Toast North Melbourne Debt free

The interesting thing was that Brad Scott had us put all of our eggs in the sports science basket whereas Damian Hardwick pursued sports psychology, something that Scott shunned. For a while, our direction appeared to be the smart one and Hardwick looked to be a fruit loop. But then we were struck down by injuries that sports science couldn't prevent and the shrinks at Richmond convinced them that they were world beaters. And then they were. Now of course all other things were not equal but it was an interesting, dare I say, sliding doors moment.
I didn't know that.

Its pretty obvious alot of issues were psychological. I spent most of the time I've been posting here saying we needed to get better ports psychologists involved. Didn't know we'd basically ignored them but it makes alot of sense to me that we did.
 

DunderHead

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I didn't know that.

Its pretty obvious alot of issues were psychological. I spent most of the time I've been posting here saying we needed to get better ports psychologists involved. Didn't know we'd basically ignored them but it makes alot of sense to me that we did.

We didn’t he’s just eye balling it.
 

Colbys Boots

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I didn't know that.

Its pretty obvious alot of issues were psychological. I spent most of the time I've been posting here saying we needed to get better ports psychologists involved. Didn't know we'd basically ignored them but it makes alot of sense to me that we did.

Well, it comes back to limited resources. Brad Scott took a look at his footy department budget and rather than spread it across all areas, he opted to go all-in on sports science. Richmond on the other hand, once they managed to get their finances back in order, would have been in a position to build a decent sports science and sports medicine team while at the same time, spending big on sports psychology. I don't know this for sure, but I suspect any sports psychology at our club has always been part-time and off-site.
 
It was pretty obvious our biggest issues were between our ears alot of the time.
not necessarily. It has been now proven how unfit we were. Brad's sports "scientists" weren't far behind Dank on the s**t-o-meter. Remember the "easy fix" to stop all those last quarter fade outs? It's to get ******* fitter you idiots.
 
not necessarily. It has been now proven how unfit we were. Brad's sports "scientists" weren't far behind Dank on the sh*t-o-meter. Remember the "easy fix" to stop all those last quarter fade outs? It's to get ******* fitter you idiots.
It was more than just fitness tho.

As a side note. Obviously fitness wasn't good. So where does that leave his sports science program?
 
Umm, isn’t the fact we could never close out games and never had the energy or fuel reserves to go deep into September - the reason why Scott coached sides were failures?
Not saying he didn’t do well with the list - but 2012-16 could have amounted to so much more if we didn’t lose so many games to s**t sides.
Slow starters i.e round 1, consistently dropping games to s**t teams like Gold Coast, Brisbane and Carlton, switching off before the bye because the players were in holiday mode and then playing catch up in the second half of the year till we inevitably burnt out.
That was the legacy. Going from s**t to average isn’t something to be celebrated.
 

Colbys Boots

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Umm, isn’t the fact we could never close out games and never had the energy or fuel reserves to go deep into September - the reason why Scott coached sides were failures?
Not saying he didn’t do well with the list - but 2012-16 could have amounted to so much more if we didn’t lose so many games to sh*t sides.
Slow starters i.e round 1, consistently dropping games to sh*t teams like Gold Coast, Brisbane and Carlton, switching off before the bye because the players were in holiday mode and then playing catch up in the second half of the year till we inevitably burnt out.
That was the legacy. Going from sh*t to average isn’t something to be celebrated.

Possibly a little more complicated than just blaming fitness. After all, the team that overran Richmond and Essendon in the second half of knockout finals didn't seem to have a lack of energy or fuel reserves on those days. Likewise, the team that held on against Geelong and completely smashed Sydney. Subsequent preliminary finals losses tell a different story of course but perhaps there were other factors at work besides fitness. Like not quite being good enough.
 
So we weren’t fit, players were thick between the ears, coach couldn’t coach, we didn’t practice our skills but made two preliminary finals in a row.

Which part isn’t actually true?
 

Phillyroo

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Sometimes… the other team is just better. All the best laid plans aren’t worth a s**t, if the other team also has best laid plans and has better footballers.
I thought the North Melbourne team under Scott largely played good attractive competitive football. We rolled the dice and went hard at a flag and failed.
With the benefit of hindsight, we would have gone full rebuild right back when the list manager said we were the furtherest from a flag and we all, including me went after him.
 
Possibly a little more complicated than just blaming fitness. After all, the team that overran Richmond and Essendon in the second half of knockout finals didn't seem to have a lack of energy or fuel reserves on those days. Likewise, the team that held on against Geelong and completely smashed Sydney. Subsequent preliminary finals losses tell a different story of course but perhaps there were other factors at work besides fitness. Like not quite being good enough.
Fitness was a key issue. Not being prepared for round 1 set us back time and time again. We always played catch up. Always. The finishes to 2012, 2014, 2016 were woeful.

So we weren’t fit, players were thick between the ears, coach couldn’t coach, we didn’t practice our skills but made two preliminary finals in a row.

Which part isn’t actually true?
Let’s not sit here and pat ourselves on the back because of losing prelims.
Stats state that we never once lost a final at the MCG in that era and if we had finished in the top 4 we would probably would be having a different discussion - except we didn’t. We dropped games we shouldn’t have and it made us pretenders. You can’t spin facts.
 
Possibly a little more complicated than just blaming fitness. After all, the team that overran Richmond and Essendon in the second half of knockout finals didn't seem to have a lack of energy or fuel reserves on those days. Likewise, the team that held on against Geelong and completely smashed Sydney. Subsequent preliminary finals losses tell a different story of course but perhaps there were other factors at work besides fitness. Like not quite being good enough.
A little more complicated? No it wasn’t. It was an easy fix, remember?
 
Sometimes… the other team is just better. All the best laid plans aren’t worth a sh*t, if the other team also has best laid plans and has better footballers.
I thought the North Melbourne team under Scott largely played good attractive competitive football. We rolled the dice and went hard at a flag and failed.
With the benefit of hindsight, we would have gone full rebuild right back when the list manager said we were the furtherest from a flag and we all, including me went after him.

We were at least one and likely two or three true A graders off the last Saturday in September.

Which Scott knew hence the roll the dice on trades and free agency with Kelly/Dusty/Gaff etc.

Thank God we missed Gaff.
 

Phillyroo

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We were at least one and likely two or three true A graders off the last Saturday in September.

Which Scott knew hence the roll the dice on trades and free agency with Kelly/Dusty/Gaff etc.

Thank God we missed Gaff.
Exactly, I think we have just drafted an absolute A grader, and TT, LDU, and a couple of others might be right there beside him. Good times coming.
 
Exactly, I think we have just drafted an absolute A grader, and TT, LDU, and a couple of others might be right there beside him. Good times coming.

Need an A grade KPD and KPF too imo.

Whether Larkey and McKay become those is yet to be decided, but heading in right direction.
 
Anyone know if the AFL had anyone at our Debt Free announcement ? You would have thought seeing as they work on behalf of the clubs they would have been there congratulating us . I assume they didn’t , bunch of $@98 vs
 
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