Toast Pods

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Trying to look at a like for like comparison - I've chosen Justin Westhoff given the way Port use him around the ground - up forward and then also to spare in defence. He rucks sometimes which Pods does not, but overall they have the forward / back thing in common.

Looking at basic stats;

Hoff - 18.2 disp, 7 marks , 1.1 goals
Pods - 14 disp, 5.7 marks , 1.3 goals

I think Hoff is generally more active around the ground than Pods and also has played 1 more game. Clearly he has had a better season.

But I don't think Pods looks too bad in comparison
 
Peter J said:
Trying to look at a like for like comparison - I've chosen Justin Westhoff given the way Port use him around the ground - up forward and then also to spare in defence. He rucks sometimes which Pods does not, but overall they have the forward / back thing in common.

Looking at basic stats;

Hoff - 18.2 disp, 7 marks , 1.1 goals
Pods - 14 disp, 5.7 marks , 1.3 goals

I think Hoff is generally more active around the ground than Pods and also has played 1 more game. Clearly he has had a better season.

But I don't think Pods looks too bad in comparison
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Considering that Westhoff is occasionally used as a ruckman, you would think the stats should show him being more active around the ground!
 

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I don't really see Pods as playing in McKernan's role anyway. It's Jenkins that has (rightfully) taken McKernan's spot, and the reason McKernan hasn't received another senior game has been because Jenkins, for all his flaws, is still 10x the player McKernan is.

The only senior player Pods has kept out of the side is Johnston, and frankly, I've got no issue with that whatsoever.
 
My biggest concern over the last few weeks is not Pods(we know he is a stop gap) but more so, where has Josh Jenkins gone? I'm sure I saw him run through the banner on Saturday night....
 
cmndstab said:
I don't really see Pods as playing in McKernan's role anyway. It's Jenkins that has (rightfully) taken McKernan's spot, and the reason McKernan hasn't received another senior game has been because Jenkins, for all his flaws, is still 10x the player McKernan is.

The only senior player Pods has kept out of the side is Johnston, and frankly, I've got no issue with that whatsoever.
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but...but...but hes old!
 
D Style said:
My biggest concern over the last few weeks is not Pods(we know he is a stop gap) but more so, where has Josh Jenkins gone? I'm sure I saw him run through the banner on Saturday night....
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Pods isn't the reason Jenkins is having a quiet patch. Around the time of the 1st Collingwood game he was in red hot form and Pods was in the side.
 
Mattrox said:
Pods isn't the reason Jenkins is having a quiet patch. Around the time of the 1st Collingwood game he was in red hot form and Pods was in the side.
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Yep. Agreed, that's why I wasn't blaming Pods for Jenkins form slump. Just stating that Jenkins form is far more of a worry for me than Pods'.
 
D Style said:
Yep. Agreed, that's why I wasn't blaming Pods for Jenkins form slump. Just stating that Jenkins form is far more of a worry for me than Pods'.
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Cool. Misinterpreted. Yes, the form slump is a worry, especially as it is in the back half of the season. He addressed the yips he got from last season. I'm sure he can push through.

I also wonder if the way he has been played is affecting him some times. In 2012 he had good contested mark numbers. Last year he showed he can lead. I think it was the Tigers game where he made 2 good leads for marks early that caught my attention....but he missed the crucial goals..... This year he has deliberately tapped down the contested ball to other players and not crashed packs. 3 seasons 3 different styles of play.

2012: 11 games: 50 MK, 17 CM, 13 MI50 11G, 3B
2013: 17 games: 78 MK,18 CM, 36 MI50 24G, 24B
2014: 18 games: 76 MK, 18 CM, 31 MI50 39G, 23B

Nothing stands out in the numbers except he's more accurate this year, and taken more shots on goal for a similar number of marks
 
Elder van Berlo said:
However miniscule you think that chance was, it was a greater chance than Pods breaking out and leading us to a flag aged 32.
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Do you honestly think that having only one player over the age of 28 getting a game in our team right now is going to hold us back from winning a premiership in the future?

Frankly as long as he plays to a decent level his age shouldn't matter because as a whole we're not overflowing with aging players. I believe Sando was seduced by our 2012 results and given the knowledge that experience has a strong correlation with winning premierships, he ended up making the repeated mistake last year and during a good portion of this year of putting too much faith in our experienced players. If I recall correctly we started this year (round 1) with all of Thompson, Rutten, Reilly, Porps, and Pods in the team. Since then three of those are now playing in the reserves and Thompson is finally not being rushed back in at the first glimpse of being near fit, even Pods got rested last week. Although it seems to be happening slowly it does look like Sando is learning from his mistakes.

So unless we want to become a bad parody of 'Logan's Run' or Melbourne (pre-Roos) I think we can afford to give Pods a game, for now.
 
fabs33 said:
Do you honestly think that having only one player over the age of 28 getting a game in our team right now is going to hold us back from winning a premiership in the future?

Frankly as long as he plays to a decent level his age shouldn't matter because as a whole we're not overflowing with aging players. I believe Sando was seduced by our 2012 results and given the knowledge that experience has a strong correlation with winning premierships, he ended up making the repeated mistake last year and during a good portion of this year of putting too much faith in our experienced players. If I recall correctly we started this year (round 1) with all of Thompson, Rutten, Reilly, Porps, and Pods in the team. Since then three of those are now playing in the reserves and Thompson is finally not being rushed back in at the first glimpse of being near fit, even Pods got rested last week. Although it seems to be happening slowly it does look like Sando is learning from his mistakes.

So unless we want to become a bad parody of 'Logan's Run' or Melbourne (pre-Roos) I think we can afford to give Pods a game, for now.
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My criticism is more aimed at the recruitment of him in the first place, than the picking him now. As long as JJ is second ruck, we probably need a 3rd tall forward in the side and with Lynch out and McKernan being McKernan, there's not much alternative. I actually think it might be worth switching Hendo forward to see if he can find some form there, but Pods is the obvious choice.

I still don't see what the point of getting him was, and I think the fact we're squabbling over 8th spot with Pods having had a decent enough year supports that view.

Pods getting a game this week isn't hurting our future, but I do think giving him 21 this year plus however many he gets next year has been a missed opportunity.
 
Elder van Berlo said:
My criticism is more aimed at the recruitment of him in the first place, than the picking him now. As long as JJ is second ruck, we probably need a 3rd tall forward in the side and with Lynch out and McKernan being McKernan, there's not much alternative. I actually think it might be worth switching Hendo forward to see if he can find some form there, but Pods is the obvious choice.

I still don't see what the point of getting him was, and I think the fact we're squabbling over 8th spot with Pods having had a decent enough year supports that view.

Pods getting a game this week isn't hurting our future, but I do think giving him 21 this year plus however many he gets next year has been a missed opportunity.
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We got him so we'd have someone who could compete until Walker regained form, thankfully Walker has been progressing well, better than I was expecting to tell the truth. We also got him because he looks like a good prospect for our coaching staff. Now I was never really sold on the idea of playing all of Walker, Jenkins, Lynch and Pods at the same time, but I still don't think we're missing out on much if we do.

I agree that in the grand scheme of things Pods' selection each game is an insignificant issue, if it even is an issue at all, but generally those that think it is are the ones who raise it most. As far as I'm concerned our big test this year won't even be during the season, it will be in the off-season. If we make the finals then great we get some valuable experience into what is essentially a young core group of players, but we all know that aside the top four the rest are just there to make up the numbers. For me our priorities should be choosing a good CEO, shaking up the coaches box, and bringing in some talent via trade and draft. All are infinitely more important than Pods getting a game and areas that I will personally be far more critical of.
 
DangerSloane said:
Who would you be playing instead of Pods?
Given that Lynch is out...you'd prefer McKernan, who is a worse player and will be delisted?
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So the only football forward line strategy is the 3 talls, 2 smalls and a midfielder rotating?

I don't think so.

Round 1 to 7 - they could have gone with Lewis Johnston (Smack), Tom Lynch and JJ as our key marking forwards and Betts and Wright as our smalls.

Now, somehow I don't think we would have had different results to the win and loses column as to what we had this year, however the short term vision the club has doesn't allow for such a think.

The sooner the club opens their eyes and acknowledge we need some long term strategy, instead of continually implementing failed short term strategies to fix glaringly obvious issues won't allow us to have any success.

And sacking Sando isn't a viable option.
 

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I find it hard to post in a thread that has 'Toast' Pods. When really it should be 'Roast'.

The recruitment has been a complete failure.

Firstly, to recruit a 34 year old to a team that is not contending, a team that is not even a finals side, is ridiculous. If we were say in the Bulldogs position when they recruited Barry Hall, but they were a top 4 team, and didn't even have a forward. We are a bottom half team, and have walker, jenkins, lynch.

He was recruited as insurance for tex, yet has taken games off younger players who are our future.

It is also complete double standards at the selection table. At the start of the season, johnston was our leading goal kicker, and it was clear in the first two rounds of the season that pods was the worst player on the ground. What occurs? Johnston is dropped, and the coaches friend is given a gold pass

He averages just over ten touches a game, and amazingly is among the top number of players for clangers. That in itself is a special feat. He also struggles to find the ball up forward, most of his possessions would come from when he floats to defence.

Speaking of floating to defence, he has single handily cost us two games when he was asked to play on a man, and that player cut him up. Amazingly, this wasn't podsiadlys fault, it was the coaches for playing him there according to posters on here. Any other player on our list would have been offered up as a sacrificial lamb had they done the same

On the weekend game, it was evident from the stands that podsiadly cannot get out of a gallop. His defensive pressure was non existent, there were times he should pick up the ball, but swung a leg wildly at it for a kick in hope, or tapped it on in hope because he couldn't bend down. Not to mention tex was outside 50 whilst the number 1 in the crows jumper was anchored at full forward.

The following is exactly the reason why podsiadly is a train wreck:

We all have waited to see walker, jenkins and lynch this year, yet sando couldn't bring himself to drop his friend, and thus we must wait for 2015

So he decided to play the four, which was only ever going to go two ways.

If walker, jenkins and lynch were playing well, but podsaidly wasn't, then sando would praise podsaidly for taking a defender to allow the others to perform.

If one of jenkins and lynch weren't playing well, as well as podsiadly, it would be because the four falls weren't working, and thus lynch or jenkins should go. And as we remember, lynch copped it in the neck instead of jenkins.

No matter how he performs, or how others performed, in the eyes of our coach, it will never be him thats the problem.

And finally, it was once again left us wondering about mckernan and johnston. We still don't know for sure what they can do, or what they might do, because we have persisted with a 34 year old no matter the performances he has put up.

If Johnston goes to another club, which is likely, and becomes a player, the coach should get the sack for this alone.
 
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Stiffy_18 said:
I was against us getting Pods but he has been a very servicable get for us.
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Do we recruit 33 year old players to be 'very servicable' ??

His output is comparable to a young player establishing himself - which would actually have long term benefit.

SMcK will end up having a decent career somewhere - shame it won't be with us.

I'd rather Johnston as well - how about we invest some games in the kid, and work with him, instead of just writing him off because he's a w***er (which we knew when we traded for him)?
 
Recruiting Pods was the death knell for Lewis Johnston and Shaun McKernan. They'll be delisted. They may have been anyway. Pods will finish in the SANFL next season. All delisted.

So the best possible outcome we could have achieved from the Pods recruitment is... nothing. No players improve, no success in the meantime, no player ready to step up at the end of it. And we're on target to achieve this.

Tick.

We could have just appointed him forward line coach straight away.
 
D Style said:
My biggest concern over the last few weeks is not Pods(we know he is a stop gap) but more so, where has Josh Jenkins gone? I'm sure I saw him run through the banner on Saturday night....
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He's always like this. Goes missing for a few weeks then bobs up and kicks a few. I don't really have a problem with it except for the fact than when he does have a bad game, he's barely sighted. Some players are good enough to still contribute to the team, even if they're are having an off day. Jenkins is barely sighted on his bad days, and that's a real problem for us.

Drugs Are Bad Mackay? said:
Recruiting Pods was the death knell for Lewis Johnston and Shaun McKernan. They'll be delisted. They may have been anyway. Pods will finish in the SANFL next season. All delisted.

So the best possible outcome we could have achieved from the Pods recruitment is... nothing. No players improve, no success in the meantime, no player ready to step up at the end of it. And we're on target to achieve this.

Tick.

We could have just appointed him forward line coach straight away.
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I don't get all the Pods hate. Sure he is only a temporary solution but at least he isn't cringe worthy like McKernan. I've lost count how many times I've seen him miss basic shots at goal, and near constantly give away stupid free kicks. He's a liability. Lewis Johnston can actually kick goals at least, unfortunately has no other qualities that are AFL standard. Pods keeping these two guys out means nothing to me. They we're going to be delisted anyway.

Seriously whats the beef? Even if you really wanted to nit pick about that one spot, I can think of a couple of players that are way bigger list cloggers than Pods. We have still have Reilly and Shaw on our list for crying out loud.
 
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Drugs Are Bad Mackay? said:
We could have just appointed him forward line coach straight away.
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Well, sure, except he wouldn't have come over under those circumstances. He wanted to keep playing.

The way I look at it is Pods was here as cover for Walker, and to be a coach when he finishes up. Presumably we rate him as a coach or else we wouldn't have made that assurance. The fact that his recruitment, which cost us nothing, covers two bases at once should be seen as an example of strong list management.

Of course, since Johnston is awful, it came to be that Pods was still needed even after Walker returned. Even better - his usefulness ended up not being merely cover for Walker.

If we had any young players in his position worth playing, we could play them. Nothing stopping us from doing it. It's not like Pods is demanding to stay selected. He's playing at the moment because our tall forward depth is deplorable.
 
Why didn't we draft a young key forward last year?

Maybe to add weigh to the reasons why we recruited the Pods?

If we don't have a young key forward on our list, it's every easy to say we don't have anyone and he isn't holding anyone back.

Once again, it just proves we are a gutless club to back a young player in. We would rather have a safe journey and finish mid table than take the challenging road and potentially fall down the ladder. However, if we developed that key forward - we could be set for 10 years.

All eggs in the one basket.
 
cmndstab said:
Well, sure, except he wouldn't have come over under those circumstances. He wanted to keep playing.

The way I look at it is Pods was here as cover for Walker, and to be a coach when he finishes up. Presumably we rate him as a coach or else we wouldn't have made that assurance. The fact that his recruitment, which cost us nothing, covers two bases at once should be seen as an example of strong list management.

Of course, since Johnston is awful, it came to be that Pods was still needed even after Walker returned. Even better - his usefulness ended up not being merely cover for Walker.

If we had any young players in his position worth playing, we could play them. Nothing stopping us from doing it. It's not like Pods is demanding to stay selected. He's playing at the moment because our tall forward depth is deplorable.
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Pods wasn't taking a talls position once lynch was fit, but the coach invented a position for him, and sacrificed a midfielder so he could continue to play.

We have our talls covered, it's walker, Jenkins and lynch. The coaches decided to play all four, which was a terrible decision, and hurt walkers and lynchs output

If pods plays whilst those three are available for next year, then the board needs to consider sandos position
 
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