List Mgmt. Welcome to Geelong, Mitch Hardie

[Turbocat]

It’s hard to infer what Geelong might have learned from the Williams experience and that they were open about with Hardie. Perhaps some specific effort they needed to put into developing Williams in the 6 months. Interesting comment.

I read a small hint that the club may've realised that they didn't assist ZW as much as they could've to help him reach his potential in the allotted time.

Without the club stating their side of it... its only a guesstimate ...but didn't ZaneW play in the VFL almost immediately?

Perhaps on reflection they realised they should have tried to give him a better grounding and assess his readiness.

Perhaps its only rhetoric ... a way to soften the blow of saying he was not good enough.

The good thing is the club is think long term with Hardie. At 25 ..if good enough ...he should be at the right age to play and push for a role for many years.

 

[Cataholic]

Without the club stating their side of it... its only a guesstimate ...but didn't ZaneW play in the VFL almost immediately?

Perhaps on reflection they realised they should have tried to give him a better grounding and assess his readiness.

Perhaps its only rhetoric ... a way to soften the blow of saying he was not good enough.

The good thing is the club is think long term with Hardie. At 25 ..if good enough ...he should be at the right age to play and push for a role for many years.

As catempire said, it's hard to infer what exactly happened, but I read an insinuation that the club regrets it's handling of ZW somehow, and has gone to some length to reassure MH that it's going to do things a bit differently this time.

 

[catempire]

Actually, I’m reminded of something Zane Williams said once he had been delisted:

“(The coaches) just said go out and play because obviously they wanted to see what I had/what I could bring,” Williams added.

“I got told I was doing a lot of things right and I guess I didn’t really get told until the exit meeting what I was doing wrong.

“My main thing was to put on a little bit of strength. It was a bit of a surprise, but it is what it is.”

So maybe it’s something about getting more feedback along the way.

 

[Cataholic]

Actually, I’m reminded of something Zane Williams said once he had been delisted:



So maybe it’s something about getting more feedback along the way.

Communication was obviously lacking.

Hard to increase strength significantly in 6 months, and not being told what you're doing wrong until the exit interview is way too late.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Communication was obviously lacking.

Hard to increase strength significantly in 6 months, and not being told what you're doing wrong until the exit interview is way too late.

Looks like we went in with the wrong expectations based on that

 

[Turbocat]

Actually, I’m reminded of something Zane Williams said once he had been delisted:



So maybe it’s something about getting more feedback along the way.

Overall Im glad to read that we have at least reviewed the way we handled it , and if we are going to continue to draft players on short term contracts , that we endeavour for continuous improvement of the practice as its probably different to our sop

 

[Kobe Gryant]

Probably in the style of Parfitt or Cam Guthrie. At AFL level I would expect him to be more outside than inside.

If I was to compare him to Zane Williams who you borrowed from the Eagles last year, he is the opposite. Williams has the skills and clever step, but lacked the work rate, athleticism and fitness. Hardie has the work rate and fitness, but will need to polish up and probably add a bit of strength as well. All doable as a full time footballer.

Ever since Cook, Wells and Bomber came on board we've been a character first footy club.

Many of our champions of this dominant era got there through pure hard work, rather than just natural talent. Basically a full 180 since the Gary Snr days.

Thanks heaps for the insight, he appears to be a great young man and we'll treat him well.

Once a Geelong man, Always a Geelong man.

 

[Kobe Gryant]

It's funny how 1 week and a win can change things so much.

A few days ago it was... Get him in kinda talk.

Now we hit the bye after a win that keeps us somewhat alive and with key mids to come back to the side next match.

All of a sudden it's gone from looking almost like he was close to playing straight away to being way back in the line.

Hardie will just need to get cracking in the VFL now and play extremely well to get a birth in the seniors.

I'm not taking the bait, the footy God's are merely toying with us and allowing ourselves to believe the curse is over.

Expect Jezza to tear his ACL over the bye week during a fortnite marathon, and Danger to be out for the season after his newfound love of vaping.

 

[Goggin Our Best]

Ever since Cook, Wells and Bomber came on board we've been a character first footy club. Many of our champions of this dominant era got there through pure hard work, rather than just natural talent. Basically a full 180 since the Gary Snr days.

Thanks heaps for the insight, he appears to be a great young man and we'll treat him well.

Once a Geelong man, Always a Geelong man.

You can have rhetoric - but i thought Zane Williams was a tad unlucky - i thought he showed glints/glimpses - i watched that game at the Western Oval etc

But they had to prune/cut the list hard for all the new players - like Bowes he was basically a Haw player - and then pick 7 got dangled in front of them - so room had to be made as well for him

 

[Kobe Gryant]

You can have rhetoric - but i thought Zane Williams was a tad unlucky - i thought he showed glints/glimpses - i watched that game at the Western Oval etc

But they had to prune/cut the list hard for all the new players - like Bowes he was basically a Haw player - and then pick 7 got dangled in front of them - so room had to be made as well for him

No doubt, and it's not akin to every decision the club's ever made. Look at the so called 'family club' and their recent press.

But far more often than not, we get these right. I feel for Zane, but if he's made of the right stuff he'll go back to the state leagues and get that second chance.

Never the less, it's good to see that the club is changing their approach this time and learning from a mistake.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

You can have rhetoric - but i thought Zane Williams was a tad unlucky - i thought he showed glints/glimpses - i watched that game at the Western Oval etc

But they had to prune/cut the list hard for all the new players - like Bowes he was basically a Haw player - and then pick 7 got dangled in front of them - so room had to be made as well for him

Yes and no bowes was senior list williams didnt affect that as he was a rookie. It was basically williams vs riccardi bc we wanted a spot for osca as a rookie, plus williams vs murdoch.

 

[Footy Smarts]

Actually, I’m reminded of something Zane Williams said once he had been delisted:



So maybe it’s something about getting more feedback along the way.

There's absolutely no way we would delist a 21 year old if we thought he could be a good AFL player with a bit more strength.

Communication is also a two way street. Did he want to know what he could do better? Was he asking questions of the coaches every day? We hear how guys like Blicavs and Sav are always asking questions and wanting to learn.

Maybe he was and we just didn't have the heart to tell him we didn't think he had the talent for AFL footy. Or maybe he didn't show that real desire to improve and if you don't show that in a 3-month internship you're unlikely to show it in a full year on the list.

 

[bulletproof]

I think Williams came in at a tough time, there was a desperate push for a Flag on. Then we rolled into a manic trade period.

The truth of it is, it sounds like he got forgotten about a little bit.

That is unfortunate for him, but it is easy to see how it unfolded like that.

 

[Spearman]

I'm not taking the bait, the footy God's are merely toying with us and allowing ourselves to believe the curse is over.

Expect Jezza to tear his ACL over the bye week during a fortnite marathon, and Danger to be out for the season after his newfound love of vaping.

nah, I'd expect PFD to lose some muscle mass in his glutes from an overly affectionate nip from a shark, while JC's injury comes from a mysterious incident involving a wombat and a heifer that will never be adequately explained.

 

[OzeSparky]

On Zane I’m taking a different approach. And I’m basing it on wells interview. He stated that Mitch needs to improve, putting the pressure on him to work hard.

By that I take it Zane just cruised through and never worked as hard as he could.

 

[Kitcat]

Zane didn’t get taken in the 2022 draft, or in the 2023 MSD, and I did not see his name mentioned as a possible selection in the MSD. it seems that no other clubs rate his potential sufficient to put him on a list.

 

[Cataholic]

About Mitch Hardie.........

 

[Turbocat]

There's absolutely no way we would delist a 21 year old if we thought he could be a good AFL player with a bit more strength.

Communication is also a two way street. Did he want to know what he could do better? Was he asking questions of the coaches every day? We hear how guys like Blicavs and Sav are always asking questions and wanting to learn.

Maybe he was and we just didn't have the heart to tell him we didn't think he had the talent for AFL footy. Or maybe he didn't show that real desire to improve and if you don't show that in a 3-month internship you're unlikely to show it in a full year on the list.

Very good post. I can see that ...I just think three months will not always be enough... so many players would have been flushed based on those early months ..plenty will say it took them longer than that to even settle after moving.

 

[Turbocat]

About Mitch Hardie.........

true.... it would help if we had seen him play. He sort of created the discussion by mentioning Zane in the article.


I hope they are putting Mitch thru a series of tests ... so when he comes in we know he is ready.

 

[dazbroncos]

Club sounds like it wants to improve its process after Zane and by the sounds of it it needs to.
Hoping Mitch gets the benefit of ZW hindsight.

GO Catters

 

[Farmer2Goggin]

Actually, I’m reminded of something Zane Williams said once he had been delisted:



So maybe it’s something about getting more feedback along the way.

Interesting comments by Zane.
I wonder if things have changed since Jansen was traded - he was told very clearly what his strengths and weaknesses were , was monitored and received constant feedback.
He holds no grudges and still speaks very highly of his time with the Club.

 

[Burtyl78]

When are we gonna take a risk? Pick a Hardie, have a look, who’s it gonna hurt?

 

[FredLeDeux]

When are we gonna take a risk? Pick a Hardie, have a look, who’s it gonna hurt?

Us

 

[Shadow89]

When are we gonna take a risk? Pick a Hardie, have a look, who’s it gonna hurt?

I take it you haven't been watching the VFL, and just going on the fact he's a mature age mid drafted in the MSD? Because he's nowhere near a debut. Mitch Knevitt on the other hand, he could be a real decent inclusion.

 

[Burtyl78]

Us

Have you seen the inconsistency of our mids? Not gonna hurt us anymore than it is now