Opinion Is this rock bottom?

[Devil Fish]

Thinking/hoping rock bottom is behind us.

 

[CURVE]

A work colleague asked me today if I was feeling okay, he said I must be feeling a little down with North's continual woes, Carlisle being relegated and now Parramatta sitting at the bottom of the NRL table, and it got me thinking how bad it has been for me with my four favourite teams all struggling in 2024:

North Melbourne - 1 win from 14 games
Parramatta - 4 wins from 14 games
Carlisle United - 4 wins and 1 draw from 22 games. Finished the season 11pts clear at the bottom of League One and relegated to League Two.
Ross County - 4 wins and 5 draws from 20 games. Finished the season in second last but survived relegation in a playoff.

That's 13 wins, 6 draws and 51 defeats in 2024. And yet I'm feeling okay because North are finally competitive and next season is looking promising, Parramatta have sacked Arthur and the interim coach, Trent Barrett won't be given the job past the end of the year, Carlisle have just been bought by an American Billionaire who has already put in over 10 million dollars to improve Brunton Park and the playing roster, and Ross County remain in the Scottish Premier League and have attracted a number of quality players so 2024/25 is looking promising.

Positive thoughts.

 

[Arthur Cloke]

I apologise for my unprecedented absence of late, but I've been on the turps since the news of the release of North Melbourne's own Julian Massage. I am somewhat disappointed however, that Sonja Hood or Jen Watt didn't do the Gough Whitlam & don the Aussie suit jacket & announced "any boss who gives a worker the sack today is scum." It would've been a great show of solidarity. I've actually taken the week off visiting various embassies & my boss hasn't battered an eye lid. As soon as we got word of his release, I grabbed one of my megaphones & began screaming the chorus of Mr. Blindside through my office. My boss knew there and then that he wouldn't see me for a week or two. He understands that I'm up here, and he's down there.

 

[andana]

Thinking/hoping rock bottom is behind us.

Arriba y adelante.

 

[BigRedRoo]

 

[Billy Not Really]

Yep, we’re done. We’ll turn in a shit performance here and there, but it’s starting to click now since the bye and we have measurable improvement.

 

[Devil Fish]

I'm calling it now - rock bottom is behind us. It has to be.

If I'm wrong, and this turns out to be another false dawn, I'll be handing back the keys.

 

[Gasometer]

It’s over

 

[ferball]

Not anymore Ladies and Gentlemen....










We are floating in space!!!

 

[Makeshift Park]

Mods, can we please give this thread to our friends in the WC forum, a small commiserative gift.

 

[speedy]

65.1%

Quite a few individual improvers this year, but our team performance is worse than last year.

That is a disgusting percentage.

 

[Devil Fish]

65.1%

Quite a few individual improvers this year, but our team performance is worse than last year.

That is a disgusting percentage.

Just spend 15minutes reading posts on here Speedy and you’ll soon realise we are travelling really well, tracking in the right direction with a list choc-a-block full of talent with depth the envy of most other clubs. We just need to pump games into the kids.

Ignore our win/loss record and our % - they are just peripheral issues. You’ve gotta look at the big picture.

 

[gerry101101]

We'll win 3 of the last 4. Our points for vs against in this period will average out to 92 for vs 80 away. We'll finish with 5 wins and a percentage marginally higher than last year (72%). It will be something; better than nothing.

And the loss we have will be to the Bulldogs, who will as a result keep * out of the 8.

Again, that's something.

Onwards and upwards.

 

[andana]

65.1%

Quite a few individual improvers this year, but our team performance is worse than last year.

That is a disgusting percentage.

The Harry gang is doing the heavy lifting but we still have too much dead weight.

 

[FlyHigh18]

 

[speedy]

Looks like we are moving forward, but we are going backwards?

 

[FlyHigh18]

Looks like we are moving forward, but we are going backwards?

much of the structure and effort is getting there, just have to execute better.

 

[Limerick]

If we can't defeat Richmond and West Coast then this is definitely rock bottom.
2 wins, 21 losses. Yes there has been some improvement in form but a f***ing
lot more is required in 2025.

 

[apollo_creed]

The Richmond and West Coast games and results are huge for the club. No hiding from it or sugar coating failure.

 

[Zondor]

Just spend 15minutes reading posts on here Speedy and you’ll soon realise we are travelling really well, tracking in the right direction with a list choc-a-block full of talent with depth the envy of most other clubs. We just need to pump games into the kids.

Ignore our win/loss record and our % - they are just peripheral issues. You’ve gotta look at the big picture.

Yes look at the big picture whilst on acid. Then things look rosy. :stern look

 

[Sillygit]

65.1%

Quite a few individual improvers this year, but our team performance is worse than last year.

That is a disgusting percentage.

well it's not as if the post bye form was going to be equally as good as the pre bye form was bad and bring it to 100.

we're sitting around 80% post bye games and the biggest culprit for that is the Sydeny game. More games to draw from pre bye to post bye as well another factor

Now, i feel i need to make this painfully clear given some of the usuals response to stuff like this: I'm not saying this the promised land, or everything's fine, or things been only good post bye.

But that is a clear and measurable improvment.

 

[hilly]

We'll win 3 of the last 4. Our points for vs against in this period will average out to 92 for vs 80 away. We'll finish with 5 wins and a percentage marginally higher than last year (72%). It will be something; better than nothing.

And the loss we have will be to the Bulldogs, who will as a result keep * out of the 8.

Again, that's something.

Onwards and upwards.

Confident re: Hawthorn?

 

[gerry101101]

Confident re: Hawthorn?

Yes.

Misplaced? Very possibly!

My guess is the Hawks will lose the next two and thus be out of 8 contention by the final round, and that will see them run out of steam after what has been a pretty incredible run of form and sustained high intensity for months now with very few down games.

Disclaimer: This post is 20% analysis, 30% hunch, and 50% the usual '2 days after a bad loss just re-emerging optimism'.

 

[Passmore]

Confident re: Hawthorn?

Significantly less so than last week played them.

Sent from my SM-A908B using Tapatalk

 

[Only Forwards]

Yes look at the big picture whilst on acid. Then things look rosy. :stern look

I don't think I could remain focused enough to watch football if I was on acid. Also what a boring ass trip that would be.

In terms of big picture to create a basis of comparison we need to look at other clubs who have done what we have done and rendered themselves equally as shit. Then use their timelines of recovery to work out where we actually are.

Carlton and Melbourne both ruined themselves in a similar way to what we have done to ourselves. It took them 10 and 12 seasons respectively to go from playing finals to shitting the bed to back to playing finals. This included them gutting their lists, miring at the bottom and having significant off field turmoil. All things we have just gone through.

2016 is our last finals appearance. 2026 would put us on par with Carlton.

This can be hard to stomach and I am sure that there are people reading this thinking to themselves yes but Hawthorn or yes but Collingwood. But we are not comparative to those sides with what we have done. They have broadly had stability off field and quality senior leaders on it. We have had neither. I am not going to relitigate this, it's been done to death.

If we wind up in finals in 26 we will have done this on the faster end of the clean up for the mess that we made ourselves.

I want the wheel to turn quicker, I want us to win every game. I get pissed off when we don't, especially in the moment. But I also appreciate that recovery from what we did and all the errors we have made is not easy and it is going to take time. more time than any of us really want, and more time than basically any of our players will truly appreciate.

What is the alternative? we stop following North? You know as well as I do that is not an option.