Gentlemanly discussion on the coaching future of Adam Simpson

[kranky al]

You can tell a lot from body language.

Like when that woman starts taking her clothes off in front of you it's not cause she wants to wash the dishes.

Oh really? So many opportunities missed...

So many dishes that dumb c}#% has washed himself lol hahaha


/forever alone

 

[ziad]

How can WC pretend to be professional when they don't even have their own reserves team as a foundation for developing younger players. Particularly when the system demands you have to bring in draftees and unless you tank they will generally be developing players. That and the amaturish old boys smell about the club (perhaps a WA thing particularly the WAFL) is so much of an impediment I can not see a premiership coming along.

 

[Shuestar13]

The 2014 Gold Coast Suns like this

Not sure what you mean by this post. Are you saying Gold Coast overreacted by sacking McKenna? I wouldn't have thought the two clubs situations where in any way comparable?

I am not advocating for Simpson to be sacked. There needs to be a substantive review into the season, where things have gone wrong and how do we fix them. Sacking the coach isnt necessarily the answer. We just have to see how the next fortnight pans out. Selection on Thursday night is going to be interesting to start with!

 

[Jimmy_the_Gent]

Egads, people saying sack Simpson because it's a results based industry need to look up his winning record. Last time I checked he was 6th amongst active coaches. We're not going to sack a dude in the top 1/3rd for winning percentage and 2 years left on his contract just so we can try our luck with someone else.

 

[Eagleboy68]

So many dishes that dumb c}#% has washed himself lol hahaha


/forever alone

Hahaha. Unless she wanted to wash the dishes in the nude.

 

[15yearmember]

Egads, people saying sack Simpson because it's a results based industry need to look up his winning record. Last time I checked he was 6th amongst active coaches. We're not going to sack a dude in the top 1/3rd for winning percentage and 2 years left on his contract just so we can try our luck with someone else.

But that's a simplistic Stat, like judging Priddis based on total disposals. His winning percentage is good in a vacuum. How has he gone v expectations of this list in the last 2 years? Do you have a sense that the club has a clear direction going forward? Do you have a clear view of what our gameplan is I.e the West Coast brand?

 

[Woobla Stainz]

What was strange last night was picking Wellingham to replace LeCras. If Wellingham had been unleashed in the midfield, it would have made sense, but he was stuck in the forward line for the vast majority of the match.

Simpson should have picked Hill if he wanted a dedicated forward. Hill is a proven goal kicker, Wellingham is not.

Yes strange indeed, persisted with it all night too when it clearly wasn't working. I would look at moving a Sharrod and Masten on at years end.

 

[Woobla Stainz]

Not sure what you mean by this post. Are you saying Gold Coast overreacted by sacking McKenna? I wouldn't have thought the two clubs situations where in any way comparable?

I am not advocating for Simpson to be sacked. There needs to be a substantive review into the season, where things have gone wrong and how do we fix them. Sacking the coach isnt necessarily the answer. We just have to see how the next fortnight pans out. Selection on Thursday night is going to be interesting to start with!

I would look at what Richmond have done, complete review of the whole club make the hard calls, Hickmont and Cox need to go plus Graham and bring in some experienced assistants, I think Simmo wanted an inexperienced coaching panel when he came over so no one questioned him but ever since Pyke has gone it looks they are way out of there depth. Hope Sam takes Hickmonts job everything I have seen from him has been very uninspiring cant even answer basic questions in interviews.

 

[Shuestar13]

I would look at what Richmond have done, complete review of the whole club make the hard calls, Hickmont and Cox need to go plus Graham and bring in some experienced assistants, I think Simmo wanted an inexperienced coaching panel when he came over so no one questioned him but ever since Pyke has gone it looks they are way out of there depth. Hope Sam takes Hickmonts job everything I have seen from him has been very uninspiring cant even answer basic questions in interviews.

Yes I agree about a restructure of the coaching panel. Hickmott is an interesting one. I think from memory he won the assistant coach award or something like that (whatever that means). And in Keys preseason training reports, he noted that Hickmott was a good communicator and very strong on field in drills etc. I guess we don't know for sure... But something has to change!

 

[Woobla Stainz]

Yes I agree about a restructure of the coaching panel. Hickmott is an interesting one. I think from memory he won the assistant coach award or something like that (whatever that means). And in Keys preseason training reports, he noted that Hickmott was a good communicator and very strong on field in drills etc. I guess we don't know for sure... But something has to change!

None of us really know what goes on at the club behind closed doors but Cox and Hickmont are responsible for the midfield and stoppages, areas we have been poor in for a while and only seem to be getting worse and getting left behind by the rest of the comp. Some may roll out the Nic Nat excuse but they its not like they haven't had time to come up with a stoppage strategy.

They had all offseason, preseason and all of this season and i haven't seen any innovation or improvement at all they are going backwards and we cant seem to develop any young players in that area.

I have listened to a few interviews with Hickmont and he just doesn't come across well he couldn't even answer basic questions and they guys interviewing him had to extrapolate and answer for him. When you compare that to Sam Mitchell's interviews for example there is a huge difference.

IMO Cox needs to stick to just Rucks, Hickmont to be replaced by Mitchell and another experienced midfield coach bought in, and Jamie Graham needs to GTFO! Our forward line hasn't been functioning properly ever since he got his hands on it. We used to press and lock the ball in but now opposition just walk it out with ease!

 

[Jimmy_the_Gent]

But that's a simplistic Stat, like judging Priddis based on total disposals. His winning percentage is good in a vacuum. How has he gone v expectations of this list in the last 2 years? Do you have a sense that the club has a clear direction going forward? Do you have a clear view of what our gameplan is I.e the West Coast brand?

You're underselling win/loss record. We literally play games to find out who wins and who loses, it's nothing like player disposals, it's much more exhaustive.

As for how he's gone versus list expectation over the last 2 years, it's very subjective. If you want to try and quantify it and believe that money talks, I've worked out that we won more games as outsiders (40% win record) than we've lost as favourites (29.3% loss record). That's over performance and it certainly doesn't scream "sack this guy!".

Likewise my perception of where the club is headed and how the game plan looks doesn't mean anything. Most football fans still scream "Just kick it". There's no way we should allow that to hold more weight than win/loss.

 

[Eagleboy68]

You're underselling win/loss record. We literally play games to find out who wins and who loses, it's nothing like player disposals, it's much more exhaustive.

As for how he's gone versus list expectation over the last 2 years, it's very subjective. If you want to try and quantify it and believe that money talks, I've worked out that we won more games as outsiders (40% win record) than we've lost as favourites (29.3% loss record). That's over performance and it certainly doesn't scream "sack this guy!".

Likewise my perception of where the club is headed and how the game plan looks doesn't mean anything. Most football fans still scream "Just kick it". There's no way we should allow that to hold more weight than win/loss.

We'll look at us overperformers haha.

I guess Simpson was right when he said the players tried too hard

 

[frenchconnection]

Yes strange indeed, persisted with it all night too when it clearly wasn't working. I would look at moving a Sharrod and Masten on at years end.

Just my opinion of course but think Simmo has as good as conceded we probably won't make finals and he played Wellingham to see what he's made of and whether he will be traded or dropped off the list at years end. Like a few others could not fathom why Wellingham was picked over Hill, particularly as Hill was originally named as first emergency and we do know that Hill is capable of playing HFF.

 

[bzparkes]

When Priddis described Simo as a mate I thought hmmmmm. How many bosses are mates with their employees they supervise.

Is Clarkson 'mates" with the Hawks players I wonder?

It seemed a bit too casual for my liking.

Huh? I'm close mates with my boss but if I was doing a s**t job he'd get rid of me, as I would expect him to do so thankfully I don't. Doesn't mean we wouldn't still be mates because it really isn't that difficult to separate the two. Just don't make work personal, easy.

 

[frenchconnection]

Do you remember what happened after that?

I think he's burned it from his memory.

Most people who.mention those three wins seem to forget the s**t we dished up when it really mattered and the pressure was really on.

Makes me vomit to think we lost to the bulldogs at home in a final. And even.worse we got smashed.

Was a reason for that - because we just thought by it being played on our home turf that it would automatically be a win and the Bulldogs did a good con job in the last Home & away match playing so badly against Freo. It was all in the head and they didn't lift the tempo to finals type football. In other words they were arrogant and of course by this stage Nic had gone down.

 

[BlueandGoldforever]

Egads, people saying sack Simpson because it's a results based industry need to look up his winning record. Last time I checked he was 6th amongst active coaches. We're not going to sack a dude in the top 1/3rd for winning percentage and 2 years left on his contract just so we can try our luck with someone else.

Although it is unlikely it is not improbable. Ken Judge was sacked two years into a four-year coaching contract though of course his results were worse. I know Simpson's position has been discussed at board level and if we lose the last two games and miss the finals we will finish on 11-11 - exactly the same as we did in Simpson's first year of coach in 2014. That is what you would call full circle.

 

[kranky al]

Was a reason for that - because we just thought by it being played on our home turf that it would automatically be a win and the Bulldogs did a good con job in the last Home & away match playing so badly against Freo. It was all in the head and they didn't lift the tempo to finals type football. In other words they were arrogant and of course by this stage Nic had gone down.

You are of course aware that the dogs did ok in their finals campaign that year

 

[frenchconnection]

When the guys go out there with as much intensity as when they're going down the park for a Sunday picnic there's a big problem within the club. You can keep sticking your head in the sand all you want but it's been happening since the start of last season and we're not going to win anything while it persists.

Exactly. I call it "a stroll in the Park" type intensity which is zilch.

 

[frenchconnection]

You are of course aware that the dogs did ok in their finals campaign that year

Yes I do know that and I'm not saying we would have even won, however a bit more intensity wouldn't have gone astray at the time.
Apart from the last 3 home & away games in 2016 we have played meh football ever since 2015. It's like the players have no hunger for a win more often than not. Not sure Simmo is entirely the problem, however he does not appear to have the persona to fire the team up.

 

[Jimmy_the_Gent]

Although it is unlikely it is not improbable. Ken Judge was sacked two years into a four-year coaching contract though of course his results were worse. I know Simpson's position has been discussed at board level and if we lose the last two games and miss the finals we will finish on 11-11 - exactly the same as we did in Simpson's first year of coach in 2014. That is what you would call full circle.

Not the dreaded full circle! If you take out the joy of 34 wins in 45 games, we're exactly where we started

As for your first sentence, I assume you meant "impossible" rather than "improbable", otherwise I'm going to have a seizure

 

[greatwhiteshark]

How can WC pretend to be professional when they don't even have their own reserves team as a foundation for developing younger players. Particularly when the system demands you have to bring in draftees and unless you tank they will generally be developing players. That and the amaturish old boys smell about the club (perhaps a WA thing particularly the WAFL) is so much of an impediment I can not see a premiership coming along.

How is the WAFL impeding them? The players spend their entire time at the Eagles other than for a couple of hours on game day where they play for East Perth.
I have still to this day not seen any concrete evidence that having a reserves side makes an ounce of difference to how your senior side performs during the year.
Basically what happened was a couple of Vic sides created their own reserves side and the rest just followed it. The AFL is a sheep mentality system, one does something and the rest just follow it.
We have won 3 flags without one. Could we of won 5 with a reserves side??? There is no evidence to suggest that would be the case.
But I am an advocate for us having our own side in the WAFL simply as it's the best option as it won't go back to the previous system.

 

[Godfather32]

We'll look at us overperformers haha.

I guess Simpson was right when he said the players tried too hard

So brave

 

[kranky al]

How is the WAFL impeding them? The players spend their entire time at the Eagles other than for a couple of hours on game day where they play for East Perth.
I have still to this day not seen any concrete evidence that having a reserves side makes an ounce of difference to how your senior side performs during the year.
Basically what happened was a couple of Vic sides created their own reserves side and the rest just followed it. The AFL is a sheep mentality system, one does something and the rest just follow it.
We have won 3 flags without one. Could we of won 5 with a reserves side??? There is no evidence to suggest that would be the case.
But I am an advocate for us having our own side in the WAFL simply as it's the best option as it won't go back to the previous system.

One of the problems with the wafl reserves side is a different ball to afl match balls - behaves differently.

 

[BlueandGoldforever]

Not the dreaded full circle! If you take out the joy of 34 wins in 45 games, we're exactly where we started

As for your first sentence, I assume you meant "impossible" rather than "improbable", otherwise I'm going to have a seizure

Yes. That was my mistake.

 

[greatwhiteshark]

One of the problems with the wafl reserves side is a different ball to afl match balls - behaves differently.

In what way? Not saying there isn't minor differences but if you can kick a footy it makes no difference at all. Personally I always preferred the Burly over the Sherrin but it made zero difference whether I could hit a target or not.