Well he’ll retire soon and we’ll be back on track.
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If the last 2 weeks were a sign of deep rooted cultural problems, what were the previous 5 weeks?
We’ve assembled a very good list, but of course we need them fit and playing.
We are bringing in the best, successful coaches, who also bring their IP from a premiership club.
Next domino to fall into place will be a good run with injuries, and magically the cultural problems will vanish.
The last thing the club needs is a broom and a new start. That will set us back 5 years. What we need is to keep on improving, and you only need more than a goldfish memory to see we have.
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Fact is we are a PREDICTABLE team. Clubs know there are two consistent blue prints to defeat EFC:
- Run and gun, spread and pressure: See Bulldogs, Saints, Richmond. They know we can’t handle the run and spread game with applied pressure, we wilt EVERY time! beat us up around the ball, run and spread with overlap handball. So predictable but not defendable by EFC.
- Play the +1 in defence. See just about everyone but mainly: Hawthorn, Geelong, Swans. Again they know if that we get put under enough constant pressure (applied and assumed) that we will hack kick out of a context to a +1 EVERY TIME
PLUS we are mentally fragile.
Sorry and I can guess the ASADA ripple affect but fact is we’ve always been a mentally fragile team. Professional sport is now so much above the shoulders and we just don’t cut it. Richmond in their premiership year had a top flight sports psychologist full time working with the team. Not just that but we have DUMB footballers! We bring on athletes or private school boys who are just not smart footballers. I challenge you to watch the game against Freo next week. When freo have a set shot on goal between 30-40 out have a look who is standing the mark. I bet it’s not Clark or Hooker or Mc Kernan it will be Mc Grath or Clarke or some other midget. 99% OF THE TIME THE BALL WILL NOT FALL SHORT FROM THAT DISTANCE YOU MUPPETS SO HAVING A BEAN POLE IN THE SQUARE STATISTICALLY IS NOT WORTH IT!!
Watch Collingwood and one of Cox or grundy will stand the mark effectively forcing the kicker to probably get at least another 5 metres.
And ultimately - we have no plan B. “We tried to play our game style”- "no s**t shirlock, everybody does! But when a team applies steps 1 or 2 - what is our gameplan??? NOTHING!!
Until we play a game style that suits our team (not follows the trend), until we recruit tough footballers who are mentally strong, until we hire a F/T sports psychologist, until we destroy this awful teflon culture we have and until we get a coach is willIng to make the tough calls and get games into players who a) Want to play for the red and black, b) who are mentally tough (see Redman) c) need game time and development (see BZT, Ridley) and until we have a playable plan and b and c style game to defer to we are never going to get anywhere.
FFS the only two players who gave a s**t last night seemed to be Stringer and Reddog. They were the only two who were saying - stuff this, not on my watch.
1: Gameplan to our strengths with a plan b and c and f’n d if needed!
2: FT Sports psych - mentally weak
3: New coach to implement - too much old school/style crap being dished out
4: Football smarts
And FFS, please NEVER come back to your supporters and say “we didn’t come to play tonight!” Seriously WTF - we’ve had TWO chances on home turf to cement a finals spot but “we didn’t come to play tonight!” That is the problem right there - we get a SNIFF of finals and we go to water above the shoulders because we THINK WE ARE JUST GOING TO MAKE IT!
Enough is enough - #### needs to change!
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2017- 12 wins and finals
2018- 12 wins, worse percentage and no finals
2019- 11 wins, even worse percentage and no finals
At this rate of improvement we should be a contender in 2045.
One thing that sticks out is that our percentage in those 3 years has barely got over 100 and is quite poor in relation to other sides around us on the ladder
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I feel like ross + Caracalla and rutten could make for a deadly combo. Give me ross.
I agree. People lose a bit of common sense when they’re outraged but we need to focus on getting the list healthy for next season and integrating the IP from the highest regarded assistant coach in the AFL. Hardly time for a full reset.
Mentally fragile teams don’t come from behind to win 5 weeks in a row, especially when they have 5-7 of their best players missing. This box has been ticked.
We can’t have a credible discussion if we determine success solely on W-L. If that is all there is to footy, then Blitz and all footy analysis is pointless. There are numerous KPIs which indicate how a team is tracking. They are all process-based as the process is the only controllable.
There wont be change. They are all gun shy. The lot of em are paralyzed. Deer in the headlights ■■■■. Mind you we have so many pleasant people at the club. That’s all that matters given the damage done to the brand. These guys are so risk averse they would be a perfect org in the public sector space. Protect your own ■■■■, protect the brand and ■■■■ everything else. Clean out from top to bottom is the only thing that will fix this.
Brisbane ‘won’ a spoon in 2017 yet look likely to finish top 4 and win a final. What’s our ■■■■■■■ excuse?
Another season written off and ‘injuries’ will be used as an excuse yet again, like no other clubs fared just as bad in the last 15 years. The writing was on the wall during the Sydney game. Another wasted season.
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With the looming retirement of Sandilands, no player in the league will have experienced a finals loss against us.
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No it’s worse. He is the last person who was on a senior list the last time we won a final.
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Has anyone got the stats on whether any other club has failed to win a final in 15 years? Is it just us?
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First thing is getting rid of the Board. Complete clean out.
Thorough review of the footy department. I’d expect coaches and fitness staff to see the door.
Honest and brutal player reviews. If they won’t get us a finals win then send them out and draft or trade in players.
Collingwood has had one of the worst seasons ever for injuries and they’ve just regained their top 4 position. I feel sorry for anyone who accepts the “injuries” excuse. We didn’t even look good when we were winning games and had most of our players on the park.
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Most recently, richmond took between 2001 and 2017.
looks like we’ll eclipse that one then
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Personnel is another controllable. This gets overlooked time and again here. Our list has massive deficiencies that become obvious when Heppell, Smith, JoeDan, Hook and Belly are injured.
But all five are no surprise - they are either pre-existing conditions or the result of age… yet we have sold this idea that the list is ready for a sustained tilt. Absolute b8llsh1t. There was always reasonable likelihood of the injury run that eventually occurred, and a lack of adequate planning over the last few yrs to mitigate it.
Heart and commitment, and all those other fluffy words that get bandied around here, are not the issue… this is professional sport ffs… We just don’t have the cattle and it will get worse, as the 30+ decline even more, before it gets better.
Definitely our worst period. The 20’s streak is slightly different as a different finals system (if you could call it that) was used pre 1931.
also without knowing off the top of my head I’d guess richmond weren’t pummeled by 70+ points each final they played between 01-17.
surely by some measures we are the worst performed team of all time over 15 years.
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They didn’t play as many as us, biggest losses were 01 def by 70, then bris by about the same, then a few years ago port by 60 iirc.