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Strategy Trade and List management Thread Part 5 (opposition supporters - READ posting rules before posting)

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I also know someone internally and they say the club will not offload Hunter for anything less than market value for a premiership wingman in the prime of his career. If coaches, players etc are ‘off him’ my contact is not letting on that they know anything about this.
Multiple people on here are saying he is smashing the gym and trying to redeem himself.

Wow what a coincidence..:oops:

 


Lachie Hunter is no certainty to be at the Western Bulldogs next year.

Hunter has two years to run on the five-year deal he signed in 2019, but there is a chance he could be playing elsewhere in 2023.




While Hunter’s recent exit meeting was said to be positive, the 27-year old is weighing up whether to seek a fresh start.

It remains unclear whether the Dogs would – or could – engineer a trade.

A father-son pick in 2012 and a premiership player in 2016; the wingman has endured a challenging past few years at Whitten Oval.

He was left out of the senior side in the Dogs’ season-opener against Melbourne and made the medi-sub, but played from the opening bounce after Jason Johannisen was injured in the warm-up.

Hunter then took indefinite leave a month later to deal with personal issues and didn’t return to the senior side until Round 16.

He featured only 10 times this year – the same amount of games as the 2020 season in which he lost the vice-captaincy and was suspended for four games for a drink-driving offence.

The Western Bulldogs will lose Josh Dunkley to Brisbane in the upcoming exchange window, while Johannisen, Josh Schache and Zaine Cordy are assessing their options.

The Dogs will welcome Liam Jones back to the club, while trying to satisfy Fremantle in a trade for Rory Lobb.


If Hunter does leave it would signal a huge culture shift within the dressing room.

Hope it happens.
 

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Andrew Gaff please
 
Must just be a coincidence that Sydney and Geelong have collectively featured in 11 of the 18 grand finals since 2005 whilst also having very strong cultures in that time. I agree with your point regarding having leaders to pull players into line. Having leaders pull them in to line is actually a trait of a strong culture, but it’s clear this has been tried consistently and it hasn’t worked.
Citing Geelong 2005 onwards as a bastion of strong culture is questionable at best. A few potted highlights;

- Senior Coach Bomber Thompson's behaviour became exceedingly erratic towards the end of his tenure. His adventures with ice addiction, bikies, massive drug holdings, dodgy Geelong property developments, police raids, lady boys etc beggar belief.

- Thompson nearly lost his job in 2006 when white anted by senior assistant Darryn Creswell, who has since served time for a string of unpleasant offences relating to a chronic gambling addiction,

- through the final years of Thompson's reign, fitness guru Dean 'the weapon'' Robinson and Stephen Dank were prominent. Geelong admit using drugs supplied by Dank. When Bomber left he took the Weapon and Dank with him. Turned out awesome.

(Side note, so many players from Geelong of that era went prematurely bald. How odd).

- Senior player Matthew Stokes was found in possession of enough cocaine to be charged with trafficking and was charged with being part of a trafficking group.

- Punch ups and open animosity between Scarlett, Chapman, Stevie J and others. Some relationships mended, some not.

- On field leaders also included legendary ladies man and party boy Jimmy Bartel,

- Anyone who frequented Geelong pubs/clubs of that era will have a myriad of stories.

But they were successful, so their culture was strong.
 
If Hunter does leave it would signal a huge culture shift within the dressing room.

Hope it happens.
Also possibly a concession to one or more that:
  • the club has tried to help him, and failed
  • the club has tried to help him, but he doesn't want to be be helped
  • the club has given up trying to help him
  • parts of the club are over his issues
  • he is in denial about his issues
  • he hasn't been happy since the "Barkers/Mrs Hunter/Montgomery/Iago" claims

Or maybe both he and the club genuinely agree a career re-start is in his best interests, with no hard feelings on either side.

One of the few father/sons that was not a die-hard Bulldog supporter growing up, even though Mark was the club runner for a while, so maybe not the wrench other f/s would feel (or even life-long Dogs like Roughead or Lipinski would feel).
 
Citing Geelong 2005 onwards as a bastion of strong culture is questionable at best. A few potted highlights;

- Senior Coach Bomber Thompson's behaviour became exceedingly erratic towards the end of his tenure. His adventures with ice addiction, bikies, massive drug holdings, dodgy Geelong property developments, police raids, lady boys etc beggar belief.

- Thompson nearly lost his job in 2006 when white anted by senior assistant Darryn Creswell, who has since served time for a string of unpleasant offences relating to a chronic gambling addiction,

- through the final years of Thompson's reign, fitness guru Dean 'the weapon'' Robinson and Stephen Dank were prominent. Geelong admit using drugs supplied by Dank. When Bomber left he took the Weapon and Dank with him. Turned out awesome.

(Side note, so many players from Geelong of that era went prematurely bald. How odd).

- Senior player Matthew Stokes was found in possession of enough cocaine to be charged with trafficking and was charged with being part of a trafficking group.

- Punch ups and open animosity between Scarlett, Chapman, Stevie J and others. Some relationships mended, some not.

- On field leaders also included legendary ladies man and party boy Jimmy Bartel,

- Anyone who frequented Geelong pubs/clubs of that era will have a myriad of stories.

But they were successful, so their culture was strong.
Interesting collation, well done.

The Thompson lady boys allegation - first time I've heard that about him, but there were rumours (inside and outside industry circles) in that same era of a couple of other senior AFL coaches (not Laidley) who frequented some interesting establishments, and/or had some interesting social liaisons.
 

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Citing Geelong 2005 onwards as a bastion of strong culture is questionable at best. A few potted highlights;

- Senior Coach Bomber Thompson's behaviour became exceedingly erratic towards the end of his tenure. His adventures with ice addiction, bikies, massive drug holdings, dodgy Geelong property developments, police raids, lady boys etc beggar belief.

- Thompson nearly lost his job in 2006 when white anted by senior assistant Darryn Creswell, who has since served time for a string of unpleasant offences relating to a chronic gambling addiction,

- through the final years of Thompson's reign, fitness guru Dean 'the weapon'' Robinson and Stephen Dank were prominent. Geelong admit using drugs supplied by Dank. When Bomber left he took the Weapon and Dank with him. Turned out awesome.

(Side note, so many players from Geelong of that era went prematurely bald. How odd).

- Senior player Matthew Stokes was found in possession of enough cocaine to be charged with trafficking and was charged with being part of a trafficking group.

- Punch ups and open animosity between Scarlett, Chapman, Stevie J and others. Some relationships mended, some not.

- On field leaders also included legendary ladies man and party boy Jimmy Bartel,

- Anyone who frequented Geelong pubs/clubs of that era will have a myriad of stories.

But they were successful, so their culture was strong.
Your post is spot on, I didn’t word my post appropriately and I accept it looks like I am back stepping here but what I meant to say is that for the majority of the last 18 years you can attribute culture to the success of Geelong and Sydney as a collective. Geelong have been culturally sound for 10-11 years now and have made 3 grand finals in that time (for two premierships). Clearly there were issues prior to that, but even in the 07-10 years there are stories that you hear of leaders within the club giving guys like Stevie J ultimatums. I agree with Mike regarding a lack of leadership but that’s all part of good culture imo. Since the early days of Chris Scott’s coaching time they’ve just been impeccably ran.

Sydney have been fantastically ran for pretty much the full 18 years now. They’ve also found themselves removing diseases from their club (Barry Hall being a big one). I suspect they’d have some skeletons in the closet and being in Sydney probably doesn’t shine a light on it as much as being a Victorian club may, but they’re as close to being the most well ran club in the league.
 
Also possibly a concession to one or more that:
  • the club has tried to help him, and failed
  • the club has tried to help him, but he doesn't want to be be helped
  • the club has given up trying to help him
  • parts of the club are over his issues
  • he is in denial about his issues
  • he hasn't been happy since the "Barkers/Mrs Hunter/Montgomery/Iago" claims

Or maybe both he and the club genuinely agree a career re-start is in his best interests, with no hard feelings on either side.

One of the few father/sons that was not a die-hard Bulldog supporter growing up, even though Mark was the club runner for a while, so maybe not the wrench other f/s would feel (or even life-long Dogs like Roughead or Lipinski would feel).

Agree with all of this.

Libba was able to turn it around 2-3 years ago. He is now one of the most beloved people within the club. Having a kid obviously helped. Unfortunately for Hunter he has been on downward spiral year on year. It is clearly impacting the overall culture of the group.
 
Hey folk. Hearing its Brendan Lade

Spent 7 seasons at richmond, 2 seasons at port then last 4 seasons at the saints. Seems plenty of experience.
He is very experienced but I’m still slightly concerned that he hasn’t really been involved with any highly successful programs.

In his 13 seasons as a coach, he hasn’t been apart of one side that finished top 4 during that tenure.
 

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He is very experienced but I’m still slightly concerned that he hasn’t really been involved with any highly successful programs.

In his 13 seasons as a coach, he hasn’t been apart of one side that finished top 4 during that tenure.
If you ask me this is a really bad appointment.

He left Richmond end of 2016 just before thier success.
He left Port end of 2019 just before they started making Prelims.
Now at a mediocre club in St Kilda.

No track record of successful cultures. Bad appointment.
 
If you ask me this is a really bad appointment.

He left Richmond end of 2016 just before thier success.
He left Port end of 2019 just before they started making Prelims.
Now at a mediocre club in St Kilda.

No track record of successful cultures. Bad appointment.
So we sign him on a one year deal
Leaves the club
???
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Interesting collation, well done.

The Thompson lady boys allegation - first time I've heard that about him, but there were rumours (inside and outside industry circles) in that same era of a couple of other senior AFL coaches (not Laidley) who frequented some interesting establishments, and/or had some interesting social liaisons.
At the time of his arrest, his Thai partner was deported. Won't go into detail but it's easy to google.
 
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