List management 101 (69?)

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Are there any key position free agents available at the end of the season? The lack of KPD and need for a second forward to help Larkey is glaringly obvious. Yet, well probably recruit an undersized mid again.
Phillips, Powell and Lazzaro aren’t enough.

We need at least two more.
 
Are there any key position free agents available at the end of the season? The lack of KPD and need for a second forward to help Larkey is glaringly obvious. Yet, well probably recruit an undersized mid again.
Free agents are slim pickings this year let alone KPP ones

Josh Battle is one
Jake Kolodjashnij
 
The KPD drafts are an absolute catastrophe.

Durdin, Neilson, EVW, Declan ******* Watson, Cameron Delaney, Luke Delaney….

Vomit
And what’s worse is that probably contributed to us then choosing will walker over Balta as they hoped one of the above made it

after loading up an entire draft on KPD 2 years prior
 

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With all due respect to everyone who has posted here, might not this analysis be better suited to around the time of the mid year bye?

Perhaps by then we might have a little more evidence of what the re-vamped coaching panel has managed to achieve (or not) after half a season, hopefully without the upheaval caused by the Hawthorn racism allegations that wrecked last year.
 
Another season underway. Another familiar loss. Had a crack, miles off it.
After five years at the bottom we are looking another 2-3 years off any major movement up ladder.
As always, some encouraging signs. Mainly the kids.
Sheezel a ripper, Wardlaw cracks in, McKercher classy and Duursma looks a player. But so they should be. They are absolute high end draft picks. There would be something very wrong if they weren't quality young players. Goater looked good too - terrible luck.
Then look at the rest of the list.
It's horribly unbalanced. Backline is atrocious and still no small pressure forward.
After infamously culling all the fringe players, we have drafted so many mids and not much else. And many of them are small. Where is the system in what we've done?
What have we been doing for past five years?
We've tried recruiting guys from other clubs. But most have been just spot fillers. CCJ trade was always horrible and is looking even worse now. Corr is very average. Tucker adds little. Fisher and Stephens get time but looked average on debut. Daniel Howe. Should we have gone after a Ginnivan who at least filled a glaring need?
Greenwood and Stephenson been ok. Shiels solid last year. But none move the needle for us.
Logue was at least a tick until his injury.
Our key defender cupboard is virtually bare. We're relying on Comben who has never been a back and is made of paper. Nyoun, Pink??? Unlikely.
So many mistakes with drafting and trading it's amazing.
The CCJ trade.
Trading out of the first round of the draft when we were rebuilding, missing Pickett and/or Serong.
Jacobs Edward. Phoenix Spicer. Jack Mahoney. Hosie. Ham.
Phillips looking very shaky (ahead of McDonald).
Delisting and Relisting Turner? Why? What was Josh Walker all about? And then we flicked him when we were light on for key backs?
We should also have pushed harder with Horne-Francis. Port were desperate and like the CCJ trade we folded meekly. Even with Brown we took way unders for a bloke with his record.
I know some will disagree but I see a string of glaring mistakes leading to a historically bad team.
Some are with benefit of hindsight, undoubtedly, but lots of them like CCJ, Mahoney, Howe, even Corr, were obvious at the time.
And most have one bloke's hands all over them.
But Rawlings still keeps his job as he was responsible for some of these problems
 
Good thread.

we all have our views on the current pickle we find ourselves in.

Whether we've had one rebuild or 3 due to pathetic drafting we find ourselves with a very young list, which undeniably has a shitload of talent.

I do wonder what the collective view is on throwing our first and second round picks on the draft table and seeing what interest it garners.
Bringing in 3/4 more youngsters surely isn't what we need.

I'd do it fwiw
 
The club was going around in circles during the 2017-19 era. Some indecision was going on regarding the list and whether we could do anything with it. During 2018, we had a healthy percentage and defensively, pretty strong. In classic North fashion, we missed out on finals finishing 9th. So that probably gave the coaches some confidence to add some attacking power. Polec made sense at the time because it's easily forgotten how good of a season he had in 2019 (and early parts of 2020). He was easily our best player other than Higgins and it was so abundantly clear he was a step above the majority of the playing group in terms of talent. The problem was he joined a team held together by bandages and a depth that was non-existent. If we didn't have our best 22 playing, we were in strife irrespective of opposition. That's how bad it could get.

Some of the best footy we've seen in the last 5 years has come from a list nowhere near as talented as it is now (albeit very young). Round 22, 2019 still stands out as our best performance in the 'no man's land' era. But, the week prior, we could only muster 14 points at GMHBA. So that probably perfectly encapsulates the problem with the list prior to the 11 player cull etc. It was still just as lazy, unprepared, unprofessional and inconsistent as the team prior to that year and so on.

The catastrophe that was our drafting during the compromised draft years is truly another North special. It doesn't get any worse than that. We bottled so many of them and bottled the trades as well.

The list management from 2020-22 was also pretty suspect but this is not as bad as the horrendous list management that took place specifically after retiring Boomer and co. To this day, we still do not have a small forward or Boomer replacement. We are getting close to 10 years now. In all honesty, I don't think I have sympathy for Brad or the footy department at the time. They brought it upon themselves but even worse, brought it upon the supporter base. That's unforgivable and blatant club-killing stuff.

'I would play them if they were available...' Damn right you would because you spent 10 years doing nothing about trying to find a bloke good enough to replace him then resorted to using 200-gamer Shaun Atley up forward as a desperate measure.

What an absolute twat. Worst coach to ever coach the game other than Mark Neeld. Glad he's at *Essendon to make them mid-table specialists.

So happy we have Clarko and a competent team but it's going to take a while to shake off the horrific footy dept management from the previous regime.
 
Well into their last few years, Boomer and Wells were still carrying us as we tried to stay inside the top 8.

How can a footy club, logically, think getting rid of that type of individual elite talent then replace them with no one be a good idea?
 
Well into their last few years, Boomer and Wells were still carrying us as we tried to stay inside the top 8.

How can a footy club, logically, think getting rid of that type of individual elite talent then replace them with no one be a good idea?

No one would, but you see year after year of finishing ninth and getting f all of a draft hand just ages the very best players you have without a means of replacing them.


oh for the masses I made a call and asked are we rebuilding and was told yes.
 
Good thread.

we all have our views on the current pickle we find ourselves in.

Whether we've had one rebuild or 3 due to pathetic drafting we find ourselves with a very young list, which undeniably has a shitload of talent.

I do wonder what the collective view is on throwing our first and second round picks on the draft table and seeing what interest it garners.
Bringing in 3/4 more youngsters surely isn't what we need.

I'd do it fwiw
I’d do it but only for JUH
 
No one would, but you see year after year of finishing ninth and getting f all of a draft hand just ages the very best players you have without a means of replacing them.


oh for the masses I made a call and asked are we rebuilding and was told yes.
All good to get rid of them but we replaced Boomer with Hrovat lol.

It's just dumb. Make the young players earn their spot in the team and learn from the best players at the club. There were so many ways we could've gone about it and we chose the worst way.
 

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We were always peddling the notion that we couldn't afford to bottom out. Doing what we did, we were going to bottom out eventually.

And here we are.

Sent from my SM-A908B using Tapatalk
It was always a stupid idea, the cost is extended bottoming out.
Too many people thought we could pluck any old player and turn them into superstars.
 
LOL Zoomba. Rawling had committed to North in mid 2019 to be GM of Football and placed on Gardening Leave by the WC from that point on. To think he didn’t have some input into the trading of that 2019 first rounder of ours is being naive. Oh and he sure had input in the 2020 draft. Plus he was the Ironstein behind the end of 2020 cull. Since then we have been a rabble. Sure not all his fault. But make no mistake he has played a big part in what our list currently looks like plus why this has been the worse NMFC we have seen in our lifetimes. :stern look
We were a rabble before that cull. Before we sacked SCott in 2019 and for most of 2020. Probably since the middle of 2016 with only a few periods where we dragged ourselves up, off the back of players breaking out or a new coach bounce. Who was worth keeping out of those players we culled in 2020? Maybe two of them but they'd both be gone by now anyway.

One of the reasons we're the worst side we have seen is because we replaced Scott with two coaches who weren't up to the job. Neither are rawling's fault. Our list underperformed from the start of 2020. Probably since 2017. Altho I don't think he was up to the job as footy manager, since he went back to list management our list has looked better. Fair enough he was demoted but since then his good work outweighs his bad work.

Plenty of people also said before we sacked Scott, (can't remember if you were one or not) that this was where we were heading because of his mismanagement. I disagreed about that and was completely wrong. Those people also said it would take years to fix and would hurt, as did those of us who said don't cull hard (tho with hindsight I think it was the right decision.) So far its been three and a half years and our list looks heaps better. It has speed and skill which it didn't really have either off at the end of 2020. It seems capable of the modern game which it didn't this time three years ago.
 
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No doubt that high end draft picks are the silver lining to being bad however it ain’t the recipe to success either. Check out the GC. Never made finals since their inception. Had a s**t load of high end draft picks but no finals. :stern look
I think for the first time this century we have our admin and footy department aligned. The coach obviously has a vision for the side and the board supports the vision and chasing the players that will fit it. Both groups have standards wrt to fitness and (hopefully, this season will tell) skills.

GC never seems to have had that. Unlike GWS which does. (They just had a poor coach.) It'll be interesting to see how they go with the most successful coach since Clarkson.
 
Yes this rebuild started two years ago, doesn't mean its the first *en attempt now does it.
You don't have the youngest list in the blardy comp if you started this rebuild 7 years ago.

It's laughable to even consider this rebuild started 7 seasons ago.
I think we can all agree we've effectively been rebuilding since 2017. Things are only potentially looking good now cos competent people started rebuilding the footy department.
 
Phillips, Powell and Lazzaro aren’t enough.

We need at least two more.

GWS would trade them all and not blink.
I think we can all agree we've effectively been rebuilding since 2017. Things are only potentially looking good now cos competent people started rebuilding the footy department.


Yes we have been and continue to do so. Every year you delist 10 plus players I'd suggest it was a poor year.
 
Well into their last few years, Boomer and Wells were still carrying us as we tried to stay inside the top 8.

How can a footy club, logically, think getting rid of that type of individual elite talent then replace them with no one be a good idea?
Hrovat!
 
What has he got right? :stern look
Culling the list in 2020 and 2021.

Ford, Goater, Curtis, Bergman, getting Wardlaw and Goad for JHF while securing Sheezel (I know you think otherwise but we were over a barrel then, not in any position of strength.) KDawson, Hansen jr, Brayden George when we didn't have a second rounder. (CCJ was an error but he was able to compensate for his error.) Phillips and Powell, not picking Logan McDonald or Elijah Hollands.

Stephenson, Corr, Logue, the entire 2023 draft and trade season.
 
GWS would trade them all and not blink.



Yes we have been and continue to do so. Every year you delist 10 plus players I'd suggest it was a poor year.
We turned over more than 50 players between the end of 2016 and the end of 2020 iirc.
 
Culling the list in 2020 and 2021.

Ford, Goater, Curtis, Bergman, getting Wardlaw and Goad for JHF while securing Sheezel (I know you think otherwise but we were over a barrel then, not in any position of strength.) KDawson, Hansen jr, Brayden George when we didn't have a second rounder. (CCJ was an error but he was able to compensate for his error.) Phillips and Powell, not picking Logan McDonald or Elijah Hollands.

Stephenson, Corr, Logue, the entire 2023 draft and trade season.
The microscope shouldn't be put squarely on Rawlings. It should be put on the club that didn't have a footy dept working in unison.

Rawlings' 2023 trade period was very good and it hasn't been talked about enough (the difference between a fragmented working relationship that saw a list management team leave and what happens when the footy dept is on the same page). That period will be the reason this club will push up the ladder along with Clarko and his team being in unison for a quest to get a flag.
 
Culling the list in 2020 and 2021.

Ford, Goater, Curtis, Bergman, getting Wardlaw and Goad for JHF while securing Sheezel (I know you think otherwise but we were over a barrel then, not in any position of strength.) KDawson, Hansen jr, Brayden George when we didn't have a second rounder. (CCJ was an error but he was able to compensate for his error.) Phillips and Powell, not picking Logan McDonald or Elijah Hollands.

Stephenson, Corr, Logue, the entire 2023 draft and trade season.
Too early on a lot of those names imo.

On SM-S901E using BigFooty.com mobile app
 
Add keeping Tristan Xerri to the list of things rawling got right.
 
Too early on a lot of those names imo.

On SM-S901E using BigFooty.com mobile app
True.

Its too early on all of those drafts but he's only been here for those drafts, 2019 doesn't really count cos he wasn't really here and we didn't have anything resembling a clear direction. Between 2020 and when we sacked Noble the only direction we really had was "start again". But given what was available those are good decisions. Spicer over Mcreery obviously isn't.
 
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