HAW v ADE · FRE v StK · RIC v ESS · NM v GCS · GEE v SYD · COL v WCE · PA v CAR · GWS v BL · WB v MEL ·
Weekend Wrap and "Liked, Learned, Hated" right here -- How did tipping go?
There was a sudden and total lack of faith shown in him after it became apparent early in the season that he had already committed to leaving Freo for GWS.
Yeah, good post.
However, I think you need to be fair on some of the details of the 'old days'. For example, ultimately Clement wanted out - now we weren't too good at being an attractive option for him an his sort, and Drum put a few players off side at the time etc., but you need to be fair - it takes two to tango and he was not keen to stay despite what legend might tell you. Basically it was a bit like what GWS have gone through, only without the help of the AFL to make it a bit less damaging. Other clubs, particularly aggressive ones like Collingwood, went hard at players that they thought were disheartened by our shenanigans.
Secondly, we broke the cap more on technicality (injury blow-out in 2001 and late lodgement in 2002 or was it 2003?) - both are not great, but it wasn't based on blatant over payment of an ordinary list. In the scheme of things, the infractions were relatively minor. They've since made it easier to avoid the 'injury related' cap blowouts now too FWIW. However, you're right, this had a knock on effect of the Francis fiasco which is the sort of thing I'm glad is behind us.
Finally, the 'kitchen sink' at some stupid trades - yeah, sure. But you need to be fair here too. I mean the Croad one is a case in point. It bombed out, no doubt. But part of the Connolly revival that you praise, included getting big names and capable players like him in. His heart was never in it, and we never found a way to use him at his best (which ended up being CHB), but at the time it didn't seem like a bomb deal at all - and if Croad have had been the player he ended up being back at the Hawks, it would have been a pretty shrewd move all considered given McPharlin was part of the deal etc.
Now I don't want to defend those things, like you I'm glad those days are behind us, history shows that some of the moves and machinations that our club made went nowhere and some were just plain stupid, but it's often overlooked that these things are only clear in hindsight.
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Not much of one, but some people are apparently happy to sign up list cloggers. The old "gambling away our future" line is a bit inaccurate as well as it makes it sound like the club's future depends on early draft picks when the reality is that they rarely end up contributing significantly.
Steady on Wiz. While my mother-in-law often says I'm good for nothing, I do have an ability to channel those who unfortunately cannot defend themselves on here. So Lachie wants to ask you how many Ross Glendinning's you (or Rhys for that matter) have won at 21? Plus he's like many of the other lads - gearing up for a big preseason and he's happy to work on his gut running as long as we work on our growing guts.
Actually, Lachie has literarily worked his backside off since coming to the club. In the last preseason he trained with the elite group of runners for the entire preseason.
What a complete load of nonsense. Fremantle supporters earned the passionate tag well before the Steves. Have you only started supporting the club recently?
I got the Monty Burns thing. It was the OCD thing I obviously didn't get. On reflection it appears you were referring to yourself, so my apologies. A comma wouldn't have gone astray though.
Ive been there since 95. I would love to know ow you think there was more passion before team Steve. You only had to watch our final exit this year to see people crying in the crowd to see how much the football team means to the supporters. I cant remember too many supporters doing that when we lost our first final or any game in the era 2000 - 2010. It is in my opinion, stating the bleeding obvious, to say the overall noise of the crowd and supporter engagement in the game had improved dramatically in recent years.
The people harping on about how the Steves are the best thing since sliced bread.
Aaaaaaaaaarrrrggghhhhhhh!
If you've been following that long then you'll remember the crowd at our first final. That level of passion hasn't been matched at any game since. Have you noticed the cheer squad much lately? The passion there doesn't seem to be up to earlier standards. Attendance stats show that since Rosich was appointed CEO in 2008, average H&A crowds have never reached the levels they were at in 2007, even though the membership base has risen 12%. We seem to be gathering members who aren't passionate, bandwagoners who turn up and cry at finals and then disappear into the wind during tough times. Spurning the rusted ons in order to chase that particular market isn't my idea of how you ensure long term success.
This isn't the thread for it, but like people have been saying, the Doig has a weird voting system. That doesn't alter the fact that Danyle was the turnover merchant of 2014. Lachie Neale wasn't even in the top 10 and if it came down to a choice, I'd take Lachie over Danyle in a heartbeat.
