No they are not.
Bendigo not this week, it’s the week after.
fits dodoro’s current recruiting strategy perfectly then
He’s a 23y ruckman who has played 41 career games. Sporadic form is zero concerns.
He’s tracking to be a gun.
on exposed form ???
the first 2 barely have 20 games combined and are continually injured.
mass looks good but they aren’t fighting for the same spot.
I’d pick the guy who can actually get out on the park, play on small and tall players and is moderately talented, than 2 talented bean poles again that can barely stand up to the rigors of afl footy ATM.
When they actually can prove that, then it becomes a relevant discussion. until then having the ahead of kelly on nothing but perceived talent of 2 kids who “look good” talent wise in development years were they were just told to go out and enjoy footy, isn’t as a great a selling point as you make it out to be.
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The “build around” term usually refers to that lynchpin player around whom a unit operates. No one’s thinking that Laverde is that guy, but you often have THAT key player and a settled group of cohorts playing a lot of footy together. Rance may have been Richmond’s main man, but that doesn’t lessen the importance of Grimes, Houli, etc.
Not exactly sure if Essendon has that player atm; it may be Ridley, though there’re question marks about how commanding a player he can be. I can definitely see Lav being a member of a successful defensive unit.
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The gist of the statement is still accurate, though. Prolonged periods with no success, but whereas we were finishing 9th-14th these clubs were anchored to the bottom 4 for seasons on end. Still, in assessing decades of footy without success, is there really a significant difference between 9th and 16th?
We’ve been in the wilderness for a long time - like Melbourne, Richmond, Carlton, GC - and have forgotten what it means to be a winning club.
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This comes back to the clubs mission statement. Is the mission to be the biggest, most financially strong sporting club in Australia ( Xavs Holy Grail ) or the most successful club in terms of on field success.
IMO the Holy Grail requires regular on field success.
Look at Man U. A few years without silverware and the owners put it on the market, even though it is probably the model Xav was aiming for.
Oops! You’re right.
I’m still writing 2022 on things, so don’t mind me.
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watching a clip on social media it brought up a concept called the region beta paradox. they say people will often stay in a situation where it’s bad but not too bad, and that situations were it’s really bad it’s easier to make a change ( ■■■■■■ work conditions, non DV relationship where they put in the barest of bare minimum).
is it a drastic difference between sustained periods of around 16th compared to 9th, i’d say yes.
finishing 9th gives the illusion (or in our clubs case delusion) of being not to far away from success, you could make the argument that finishing 8th one year, then out of the finals the next, then finishing 8th has a similar effect on the club.
whereas at position 16th for a 4 year stretch would at the very least make you more understanding of needing to change a whole lot.
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Not really, no. The point is both that we haven’t followed their “paths”, and that we generally haven’t produced terrible football. We’ve played football which is generally mediocre, which means we’ve generally finished without the top picks. 2015 & 2016 the exception, but which are probably offset by selling the 2017-2019 firsts and/or the saga penalties.
The point is apropos of the contention by some that we need a team of star players.
But we already know that star players can play selfishly and we are the poorer for it.
On the other hand others say we need some “blue collar players” Snelling is one such and there have been others before, like Hocking, Howlett etc.
Given that we are unlikely to ever have 22 first round draft picks like GWS or the SUNs had, (Their players all thought they were stars), its probably a good thing we bring in some “blue collar players” and develop a champion team rather than a team of champions.
And that’s precisely why he will be good depth but should struggle to be considered best 22/23 as we improve and hopefully start contending again.
Just watched the highlights and Tippa is fat. That’s everything that’s wrong with this club. Zero standards.
Ummm…
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He is not as heavy as he was on his return from retirement, so he IS shedding weight.
Give him time, he was never going to shed the weight in 5 minutes, like some people think he should have.
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Mate, I’m fat, Walla is slightly overweight.
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