2013, Success? Or failure?

[WaynesWorld19]

Wayne, we don't agree, but you're a good poster and I normally respect your opinions, couple of quick ones;

1) Reilly carrying too much muscle? You cannot shred muscle in two weeks - unless you effectively go on a starvation diet and destroy yourself with cardio (and even then, it's not going to have a massive impact in two weeks) which an AFL player can't do. He was carrying too much fat. Muscle might have been an issue too, but it wasn't the primary issue.

2) Nothing to do with AA - you know I've had issues with Jacobs for most of the year. He was clearly too big - slow, lumbering, unfit and couldn't jump effectively.

3) Don't agree excess muscle was Porps's issue. He was simply woefully out of form and we continued to play him which destroyed his confidence. Did you hear him interviewed in the back half of the season? The poor bastard sounded like a broken man.

4) Excess muscle wouldn't rob Thommo of any kind of explosive pace off of the mark, nor would it prevent him being able to kick more then 40metres with any penetration. He either has OP or a groin/hip injury.

This 'they were carrying excess muscle' stuff is revisionist, developed by Vader in the last fortnight to defend some players who had terrible seasons.

Lastly, it's not hindsight when you call it at the time, which a lot of us did.

With Muscle you can drop weight quickly, even in 2 weeks ......stop the weights and remember with the amount of running players do gameday and during the week ....a change of diet and lack of weights can in fact lead to a drop in weight.

Would suggest we're talking only a couple of kgs

Porps did say he was building up to protect his shoulders ......my take was he lost his sharpness and quick reflexes by hand as a result ...... it's not a huge change required between in-form & out of form

Wasn't it agreed Thommo had a groin issue which would have explained speed off the mark

 

[Slippery Pete]

Except when it comes to the Crows, we start shit we are shit

Sometimes even when we start good, we're shit.

 

[Huntercrow]

I'm surprised how quickly the honeymoon ended with Sando, I really thought we might get a second season out of that
but the boys looked lacklustre from day one in 2013.
The enthusiasm of 2012 was not evident this year so our only hope of success was on the back of a good preseason and a healthy squad. Unfortunately neither was the case so the football department need to address the preseason deficiencies very soon and find a way to find that enthusiasm that was lost this year.
Some deft trading would go a long way towards this I think.

 

[cmndstab]

Sometimes even when we start good, we're shit.

Annoyingly often, actually.

 

[Albert Bruce]

This season was very disappointing - pre season was obviously a good time for Sanderson to have some time off. If we performed like that in our jobs we would have been given the sack or been called in. I was pleased with the end of the year, Adelaide has a good list and with Walker back and improvement in our young players should be looking to top 6 in 2013 imo. Repeat of the same at beginning of 2014 with poor tackling and ball use(incompetent) would in my view be the end of Sanderson. I hope I am wrong and we see the continued improvement we saw in the latter part of the season.

 

[PCORF]

Sometimes even when we start good, we're shit.

Get too carried away with a big lead. Has happened way too often.

 

[cmndstab]

Get too carried away with a big lead. Has happened way too often.

I've always been more concerned about the times we've dominated possession for a quarter, only to end up leading by all of the behinds we kick.

 

[Niximus]

I've always been more concerned about the times we've dominated possession for a quarter, only to end up leading by all of the behinds we kick.

And we've also kept the opposition scoreless until the last couple of mins where they catch us on goals.

Sent from my GT-I9305 using Tapatalk 4

 

[CROW36]

Honestly. IF what this year showed, there is a lot to be excited about. Midfield looks like it could easily be the best in the league in the next couple of years and i don't say that lightly. However a lot of this hinges on both Grigg and Smith. If they come on as expected, that is 5 elite players in our midfield rotation (Assuming danger, sloane and crouch don't suddenly become B grade players)

Not many sides can match that, and with building a very good and young defense, this side is going to be very successful in the future.

Get Walker fit and fix our forward problems whilst accelerating the development of most of out incumbent kids as well as a few others to fix holes (looking at CEY, Kerridge and maybe Atkins here) and we have the makings of a golden era. Draft penalties be damned.

In saying that, this season was an absolute failure. Inability to close out games and missing the finals..well finals were the non negotiable with our goals. However i do like how we are tracking our youngsters. Got to work out what we are doing with Kerridge though and how we are developing him.

We had a crap year 10 wins........port had a fantastic year 12 wins wow.

 

[Golumless]

We had a crap year 10 wins........port had a fantastic year 12 wins wow.

Expectation my dear boy.

A team that is expected to win 5 games well 12 is a fantastic effort.

A team that is expected to win 15 games, well 10 wins is a failure.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

Sometimes even when we start good, we're shit.

We either start well then fade, or start poorly and hold the course

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

“We acknowledged early on that we needed to build our list from the ground up.” – Alastair Clarkson On The Couch tonight.

That was their starting point.

We’ve never even reached the second word of that sentence. There is no acknowledgement of our short comings. Any failure and we blame external factors.

Poor finals results… unlucky with injuries/umpires. Players leave… start up teams, mummy’s boy, Sydney 10%. We performed badly this season… Are there short comings in our player list? No. Are there short comings in our coaching staff? No. Are there short comings in our football department? No.

So why did we perform badly?

Umm… got the preseason a bit wrong and… umm… no, that should cover it. Contract extensions for all – huzzah!
Stagnating of early 20 something players. Lack of performance from senior players. Young players stuck in the SANFL/AFL revolving door death cycle. It has been like this for quite a while now, save for a gun-sparked 2012 resurgence. Yet not a review in sight.

Would someone at the club please acknowledge?

 

[bobshoby]

How on earth could sliding from a preliminary final to competitive irrelevance possibly be classed as a success.
It could have been worse is about the most that could be said for the season. If our management hadn't inexplicably decided to butcher the club in trying to hold onto Tippett we might have at least had something positive to look forward to in this years draft.

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

It would be good to hear from AFC what they learnt from 2013 & how they intend to address the issues at hand.

 

[Sanders]

“We acknowledged early on that we needed to build our list from the ground up.” – Alastair Clarkson On The Couch tonight.

That was their starting point.

We’ve never even reached the second word of that sentence. There is no acknowledgement of our short comings. Any failure and we blame external factors.

Poor finals results… unlucky with injuries/umpires. Players leave… start up teams, mummy’s boy, Sydney 10%. We performed badly this season… Are there short comings in our player list? No. Are there short comings in our coaching staff? No. Are there short comings in our football department? No.

So why did we perform badly?

Umm… got the preseason a bit wrong and… umm… no, that should cover it. Contract extensions for all – huzzah!
Stagnating of early 20 something players. Lack of performance from senior players. Young players stuck in the SANFL/AFL revolving door death cycle. It has been like this for quite a while now, save for a gun-sparked 2012 resurgence. Yet not a review in sight.

Would someone at the club please acknowledge?

If you don't admit you have a problem you can't fix it, and that's why trigg & co is such an elephant in the room

 

[weneverland]

“We acknowledged early on that we needed to build our list from the ground up.” – Alastair Clarkson On The Couch tonight.

That was their starting point.

We’ve never even reached the second word of that sentence. There is no acknowledgement of our short comings. Any failure and we blame external factors.

Poor finals results… unlucky with injuries/umpires. Players leave… start up teams, mummy’s boy, Sydney 10%. We performed badly this season… Are there short comings in our player list? No. Are there short comings in our coaching staff? No. Are there short comings in our football department? No.

So why did we perform badly?

Umm… got the preseason a bit wrong and… umm… no, that should cover it. Contract extensions for all – huzzah!
Stagnating of early 20 something players. Lack of performance from senior players. Young players stuck in the SANFL/AFL revolving door death cycle. It has been like this for quite a while now, save for a gun-sparked 2012 resurgence. Yet not a review in sight.

Would someone at the club please acknowledge?

I think you're got to be clear on who this "we" is. The "we" in Clarkson's quote is obviously the football department/club at Hawthorne. I am not sure who the "we've" is referring to but I would argue strongly that the "we" that are blaming our failures on external factors are the majority of the supporters as opposed to the club. The coach/football department/club have never mentioned external factors as an excuse. Every coach at some stage comes out with "We only worry about the things we can control". The rest of your post does have the disturbing ring of truth though.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

I think you're got to be clear on who this "we" is. The "we" in Clarkson's quote is obviously the football department/club at Hawthorne. I am not sure who the "we've" is referring to but I would argue strongly that the "we" that are blaming our failures on external factors are the majority of the supporters as opposed to the club. The coach/football department/club have never mentioned external factors as an excuse. Every coach at some stage comes out with "We only worry about the things we can control". The rest of your post does have the disturbing ring of truth though.

If you are right then we'd have seen multiple changes to the playing list, coaching staff and football department.

Minimal change means they think these things are fine.

 

[ftmch]

“We acknowledged early on that we needed to build our list from the ground up.” – Alastair Clarkson On The Couch tonight.

That was their starting point.

We’ve never even reached the second word of that sentence. There is no acknowledgement of our short comings. Any failure and we blame external factors.

Poor finals results… unlucky with injuries/umpires. Players leave… start up teams, mummy’s boy, Sydney 10%. We performed badly this season… Are there short comings in our player list? No. Are there short comings in our coaching staff? No. Are there short comings in our football department? No.

So why did we perform badly?

Umm… got the preseason a bit wrong and… umm… no, that should cover it. Contract extensions for all – huzzah!
Stagnating of early 20 something players. Lack of performance from senior players. Young players stuck in the SANFL/AFL revolving door death cycle. It has been like this for quite a while now, save for a gun-sparked 2012 resurgence. Yet not a review in sight.

Would someone at the club please acknowledge?

Sorry, but at what point did the AFC at any point use any of the ‘excuses’ you’ve mentioned above?

Your willingness to put the one-eyed misguided views of a handful of posters on an internet forum as an accurate representation of the approach the the AFC administration and football department take towards their continuous improvement strategy says plenty Carl.


By all means query how they are approaching the process of improving, but to infer that they are not trying and instead choose to blame ‘external factors’ is just unadulterated horseshit.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

Sorry, but at what point did the AFC at any point use any of the ‘excuses’ you’ve mentioned above?

Your willingness to put the one-eyed misguided views of a handful of posters on an internet forum as an accurate representation of the approach the the AFC administration and football department take towards their continuous improvement strategy says plenty Carl.


By all means query how they are approaching the process of improving, but to infer that they are not trying and instead choose to blame ‘external factors’ is just unadulterated horseshit.

See the post above.

If they were taking responsibility and acknowledging problems their actions would be vastly different.

What we can see from their actions is that they've worked out that it isn't the players, coaches or football department that is to blame.

 

[Allefgib]

Let's not even use the word blame. Because its not even about that.

it's about the fact they don't believe those things need to change to improve - which we always need to be doing to be successful in this caper.

Successful being defined by having a genuine tilt at the flag.

Success maybe defined differently at the club (money through the gate...?) which is perhaps why there isn't enough change in the footy department.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

Yep that's fair enough. Blame the wrong word.

In seeking positives, the club has been fairly bullish about how our younger players have come on this year. Lots of rising star nominations etc.

A couple of things there.

1) Why do we think that the natural improvement in our younger players will outstrip other clubs? Particularly when other clubs have had earlier picks than us.

2) The only major change we've made to our playing group, coaching staff or football department lately has been to get rid of the guy who was head of our recruiting department when we identified these players that we are so rapt with.

 

[King Elvis]

“We acknowledged early on that we needed to build our list from the ground up.” – Alastair Clarkson On The Couch tonight.

That was their starting point.

We’ve never even reached the second word of that sentence. There is no acknowledgement of our short comings. Any failure and we blame external factors.

Poor finals results… unlucky with injuries/umpires. Players leave… start up teams, mummy’s boy, Sydney 10%. We performed badly this season… Are there short comings in our player list? No. Are there short comings in our coaching staff? No. Are there short comings in our football department? No.

So why did we perform badly?

Umm… got the preseason a bit wrong and… umm… no, that should cover it. Contract extensions for all – huzzah!
Stagnating of early 20 something players. Lack of performance from senior players. Young players stuck in the SANFL/AFL revolving door death cycle. It has been like this for quite a while now, save for a gun-sparked 2012 resurgence. Yet not a review in sight.

Would someone at the club please acknowledge?

Yep that's fair enough. Blame the wrong word.

In seeking positives, the club has been fairly bullish about how our younger players have come on this year. Lots of rising star nominations etc.

A couple of things there.

1) Why do we think that the natural improvement in our younger players will outstrip other clubs? Particularly when other clubs have had earlier picks than us.

2) The only major change we've made to our playing group, coaching staff or football department lately has been to get rid of the guy who was head of our recruiting department when we identified these players that we are so rapt with.

Applause.gif