News Phil Walsh - New AFC Coach and Art Critic

[courageous_tom]

Port's success the last two years has been a catalyst for change at our club. I'm talking in the sense of their off-field/media profile, their aim to own the AO experience, their ability to recruit quality coaching staff and their on-field success. It has stung us into action.

For what it's worth, i work in the industry, and every club in the league is looking very closely at what Port have done. They have been the success story of the past two years. Rich and poor, high membership or low. Every club is looking at the way they operate. From their match day experience, to their fitness regime, to the way they ran their membership campaign. They are setting the benchmark for all AFL clubs.

 

[Don Muraco]

Port woke us from our funk, and did "well" but without having any significant success.

Sounds like '97.

 

[Mr_Moogle]

Agree, Berlin is amazing. Almost as good as Munich.

I did a walking tour in Berlin. It was pretty awesome. It was sort of weird though because the tour guide was an aussie from the Barossa valley. I couldn't escape my fellow aussies no matter where I wen't. We are everywhere.

 

[RePete]

I wouldn't mind if AFC spent a few million oversea's. Develop an AFL comp in Japan, China or some European country. Then when players with elite traits or overall solid players come through oversea's; bring them to AFC as category B rookies. That might be a bit over the top though. One thing we could do though is test players of there for speed, jump, endurance etc and draft players with elite traits, a bit like the SASI testing they do here or whatever its called. I reckon the teams that get a foot in the door early with international drafting and talent identification will reap the rewards in the future.

 

[danger_to_walker]

I wouldn't mind if AFC spent a few million oversea's. Develop an AFL comp in Japan, China or some European country. Then when players with elite traits or overall solid players come through oversea's; bring them to AFC as category B rookies. That might be a bit over the top though. One thing we could do though is test players of there for speed, jump, endurance etc and draft players with elite traits, a bit like the SASI testing they do here or whatever its called. I reckon the teams that get a foot in the door early with international drafting and talent identification will reap the rewards in the future.

There is actually an AFL Academy in Guangzhou, China, which was set up by former Geelong/St Kilda ruckman Darren Flanigan. It's based at the Guangzhou Sports University, and the idea was as you mentioned, to scour China for athletes that display specific attributes and offering to relocate them, and fund their education, in exchange for them focusing on Australian Football. One of the academy members was invited to the draft combine 2 years ago, and played some games with Williamstown in the VFL.

Unfortunately Flanners has moved back to Melbourne, so unsure how this will evolve. Port Adelaide funded the China team to fly down to Melbourne for the International Cup a few months ago. Would love the Crows to look into something like this, I guess that they feel the return on investment is very low but you have to start somewhere...

 

[androidtommy]

What about the Oslo crows?

 

[mattymac]

Berlin is freaking awesome. Heart of Europe in every sense. Doesn't try to be cool or important, it just is (unlike the recent wave of wannabe art groupies and English speaking hipsters that are colonising it like E. coli)

 

[NikkiNoo]

Prague would have to be one of my fav cities in the world (Edinburgh is the other one). Haven't had the chance to get to Berlin yet.

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

What about the Oslo crows?

Afl has a following in Scandinavia. There is a competition between the countries each year.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

Kris Massie can't even walk down the street over there

 

[FR0GGY]

Kris Massie can't even walk down the street over there

Weren't you that guy that played on Franklin?

 

[1970crow]

Good observation and I've thought the same over the last couple of years.

I think we all accept our elite players are just that, and we also accept that improvement must come from below.

However the harsh analysis stops there - apart from the ritual whipping of fringe players. There's a whole category of player that escapes the spotlight but they are the real problem.

In the last 2 years Thommo has been at the forefront of that group, together with MacKay and this year Hendo.

I think with 2 of those it's a bit of a cultural issue at our club. We would rather play an unfit player to get a 5/10 performance than a younger player who's fit and in good sanfl form and get the same. Obviously playing the younger guy provides a potential future benefit for their career and gives the likes of thommo a chance to recover full fitness. Mackay is just an average footballer who only has perceived weapons or fails miserably to use them if they do exist.

 

[The Sloane Ranger]

Prague would have to be one of my fav cities in the world (Edinburgh is the other one). Haven't had the chance to get to Berlin yet.

Prague at Christmas is awesome, the Xmas markets in the square near the old clock is just fantastic

Not to mention a cheap European city to visit given they gave not adopted the Euro currency

 

[1970crow]

You can't bundle Thommo in the same basket as Mackay and Hendo. Not in any context.

You can if he's limited by injury and it effects the way he gets around the park. Which has been the case in a number of games over the past couple of years. Whether that's been due to pressure applied from thommo to the club, vice versa or just mis-management, the fact remains he's 32 and cannot carry the injuries that he could at 25. Fully fit thommo is a certain starting 18 player, groin/hip limited thommo is dragged back into the pack with players who would be described as 'not fit to tie his bootlaces'. That is the nature of form, age and injury.

 

[1970crow]

2013 saw some pretty diminished returns from Thompson. Looked injured half the time. Did put a few decent games together in the last few rounds.

Thommo was playing some very good football in early 2014 but by the end of the season he looked to be struggling with the rigors of AFL. We have suffered on two fronts. Firstly for not properly managing Thompson and resting him when he was looking cooked. Secondly for not giving more opportunities to the younger guys who will take his place.

Thompson has been a champion player. No denying it. He's still a gun when he's fully fit but these niggling injuries are a big concern. Hopefully the new coach can manage his players a little better than the last.

The media sometimes mentions extension clauses being triggered by playing a certain number of games. If this is true, I wonder whether it can be counter-productive. I wonder if there's something like that in Thommos contract which perhaps results in him pushing too hard through injury. Let's face it, players want to play anyway. Writing clauses like that into the contracts of 30yo who are nearing the end of their careers has to be risky.

 

[Mr_Moogle]

Prague at Christmas is awesome, the Xmas markets in the square near the old clock is just fantastic

Not to mention a cheap European city to visit given they gave not adopted the Euro currency

Prague is awesome. Offers you everything all the other European cities do at half the price. Beer is good too.

 

[Glenno23]

Prague would have to be one of my fav cities in the world (Edinburgh is the other one). Haven't had the chance to get to Berlin yet.

 

[NikkiNoo]

Prague at Christmas is awesome, the Xmas markets in the square near the old clock is just fantastic

Not to mention a cheap European city to visit given they gave not adopted the Euro currency

Try being stuck at the Prague airport, cause your plane needs a new part, on the day before they were changing over to the Euro. So 5 hours there with not one store being open in the entire airport and you have already been through passport control!

Never got there at Christmas, instead I got to spend Christmas and New Years in New York once. That was pretty nice.

 

[Damp Squarie]

Try being on a flight to London for a twelve day tour of Europe only to be told ( after 45 Minutes ) sitting in your jet as keen as mustard on, that the plane has a mechanical problem.....then two hours later 'we have to put you up in a hotel...' but because all the hotels are booked out due to the cricket ...we'll have to bus you out to Mawson Lakes' AND THEN, when you get back to AA the next morning and walk into the terminal you find that the baggage checkin puters are down and that all bags needed to be checked in manually...I was spare
Then, after the Malaysian flight took off...finally... And stopped over at KL you were told we don't have a connecting flight to London=meltdown....but we'll put you up in another hotel 45 minutes away....faaaark...anyway, missed the bus trip of a lifetime by 1 day and caught up with the sucker in Brussels.
I should write a book.
Wrote to Malaysian airlines and complained with decorum asking for compo...got nowhere.
The moral of the story...plan for contingency and don't go with M.A.

 

[King Elvis]

Hope they upgraded the s**t out of you brosef.

I got bumped from a flight to London with Qantas once, they stuffed up and oversold it, I'd booked my ticket 6 months in advance. I'm not the type to blow up or blame the girl at the desk, so I was polite and calm, but said I had no intention of being bumped to the next flight... "What if we gave you $100 voucher for the airport bar?" "No thanks, that's not really of any value." "What about if we upgraded you to business class?"

"Well, I guess, if I have to, that'd be ok."

Next flight was 6 hours later, and flew it business; well worth it

 

[Niximus]

Hofbrauhaus awesome. Loved the museums in Berlin though. German history one was amazing - esp the nazi propoganda. But the museum of antiquities was breathtaking. An actual facade/walkway from one of the approaches to ancient babylon... incredible.

I don't remember so much of the Hofbrauhaus unfortunately.

My fiancee and I booked in for a beer & brewery tour (we'd had a tour of Dachau with the same company a couple of days earlier and they were very knowledgable). Turned out that we were the sole customers on the tour, there was us, the guide and a trainee guide along to learn.

My partner doesn't really like beer so she'd take a taste of each, but I'd drink the rest = absolutely hammered Nick. I remember getting to the train station and deciding to run up the down escalator, it was so long. I got some applause from the people there when I reached the top

Then I remember walking into the Hofbrauhaus, sitting for a bit before heading to the toilet to throw up. I remember thinking it was funny that I was vomiting in a toilet half-way around the world and I still got a drunken Aussie 'You alright mate?' from the other side of the door

Felt better after that and ate some food. Returned to the hostel to find I'd left my window open and my bed was soaked from rain!

 

[Elder van Berlo]

Try being on a flight to London for a twelve day tour of Europe only to be told ( after 45 Minutes ) sitting in your jet as keen as mustard on, that the plane has a mechanical problem.....then two hours later 'we have to put you up in a hotel...' but because all the hotels are booked out due to the cricket ...we'll have to bus you out to Mawson Lakes' AND THEN, when you get back to AA the next morning and walk into the terminal you find that the baggage checkin puters are down and that all bags needed to be checked in manually...I was spare
Then, after the Malaysian flight took off...finally... And stopped over at KL you were told we don't have a connecting flight to London=meltdown....but we'll put you up in another hotel 45 minutes away....faaaark...anyway, missed the bus trip of a lifetime by 1 day and caught up with the sucker in Brussels.
I should write a book.
Wrote to Malaysian airlines and complained with decorum asking for compo...got nowhere.
The moral of the story...plan for contingency and don't go with M.A.

That is very annoying, but I can think of at least two better reasons not to fly Malaysian...

 

[Damp Squarie]

That is very annoying, but I can think of at least two better reasons not to fly Malaysian...

This was before those two incidents and when Malaysian Airlines was considered top class.
They must have taken a massive hit.

 

[*PAF]

For what it's worth, i work in the industry, and every club in the league is looking very closely at what Port have done. They have been the success story of the past two years. Rich and poor, high membership or low. Every club is looking at the way they operate. From their match day experience, to their fitness regime, to the way they ran their membership campaign. They are setting the benchmark for all AFL clubs.

Are we doing anything different to what has been done successfully by other clubs in the past?
Like him or hate him, McGuire did exactly the same thing when he took over Collingwood. Some may have forgotten and younger ones may not know, but Collingwood were a basket case not that long ago, both on and off the field.

Put the right people and structures in place plus market the club in a way that makes it an attractive proposition for sponsors.
There really is no secret but not all clubs have been able to do it, in particular when there are factions with their own agendas around the place. Geelong is another club that did it well.

That is why for mine KT is the main man at Port.
Time will tell but it looks as if Roo is trying to go down the same path.

 

[FullyBigKPro]

Berlin is freaking awesome. Heart of Europe in every sense. Doesn't try to be cool or important, it just is (unlike the recent wave of wannabe art groupies and English speaking hipsters that are colonising it like E. coli)

Fond memories of going to the 'Weekend club' just off the Alexander Platz..

They wouldn't let me in on my own and no joke, 2 blonde Swedish girls came up to me saying they didn't want to go in on their own and i looked a nice guy.

I swear this is true... Woke up on the grass lawn 40 metres from my hotel