘go to’ move and that is throw Hooker forward but why always leave it to the last ten minutes?
Anyway what is done is done.
He made 4 or 5 changes that I spotted before throwing Hooker forward. although I agree I would’ve pulled that one sooner.
I know what you are saying Ice Temple.
I walked away from the G feeling we didnt play our best but gave it a crack and just failed to win. One contest here, one contest there, one crucial turnover or one bad umpires decision and we would have won by 2+ points . Its very disappointing. I know some of our better players like Hepp and Zaharakis were really down on the day. Is that due to an off day, or did the opponents nullify them ?
Does it sound better if I bag the crap out of some Hawthorn players ?
Hawthorn had a lot of players who were poor also. There were really poor performances from Roughead, Whitecross, Burton, Impey and Puopolo, Sheil did nothing other than try to tag Zerret and fail. Basically they were shate,.
If I remember rightly at the beginning of the season the club pushed the top 4 message. Pay an extra $50 to be in the draw for finals tickets. So that was a fail. It was a win tho’ in terms of raising revenue.
I think Charlton is a much higher calibre person.
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I appreciate the effort but you still qualified it with negatives, your aim was only positives, no need to qualify as you have already stated those other points.
I live in a real world. In the real world things are both negative and positive… often at the same time.
You hear my negative posts, like so many, and think that is my only opinion because that is the part you disagree with.
Not that you would bother but if you look at many many many of my posts they are positive about the team, the list, the direction of the club. They don’t stick in your mind because a) you don’t read them, b) you ‘agree’ with the sentiment so skim over them and c) don’t see an opportunity to poke the bear and pick on me…
For example you fail to read the parts where I suggest that Woosha is a great man manager, that I think he is on point in the media, that I like the stability he has created for the club. You just grind away at the part that displeases you… my opinion that despite all those positive… the guy is a crap matchday coach and it cost us games this year.
The biggest difference between you and me, apart from the brevity of our posting, is that I am completely OK with others having a different opinion. I’m not throwing my toys out of the cot, I’m not suggesting we burn the place down and start again. I am suggesting that, by all KPI’s and objectives that were set by the club in public, this year has been a failure on field. I have an opinion as to why that failure occurred and what might be done to ensure it doesn’t occur again next year.
I truly apologise to you, and all the others that feel the same way, for the length of my posts, my negativity and that fact that you simply don’t like my opinions. I understand it can be difficult to endure but that is what free society is about. Free speech and democracy. Good with the bad. Balance. Enjoy your day.
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