Opinion Commentary & Media VIII

[motlopfan]

While I don’t know the exact details of the case for the suppression order, it seems like their lawyer has successfully argued for the court to apply laws introduced to protect sex abuse complainants, not rapists and their families, against the wishes of this particular victim.

Now that the victim has come out publicly, the fact we’re still shielding the perp from public accountability for his actions really leaves you wondering what the presiding judge’s priorities were.

Media Organisations will be applying to have the suppression order lifted right now. Unless the offender has more charges to be bought to trial expect suppression order to be lifted soon.

 

[marklovesbeer]

Reasonably spot on, but I would have the 4th & 5th swapped around.

 

[Passmore]

View attachment 2494366

Reasonably spot on, but I would have the 4th & 5th swapped around.

Realisticly the most likely to be sacked is Voss I reckon. He'd be my number 1.

 

[Rod Stroker]

Bevo might be under pressure, but he ain't getting sacked. They just extended him this year.

 

[danj]

View attachment 2494366

Reasonably spot on, but I would have the 4th & 5th swapped around.

Daft mate, B Scott should be top of that list, Clarko being on there is a joke and by the end of next season I think you’ll agree. Voss yes gone, Bevo more likely to put his hand up, Longmuir will be ok and Lyon might get through this next season on a sugar hit but gone at end of 27

 

[Masked Avenger]

View attachment 2494366

Reasonably spot on, but I would have the 4th & 5th swapped around.

I don't mind the heat that comes with this stuff but imo Clarko isn't number one.

The test has to be what you do with what you've got.

Senior players make or break Coaches and Clarko inherited the worst bunch of senior players the Club's had for 60 years hands down and easily the worst in the league .

Whatever pressure he's under, I don't get the discrepancy with Ross Lyon. Clarko would love his senior players.

Fwiw, Kingsley's "lucky" not to be on this list with the talent burning through his fingers and Nicks will face real heat if Adelaide don't start strongly given the hype around them.

 

[perplexed]

I don't mind the heat that comes with this stuff but imo Clarko isn't number one.

The test has to be what you do with what you've got.

Senior players make or break Coaches and Clarko inherited the worst bunch of senior players the Club's had for 60 years hands down and easily the worst in the league .

Whatever pressure he's under, I don't get the discrepancy with Ross Lyon. Clarko would love his senior players.

Fwiw, Kingsley's "lucky" not to be on this list with the talent burning through his fingers and Nicks will face real heat if Adelaide don't start strongly given the hype around them.

Na. Clarko has had three years already. He has been bringing in his own senior players, and they have mostly made us worse.

Good coaches develop a game plan around the strengths of their best players, Clarko hasn't even tried. He is trying to relive his Hawthorn days playing stodgy possession football when the best teams prioritise fast ball movement and territory.
Happy to give him until the bye. But if we haven't won more than we've lost and are still playing crappy ball retention footy, he has to go. We have a new strategy guy, hopefully he can help turn things around. I think we'll know early whether he is still capable or not. If we start the year with Daniel in defense and Parker and Powell in the midfield, then you may as well put a line through him.

 

[Tas]

Na. Clarko has had three years already. He has been bringing in his own senior players, and they have mostly made us worse.

Good coaches develop a game plan around the strengths of their best players, Clarko hasn't even tried. He is trying to relive his Hawthorn days playing stodgy possession football when the best teams prioritise fast ball movement and territory.
Happy to give him until the bye. But if we haven't won more than we've lost and are still playing crappy ball retention footy, he has to go. We have a new strategy guy, hopefully he can help turn things around. I think we'll know early whether he is still capable or not. If we start the year with Daniel in defense and Parker and Powell in the midfield, then you may as well put a line through him.

Well, I could live with playing ball retention footy if we could... retain the ball. We just overpossess it then turn it over and then there is no pressure. So I hope whatever gameplan we go with, we have to be able to execute it.

 

[Themanbun]

I think it's Clarko then Longmuir under the pump.

 

[perplexed]

Well, I could live with playing ball retention footy if we could... retain the ball. We just overpossess it then turn it over and then there is no pressure. So I hope whatever gameplan we go with, we have to be able to execute it.

Yes, but I don't think this year's gameplan was executable by any team. Opposition teams are too good at defending territory and punishing turnovers where we inevitably make them. It certainly isn't a gameplan that could stack up in a final, which is what we should be trying to develop.

 

[ferball]

Na. Clarko has had three years already. He has been bringing in his own senior players, and they have mostly made us worse.

Good coaches develop a game plan around the strengths of their best players, Clarko hasn't even tried. He is trying to relive his Hawthorn days playing stodgy possession football when the best teams prioritise fast ball movement and territory.
Happy to give him until the bye. But if we haven't won more than we've lost and are still playing crappy ball retention footy, he has to go. We have a new strategy guy, hopefully he can help turn things around. I think we'll know early whether he is still capable or not. If we start the year with Daniel in defense and Parker and Powell in the midfield, then you may as well put a line through him.

When we did play fast attacking footy we looked great and flogged teams ... for short periods. We couldn't sustain it.

Alot of that was off the back of relying on 18 year olds and about 3 other blokes over 24 to do it tho.

And no one has made us worse. Go back and watch the games from 2022. Or 2020 and large patches of 2021. It was insipid horrible footy. Soul destroying shit. Granted it didn't even begin to improve till half way thru last year (2024) but given the circumstances that does make sense. (To me anyway.)

 

[RooInNorthLondon]

Ball possession requires elite ball use and an ability to shift up through the gears to move faster when gaps appear. We don’t really have any of that. Listening to Thursfield talking about the draft he made it clear they prioritised mobility, pressure and speed in the three guys taken. That does suggest the penny may have dropped that we need to run more to compete and earn the right to play in the modern AFL. We will see.

 

[ferball]

Yes, but I don't think this year's gameplan was executable by any team. Opposition teams are too good at defending territory and punishing turnovers where we inevitably make them. It certainly isn't a gameplan that could stack up in a final, which is what we should be trying to develop.

What would be? What do you think would be better?

I can't even remember why I thought this now (cos I haven't thought about it for months) but multiple times during the year I thought there were similarities between what we were trying to do and what Brisbane did. I didn't expect them to go B2B at all, even thought they'd be out of finals quickly at times and put it down to Fagan's time at Hawthorn.

 

[ferball]

BTW While I saw those similarities there were huge gaps too.

That's undeniable.

 

[LB2Snake]

https://www.afl.com.au/news/1452438
Another victory for those young kids who’d never make it through…

So Stuart joins the Power as Head of its NGA program, then works out the system to grant his sons NGA status. Another slime ball move by that club.
We need to get slicker with this stuff.

 

[shintemaster]

Na. Clarko has had three years already. He has been bringing in his own senior players, and they have mostly made us worse.

Good coaches develop a game plan around the strengths of their best players, Clarko hasn't even tried. He is trying to relive his Hawthorn days playing stodgy possession football when the best teams prioritise fast ball movement and territory.
Happy to give him until the bye. But if we haven't won more than we've lost and are still playing crappy ball retention footy, he has to go. We have a new strategy guy, hopefully he can help turn things around. I think we'll know early whether he is still capable or not. If we start the year with Daniel in defense and Parker and Powell in the midfield, then you may as well put a line through him.

I mostly agree with your comments - and Clarkson may very well be trying to implement a redundant plan but I think the first point is perhaps unfair. If Clarkson came in and thought our list was completely insufficient to deliver a modern gameplan I'm not sure that implementing something that stems the blood flow for a few years makes much difference and ultimately just provides false hope (and potentially worse draft picks in the development period). It would be a brave person that said we had a worthwhile list 3+ years ago.

When we did play fast attacking footy we looked great and flogged teams ... for short periods. We couldn't sustain it.

Alot of that was off the back of relying on 18 year olds and about 3 other blokes over 24 to do it tho.

And no one has made us worse. Go back and watch the games from 2022. Or 2020 and large patches of 2021. It was insipid horrible footy. Soul destroying shit. Granted it didn't even begin to improve till half way thru last year (2024) but given the circumstances that does make sense. (To me anyway.)

This is where I sit. The win / loss column might not look massively different but I defy anyone to look at those seasons, compare to 2025 and say that this team doesn't look significantly better at a whole bunch of things. As you say it was just insipid football - we would turn up and the game would be over more often than not before we'd even completed our 2nd round of interchanges.

 

[lockheed]

I mostly agree with your comments - and Clarkson may very well be trying to implement a redundant plan but I think the first point is perhaps unfair. If Clarkson came in and thought our list was completely insufficient to deliver a modern gameplan I'm not sure that implementing something that stems the blood flow for a few years makes much difference and ultimately just provides false hope (and potentially worse draft picks in the development period). It would be a brave person that said we had a worthwhile list 3+ years ago.

When Clarko became coach, I'd have said that our list:
- didn't contain anywhere near sufficient talent;
- players weren't fit enough
- fair proportion of players were happy to coast
- skills were way off the required standard
- players were not willing to run both ways

If this was accurate, reckon that a coach, that could come up with a consistently successful game plan, would have to be an absolute genius.

 

[shintemaster]

When Clarko became coach, I'd have said that our list:
- didn't contain anywhere near sufficient talent;
- players weren't fit enough
- fair proportion of players were happy to coast
- skills were way off the required standard
- players were not willing to run both ways

If this was accurate, reckon that a coach that could come up with a consistently successful game plan, would have to be an absolute genius.

Same.

Do I think we could have played a style that would be more likely to grind an extra couple of wins or at the least keep us less likely to have massive blow outs so early... probably, definitely possibly.

Do I think that would have necessarily made us get to the point of being a genuine, contending, competitive team? Unlikely, and in all likelihood it might have made it less likely to get there in a reasonable timeframe. Potentially it would have made that peak less strong. I think we sometimes forget the human element behind running a team. Clarkson can't just come in year 1 and tell 10 senior players they are not fit for purpose and will need to be gone by the time we are decent or completely change everything about how they approach the game. He would either have a mutiny on his hands or worse.

 

[Passmore]

He should be under the pump, but we're talking real world here. He's not getting sacked.

Voss is that far favourite it's not even close.

 

[perplexed]

What would be? What do you think would be better?

I can't even remember why I thought this now (cos I haven't thought about it for months) but multiple times during the year I thought there were similarities between what we were trying to do and what Brisbane did. I didn't expect them to go B2B at all, even thought they'd be out of finals quickly at times and put it down to Fagan's time at Hawthorn.

We have been playing far too conservatively.

Some stats that I think point to the gameplan issues.

We are the only team that scores more from stoppages than turnovers. You can't rely on dominating stoppages to win games.
We are second highest for disposal efficiency - that isn't good, it just means we neatly stuff around with the footy. How high would our efficiency need to be for Clarko's gameplan to actually work?
We turn the ball over the third least but lose most weeks because of scores from turnover. Despite our low numbers, we have the worst turnover differential. We fiddle around trying to retain possession rather than gaining and defending territory. This also makes us a chore to watch.

Anyway, I hope that is all behind us. Next season our forward line looks potentially dynamic, we have a dominant ruckman and exciting young mids. There shouldn't be any more excuses or reason to play such defensive footy again.

 

[perplexed]

I mostly agree with your comments - and Clarkson may very well be trying to implement a redundant plan but I think the first point is perhaps unfair. If Clarkson came in and thought our list was completely insufficient to deliver a modern gameplan I'm not sure that implementing something that stems the blood flow for a few years makes much difference and ultimately just provides false hope (and potentially worse draft picks in the development period). It would be a brave person that said we had a worthwhile list 3+ years ago.



This is where I sit. The win / loss column might not look massively different but I defy anyone to look at those seasons, compare to 2025 and say that this team doesn't look significantly better at a whole bunch of things. As you say it was just insipid football - we would turn up and the game would be over more often than not before we'd even completed our 2nd round of interchanges.

All true. Except I think what we did this year looked more like trying to stem the blood flow more than actually compete. To me, that is the only explanation for the Daniel fiasco.

 

[ferball]

We are the only team that scores more from stoppages than turnovers.

This has nothing to do with your comment, just something else I remembered thinking during the season and I don't want to forget it.

Do you (and anyone/everyone else) see a functional difference between a turnover that leads to a score and causing a stoppage when the opposition has it that leads to a score?

Why?

(whatever your answer?)

 

[ferball]

We have been playing far too conservatively.

Some stats that I think point to the gameplan issues.

This has to do with us ... what I said about trying to move the ball fast (Northball) and not being up to it. That ... we need to get better before we can do that. The conservative stuff is to limit the damage that's done to us and then give us time to work on being able to carry out a more aggressive gameplan.

That's what I reckon anyway.

We are the only team that scores more from stoppages than turnovers. You can't rely on dominating stoppages to win games.
We are second highest for disposal efficiency - that isn't good, it just means we neatly stuff around with the footy. How high would our efficiency need to be for Clarko's gameplan to actually work?
We turn the ball over the third least but lose most weeks because of scores from turnover. Despite our low numbers, we have the worst turnover differential. We fiddle around trying to retain possession rather than gaining and defending territory. This also makes us a chore to watch.

I don't think that's his gameplan for winning finals. I think its what we're doing to get the players up to scratch so they can play the eventual gameplan.

Anyway, I hope that is all behind us. Next season our forward line looks potentially dynamic, we have a dominant ruckman and exciting young mids. There shouldn't be any more excuses or reason to play such defensive footy again.

Same. How far I dunno but whatever our win loss this year we need to play footy that challenges opposition side wherever they are on the ladder. WE approached that last year but didn't get there.

 

[ferball]

This is where I sit. The win / loss column might not look massively different but I defy anyone to look at those seasons, compare to 2025 and say that this team doesn't look significantly better at a whole bunch of things. As you say it was just insipid football - we would turn up and the game would be over more often than not before we'd even completed our 2nd round of interchanges.

The win loss column is so different. I doesn't seem it cos its still pretty bad but from four games left in 2021 until the bye in 2024 we won 3 games off a new coach bounce and the only other two wins we got were when one team was missing half the side from covid and the other was the end of season game where the other side (GC) were probably checked out.

That's nearly three seasons where we didn't win a game on our merits, without some sort of external factor that was unrepeatable during a regular in season game.

 

[shintemaster]

The win loss column is so different. I doesn't seem it cos its still pretty bad but from four games left in 2021 until the bye in 2024 we won 3 games off a new coach bounce and the only other two wins we got were when one team was missing half the side from covid and the other was the end of season game where the other side (GC) were probably checked out.

That's nearly three seasons where we didn't win a game on our merits, without some sort of external factor that was unrepeatable during a regular in season game.

I get you, just saying on pure points. Ultimately every single year we can point at who was in, who was out, who had given up, who was apparently awful by the end of the season but was flying when we played them. I agree though in general - we are a much better team - it's just that it is coming off an incredibly low base. Anyone who can't see the difference between being annoyed at almost losing to Carlton / Richmond later in the year or not quite getting there against Brisbane or Melbourne later on has a very short memory. It is incomparable to being able to leave 15mins into the 1st quarter of 80% of games and know that your team was already well on its way to losing. We were genuinely uncompetitive in any way for a couple of seasons.

None of this takes away from how much more we still need to improve. Before the crusaders come on here I'm not "accepting" anything by pointing this out - I can clearly see the work to be done, it doesn't negate the huge amount we have done to start digging up for once.