What They're Saying - The Bulldogs Media Thread - Part 3

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Fossie 32 said:
Are you including Kyrgios here? There must be heaps of people who don't make the most of their ablities which usually doesn't bother me but this guy is an exception
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Not to the extent of excusing nasty behaviour, but yes to the extent of his level of performance. He's extremely successful at tennis and very rich from it. If pushing harder will make him an unhappy person then what is the point?

Team sports add another layer of complexity to the above due to the need to be trying your best for the team. But still ultimately true (that there is no point if it makes you an unhappy person), and why players in team sports often pull out altogether from elite level, rather than settle at a level below their ultimate potential like you can with tennis (spose Olympics and Davis Cup exception).
 
BULLDOGS
Eight reasons for Western Bulldogs fans to get excited about 2020
The Bulldogs’ barnstorming finish to 2019 came to a sudden end in the elimination final. But there are a lot of good reasons to believe the Dogs are heading back to the top with a bullet.
Nick Smart, Herald Sun
Subscriber only
|
December 26, 2019 3:24pm

The Western Bulldogs’ barnstorming finish to 2019 came to a sudden halt in the elimination final.
But performances in the back end of the home-and-away season gave fans plenty to look forward to — and they aren’t the only reason to think the Dogs are on the way back to the business end of the ladder next season.
Here are eight reasons to get excited about the red, white and blue in 2020.
1. THE ASTRONAUT
The Bulldogs breathed a big sigh of relief when it was revealed forward Aaron Naughton did not suffer an ACL tear to his knee in their elimination final thumping by the GWS Giants. He did suffer some damage to his lateral ligament, but the good news is he is expected to start training with the main group in the new year and he should be right for the start of the 2020 season.
Naughton — who has just turned 20 — booted 32 goals and averaged 5.7 marks from 23 games in 2019, with former Essendon and St Kilda champion Brendon Goddard believing he is “in line to be one of the best key forwards in the game by the end of 2020”. With the likes of Josh Schache, new recruit Josh Bruce, Tory Dickson and Sam Lloyd around him, there’s a lot to look forward to next season.
The sky is the limit for Aaron Naughton. Picture: Michael Klein
The sky is the limit for Aaron Naughton. Picture: Michael Klein
2. THE RECRUITS
Bruce has arrived at the kennel, which is his third club in eight years. The former Giant and Saint will fit nicely into a Bulldogs’ forward line already boasting Naughton and Josh Schache. How this three-pronged attack will work in action remains to be seen, but it has Bulldogs supporters licking their lips. Alex Keath, meanwhile, recently had surgery to repair a stress fracture in his lower leg, although the intercept defender has said it should not affect his 2020 campaign. He is set to be back to full training next month, and the smart money suggests he could be one of the recruits of the year.
Josh Bruce gets stuck into pre-season training at his third club. Picture: Michael Klein
Josh Bruce gets stuck into pre-season training at his third club. Picture: Michael Klein
3. THE MIDFIELD


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The Bulldogs boast the midfield Champion Data has ranked as the second-best in the AFL behind 2019 bolter Brisbane. We all know why. New skipper Marcus Bontempelli, Josh Dunkley and Jack Macrae are all stars. Despite that, they still ranked 12th for total clearances in 2019. Although the return of Tom Liberatore should help in that department, and so will the continued emergence of ruckman Tim English and youngster Bailey Smith.
4. THE RETURNING STARS
The loss of premiership players Tom Liberatore (knee) and Mitch Wallis (foot) hurt the Bulldogs in 2019. The good news is the pair have recently stepped up their training loads after both going under the knife earlier this year. Liberatore was badly missed in the latter stages of 2019. He managed 15 games but had an interrupted season and did not play after Round 20. Wallis did not play after Round 10 due to a stress fracture in his foot, and the Dogs look forward to welcoming both back to their best 22 in 2020.
5. FINISH TO LAST SEASON
They were one of the form sides entering September. In fact, people were already drawing parallels to 2016 when the Bulldogs won the flag from seventh on the ladder. The Dogs got on a serious run in the second half of 2019, winning eight of their last 11 home-and-away matches and knocking off the likes of Geelong, GWS and Essendon in the process. The season, however, ended in the first week of the finals at the hands of a rampant GWS Giants. The young Pups run out of puff, but there was enough there in the second half of the year to excite supporters for the future.
Can new Western Bulldogs captain Marcus Bontempelli take his game to another level in 2020? Picture: Phil Hillyard
Can new Western Bulldogs captain Marcus Bontempelli take his game to another level in 2020? Picture: Phil Hillyard
6. SECOND-BEST LIST
They were the bolter of the recently released Champion Data team rankings for 2020. The Bulldogs were ranked 15th going into 2019, but they have risen a staggering 13 places to be second behind premier Richmond going into the new year. Expectations were fairly moderate going into 2019, but heading into 2020 it is a different story. There will be a lot more eyes watching Luke Beveridge’s men in the new year.
7. TIM ENGLISH
English was recently described by Brendon Goddard as “Brodie Grundy 2.0 in the making”. It is a big wrap, but not too many would disagree. There is a lot of buzz surrounding English heading into 2020 and with good reason. Track watchers at the Bulldogs say the emerging star has been dominating pre-season training at the kennel so far this summer. Expect to see English take the next step towards stardom next season.
Tim English is one of the competition’s best young ruckmen. Picture: Phil Hillyard
Tim English is one of the competition’s best young ruckmen. Picture: Phil Hillyard
8. SCORING POWER
The Dogs’ forward half weapons in the second half of 2019 were seriously exciting. They finished the 2019 home-and-away season third overall for scoring with an average of 88.2 per game. In the last five rounds of the season, they ranked No.1. When you add recruit Bruce to the mixture along with the continued development of their talls, you can see why the hype around the Dogs continues to grow.
MORE BULLDOGS NEWS:
Buckenara: Why Dogs are top four certainties
Bontempelli ‘made for the job’ as top dog
Why Wallis is constantly knocking on wood
Exciting Dog has sights set on ‘special’ 2020
CHAMPION DATA SAYS
The Bulldogs list is well balanced heading into 2020, having the second-best list rating as well as the second-best defensive and midfield quality. The Bulldogs have a total of 21 players in the age bracket of 21-25 – the most of any side in the competition.
HOW THE DOGS ARE TRACKING
2015: 6th — 14W, 8L (elimination fial)
2016: 7th — 15W, 7L (premier)
2017: 10th — 11W, 11L
2018: 13th — 8W, 14L
2019: 7th — 12W, 10L (elimination final)
TAB ODDS
Premiership: $11
Top 8: $1.60
Top 4: $2.60
 

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House_of_Dahl said:
Not to the extent of excusing nasty behaviour, but yes to the extent of his level of performance. He's extremely successful at tennis and very rich from it. If pushing harder will make him an unhappy person then what is the point?

Team sports add another layer of complexity to the above due to the need to be trying your best for the team. But still ultimately true (that there is no point if it makes you an unhappy person), and why players in team sports often pull out altogether from elite level, rather than settle at a level below their ultimate potential like you can with tennis (spose Olympics and Davis Cup exception).
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I agree except with Kyrgios I think it’s not a matter of pushing too hard just show a bit of interest at times and cut out the tanties and he would do way better
 
Bont2Bruce said:
When your mental health battle was at its most crippling, what were the effects on you, physically or mentally?

There’s no ability to find joy in anything. To deal with it chronologically, anxiety was something that was very prevalent in my AFL career particularly because I put so much pressure on myself come game day. Over time, the best way to describe anxiety for me, is that it’s like a balloon. You’ve got a balloon with a certain amount of air, and that air represents the capacity that you have to deal with stress. What tends to happen is, when you come up to a moment that makes you feel anxious, you feel like you can’t take any more air in, and you’re just going to burst. Then what you do is you say, “I’m not going to do it. I’m going to avoid confronting the issue at all”.

And then what actually happens is you let a little bit of the air out, and then over time the air shrinks, and shrinks. If I get nervous speaking in front of a thousand people, if I avoid it, then in time I become nervous in front of 500, then 200, then talking to one person is crippling. That’s the general rule around avoidance, and anxiety. My issue is it went from being anxious around games, and then it was main training sessions, and then it was every training session.

Anxious just to go to them?

Constantly. Even to attend the club at times was a significant challenge for me. About everything to do with my football life in the end. I think it was stimulated from just wanting to be perfect all the time.

That’s impossible though.

It is. Chasing perfection isn’t real. I couldn’t stuff up a kick. What happens when you think about not wanting to stuff up a kick? You stuff it up. It’s this self-perpetuating cycle of anxiety.

A life of constant anxiety …

Constant. Over time it transitioned from just being anxious before the event, to the night before, and it would become really difficult to sleep. In 2017 before I had the worst bout of insomnia, we’d train on a Thursday and Wednesday night I’d really struggle to sleep, really struggle to sleep after training, or sleep Friday night, and then I had to try and play Saturday. By the time I got to a game I was so tired, and mentally fatigued, that I would have to use every ounce of energy I had to get through the game. I’d really struggle to concentrate.

Do anxiety and depression fuel each other?

It did for me. My first bouts of depression came after the anxiety had lead me to insomnia around games. Suddenly, it’s Saturday night, you’d played at 7.50pm, it’s 3am, and you haven’t slept yet. It’s quite common in AFL players. Suddenly, I hadn’t slept for three days. I’d just played one of the most gruelling sports in the world for 120 minutes, and I had to be up at 9am for recovery. I was just a wreck. It’s two or three days of just crippling tiredness and fatigue. It was just the physiological effect of the mental cycle I was in.

Sleep deprivation is a form of torture.

Exactly, and then I’d get injured. The body can’t handle no sleep. Sleep is the most important form of recovery, we’re told that since we’re 10 years old. That lack of ability to recover just accumulates over time. My body has always been quite resilient, but it couldn’t go through that. Not any longer.

Following the 2016 GF win - did your anxiousness disappear in anyway?

No, not really, it was an amazing time surrounding the grand final where in that month a series of seemingly impossible events were overcome that culminated in pandemonium. I have very fond memories of that time, but once the true elation of victory subsided, I do remember feeling very hollow. Funnily enough, although success aided me for a while, I think in reality it just acted as a distraction from what was really going on for me. So there was definitely joy attached to that period of time, but it was fleeting and the 12 months that followed would prove to be the hardest of my life.

So no sense of lasting relief, or achievement or happiness?

I think the enormity of what we achieved for our club and community was absolutely recognised. Internally we knew the depths of some of the challenges that we faced collectively, so to get there and achieve the ultimate in the game and overcome all that and be victorious on the last day of the year was exceptional. Because of this I think the strength of the relationship between the members of the club became so powerful, so that was a unique experience that is lasting.

You took time off in 2017 — you recognised the problem was so severe you needed to remove yourself. What did you hope to achieve?

Part of what we were trying to work out was what we needed to change. Then we needed to understand me, what I’d been through, and whether I could function normally with football in the equation. We decided I couldn’t. The actual break from football was two-and-a-half weeks, where I had no contact with anyone from the club. We took football out of the equation, and suddenly free up some space to work on my mental health. What we were trying to work out was, when was I actually happy? It was when I was 17, 18, when I had sport, school and family and real balance in my life.

And your balance was off?

I hadn’t had the balance right in a long time. That was part of it. The other thing was trying to work out how to be a little less hard on myself. Invariably with football, we shoot for the stars, and falling short is not something we deal with very well, particularly with me because I felt like I knew what people expected of me, and I wasn’t reaching their expectations. It might not have been realistic, but I still wanted to get there.

Being easy on yourself and meeting others’ expectations — is that possible?

I needed to work out how to do both. I wanted to do well, but I had to be OK with not being perfect. We did a lot of practice-based things that I wanted to put back in my life, like surfing, spending more time with family and friends, sorting out my sleep. We had a number of things that I needed to deal with in that time off to try and become level again.

When you would come out of a dark period, and you were feeling strong, did you think you would be able to beat it and it was in the past?

No. I’ll never forget the power the brain has over the body. One of the reasons that I’m able to talk about this so liberally is because it was so tangible to me. I couldn’t participate in life as I knew it for months and months. Then it becomes much easier for me to calibrate because it’s an injury of sorts; an illness. Something that has a massive effect on your wellbeing, your lifestyle, your friends, family, all your social interactions are implicated in the whole experience.

Are you better at managing things now?

I’m much more resistant to adversity. The way I look at resilience now is, when you’re going through a difficult time, what are the tools you have to help you pick yourself up, and deal with it? They can be mental tools, they can be a desire to not allow yourself to spiral down. From that regard, I picked up a lot of the skills in that time to say, “If things aren’t right, I know I can progressively and proactively change things quickly, and pivot much quicker than I used to, so that I don’t end up regressing a long way”.

How do you keep yourself mentally as healthy as you can be now? What have you learnt, and what are your daily rituals?

I’m a big ‘feel’ guy. Whatever feels right at the time. There are important interactions with people that I need to continue to have. I still see Lisa weekly, and to be honest it used to be an hour of “Tom”, but now it’s 15 minutes about what’s happening in my life, and 45 minutes about where I can best help people. What direction do I need to go. What mediums and platforms and situational stuff can I do, to most effectively, most morally, help people.

I would love to publish my story in book form, or a podcast and certainly in oral form through my public speaking which I love. I’m big on the fact that, yes, I can be an advocate for positive mental health, and I think I can make a big difference with my story, but ethically and morally from my own point of view, I need to do the due diligence behind the scenes to make sure that I’m not pushing messages that are either wrong, or dangerous.

Part of that evolving conversation with Lisa is always important. I make positive interactions on social media around messaging, around this space, and I feel good about myself because I know I’m making a difference. I know that I’m acting in a way that enables people to positively interacting with me.

I think that’s the checks and balances we all have to go through in regard to life, because to refer to my football career, what I couldn’t find was a sense of achievement outside the game. Where am I going? What am I doing outside of kicking the pig skin around that is positive? So I’ve found by acting in a way that makes a positive impact on the community I have a better appreciation for life.

Do you find you are isolating yourself anymore?

Not at all, but I still love my alone time. I don’t seek out alone time, but I utilise it when it’s there. It’s a different equation. That’s an important shift that’s happened over the years.

You still love footy, and you’re playing footy. Happy footy.

I’ll work out my love for the game again. The thing that has been misinterpreted with the end of my career is that I hate the game. Not true. That I hate the footy club, or the idea of being around a footy club. Also, not true. I love both those things. The many layers that come with the AFL was what got me, and the different elements of the game that you have to participate in at AFL level. That’s fine. Now that I can differentiate the two things, it’s great.

I’m still going to have to learn to love it again, to really just love the playing side of the game. I’ve had so many traumatic emotional relationships with the game in my past. Immediately, when I finished, I knew it was very important that I got involved on a community level with football. Call it my church, or my community hub, that’s really important to me. It’s an interaction with a different group of people, and I can learn a lot from different people within the community. I’ll be playing at St Kevin’s next year and played a little bit at Norwood this year. I’ll always be around football clubs in some way, shape or form.

Were you a happy kid?

I think so. I don’t remember being unhappy.

Are you happy now?

Definitely. It’s amazing what you can achieve in short periods of time when you’re really passionate about what you do. I’ve seen an amazing uplift in my productivity in the mental health space, but also in my life, because I love what I do. I love what I’m doing, I love the impact that I can have, and I don’t have the spectre of footy hanging over my shoulder anymore. It’s just a part of my life, not my whole life.

To those that are battling, what would you advise them?

You don’t have to do it alone and that as hard as it is to reach out when you are feeling vulnerable it’s so important. It took me a long time to address my issues and I was surrounded by great people. I think it’s the one thing we can get better at, and notoriously Australians are proud of the true Aussie spirit. The spirit of mateship is looking at your mate, and if you sense a change, ask him how they are going. It doesn’t have to be much.

The power of that is incredible, because you might start something where he considers that he’s not going well, or she might not be going well, whatever it is. The fact that we don’t tend to look out for each other as well as we can, or as well as we should, is one of the biggest things that I’ve been critical of.

We’re all going through the same things together, we all understand hardship and adversity in some way, shape or form, so with that in mind there is a certain responsibility to look after people when they are going through hard things. Be on the lookout for when those things might appear.

If you were in Year 12, knowing what you know, would you nominate for the draft again?

I’m not big on everything happens for a reason, but I think that circumstantially we become who we are because of the things we’ve experienced. I think that I wouldn’t be having the same impact on people that I’m having now if I didn’t go through the hard yards earlier. I wouldn’t change what I’m doing for anything. I’m very lucky that at 23, 24, I’ve found what I am truly passionate about, and worked out that at the very core of it, it’s people.

I love interacting with people, I love looking after people, helping people, people helping me. That’s what it’s all about, and it took me a long time to work out that’s at the core of what I want to do.

The 24-year-old Tom speaking to the 15-year-old Tom?

I don’t know if the 15-year-old me would have listened. There are certain tools we can give our youth, in this space in particular, that will hold them in better stead. We are extraordinarily critical of young people growing up today, and part of that is the fact that everything is documented. One of the messages I give to young people when I speak to them is, you live in a permanent world. For the first time ever; you can’t get away with anything.

Which is a hard way to grow up. But, it is reality. Societally, we need to be better at understanding that kids make mistakes. Perhaps some of those mistakes are more systematic of the things they’re going through, rather than them being bad kids, or bad people. From that regard, the fact that if I know more about some of these things, and the fact that anxiety, depression, mental health, life’s not that easy for a lot of it. That’s part of the beauty of it, and the struggle is the reason we keep going. If I’d known that when I was 15, that would have been helpful.

When did you get so wise?

Wise through suffering, I think. That is best thing that I’ve ever learnt about myself. Three years ago, I was an idiot. In three years’ time, I’m probably going to think the same thing about me now. The whole point of progression is that it’s fine to make mistakes, it’s fine to understand that the journey is the whole point. The destination is the end. Why are we running towards the destination? You have to enjoy the journey of life while it’s going on. I’ll tell you what, I’ve made plenty of blues and I’ll continue to make them, but you’ve got to try and learn along the way. That’s the whole point.

In your journey — when was the lowest you got?

I’d been having real issues with insomnia for a number of weeks. What they get you to do with insomnia is, firstly, they medicate you. Generally, it’s not enjoyable because some of the sleeping medication is so powerful that in the morning when you wake up you feel so bad, and so hungover from the effects of the medicine, that it’s not necessarily a better option than not sleeping. The other one they do is they get you to sit in the chair next to your bed. They’ll say, “Sit in the chair until you start dosing off. Get into bed, get out of bed. If you can’t sleep, just repeat that”. It’s part of just trying to bore your brain to sleep. I’d missed a couple of games playing for the Dogs because I had a calf, but essentially it all stemmed from not being able to sleep. I was sitting in my house in Albert Park, middle of winter, July blues, with no end of the season in sight. I was supposed to return back through the VFL that weekend after missing the last couple of games.

I couldn’t comprehend why I was feeling so terrible about myself. I looked across my life and I had a beautiful partner, who is now my fiance, Anna. She was the most supportive person going around. I had a new dog, a beautiful Labrador, an amazing family who did everything they possibly could to support me. I was living in a beautiful part of the world, getting paid a million dollars a year playing the dream job. Everyone in my life was telling me how good I had it, and I am absolutely, 100 per cent miserable.

What happened from there?

I’m sitting there, and I’m trying to work out what I’m going to do next, and there’s not a single positive thought going through my head. I’d worked out a couple of things. The first thing was that I couldn’t play on the weekend, it wasn’t going to be possible. My body wasn’t going to handle it. My mind couldn’t handle it either. I couldn’t go on that merry-go-round that I’d been going on. The second thing was that if I didn’t get help, and change some things, or something didn’t give, I didn’t know what was going to happen next.

Who did you turn to?

I’d been seeing Lisa previously, and for the first time in my life I actually called her and specifically asked for help. I said, “Lisa, I can’t play on the weekend. I can’t do it.” Of course, her being her, one of the most amazing people in my life, she said, “How can I help?” That hour felt like an eternity, and I’ve never felt so terrible about myself, and unsure about my future. The one thing that I did was I actually made the effort, and made the decision, to get someone to help me get through that time. Not try and do it by myself. I can honestly say that if I didn’t, I don’t know what would have happened next. That was the last time where I felt so helpless that I couldn’t see anything good in any of my life. That was the hardest day of my life.

It’s a tough equation to try and find an answer to. You had a wonderful girlfriend that you’re now going to marry, a great house in a great country, physically healthy, earning well, playing a sport you wanted to as a kid, but couldn’t feel worse about yourself.

That’s the whole point, isn’t it?

It doesn’t discriminate.

No one is immune, and it’s not proportional to your life. Some of the most powerful, brilliant people in the world have had so many issues in this area. We lose people every year across entertainment, business, sport, politics, whatever it is. This stuff doesn’t see career. It’s all grey. I just want people to know that the choice that I made to actually open up and ask someone to help me, well, that’s the reason I am here happy and healthy and able to talk about it now, and they shouldn’t feel embarrassed or ashamed asking for help. It is brave, and it’s the right thing to do.


When you are at your lowest point, how do the conversations play out with Mum, Dad and Anna?

Differently with all. The ability to process information like this is dependent on how open you are. Anna had been through the whole ride with me, right there by my side. One of the biggest challenges with people who are in her position is that you feel very helpless. You’re doing everything you can, but it’s very important that those people who are second-hand suffering get support as well, because they’re feeling like they’re a part of the ‘not enough’ bit, which is not true, at all. They’re part of the ‘why it’s worth it’ bit. Telling her wasn’t difficult, and she was very understanding about me taking a break.

How were your parents?

Telling Mum was reasonably easy. I’d had conversations with her, and she’s an amazingly supportive lady. She’s always been right there beside me the whole way through. Again, that hopelessness fact is magnified because of her gap, and her distance, so she’s thinking “how can I possibly help without being overwhelming?”. That’s really challenging for the people around you.

Dad?

Telling my dad was an interesting experience, and the reason for that is for all his intent and care, and he was doing his upmost to support me, his life generally has been “if something is hard, put your head down and work harder.’’ One of the biggest challenges is when I walk in and speak to people of Dad’s generation, they find mental health hard to comprehend.

Dad, to his absolute credit, did everything possible to try and learn, try and understand, empathise, sympathise, and that was really important for me to see that. That was enough. He’s been one of my best mates in my whole life, so it’s important that he invested and tried to make the best fist of it that he could.

Have you got better at recognising people that need help?

Not necessarily, I think I have gotten better at being able to see things from other people’s perspective, which I was terrible at when I was younger. People can be very good at faking it, and I was very good, until I couldn’t. The responsibility on us as people is to treat people fairly, with respect, and with value. Sometimes, those people can’t find any value within themselves. I went through that at one stage.

If you treat people as though you’re not worth anything, well you may be contributing to some of it. It’s not always a direct correlation between people’s lives, and the way they feel, but ethically, morally, the response has to be to try and look after everyone. At least treat them as your equal.

One of the things that really resonated with me was when you talked about how you’ve always tried to live a life where you’re well mannered, really respectful of others, try and help others, but ‘because I wasn’t performing for two hours a week, I was getting treated like a terrible person’.

I don’t think that’s a melodramatic statement. It’s pretty accurate. You did your research Hame, but as you know, there’s been some pretty heinous stuff written and spoken about me at times.

Not just from people in the outer on social media.

No. Football is a microcosm of community. I don’t have any qualms about what people wrote in the media, because I understand now that it’s their job. At times, they tend to latch onto players, people, in general, which I don’t think is right. I don’t have the issue or the negative emotion towards those people, because they are often representing a greater story that is the mood, or the way that Australia functions.

It’s been a big ride so far. Thinking you wanted to be a footballer, going No.1 in the draft and becoming one, not enjoying it, winning a flag, and now at 24, all done. You’re not a professional footballer, you’re sitting on the floor with me, as happy as you’ve ever been, after going through hell.

My story has never been boring. In many cases, particularly in the AFL world, it’s very unique. For that, I make no apologies. Over time people have tried to put me in a box, because it’s easy to do. “He’s a highly paid footballer, he has nothing to worry about”. I didn’t want to be different, but because I was trying to work out who I was, I seemed to be. Now I can be myself all the time, act accordingly, participate in life accordingly, and it’s so satisfying not trying to squeeze everyone into a profile that doesn’t fit. That’s where I got my identity crisis from, to a degree. Now I have the option to choose.

When do you marry the girl from next door?

December 2020.

That’s something to look forward to.

Yes, it is. We’ve got a big year coming up. A renovation, a wedding, a couple of other family members who are in the same boat. It’s exciting. I’m going to have a big change in the work I’m doing, walking into a full calendar year. Anna’s going to experience the same thing, so we’ve got an enormous number of things on our plate, but all very good things.

And no skin folds.

Thank God for that — I’d fail.

(Laughs) It’s good to see you happy and smiling.

Thanks, Hame.
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I love this man
 
Dogs_R_Us said:
So, what is Tom’s new business, counselling? Public speaking?
Click to expand...

Public speaking.

You can book him to come to your next event here:

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I like that his bio on the left only mentions having previously played for one AFL club
 
There's a lot of positives with the way the list is being tuned, hopefully for another tilt at a flag in the next 12-24 months.
 
Bont2Bruce said:
I was brought up well-mannered, and Mum was always big on that. In my world it was important to be a good person, be polite, friendly, respectful, and that’s what was important. I found that once I got into the AFL world, it didn’t count for much, and all that counted was my performance on ground for two hours every weekend. There was a massive conflict for me with that, because as much as I could achieve during the week, whether it be interaction with my teammates, or effort at training, professionalism, friendship, it didn’t matter because if I didn’t do the right thing and get the right stat line, or make the right impact on Saturday, I was essentially a failure. I’ve never been able to get my head around that. Rightly or wrongly, I always felt at odds with that.
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Wise words, which unfortunately do not seem so important in today's world. I am so happy that Tom seems to be in a much better place today. He deserves it.
 

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House_of_Dahl said:
Gonna be interesting, a lot of expectations now ala 2017. But should be more hunger and less complacency though. That GWS spanking was probably a blessing in disguise.
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I get the feeling a lot rests on the shoulders of Tim English. He's the standout pre-season performer and is miles away from the skinny kid that was getting belted at the start of last year.

If he's fit and firing at the pointy end of the season we're a chance. I don't think we'll do much damage if he's on the sidelines.
 
Mofra said:
I get the feeling a lot rests on the shoulders of Tim English. He's the standout pre-season performer and is miles away from the skinny kid that was getting belted at the start of last year.

If he's fit and firing at the pointy end of the season we're a chance. I don't think we'll do much damage if he's on the sidelines.
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Imo that's a fairly dramatic underestimation of our list. Our season will not hinge on whether a young developing ruckman has consistency coming into the finals. Bev has so many strong midfield options that will be versatile around Trengrove, Schache or Sweet (in the worst case scenario). Hell even Dunkley can be thrown in, if circumstances are dire, but that gets Libba on the ball as well.

I understand we still have a fairly defeatist mindset, because that's us, but times are changing.
 
Yesterday Dog said:
Imo that's a fairly dramatic underestimation of our list. Our season will not hinge on whether a young developing ruckman has consistency coming into the finals. Bev has so many strong midfield options that will be versatile around Trengrove, Schache or Sweet (in the worst case scenario). Hell even Dunkley can be thrown in, if circumstances are dire, but that gets Libba on the ball as well.

I understand we still have a fairly defeatist mindset, because that's us, but times are changing.
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Trengove is serviceable, but Schache doesn't even have the aggression to be a genuine AFL-level KPF let alone a ruckman, and even our coaching staff could outrun Sweet.

English has star potential, he could realistically push for top five ruckman in the comp this year and would be a genuinely unique member of our team against all other teams bar Collingwood.
Our much vaunted midfield was smashed in the finals and I worry about the combined level of 'bastard' we have on the field. We have two standouts in that area - Libba and Cordy and not everyone has them in the best 22. Bailey Smith seems to have a dose of it too but he's a kid.
 
Mofra said:
Trengove is serviceable, but Schache doesn't even have the aggression to be a genuine AFL-level KPF let alone a ruckman, and even our coaching staff could outrun Sweet.

English has star potential, he could realistically push for top five ruckman in the comp this year and would be a genuinely unique member of our team against all other teams bar Collingwood.
Our much vaunted midfield was smashed in the finals and I worry about the combined level of 'bastard' we have on the field. We have two standouts in that area - Libba and Cordy and not everyone has them in the best 22. Bailey Smith seems to have a dose of it too but he's a kid.
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I know he's legitimate son of Scott West but I have hopes that Rhylee has more than a little bastard in him.
 
Hmm Psychedelic pr0n Crumpets ...

1577587064646.png
 
weltschmerz said:
Bruce can also ruck for a game or two if English is injured. We'd certainly be a weaker team without English though.

Still remember West punching a kid in PE when I taught him in primary school. Maybe he could pull that out on the field.
Click to expand...
West + Sweet decking people left, right and centre sounds alright
 
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