Season 2015 - General Footy Chat

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OB11

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I reckon if there was any year to get a ticket to the B&F this would be the year (11/9 - $199) - so many sub-plots:

  1. Gauging the change of attitude around the club and how the club is looking towards next year;
  2. Charlie leaving
  3. Where is Harley's head at
  4. How are the golf trip boys going
  5. What is Rocket's take on the club for next year
  6. What will Witheriff say next (lol)
  7. What is the feel we get for Jaeger and Dion and their future at the club
  8. A chance to hear Touk and Saady talk (surely their getting some awards).
I'm half tempted to book a flight from Melbourne to come up myself
 

OB11

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Watching tonight's game - was a big fan of Aaron Black and would have been a great 3rd tall in the forward line except he is an absolute shadow of his former self. Can't get a game at North despite having 2 years left on a big contract...what a waste
 

OB11

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I laughed so hard at this :p
Maybe he will rehash his Guy McKenna press conference to explain Charlie's departure - I love recounting his pearls of wisdom:

“I don’t want this club to be distracted from recognising the extraordinary contribution of a great man.

“Today it’s about acknowledging a great man who took us from nothing to somewhere.

“Everyone including John Witheriff (yes, he really did speak of himself in the third person - it was like we were suppose to know who he was) would be the first to say this is a really tough decision and on a personal basis it’s an extremely tough one.

“It’s important for me personally to live my own commitment and that is when someone of the calibre of Charlie Dixon leaves our organisation ... we have an organisation that acknowledges the extraordinary contribution of that person.

“It’s just the way the Gold Coast Suns go about doing business.”

I love some of the reaction to Witheriff's comments:

Gold Coast admits John Witheriff knows bugger all about footy. Big on process. They should have put Ashcroft up. Witheriff speaking nonsense
Jon Ralph


Metricon Stadium to be renamed The Blue McKenna Ground. Greatest sacked AFL coach in history

McKenna may yet walk out of this presser with a five-year extension.
 

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OB11

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Looking back at 2015 the only person in a key position who has been at the club since the start who I believe has done his job to expectation the whole way through is Scott Clayton - he got the picks and has assembled a list (at least at the top end) flush with talent. The rest of the coaching and administration have been derelict in their duty of developing the talent and setting standards from the top (see above for opinion on Witheriff).

At least we have Eade who I'm 100% on board with...now. After the first 2 games this year and Eade telling us we were no where near it I was angry as ****, I thought we were set to begin our ascension to the promised land of success and regular finals appearances and to have that taken away from us was a huge and disappointing reality check.

In retrospect you can see Eade could see the writing on the wall in the pre-season with his comments about standards, fitness, skills and leadership. He tried to make changes subtlety and hoped that whatever we were doing in prior years would carry us through. After that first game against Melbourne and his post match interview he must have knew that his gut was right and that old school concepts such as playing a tough, cohesive team were needed over individual brilliance.

That first half of the season was hard to watch - we were a national disgrace. But since we hit that tough run of opponents midway through the season and the players let go of the scoreboard and the outside expectations the boys have gone out and given great effort and have looked to put Eade's game plans into action (I must say Eade looks to be a great game day coach who knows what he wants us to do).

Players who were given roles and opportunity in adversity have started to flourish such as Saad, Touk, Hall, Schade, KK, Nicholls (and even Fish later in the season) and other players have found their voice and starting to show their leadership that we desperately needed like Rischa, Tommy, Maysie (even Jack Martin last week giving it to Tommy)... and especially Gazza.

Ever since Gazza has been out you can see the results of what we have heard about that the boys having challenged him to not just lead by actions but also get around the young boys and share his knowledge and passion for the game and club. I was so proud of the shot I saw from last weeks game in the rooms at half time of him hobbling around the rooms and getting into the boy's, showing them what to be doing geeing the group up was evidence that his leadership is going to go to the next level next year.

I am extremely excited and bullish on what we can achieve next year. To be regularly competitive this year with a side that is missing its best 4 players and playing with injured, battered and unfit players (due in part to a combination of lack of standards and the lack of a decent high performance team) is testament that the group is finding character this season to compete week-in-week-out even when it is outmatched. If they come strong with this sort of character through the pre-season I think we should be bullish in what we expect as there should be so much natural improvement from the undeveloped talent (Boston, Martin, Fish, McKenzie, Day, Rory, 2MP) as well as addition of the fab 4.

I hope 2016 is an exciting time as all the regulars on our BF board all seem to be passionate, diehard and mostly level headed supporters who have stuck fat with the club despite its failings and it would be great to be coming on here next year to toast our boys for going to the next level and remembering our 2015 year in the same way as Geelong supporters remember 2006.

That's how I feel about it, I wonder what others think of what 2015 has been and what the future holds for us.
 

SandyToes

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Looking back at 2015 the only person in a key position who has been at the club since the start who I believe has done his job to expectation the whole way through is Scott Clayton - he got the picks and has assembled a list (at least at the top end) flush with talent.
I'm sort of drawn on this OB
If you look at our 2010 draft we had 10 picks in the first 50!
Ten!!
If the rumours about Harley and Dion are true we may be left with Dave Swallow and Tom Lynch and Sam Day
I don't know what the recruiters saw in Sam, but he's never shown me a single thing in 6 years
 
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OB11

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I'm sort of drawn on this OB
If you look at our 2010 draft we had 10 picks in the first 50!
Ten!!
If the rumours about Harley and Dion are true we may be left with Dave Swallow and Tom Lynch and Sam Day
I don't know what the recruiters saw in Sam, but he's never shown me a single thing in 6 years
GWS had 12 picks and 9 of the first 11
They had their share of duds - Buntine, Sumner
Their share of misses - Wingard, Ellis, Hill, Yeo, Arnott and Elton

Clayton's job is to get the player's with the best talent and character to the club, and the coaches job is to develop them into players

Hits - Swallow, Lynch, Prestia
Question marks - had talent but character issues - Caddy, Bennell
Question marks - lack of development - Day
Fails - lack of talent/heart - Gorringe, Taylor, Gilbee

Misses - Gaff, Heppell, I Smith, Darling, Guthrie, Howe, Parker

Gee, now that you mention it we missed on a fair few - maybe I was giving him too much credit for making no brainer decisions such as Jaeger, Jack Martin and to a lesser extent KK.

I will cut him some slack on Day - he has all the tools and bigs take longer to develop - just hasn't developed as the club would like and the football department has to take some responsibility for not settling him in a position and allowing him to develop. Maybe with Charlie gone they can give him the opportunity to develop as a FF switching in the ruck.
 

SandyToes

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I think Clayton's done okay, but I wouldn't say he's done a spectacular job
Spectacular is when you pick up a star like Darling because you befuddled and muddled the opposition into letting him slide - all because of a whacky Schoolies week (wow!)
Let's not forget we also let Mzungu go to Freo to enable pick 39 that picked up the legendary Jeremy Taylor
Mzungu tracking to play his second (or third?) finals series,
As well as the legendary Dorko :p for Warhammer deal
So yeah, just a pass for moi
 

jackenny

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GWS had 12 picks and 9 of the first 11
They had their share of duds - Buntine, Sumner
Their share of misses - Wingard, Ellis, Hill, Yeo, Arnott and Elton

Clayton's job is to get the player's with the best talent and character to the club, and the coaches job is to develop them into players

Hits - Swallow, Lynch, Prestia
Question marks - had talent but character issues - Caddy, Bennell
Question marks - lack of development - Day
Fails - lack of talent/heart - Gorringe, Taylor, Gilbee

Misses - Gaff, Heppell, I Smith, Darling, Guthrie, Howe, Parker

Gee, now that you mention it we missed on a fair few - maybe I was giving him too much credit for making no brainer decisions such as Jaeger, Jack Martin and to a lesser extent KK.

I will cut him some slack on Day - he has all the tools and bigs take longer to develop - just hasn't developed as the club would like and the football department has to take some responsibility for not settling him in a position and allowing him to develop. Maybe with Charlie gone they can give him the opportunity to develop as a FF switching in the ruck.
I think Day still has an upside. He played well early last year. He managed to kick a couple bags of goals, and as optimistic as this may sound, he's only 23 years old. I also wouldn't write off Buntine for GWS quite yet, mainly due to his hardness at the contest - he's stupidly brave and I can't help appreciating his physicality at times. He has a nice leap and can play on small and tall, so he's got versatility, and if he manages to make that leap from B-grader to A-grader then he could be one of the more impressive defenders in the competition.
 
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