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Bombproof

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Well, these comments look promising:

Collingwood football manager Geoff Walsh yesterday conceded the Pies had underachieved since their 2010 premiership, and were desperate to rediscover a hard edge.
"What I do know is our discipline, our attitude, if that's linked to culture it is something we would feel needs to improve if we are going to be around in the last week of September," Walsh said.
"Our players will understand what we are all about, or if they don't need to be around for the ride, we are happy to accommodate them elsewhere.
"Are we going to be a flash in the pan, or do we dig in and give some sort of credence to the talent on the list by virtue of performance? We are hell-bent on returning this team to a premiership."

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...ases-collingwood/story-fnahs424-1226492267881
 
Absolutely nailed it Optimax, in each post.

I think we need to give the players a little more credit than to suggest that the contract negotiations between a single player and the club (which every player goes through every 2-3 years), especially where the player has openly stated his preference to stay with his club, could have led to kickng errors, lack of intensity at the football, structural failure, etc.

Some people need to just accept that we weren't that good this year.
 

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Swooop said:
One of our problems is that the press as a whole do not particularly like us, and have a fair idea that keeping Collingwood 'stories' alive and continually giving them oxygen works as a distraction, however much some claim otherwise.

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Swooop, so you think the press act collectively to try to derail our season, just because we are Collingwood? As if the press care about whether we win, or someone else wins... All the press care about is selling their content. It isn't about cost Collingwood premiership points or premierships...
 
Harass the media.

Hunt them down, and demand they interview our players, and constantly push for fluff pieces.

Basically, make them so sick of hearing from us, they won't write about us for the rest of the year.
 
Jelly Bean said:
Absolutely nailed it Optimax, in each post.

I think we need to give the players a little more credit than to suggest that the contract negotiations between a single player and the club (which every player goes through every 2-3 years), especially where the player has openly stated his preference to stay with his club, could have led to kickng errors, lack of intensity at the football, structural failure, etc.

Some people need to just accept that we weren't that good this year.
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There's definitely truth in what you say. There is no single thing that you can put our season down to but I think it's also fair to say that when considered as a whole, the sum of all of the issues that the club faced this year is a fairly big factor. You simply can't ignore the facts that we turned over virtually our entire coaching staff, suffered a ridiculous number of long term injuries and almost certainly would have had some focus, albeit that none of us knows how much, distracted by the Cloke and other media circuses. By the standards set over the past 2 seasons, yes we were poor in 2012 but I reckon it's fair to say that we actually overachieved in light of the obstacles.
 
Bucks has already signalled his intent for 2013 with his comments that the players have been complacent since the premiership and that no excuses will be made for players who cannot perform. I would expect this last point will be demonstrated in the most tangible way by the exit of Dawes. The move of Wellingham back to WA, whilst instigated by the player, also demonstrates the attitude that the club will no longer except off field issues. I fully expect a more committed and fitter playing group next season resulting in many more positive media coverage.

The media blowtorch will be aimed at the Blues thanks to the ego maniac in charge there now.
 
grokq said:
Pretty pointless trying to protect ourselves from unforseen media-driven distractions. The press will have their way and invent, distort and misrepresent ANYTHING to drum up interest. Let's face it, pie news sells - bad news probably better than good. If we could do anything to help it would be for our PR group to do some muck-raking and feed stories to the press about OTHER clubs - something political parties do. However, I hope and expect this would not happen.
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Might not happen mate but it is a bloody good idea.:thumbsu:
 
How do you protect against players not respecting circle of trust & team rules. How do we replicate Luke Ball, Nick Maxwell & Scott Pendelbury work ethos? How do we make players play for their mates & be selfless?

Answer lies in a combination of smart recruiting, strong culture & strict penalties for misdemeanours. Also, I strongly believe that the club should have a performance / KPI based remuneration model whereby players have an incentive to strive for excellence.
 
Jelly Bean said:
Swooop, so you think the press act collectively to try to derail our season, just because we are Collingwood? As if the press care about whether we win, or someone else wins... All the press care about is selling their content. It isn't about cost Collingwood premiership points or premierships...
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I think you're slightly overstating what I said there Jelly Bean.
But without being a conspiratory theorist, I do think there's elements of that.

But the tenor of the OP was how do make ourselves 'bombproof' and I was trying to address that question.

And I don't agree with people here who think negative things eg MM in late 2011 or Cloke this year have zero effect on the team. I think that's naive to be honest. We'll agree to disagree on that one.

It would be nice if our players were immune to to these things, and I'm sure they talk about it a lot and minimise it as much as possible, but at the end of the day they're human and at the knife edge elite level they play at, so much is between the ears.

As stated above, Pendlebury admitted the Cloke thing affected the team - I thought it was obvious the team were flat as tacks for several weeks there.

The question then becomes how do we address this to bombproof ourselves.
One suggestion re contract talks - if they take over say one week or some nominated time they get put on hold and they are done behind closed doors.
Cloke going on the footy show - media circus- wtf.
 
dubber said:
How do you protect against players not respecting circle of trust & team rules. How do we replicate Luke Ball, Nick Maxwell & Scott Pendelbury work ethos? How do we make players play for their mates & be selfless?

Answer lies in a combination of smart recruiting, strong culture & strict penalties for misdemeanours. Also, I strongly believe that the club should have a performance / KPI based remuneration model whereby players have an incentive to strive for excellence.
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Incentives and bonus payments are already included in contracts. What you need to remember is that league footballers represent a very very small percentage of the workforce and as such you cannot apply standard remuneration models to elite athletes. They hold the power and if we were to deviate from how contracts are structured we wild find it pretty difficult to attract players.
 
I think the club went a long way in achieving this by suspending one of our best players at a crucial time of the year.
 

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We ought to have a standing rule that no-one discusses contracts on the Footy Show. I'd be happy if no-one gave interviews on the Footy Show, period, but that's probably overkill.
 
The sad thing is about the media, if they dont get a story they are more than happy to just make one up
 
Whilst their is a heap of things we can't control, what we need to get back quick smart is that aggression and will to kill the opposition.

Manic chasing, aggressive defense across the field and selfless play will take care of the results.

The results will take care of the contracts.

Contracts will forever be a part of this game.

Mentally, we need to be better in putting these things to the back of our minds, as well as down playing them in the media.

I hope the club has learnt from the Cloke drama on how to handle these issues going forward.
 
I blogged a half page post about these issues not long ago.

Yes we should have won the flag in 2011.Yes you can blame Malthouse for letting his ego get in the way,Yes you can constantly blame all media for trying to pull us down every chance they get cos they hate us,and its always amusing when Collingwood play off for a flag and we lose.But we sell papers,everyone wants to know what collingwood are up to,or not up to.I mean lets face it without Collingwood in the league AFL Footy will lose a lot of excitement.

Obviously amongst all this and our current spate of injuries and losing that extra 5% it's come back to bite this current group.Just when the group trys to get a breath and reconvene the Cloke drama derails us this season.
Look forward next year to waht is Daisy thomas gonna do re sign or resign ??????????
Nah i reckon the Hawks can get a pelting next year when Buddy Franklin will also become a free agent !

This current crop has the makings of winning another flag or two before they are done,so its tweek time and Bucks needs to have a plan A and B in porder to achieve greatness and oh yes less injuries.
 
blaze036 said:
The sad thing is about the media, if they dont get a story they are more than happy to just make one up
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Let them. Stuff that is obviously made up genuinely will not affect the playing list. They'd laugh that stuff off.
 
If there is one model to learn from since we have dropped back a peg this year is the SYDNEY MODEL.

Look at how the transitional hand over happened between Longmire and ROOS.
Smooth as a baby's bum.No hitches no nothing all players and assistant coaches in place and the swannies recruited smartly.Kennedy,Mumford,Rhyce shaw etc not world beaters just the philosphy of the way its done in sydney......you know the culture !We must grab that back again at Collingwood.

The problem i felt the pies have had is the group lost that winning at all costs help and back each other up.That work ethic we use to have we must regain that.

Bucks understands that with Mlthouse leaving he couldn't change things up too much cos if he didand things wry he would get6 the blame.Ok so Bucks has settled in now he will move forward and put his stamp on this side,if theyu don;t want to be there as Hine reacen,ly said Collingwood are happy to move disgruntled players on who are not committed to the cause.

No more time to muck around fix our deficiencies through the draft and come on lets win the flag next year.

We are Collingwood!
 

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I think Walsh's statement about players who are half-arsed or don't wont to be here to tell the Club now and we'll accomodate a change.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/afl/dep...ases-collingwood/story-fn69a32t-1226492267881

"What I do know is our discipline, our attitude, if that's linked to culture it is something we would feel needs to improve if we are going to be around in the last week of September," Walsh said.

"Our players will understand what we are all about, or if they don't need to be around for the ride, we are happy to accommodate them elsewhere.

"Are we going to be a flash in the pan, or do we dig in and give some sort of credence to the talent on the list by virtue of performance? We are hell-bent on returning this team to a premiership."
Click to expand...

If some players have lost the passion, don't buy into the vision or enjoy the social side more than the onfield stuff, then we need to show them the door.
 
Interesting discussion. I agree with OP, I think this is about a <1%er and thats exactly the sort of thing we should be changing if we can.
The drama around clokey ended when talks were postponed so appears to me it was controllable. Shoulda happened way earlier.
I suspect Bucks will tighten the culture at the pies, which evidence suggests has been a little loose.
There is something we can all do: quit bigfooty! It might be a 0.01%er but I'm damn sure the trickle down affect of this forum is not a positive for the team.
Then, go forth and multiple, spread rumours and disease (join other clubs forums).
 
Agree this is an interesting thread/topic. The Pies will always attract media attention - we sell papers. Check how often we are on the back page of The Age, once or twice a week during the season (not bad for one club out of 18). While I often cringe at Eddie's outbursts, he is a big target and takes some of the media heat for us. But I would be grateful for a year (in 2013) of minimal off-field distractions, as was 2010.

The players have to take some responsibility for dealing with off-field issues, and 'bombproofing' the team. They have some of the best facilities in the AFL, no expense spared on innovative programs, the newest and biggest high altitude facilities, etc, etc. Its a privilege to play for this team, and as fans we ask that they conduct themselves in a professional and diligent manner, ignore off-field distractions, and get on with using their incredible talents and privileges to dominate the AFL and win the 2013 flag! Apologies for the rant!!
 
I think the media speculation factor can be a bit overplayed.
in 2011, we weren't that far away from winning and while we got beaten tactically on the day, you can't blame the whole MM Footy Show antics on that.
This year the harsh reality is that we weren't enough. Hawthorn had our measure and we lost in the PF to the eventual premiers. If we hadn't lost those games against Carlton and North we would've got into 3rd, probably beat Adelaide and had a home PF.

Sure the Cloke thing was a factor but the other reality was that Dawes was no longer a factor and our gameplan didn't adjust enough until later in the year.
 
TRS footy clubs are full of egos and man management of same will always present a problem - none moreso than at Collingwood!

Bucks did brilliantly from a PR sense and reasonably from a coaching sense - problem for me is that this group needs to buy into a common goal as MM was able to provide in 2010. From where i sit we need to look into how the Swans were able to carry it off this season and use that as the template and improve on it.

I think players/Bucks believed in their pure ability/talent hype way too much - we believed in our mid season revival too much - this caused us to drop our guard against the development of Hawks and Sydney as the finals bore out. The Trav thing then became a distracting sideshow - to me it indicated a lack of mental toughness and cohesiveness - other clubs sensed/knew we had our eyes off the ball - cant afford this next year again!

We underperformed in key indicators in comparison to Sydney - we need to match their intensity or better it to be successful next year - not worry too much about peripheral issues - once we show the media a strong committted edge from within this will go a long way to insulating us from the peripheral media BS/circus. We need commitment from the players to act for one thing only the show of unity should act as a buffer from the media BS.

Let last season/2011 serve us as bloody wake up call for this group that oportunities such as these wont be there for ever!!

Wake UP boys - seize the day!
 

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