Roast Vent Here

[salim malik]

No it wouldn't. Another 3 years would put them in their mid-20s smack bang in their prime. And if you think about it, it makes sense that a rebuild would start paying off when the first crop taken hit that age.

Hodge and co were taken in 2001 and Hawthorn won in 2008 for example - that's the equivalent of 2023 for us with Brayshaw and co.

And to continue that comparison, in 2006 (the equivalent of this year for us) Hawthorn finished 11th with a 9-13 record.

Do you think we are winning a cup in 3 years time? Lack of key forwards tells me no way.
5 years from now takes us to 2026/7 putting the year 16/17 draftees late 20,s early 30,s
.

 

[Cesoir]

Funny how they were labelled a powerhouse and enjoyed their best years when Lyon was coach with 2 GF appearances and before and after Lyon a basket case.
Probably just a coincidence though.

We have become St Kilda fans. They blame Lyon for 148 years of mediocrity, and we blame him for our 26 years of mediocrity.

He's gone, we need to own our current situation and stop finding scapegoats from the past.

 

[noise36]

I think the club is at a bit of a precipice now. I’m really concerned about what the future holds.
Every part of the organisation needs to start showing some steel and leadership and improvement right now.
On the field, it’s been on the whole, a below average season so far. We have been thrashed by Eagles and Carlton, and lost tamely to Melbourne and Brisbane, with today’s game a missed opportunity against a poor side that are bottom 6 at best.
There’s constant negativity surrounding Cerra’s contract, supposedly one of the key planks of our fabled rebuild. If he does leave, then the clubs recent communications are embarrassing - today’s Twitter article headline “Cerra can’t wait to get home to perth” just read like a clingy girlfriend. Internally I would hope the club arent tiptoeing around him begging him to sign. Adam - you are either staying or you are not. So sign the contract or say you are pissing off. It’s no longer a question of money so stop ******* everyone around.
The injury situation is worse than ever. The hidden cost is the delayed development in the likes of Sturt and young and Chapman who will still be playing like first year rookies in 2022 having had barely any football since coming to the club. A good example of this is Logue. He should have 60 games played now and be playing close to AA level. Instead his time here has been destroyed by injuries and he’s at least 2 years behind in development, showing flashes of brilliance but that’s all yet.
The hamling and Pearce injury nightmare seems never ending, and can’t be good for morale in the club of everyone.
Walters is obviously waning and there are some worrying signs that Fyfe is not what he once was either.
Longmuir - massive question marks appearing. The game plan is just not gelling.
The Hogan debacle has been so damaging to the club. The majority of freo fans will have woken up in a bad mood this morning having seen us turn lachie Neale into Jessie Hogan kicking bags... for another ******* club.
Goal kicking has been atrocious for as long as I can remember watching freo and shows no signs of improvement apart from glimpses of accuracy from 18yo Treacy and Sturt (who can’t get his body right for love nor money). We are kicking more behinds than goals in 80% of games now I reckon?

The only bright spots this year have been some decent organic growth in Sean Darcy, Brayshaw and Cerra looking the part, serong picking up from last year and Tabs excellent consistency.
I think we are at least 2 more drafts from a competitive list, and probably 4 years from potential (not guaranteed) contention.
Improvement is required in every single aspect of the club to achieve this.
There is a strong risk we become the new Gold Coast Suns very soon - a feeder club for the big dogs unless finals don’t appear soon.
Tough times to be a freo fan.

Good post, saying what a lot of people are thinking no doubt.

I am a bit more pessimistic and think our list, game plan and club management are all overrated by many. We have overachieved at times which has given us false hope, a lot has to go right in the next 1-3 years to go back to playing finals and dare I say it actually being a genuine challenger.

 

[salim malik]

We have become St Kilda fans. They blame Lyon for 148 years of mediocrity, and we blame him for our 26 years of mediocrity.

He's gone, we need to own our current situation and stop finding scapegoats from the past.

I,m **cking grumpy, gone from middle-aged to bloody old watching this mob and patiently waiting to get rolling drunk , get a victory tattoo and shove it up my Eagle loving friends after we win a cup.
Lyon nearly got me the tattoo and I will be forever grateful for the fleeting minutes of success he gave me.
Waiting for what is looking like another couple of decades for another shot at a cup will see me go from old to dead. **ck the FFC for making so many of the older crew maybe falling of the perch unhappy and **ck the ineptitude of the FFC.

 

[salim malik]

The best clubs attract talent who are willing to get paid slightly less for the greater good - destination clubs.

Think Geelong for it's lifestyle.

In Perth we compete with WCE who get players extra gigs $$ outside football. Plus WCE are based in a far more cosmopolitan area.

Have you been to Geelong?

 

[nurries]

As a club collective, we are not going to change until we accept absolute excellence. Everyone should be steaming dirty about yesterday. I dont like to make comparisons with these arseholes but have a look at what WC have done (with good players out) since they were pantsed by the Cats. The whole club and supporters should not accept it, we all need to hold the club accountable. Nothing will ever change until we do. Bell is a clown and is too stubborn to change anything, Longmuir is too green to question the club (or Bell). We accept the crap fixturing, we accept the crap umpiring, we accept that we are and will always be a "middling" club.

 

[Joao]

As a club collective, we are not going to change until we accept absolute excellence. Everyone should be steaming dirty about yesterday. I dont like to make comparisons with these arseholes but have a look at what WC have done (with good players out) since they were pantsed by the Cats. The whole club and supporters should not accept it, we all need to hold the club accountable. Nothing will ever change until we do. Bell is a clown and is too stubborn to change anything, Longmuir is too green to question the club (or Bell). We accept the crap fixturing, we accept the crap umpiring, we accept that we are and will always be a "middling" club.

What's your plan?

 

[MadMundy]

As a club collective, we are not going to change until we accept absolute excellence. Everyone should be steaming dirty about yesterday. I dont like to make comparisons with these arseholes but have a look at what WC have done (with good players out) since they were pantsed by the Cats. The whole club and supporters should not accept it, we all need to hold the club accountable. Nothing will ever change until we do. Bell is a clown and is too stubborn to change anything, Longmuir is too green to question the club (or Bell). We accept the crap fixturing, we accept the crap umpiring, we accept that we are and will always be a "middling" club.

I agree with what you're saying but what exactly would you like us to do? Vote with our wallets?

 

[wild side]

My Plan, is instead of getting in to groups, get everyone kicking for goal in the first 15 minutes of training, then the last 20 minutes of training.
Kicking for goal has been Freo's biggest weakness since 2013.
Doesn't matter who ****in coaches, its our achilles heal

 

[Dockeroo]

The kicking for goal issue has been a massive problem in every single game this season, bar a fluke anomaly in the first half against west coast which masked the thrashing we were getting around the park in contested ball etc.
I remember people here saying after we beat GWS by 20 or so and it should have been 80 - don’t stress the goal kicking will fix itself.
History shows goal kicking problems DO NOT get fixed overnight in AFL clubs.
The personnel kicking for goal needs to
change. It’s as simple as that. Fyfe, lobb, Frederick, colyer, switta are not reliable set shots and IMO will never be more than average at best, regardless of how much practice they do.
Sturt and Treacy are the only two forwards on the list that have shown glimpses of the required level of accuracy.
Find the kids who can kick straight and draft them. Simple as that.

 

[nurries]

What's your plan?

I am not on the payroll so i cant make club decisions and im not inclined to send a trailer load of steaming horse shit to Cockburn but i do think there needs to be changes at the top.

Bell was a white ant as a player and i dont think he is much different now. He seems to have a lot of say in match day decisions from what i understand. I know he is the football ops manager but I dont think he has a great deal of experience in this area and i would keep him as far away from match day decisions as possible and change his scope if they are to keep him.

We need to get either an ex coach (with cred) or ex Footy ops manager as a Footy Ops Manager or coaching director/advisor that can assist match day as well as i think Longmuir is still inexperienced in this area and doesnt seem to be getting the correct advise. Think like a Chocco Williams for Melbourne kind of scenario.

I like Simon Garlick but i think Dale Alcock is the wrong chairman. Just seems like a bit of a wet fish and we need a strong presence here in that regard.

Set up a recruitment department in Perth as our focus, seems to be on Vic players and we seem to skim over a hell of a lot of local talent. It is more important than ever to look in our backyard. It is cheaper to retain in the long run and you dont get the Cerra situation as we seem to get every year. Of course, we should always recruit best available but ive seen some good ones that are better than our best available go begging, especially in positions of need.

This is just a few things off the top of my head. I have never worked at a footy club and probably have no idea what i am talking about but surely if i can see these things, a more footy educated brain should be able to come up with a better plan to change our culture and take us forward as a club.

 

[nurries]

I agree with what you're saying but what exactly would you like us to do? Vote with our wallets?

Kind of. We need to tell the club that we are not happy with the Management team. I think we can do a hell of a lot better and it would help to change the culture.

 

[freo_leo29]

We don't get to decide how long it takes, we are at the mercy of the development gods. Taberner will still be around but the others will be in the twilight or gone. Get used to it.

They go, they go.

Its gonna be a hell of a lot longer than 3 years then...

We are supposed to be challenging now, if Longmuir can't get us there then someone else can, we have the talent.

 

[salim malik]

Shouldn't a rebuild consist of replacing sub par players with better players.
After 6 years WTF has happened.
Sub par replaced by sub par

 

[Joao]

Its gonna be a hell of a lot longer than 3 years then...

We are supposed to be challenging now, if Longmuir can't get us there then someone else can, we have the talent.

We have some of the talent and the talent we have is either 29+ or not yet at the requisite experience. Darcy and Andy are probably the only younger guys I think playing near the ceiling and even they have room for improvement.

If Sturt, Logue, Young etc had all played the majority of the available game since drafting, we still wouldn't be at the level.

Then you consider our forward line. We are not getting enough out of Lobb and Sonny is nowhere near his best.

Our personnel is nowhere near a contending side. If you think it is, you are kidding yourself. There are about 10 blokes that need somewhere between 20-50 games more experience and we also have a dire need of class in the forward half, especially in the talls.

 

[mcpharlap]

As a club collective, we are not going to change until we accept absolute excellence. Everyone should be steaming dirty about yesterday. I dont like to make comparisons with these arseholes but have a look at what WC have done (with good players out) since they were pantsed by the Cats. The whole club and supporters should not accept it, we all need to hold the club accountable. Nothing will ever change until we do. Bell is a clown and is too stubborn to change anything, Longmuir is too green to question the club (or Bell). We accept the crap fixturing, we accept the crap umpiring, we accept that we are and will always be a "middling" club.

There is so much truth to this. Forever we have accepted mediocrity and I am angry and pissed off that the club i love is going no where.

 

[MadMundy]

There is so much truth to this. Forever we have accepted mediocrity and I am angry and pissed off that the club i love is going no where.

I've never understood the phrase "Accepting mediocrity" We've all expressed our anger at the club and shown how frustrated we are, crowd numbers continue to go down for us, more fans are moving on. I don't exactly know what else we can do?

 

[Joao]

I've never understood the phrase "Accepting mediocrity" We've all expressed our anger at the club and shown how frustrated we are, crowd numbers continue to go down for us, more fans are moving on. I don't exactly know what else we can do?

Literally nothing you can do beyond stopping attendance and stopping membership. It's almost like it's a throwaway statement that means nothing...

I wonder if Richmond fans were accepting the 37 years of mediocrity and what they did differently in 2017 to turn the tide? I'm going to guess nothing, not a thing. The changes that did the business were internal and had literally nothing to do with what fans do and don't "accept".

 

[MadMundy]

Literally nothing you can do beyond stopping attendance and stopping membership. It's almost like it's a throwaway statement that means nothing...

I wonder if Richmond fans were accepting the 37 years of mediocrity and what they did differently in 2017 to turn the tide? I'm going to guess nothing, not a thing. The changes that did the business were internal and had literally nothing to do with what fans do and don't "accept".

Completely agree, change comes internally. The fans can stop turning up but nothing will change until the right moves are made within the club.

 

[Square Peg]

At least Richmond members get to elect two thirds of their board. They have some say in how the club is run, so perhaps some chance of not accepting mediocrity.
We just get the social justice warriors that wouldn't know a Sherrin from a Sherry thrust upon us.

 

[Madas]

Throwing it out there

I don't want Salim or my mum and dad who were founding members to be dead before we win a cup which if we do a full rebuild and lose our 4 older stars to age or other clubs is where we are heading and we seem to be accepting of that ?!

So if I'm hearing correctly we are short of the following to have an A- grade best 22

• 2 medium tall forwards who can kick goals
• 2 wings harder than Acres and more experienced than Freddy
• Maybe an inside mid bull
• A like for like FB to replace Hamling if necessary

Assuming we can get one of Hamling or Pearce back then our backline should hold up for the next 2 years ?

Not knowing the salary cap situation but again assuming:
• Retire Hill and use his salary ++ on a King
• Trade / Retire one of Pearce / Hamling and pick up like for like
• Trade Schultz, Giro , Banfield and either Tucker or Hughes ( probably Sturt IMO but best to keep some forward depth and he is a known entity despite being fragile) and bring in the other players .
• Hit the AFL up for a priority pick , no harm in asking ( they would probably give it to St. Kilda before us though )

Go hard sell the back paddock.
The 2023 dream would be achievable if we could lure about 4 excellent players to our club
Might be dreaming but on paper it doesn't look that hard . Money talks , throw it around while you've still got a 50,000 fan base .
If we go into another 10 year re-build our fan base will probably go North Melbourne and halve and take 20 years to recover .

 

[Joao]

At least Richmond members get to elect two thirds of their board. They have some say in how the club is run, so perhaps some chance of not accepting mediocrity.
We just get the social justice warriors that wouldn't know a Sherrin from a Sherry thrust upon us.

That's great, but why would you want us to have a say? We have NFI what we are doing and that should be obvious from the posting on this board.

You basically have to hope your chairman and CEO are good, or you're ****ed.

 

[kingswood71]

Well were are second in the AFL for most marks I50, yet lead the AFL for most behinds scored.
Allowing for some marks on angles, kinda default indicates that we cant kick accurately from 50 metres or less....
Some even struggle to make the distance from 40.
i can handpass that far !!!

 

[Wilksyy]

This from a Emma Quayle book : I think we have too many ‘3B’ players.

The analysis also broke the list down talent-wise, with the players split into several categories: Type 1: elite, among the stars of the competition Type 2: highly talented, integral to the success of the team Type 3A: core players, giving the list depth Type 3B: depth players, with flaws Type 4A: improving players, in their debut years Type 4B: players either on the decline, or getting older Type 5: development players, either recently drafted to the club or yet to debut...

...Every premiership team Pelchen had ever examined had contained at least ten type 1 and 2 players, and as many as fifteen. Every premiership side bar Collingwood in 2010 was 25 or older, averaging 128 or more games per player.

 

[Big Animal]

Well were are second in the AFL for most marks I50, yet lead the AFL for most behinds scored.
Allowing for some marks on angles, kinda default indicates that we cant kick accurately from 50 metres or less....
Some even struggle to make the distance from 40.
i can handpass that far !!!

this and injuries are basically our two biggest issues currently. Sort those two and most other things correct themselves. Got taken to the WC games yesterday. Personally I thought they were average outside F50 but when it came in it was nearly always marked and just about every shot went through the big sticks. Any momentum Adelaide had quickly dissipated. Every miss (that Freo players make) keeps the opponent in it.