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Mate look at their pre season board , their boys are flying, training the house down, no other team in the comp are doing the same fmd.
No Oppo Supporters OPPOSITION OBSERVATION XXV
- Thread starter NaturalDisaster
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Have you ever heard a team say that have had a shocker of a pre season, nup me neither.
We were like them though, I remember pre season of 2008 into 2009, we finished off 2008 with some late dead rubber nothing to lose wins, I remember being on a high from those wins coupled with the recruitment of Cousins.
10 minutes into round 1 and it was season over coupled with Cousins doing his hammy.
- Jan 7, 2010
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Jordan Lewis says Melbourne has moved on from cancelled training camp after ‘frank discussions’
Jordan Lewis says Melbourne has moved on from cancelled training camp after ‘frank discussions’
‘Robust discussions’ help players move on from Dee-bacle
www.foxsports.com.au
Sir_Loin
🏆🏆🏆
Jordan Lewis says Melbourne has moved on from cancelled training camp after ‘frank discussions’
Jordan Lewis says Melbourne has moved on from cancelled training camp after ‘frank discussions’
‘Robust discussions’ help players move on from Dee-bacle
Who’s this frank joker?
- Jun 13, 2018
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- Inter Milan, Real Madrid
The Dees' "frank discussions" follow on from the mighty Crows. Pride of SA.Jordan Lewis says Melbourne has moved on from cancelled training camp after ‘frank discussions’
Jordan Lewis says Melbourne has moved on from cancelled training camp after ‘frank discussions’
‘Robust discussions’ help players move on from Dee-bacle
Tiger_Of_Old
🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
Eddie will make Beams the highest paid kitchen hand at ch9 on early release of the Pies contract.
- Mar 9, 2007
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Apparently they haven't even watched the game and have no plans to do so.
I seem to recall other sides doing similar after losing the GF. Never seems to work.
Can't believe teams don't watch the biggest game of the and learn from it .
Never understood this logic .
They review every game and then don't review the one that matters most .
On SM-A520F using BigFooty.com mobile app
Never understood this logic .
They review every game and then don't review the one that matters most .
On SM-A520F using BigFooty.com mobile app
- Mar 9, 2007
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Exactly. Not hard to see how that approach never seems to work.Can't believe teams don't watch the biggest game of the and learn from it .
Never understood this logic .
They review every game and then don't review the one that matters most .
On SM-A520F using BigFooty.com mobile app
Because it's the last game of the year.Can't believe teams don't watch the biggest game of the and learn from it .
Never understood this logic .
They review every game and then don't review the one that matters most .
On SM-A520F using BigFooty.com mobile app
Sir_Loin
🏆🏆🏆
It’s blows my mind they wouldn’t watch the game and learn from it
captain blood 17
El Jefe
- Dec 9, 2006
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That Beams thread on the Pies board. Pretty ordinary reading. On a side note, i find the irony of some of their posters amazing. When we screwed up on Yazz, was there any sympathy? Any “yeah, it’s ok, you should be allowed to ditch his contract and get a pick from the AFL etc”? But what do you reckon their stance on Beams is? They can get ****ed. He has another 3 years to run. They can honour the contract.
Sir_Loin
🏆🏆🏆
Buyer beware. Wasn’t like his mental health issues weren’t known at the time
dustysnecktattoo
Club Legend
- May 15, 2019
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it doesn’t work what’s the point
Sir_Loin
🏆🏆🏆
What doesn’t work? I can understand not reviewing a H&A game but a GF? GWS were taught a lesson. TBH I don’t give a * if they watch it or not. They’re not equipped to handle us when it matters
Tortellini the food of godsGonna get large supreme pizza and Tortellinidelicious
- Feb 28, 2014
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Tortellini polo funghi FTW
- May 8, 2007
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- #7,420
Crave them every day
A Banderas
All Australian
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carb whoreGonna get large supreme pizza and Tortellini
captain blood 17
El Jefe
- Dec 9, 2006
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I shouldn’t have, but i did.
A Banderas
All Australian
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* Justin Madden hasnt aged well
captain blood 17
El Jefe
- Dec 9, 2006
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would still be their best ruck/forward right now.
- May 1, 2018
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The AFL decade that was: The 10 biggest decisions
In a tumultuous decade, the game – and those who play it – have had to contend with controversy and drama, as well as revel in the highest of highs.
By Jake Niall
December 14, 2019 — 11.34pm
If it is natural to pick teams and players of the decade, another way to assess the age is to consider the decisions that shaped competition and code, from the season that ended with a drawn grand final and replay, to the grand final that featured a 27-year-old debutant who had overcome a lengthy stint in jail (Richmond's Marlion Pickett).
The biggest decisions of the 2010s were made at AFL headquarters, at clubs and by players. To rank them, the major consideration was the subsequent and potential future impact.
1. The women's competition
No change to the AFL landscape over the past decade is more consequential than the creation of the AFLW competition, which triggered phenomenal growth in women's footy at grassroots level.
The AFLW was hastily thrown together for the 2017 season, with just eight clubs. Next year, there will be 14. There have been issues with fixturing and the rules, debate about the standard and sexist trolling, and lately an industrial dispute over pay and conditions.
But the women's league is on a long march. It has changed the way the clubs imagine themselves, given girls a pathway and buttressed the sport in its contest with soccer. It is a genuine two-gender game today.
2. The shape of expansion: Gold Coast and GWS
The decision to introduce Gold Coast and GWS as the 17th and 18th clubs was made before 2010, but it was the specific DNA of these new teams that took shape in 2010, 2011 and 2012.
Critically, the AFL decided that the sprawling suburbs of Sydney's west would be a harder sell, not only for fans, but for players, compared with the Gold Coast, and gave the Giants more recruiting concessions than the Suns.
As events transpired, the AFL completely misjudged the markets, while GWS also recruited better mature players and benefited from their more experienced coaches and staff. The upshot has been that the Giants are perennial contenders — albeit they struggle for an audience — while the Suns became a farm team for the likes of Richmond, was plagued with cultural problems, performing so poorly that the AFL had to intervene with more draft help this year.
3. Essendon hires Stephen Dank
So many huge decisions were made in the course of this tumultuous, divisive saga. The AFL kicked the Bombers out of the finals in 2013, in a prophylactic measure. The next year, the Bombers and James Hird marched off to court to try to void the show cause notices that the players were facing — and were routed.
One could argue that the AFL's attempt to manipulate the process to get the players treated lightly was misguided. Or that Essendon should have chosen an expedient deal like Cronulla in the NRL and avoided the catastrophe of long suspensions. Or that Hird should have quit in April 2013.
Many of the decisions can be debated as "what ifs''. What's beyond dispute is that the decision to bring Stephen Dank to the club, with minimal background checks, while empowering — or allowing — him to implement a reckless injection program was the step that created this unholy mess.
4. The introduction of free agency
Imported from American sport, free agency (born in 2012) handed more power to the players and, particularly to the best players, as the plethora of seven- and eight-year deals lately has shown.
Free agency, as I've said, was like the introduction of no-fault divorce in 1975, which encouraged a more liberal culture, entrenching the idea that you could get up and leave, changing the nature of relationships.
Similarly, once people had permission to divorce their clubs via free agency, more players felt they were entitled to move. Culturally, the shift was reflected in the number of quality players — Dayne Beams, Ryan Griffen, Tom Boyd in one post-season — who were traded, at their behest, while under contract. It's become standard. Essendon's refusal to trade Joe Daniher (a free agent next year) was more a case of them not accepting Sydney's offer as adequate.
5. Lance Franklin signs a mega-deal with Sydney
No free agent signing or exit had more spin-off drama than the decision of Franklin to sign a staggering nine-year, $10 million deal with the Swans, in a 2013 deal that had been kept secret for 12 months, as Hawthorn assumed "Buddy" was GWS-bound.
Consider what ensued. The Swans and GWS lost their $1 million cost of living allowance (COLA), as the AFL — incensed that Franklin had gone to the "wrong" club — turned on Sydney. The Swans were subsequently effectively barred from trading (2014) for a season, while the Hawks — their salary cap emancipated — went on to complete a treble of flags in 2014 and 2015. Buddy ignited the SCG, but hasn't delivered a flag. GWS was forced to shed more players without COLA.
6. The AFL’s handling of the booing of Adam Goodes
In the case of Adam Goodes and the incessant booing of 2014 and 2015, the AFL's call was really a non-decision, a prevarication that damaged the game, wounded Goodes and prompted two superb documentaries this year.
McLachlan and his commission opted not to intervene — not to call out the fans for what many felt contained racial motivations — for various reasons, in part because there wasn't broad agreement within the game on Goodes. Arguably, McLachlan was the fall guy for AFL commission divisions. Conversely, he could have been stronger. Players could have done more.
Did the AFL think the fans would react badly to directions? Maybe.
The AFL hierarchy won't necessarily agree that they made a call on Goodes. But if a house is on fire and you don't try to douse the flames, that's still a decision.
7. Stopping the arms race
In the first four years of the decade, Collingwood, West Coast and Hawthorn were spending many millions more on their football department than the smaller clubs. The AFL, concerned about the gulf, introduced the soft cap on football spending, effectively a tax — at first 37.5¢ in the dollar, now $1 for every dollar over the cap — on the richer clubs.
The soft cap re-shaped the competition. Would the Bulldogs have won the 2016 flag without a soft cap in place? Hard to say. Would North Melbourne be debt free today? No way. More pertinently, what would West Coast, Collingwood, Essendon, Fremantle and nouveau riche Richmond be spending without the tax?
The clubs, meanwhile, are all spending close to 100 per cent of their players' salary cap. Surprisingly, the richest clubs have not been willing to go well over the soft cap and pay the tax.
8. Richmond stick with Hardwick
Richmond's 2016 was a disaster that put coach Damien Hardwick, who'd just signed a contract extension, on trial. The club's Brendon Gale-led review — assisted by Ernst and Young — essentially saw the Tigers keep faith in Hardwick, change his assistants and hire Neil Balme.
A new, more territory-based game style was devised that fitted the team's strengths (speed and pressure), while the players, particularly Trent Cotchin, forged a more open, "connected" culture.
The Richmond review ended with a premiership in 2017 and was a template for Collingwood's review, coach retention and rise the following year; this year, the Tigers stormed home again. Hardwick's coaching remains underestimated — no team, including Alastair Clarkson's Hawks, is better coached.
9. Building new stadiums in Perth and Adelaide
Football Park, an unsightly piece of '70s architecture, had too many empty seats at Port Adelaide games and even the Crows weren't filling their house. The AFL, the SANFL, the South Australian Cricket Association — backed by untold millions from the South Australian and federal governments — agreed on a redevelopment of the much prettier, centrally located and historic Adelaide Oval.
Port Adelaide's financial position, often parlous, was much improved by having the new stadium, while the Crows grew stronger. Crowds filled the oval.
In Perth, the new 60,000 capacity Optus Stadium — funded largely by almost a billion of the state's taxpayer dollars — has opened up a wealth gap between West Coast and the rest of the competition. Fremantle turned into a formidable financial force, even with a much smaller supporter base than West Coast. The stadia have been gamechangers for the code.
10. The Dogs' triple play
The walk-out of reluctant skipper Ryan Griffen in October 2014 triggered the sacking of coach Brendan McCartney. The Dogs retaliated by making a monstrous offer to GWS's key forward Tom Boyd, who was duly exchanged for Griffen and an early draft pick.
If these events were earth-shaking, the Dogs' decision to appoint Luke Beveridge to replace McCartney saw them rise up to finals in 2015 and then take the most improbable, unthinkable premiership since television. Boyd, who couldn't deliver on the expectations of his nearly $7 million deal over six seasons and endured mental health battles, did elevate in September, producing his career-best performances in the preliminary and grand final.
Derided as rabble when captain and coach went, the Dogs' bold triple play of coaching change and recruiting splurge rounded out the top 10 of the decade's most sizeable calls.
As with any selection, the most time was expended upon the last couple. I considered these for the 10th slot: Collingwood's handover from Mick Malthouse to Nathan Buckley, the AFL cancelling the Adelaide-Geelong game after Phil Walsh's death (2015), the decision to investigate Melbourne for tanking, Gary Ablett choosing to sign with the Gold Coast in 2010 and, finally, Richmond picking Pickett for a grand final debut.
In a tumultuous decade, the game – and those who play it – have had to contend with controversy and drama, as well as revel in the highest of highs.
By Jake Niall
December 14, 2019 — 11.34pm
If it is natural to pick teams and players of the decade, another way to assess the age is to consider the decisions that shaped competition and code, from the season that ended with a drawn grand final and replay, to the grand final that featured a 27-year-old debutant who had overcome a lengthy stint in jail (Richmond's Marlion Pickett).
The biggest decisions of the 2010s were made at AFL headquarters, at clubs and by players. To rank them, the major consideration was the subsequent and potential future impact.
1. The women's competition
No change to the AFL landscape over the past decade is more consequential than the creation of the AFLW competition, which triggered phenomenal growth in women's footy at grassroots level.
The AFLW was hastily thrown together for the 2017 season, with just eight clubs. Next year, there will be 14. There have been issues with fixturing and the rules, debate about the standard and sexist trolling, and lately an industrial dispute over pay and conditions.
But the women's league is on a long march. It has changed the way the clubs imagine themselves, given girls a pathway and buttressed the sport in its contest with soccer. It is a genuine two-gender game today.
2. The shape of expansion: Gold Coast and GWS
The decision to introduce Gold Coast and GWS as the 17th and 18th clubs was made before 2010, but it was the specific DNA of these new teams that took shape in 2010, 2011 and 2012.
Critically, the AFL decided that the sprawling suburbs of Sydney's west would be a harder sell, not only for fans, but for players, compared with the Gold Coast, and gave the Giants more recruiting concessions than the Suns.
As events transpired, the AFL completely misjudged the markets, while GWS also recruited better mature players and benefited from their more experienced coaches and staff. The upshot has been that the Giants are perennial contenders — albeit they struggle for an audience — while the Suns became a farm team for the likes of Richmond, was plagued with cultural problems, performing so poorly that the AFL had to intervene with more draft help this year.
3. Essendon hires Stephen Dank
So many huge decisions were made in the course of this tumultuous, divisive saga. The AFL kicked the Bombers out of the finals in 2013, in a prophylactic measure. The next year, the Bombers and James Hird marched off to court to try to void the show cause notices that the players were facing — and were routed.
One could argue that the AFL's attempt to manipulate the process to get the players treated lightly was misguided. Or that Essendon should have chosen an expedient deal like Cronulla in the NRL and avoided the catastrophe of long suspensions. Or that Hird should have quit in April 2013.
Many of the decisions can be debated as "what ifs''. What's beyond dispute is that the decision to bring Stephen Dank to the club, with minimal background checks, while empowering — or allowing — him to implement a reckless injection program was the step that created this unholy mess.
4. The introduction of free agency
Imported from American sport, free agency (born in 2012) handed more power to the players and, particularly to the best players, as the plethora of seven- and eight-year deals lately has shown.
Free agency, as I've said, was like the introduction of no-fault divorce in 1975, which encouraged a more liberal culture, entrenching the idea that you could get up and leave, changing the nature of relationships.
Similarly, once people had permission to divorce their clubs via free agency, more players felt they were entitled to move. Culturally, the shift was reflected in the number of quality players — Dayne Beams, Ryan Griffen, Tom Boyd in one post-season — who were traded, at their behest, while under contract. It's become standard. Essendon's refusal to trade Joe Daniher (a free agent next year) was more a case of them not accepting Sydney's offer as adequate.
5. Lance Franklin signs a mega-deal with Sydney
No free agent signing or exit had more spin-off drama than the decision of Franklin to sign a staggering nine-year, $10 million deal with the Swans, in a 2013 deal that had been kept secret for 12 months, as Hawthorn assumed "Buddy" was GWS-bound.
Consider what ensued. The Swans and GWS lost their $1 million cost of living allowance (COLA), as the AFL — incensed that Franklin had gone to the "wrong" club — turned on Sydney. The Swans were subsequently effectively barred from trading (2014) for a season, while the Hawks — their salary cap emancipated — went on to complete a treble of flags in 2014 and 2015. Buddy ignited the SCG, but hasn't delivered a flag. GWS was forced to shed more players without COLA.
6. The AFL’s handling of the booing of Adam Goodes
In the case of Adam Goodes and the incessant booing of 2014 and 2015, the AFL's call was really a non-decision, a prevarication that damaged the game, wounded Goodes and prompted two superb documentaries this year.
McLachlan and his commission opted not to intervene — not to call out the fans for what many felt contained racial motivations — for various reasons, in part because there wasn't broad agreement within the game on Goodes. Arguably, McLachlan was the fall guy for AFL commission divisions. Conversely, he could have been stronger. Players could have done more.
Did the AFL think the fans would react badly to directions? Maybe.
The AFL hierarchy won't necessarily agree that they made a call on Goodes. But if a house is on fire and you don't try to douse the flames, that's still a decision.
7. Stopping the arms race
In the first four years of the decade, Collingwood, West Coast and Hawthorn were spending many millions more on their football department than the smaller clubs. The AFL, concerned about the gulf, introduced the soft cap on football spending, effectively a tax — at first 37.5¢ in the dollar, now $1 for every dollar over the cap — on the richer clubs.
The soft cap re-shaped the competition. Would the Bulldogs have won the 2016 flag without a soft cap in place? Hard to say. Would North Melbourne be debt free today? No way. More pertinently, what would West Coast, Collingwood, Essendon, Fremantle and nouveau riche Richmond be spending without the tax?
The clubs, meanwhile, are all spending close to 100 per cent of their players' salary cap. Surprisingly, the richest clubs have not been willing to go well over the soft cap and pay the tax.
8. Richmond stick with Hardwick
Richmond's 2016 was a disaster that put coach Damien Hardwick, who'd just signed a contract extension, on trial. The club's Brendon Gale-led review — assisted by Ernst and Young — essentially saw the Tigers keep faith in Hardwick, change his assistants and hire Neil Balme.
A new, more territory-based game style was devised that fitted the team's strengths (speed and pressure), while the players, particularly Trent Cotchin, forged a more open, "connected" culture.
The Richmond review ended with a premiership in 2017 and was a template for Collingwood's review, coach retention and rise the following year; this year, the Tigers stormed home again. Hardwick's coaching remains underestimated — no team, including Alastair Clarkson's Hawks, is better coached.
9. Building new stadiums in Perth and Adelaide
Football Park, an unsightly piece of '70s architecture, had too many empty seats at Port Adelaide games and even the Crows weren't filling their house. The AFL, the SANFL, the South Australian Cricket Association — backed by untold millions from the South Australian and federal governments — agreed on a redevelopment of the much prettier, centrally located and historic Adelaide Oval.
Port Adelaide's financial position, often parlous, was much improved by having the new stadium, while the Crows grew stronger. Crowds filled the oval.
In Perth, the new 60,000 capacity Optus Stadium — funded largely by almost a billion of the state's taxpayer dollars — has opened up a wealth gap between West Coast and the rest of the competition. Fremantle turned into a formidable financial force, even with a much smaller supporter base than West Coast. The stadia have been gamechangers for the code.
10. The Dogs' triple play
The walk-out of reluctant skipper Ryan Griffen in October 2014 triggered the sacking of coach Brendan McCartney. The Dogs retaliated by making a monstrous offer to GWS's key forward Tom Boyd, who was duly exchanged for Griffen and an early draft pick.
If these events were earth-shaking, the Dogs' decision to appoint Luke Beveridge to replace McCartney saw them rise up to finals in 2015 and then take the most improbable, unthinkable premiership since television. Boyd, who couldn't deliver on the expectations of his nearly $7 million deal over six seasons and endured mental health battles, did elevate in September, producing his career-best performances in the preliminary and grand final.
Derided as rabble when captain and coach went, the Dogs' bold triple play of coaching change and recruiting splurge rounded out the top 10 of the decade's most sizeable calls.
As with any selection, the most time was expended upon the last couple. I considered these for the 10th slot: Collingwood's handover from Mick Malthouse to Nathan Buckley, the AFL cancelling the Adelaide-Geelong game after Phil Walsh's death (2015), the decision to investigate Melbourne for tanking, Gary Ablett choosing to sign with the Gold Coast in 2010 and, finally, Richmond picking Pickett for a grand final debut.
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