Something seriously wrong with the club (Part 4, August 2024)

I have a seat for him ready whenever he chooses, all will be forgiven

I’m not as convinced.

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You don’t say…

Clappers are the most broken of us all.

They just don’t know it.

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They’re still in the denial phase.

I trust that nice Nigerian Prince. I’m sure he will mail that cheque out soon

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Talent and development together can get you a Josh Daicos. Very good player but not going to change the destiny of the team. Nick Daicos is 80% talent and there is nothing anyone anywhere can do to develop that talent to that level if its not there to begin with.

Good development can give you a strong and deep list of players who are capable of consistently performing at a high level but you have to have that elite talent in that group to reach the ultimate success.

Geelong this year is a great example. They have an excellent development program that gets the best out of the talent they have. This is why they are consistently strong. Their problem this year is they simply didn’t have enough elite talent to overcome a superior list in Brisbane.

“You cannot liberate me . I can only liberate myself .” (H.H. Dalai Lama)

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You’ll be wasting beer again before you know it.

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Weekly occurrence

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Any success would be a different kind of success for us

it’s not even necessarily development v talent, it’s those to plus player traits.

you have to be talented to a certain degree to even get on an afl list. but inherent player traits can buck the lack of development if they have the right traits.

one of the problems some of us suggest re dodo’s reign of terror that should have seen him sacked a long time ago is, if the club has a poor development history and problem in general, why was he drafting kids that most no doubt had talent, but required so much development ?

Some of the players he picked up are like playing career mode on fifa. it takes about 8 years to develop their stats to where they can be a decent player, and not just a general plodder. And that’s a game that works on an algo where you can essentially force a player to develop.

look at any of J davey, brand, eyre, cahill, johnson etc etc these kids would have required 8 odd years of development in a good system to even remotely get to being a half decent player. We draft them seemingly knowing or having that info and then delist them within 2 years when they don’t develop beyond what realistically could have been expected, even in a good development program.

Geelong has a great development program, talent identification program, and they still pick up kids like christensen, cockatoo, players etc etc…

one of the problems I stand by dodo had is, he couldn’t pick players or identify players who had the right traits (more often than not) that could develop, so putting them in a ■■■■■■ development program wasn’t always going to lead to disaster.

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Would like a Paul Roos perspective on our current plight, like he’s angled at the Swans post another GF failure of theirs.

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/paul-roos-brutal-sydney-swans-list-call-after-heavy-grand-final-loss/news-story/6b161f4cb04470692892334961d078c7

Just think he’s a class leader. And probably still a fine coach. Never too late for another challenge Roos’y.

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Essendon gets a mention in an article on Australian sports misery.

Essendon: 7,000 days since finals win and counting

Well. Where do we start? How about the good. Essendon are one of the storied AFL clubs with a glittering history. A record 16 Premierships and a star-studded list of some of the games great players and coaches. Now the bad. That’s all in the era of sepia tinged, square TVs, and no internet. The 21st century Bombers are bad. Not wooden spoon, laughing stock bad. Something much worse. Irrelevant bad.

Over 7,000 days since a finals win. The biggest doping scandal in Australian sports history. Haven’t finished higher than 7th in 21 seasons. A succession of ineffective big name players taking a final chunk of super. Coaching merry-go-rounds. False dawns. The Essendon Edge. September off.

Since the Bombers last won a finals match in 2004, they have had seven coaches, five CEOs, five Presidents, six captains and only one constant. Mediocrity. Every stirring Anzac Day or heart stopping Saturday night win over a rival has more often than not been followed by a miserable capitulation. Every run of terrific swashbuckling early season wins, followed by the team falling apart in the depths of winter when the pressure is on.

The post doping ban wooden spoon season (2017) should have been the springboard for Essendon to rebuild. Approach the future with clarity, start afresh and reset the culture, the expectations and go back to basics. Instead the team of returning vets with a sprinkle of youth finished 7th, got smoked in the finals, and the club doubled down the following year adding Smith, Saad and Stringer for five draft picks. Essendon have failed to finish above 8th ever since. The supporter base – one of the competitions largest – deserves better.

However, just above our beloved Bomber listing was this one:

Carlton: Singing the Blues

Can you smell what the Blues are cooking? How about two and a half decades of mediocrity? And maybe that’s being generous.

Carlton fans will boast about their club’s joint record 16 premierships, but what they will conveniently leave out is that the last of those flags came way back in 1995. The Blues finished runner-up to North Melbourne in 1999 and have not been back to the Big Dance since. That’s 25 years and counting. In that time, EVERY other team, except expansion club Gold Coast, has played in at least one Grand Final. That has to sting if you’re a Blues fan.

Over the last 24 years, Carlton has had just five seasons in which they’ve won more games than they’ve lost. They’ve also collected a league-high five wooden spoons in that time, reflecting the dark days of the club where fans expected them to lose week after week. There’s been the infamous salary cap scandal, a plethora of wasted top end draft picks (and yes, they’ve had plenty), and no fewer than seven coaches shown the exit after lacklustre results.

With that said, things have trended in a positive direction over the past few years, and the Blues, led by dual Brownlow Medal winner Patrick Cripps and coach Michael Voss, finally appear to be a side capable of challenging in September. That was, of course, before the club was plagued by injury in the back half of this season and fell from second to eighth in the blink of an eye.

But that Carlton misery was nothing compared to when Brisbane kicked 70 points to their nil in this year’s humiliating elimination final at the Gabba. Maybe there’s more misery in store for this side, after all.

Glittering history, try again