"September Sinkers"

[BunjiMac]

Which comes first, the game plan or the players?

Players

If you have a Luke Hodge and a Buddy Franklin is your game plan different to that if you have a Brett Kirk and an Adam Goodes?

Yes

Do you teach the players your game style or do you fit the style to the players' strengths?

You teach the players the gameplan

Why do Collingwood youngsters seem to be able to come in and perform at a high level whereas ours don't? Is their game plan easier to implement or are they better players?

they perform better

 

[RoosterLad]

You can't always teach the players a gameplan, sometimes this is impossible so you have to work out a strategy which fits the players' strengths.

 

[OzSparrow]

And who is responsible for you not having the cattle?
Rucci? Port? The AFL?

Did you not read my post.

IMO the AFC has been a product of its own success.

The draft DIRECTLY creates the situation we now find ourselves in. This is a deliberate act by the AFL to level the playing field (look at the Lions now and since 2004 and tell me that the draft does not work as I have espoused).

Four years of consistent Finals and our high finishes in 05 and 06 with no flag have stuffed our list management. That coupled with normal attrition (via retirements, long-term injuries and delistings of duds and normal player movement) have created an average list.

We are an average team with average cattle who have been lucky (?) to string finals together in 07 and 08 and have finished exactly where we should have (8th and 7th respectively).

This is not about choking or sinking or whatever any so-called expert wants to tag us with. This is about a lack of cattle being able to get the job done. That is, finals represent the best of the best and we just do not have the cattle to match it with these guys come September (at least in 07 and 08).

This dilemma has been foisted upon us by the AFL's draft system and, as I have have said, we are a victim of own success. We consistently finish too high to get decent picks and that is the reason for our crap list management.

All clubs achieving success now have bottomed out at some time (including, like it or not, the PAPs since 2004 and prior to 2007's granny appearance).

However, unlike crappy VFL sides and other WA clubs, the AFC does not and has not bottomed out. Until we do, or unless a minor miracle happens in the off-season with our trades (eg. Pav wants to come home and Freo let him go for nothing) we will continue to be in this predicament.

 

[hellaeon]

so again, you post a load of old cobblers that has nothing to do with the game on the weekend, as some sort of defense of the game on the weekend?

Gee that was a constructive comeback.

Deal with it we lost, stop crying. I bet you'll be roaring about craigy and the AFC come a few years when these players have experience to dominate.

 

[malph]

However, unlike crappy VFL sides and other WA clubs, the AFC does not and has not bottomed out. Until we do, or unless a minor miracle happens in the off-season with our trades (eg. Pav wants to come home and Freo let him go for nothing) we will continue to be in this predicament.

Is that what the board considers to be most important? Steven Trigg says with quite some pride that the Adelaide Football Club will "never" bottom out. "Sinking" in September, despite minor round success, has been going on for longer than Neil Craig has been charge. Gary Ayres coached your club for pretty much exactly the same amount of time, and his finals record was 2-from-6, to go with Craig's 2-from-7. Ayres' teams were also competitive, only to lose most finals. They have taken a guy straight out of Ayres' coaching box, and he has delivered nothing different in 4 1/2 years. Is it Craig's fault, or is his conservatism the product of a higher design?

It's not about wanting to bottom out, but rather accepting that it's going to happen if they take some bigger risks with the list and the game-plan.

 

[jenny61_99]

However, unlike crappy VFL sides and other WA clubs, the AFC does not and has not bottomed out. Until we do, or unless a minor miracle happens in the off-season with our trades (eg. Pav wants to come home and Freo let him go for nothing) we will continue to be in this predicament.

We may not have the "cattle" at the moment, or perhaps our "cattle" are actually just calfs, still to reach their full potential. I agree with you that we will be in this predicament (there and there abouts come finals time but not truly challenging) but only until our younger players who will be a very good unit once they mature (and we add strategically to the list).

 

[CaptainDangerfield]

Is that what the board considers to be most important? Steven Trigg says with quite some pride that the Adelaide Football Club will "never" bottom out. "Sinking" in September, despite minor round success, has been going on for longer than Neil Craig has been charge. Gary Ayres coached your club for pretty much exactly the same amount of time, and his finals record was 2-from-6, to go with Craig's 2-from-7. Ayres' teams were also competitive, only to lose most finals. They have taken a guy straight out of Ayres' coaching box, and he has delivered nothing different in 4 1/2 years. Is it Craig's fault, or is his conservatism the product of a higher design?

It's not about wanting to bottom out, but rather accepting that it's going to happen if they take some bigger risks with the list and the game-plan.

Wow. This is a pretty damning statistic that I have yet to see on this board. So under the Sanders/Trigg/Reid leadership over the past 7-8 years we have 4 wins from 13 at a % of 30%.

I don't believe the type of player the AFC hieracy more often than not look to recruit, stand up under finals pressure.

 

[Crow-mo]

Gee that was a constructive comeback.

constructive, insightful, accurate and without a reply

Deal with it we lost, stop crying. I bet you'll be roaring about craigy and the AFC come a few years when these players have experience to dominate.

blah blah blah. cheer squad to the left, pick up your pom poms and skirt on the way through.

 

[jenny61_99]

Pessimists and PITA's to the right, pick up your face so as not to trip over the bottom lip on the way through.