Strategy Your Magic Formula

[LordLucifer]

Well then ………..

Haven't we been a lively lot this last 24-hours ??

The people on this forum swing from "we are the best & our people are the greatest" to "we are a rabble & sack the board" on a weekly basis subject to whether we win or lose & the manner in which that happens.

We have some posters who only come online after a bad loss to tip a bucket of cow poo on everything plus there are the serial "I'm done with this club" types as well.

Added in there is the usual plethora of opinions of what the club should have done previously, should be doing right now & what they certainly should be doing in the future.

You see, we are all armchair experts, we all know way more than those at the club actually making the decisions even though we may have never played the game, coached a team (any sport) or even better, run a club (in any sport).

So given that there has been so much heated & forthright opinion on what is going wrong after yesterdays loss to Freo, I am throwing out a genuine challenge to all of the doomsayers & membership card burners right now.

There are three main areas of the club that seem to get focussed on time & time again, they are :

1. The Board

2. The Coaching Panel

3. The Players

So here is your chance to dazzle us with your brilliance, please list a short (ie. 2-3 bullet points) synopsis of what you would do right now if you were able to.

There are no replies or quoting of posts, just individual plans and/or informed opinions that will surely cure all of our ills.

Knock yourself out here guys & remember, keep your replies to 2-3 bullet points in each of the categories please !!!

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

1. The Board

• I'd like to see a more passionate, dynamic leader (i.e President), especially when public speaking. Inspiring confidence is important.
• More transparency as far as what it is the directors are doing for us (i.e how did they earn their spot and what are they doing to keep it).
• Stop thinking of the board as a collective to rise and fall together and hold individuals accountable.
• Review of our medical staff and setup.
• Review of our fitness staff.
• Keep pressuring the AFL so that we can settle on a single home ground. We are still football nomads with no ability to build a team to suit our home ground.

2. The Coaching Panel

• More individual accountability for assistant coaches and development coaches. If they can't get a player to learn something, assess whether it is the player or the way he is being taught.
• A review of the coaching panel every year. Are they meeting the senior coach's KPIs and following instructions and is the senior coach taking on board feedback from the senior coach.
• Continue to review different training techniques from other clubs and other sports.
• Have all players participate in goalkicking sessions and appoint a full time goalkicking coach.
• Don't rotate line coaches every year. They are there to help the team succeed, not to pad out their senior coaching resumes. Continuity is important.
• Consistent messaging. Don't hold some players to a different standard to others. Some players get taught lessons through being dropped, while other players can exercise poor football judgment and make terrible errors but maintain their spots through meeting some vague KPIs laid out for them. How is this helping us to improve?
• Select a side that can compete with the opposition. We are consistently too tall, too light or too slow for our opposition. Select a side that can combat an oppositions gameplan, especially while we are learning. When we become the good side, let them try to match up with us.

3. Players

• Do your sessions, work on your physical strength, find your voice and lead. Manic attack on the footy. Tackle like you mean it. This is not on the players. They are clay to be moulded.
• More recruitment than players, but get the balance of ages, aggression, strength right.

Apologies, not as brief as requested.

 

[AceAndy]

1. The Board

• I'd like to see a more passionate, dynamic leader (i.e President), especially when public speaking. Inspiring confidence is important.
• More transparency as far as what it is the directors are doing for us (i.e how did they earn their spot and what are they doing to keep it).
• Stop thinking of the board as a collective to rise and fall together and hold individuals accountable.
• Review of our medical staff and setup.
• Review of our fitness staff.
• Keep pressuring the AFL so that we can settle on a single home ground. We are still football nomads with no ability to build a team to suit our home ground.

2. The Coaching Panel

• More individual accountability for assistant coaches and development coaches. If they can't get a player to learn something, assess whether it is the player or the way he is being taught.
• A review of the coaching panel every year. Are they meeting the senior coach's KPIs and following instructions and is the senior coach taking on board feedback from the senior coach.
• Continue to review different training techniques from other clubs and other sports.
• Have all players participate in goalkicking sessions and appoint a full time goalkicking coach.
• Don't rotate line coaches every year. They are there to help the team succeed, not to pad out their senior coaching resumes. Continuity is important.
• Consistent messaging. Don't hold some players to a different standard to others. Some players get taught lessons through being dropped, while other players can exercise poor football judgment and make terrible errors but maintain their spots through meeting some vague KPIs laid out for them. How is this helping us to improve?
• Select a side that can compete with the opposition. We are consistently too tall, too light or too slow for our opposition. Select a side that can combat an oppositions gameplan, especially while we are learning. When we become the good side, let them try to match up with us.

3. Players

• Do your sessions, work on your physical strength, find your voice and lead. Manic attack on the footy. Tackle like you mean it. This is not on the players. They are clay to be moulded.
• More recruitment than players, but get the balance of ages, aggression, strength right.

Apologies, not as brief as requested.

Very well said The Old Dark Navy's

 

[passmark]

MLG is a potato. Punted.

The board is stale. Outski.

Get Balme or the next Balme .

Fix those and everything else will get sorted .

Useless ******* administration for 30 years . Having a token Judd in there isn't enough .

Judd wasn't a driver of culture as player or skipper. He's been given a board position to keep the masses happy and do the media that the potato prez can't . He gives legitimacy but, like Sticks, he's unlikely to be a change agent.

Rant over.

 

[true blue19]

1. The Board

• I'd like to see a more passionate, dynamic leader (i.e President), especially when public speaking. Inspiring confidence is important.
• More transparency as far as what it is the directors are doing for us (i.e how did they earn their spot and what are they doing to keep it).
• Stop thinking of the board as a collective to rise and fall together and hold individuals accountable.
• Review of our medical staff and setup.
• Review of our fitness staff.
• Keep pressuring the AFL so that we can settle on a single home ground. We are still football nomads with no ability to build a team to suit our home ground.

2. The Coaching Panel

• More individual accountability for assistant coaches and development coaches. If they can't get a player to learn something, assess whether it is the player or the way he is being taught.
• A review of the coaching panel every year. Are they meeting the senior coach's KPIs and following instructions and is the senior coach taking on board feedback from the senior coach.
• Continue to review different training techniques from other clubs and other sports.
• Have all players participate in goalkicking sessions and appoint a full time goalkicking coach.
• Don't rotate line coaches every year. They are there to help the team succeed, not to pad out their senior coaching resumes. Continuity is important.
• Consistent messaging. Don't hold some players to a different standard to others. Some players get taught lessons through being dropped, while other players can exercise poor football judgment and make terrible errors but maintain their spots through meeting some vague KPIs laid out for them. How is this helping us to improve?
• Select a side that can compete with the opposition. We are consistently too tall, too light or too slow for our opposition. Select a side that can combat an oppositions gameplan, especially while we are learning. When we become the good side, let them try to match up with us.

3. Players

• Do your sessions, work on your physical strength, find your voice and lead. Manic attack on the footy. Tackle like you mean it. This is not on the players. They are clay to be moulded.
• More recruitment than players, but get the balance of ages, aggression, strength right.

Apologies, not as brief as requested.

Yep you can close the tread now.

 

[GoBlues!]

There are no quick fixes and this 66 game rebuild has been about gutting and resetting the team with kids from the draft.

But player development is an area that concerns me - are our players skills improving with development? Are our assistant coaches any good. Is there a breakdown between Coach - assistant coaches - players?

There needs to be a greater ratio of experienced skilled players to kids for effective player development.

We need to bring in quality experienced players over the next 2 years as a priority.

Also I’m ****ed if I know why Liddle would come out and say we won’t be asking for a priority pick. Very noble, but we need all help we can get.

 

[drunkill]

More transparency as far as what it is the directors are doing for us (i.e how did they earn their spot and what are they doing to keep it).

They paid for it.
Our board members do not get a salary from the club (unlike some other afl teams) they actually donate money each year so it is essentially a volunteer position.

Most of our board members do contribute to the running of the club, although it'd be great if we could just get money from Craig Mathison and Jeanne Pratt and not have them on the board at all.

One day in the future once we diversify our income streams (Cain Liddle's job) and become a socially responsible club and get rid of our gambling licenses Mathison won't be needed at the club, sadly that'll be decades away it seems.

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

They paid for it.
Our board members do not get a salary from the club (unlike some other afl teams) they actually donate money each year so it is essentially a volunteer position.

Most of our board members do contribute to the running of the club, although it'd be great if we could just get money from Craig Mathison and Jeanne Pratt and not have them on the board at all.

One day in the future once we diversify our income streams (Cain Liddle's job) and become a socially responsible club and get rid of our gambling licenses Mathison won't be needed at the club, sadly that'll be decades away it seems.

So they didn't earn it but what are they doing to keep it? Paying more money? They are not all Pratts and Mathiesons though.

 

[drunkill]

So they didn't earn it but what are they doing to keep it? Paying more money? They are not all Pratts and Mathiesons though.

They bring their expertise for free/at a greatly reduced rate.

• Marcus Clarke is our club lawyer, representing players at the tribunal (example: the curnows)
  
• Luke Sayers and MLG mainly look after our books and compliance.
  
• Judd obviously looks after the footy department and has actual insight into the game and players.
  
• Zac Fried oversees brand & marketing... could be better, given recent slogans and Nike being a terrible supplier for the club.
• Kate Jenkins runs community outreach, heads our foundations and helps oversee the programs that get our club and our players into schools which builds future fans and engagement. She's lawyer and is Australia's sex discrimination commissioner and was the Victorian human rights commissioner; very helpful for dealing with governments, ie: the recent funding announcements for princes park

Again, Mathison and Jeanne are only on the board because the amount of money they bring in, token boardmembers and from the old 'jobs for the boys' mentality of previous eras at the club. At least we cut the board from 13 down to 8 the other year so those two only providing cash is adequate.

Also the fact they all come with connections in business and other high circles.

 

[Malifice]

I want a serious look at how were developing our players. We seem to have a lot of 1st round draft picks on the list that simply haven't come on.

That's got to be deeper than recruiting.

 

[GapInIkonPark]

Board is much better than the Sticks / Pratt / Smorgon years. It has changed the club’s direction for the better with the coach, investing in recruiting, reset / no quick fixes. Expect a review into injury management, strength and conditioning.

Coaches, Bolton’s had a tough year with injuries to several players and perhaps he has to focus more on nthe players’ strengths and devise a game plan around these, rather than just going defense with added offensive layers.

Players ...
injuries - Docherty, Williamson, Murphy, Marchbank, Cuningham, ASOS, Macreadie
returning from injury - Pickett, Kennedy, Casboult, Lebois
injury interrupted - Kreuzer, Lang, SPS, Weitering, Silvagni, Phillips, Lobbe

List is unbalanced with:
- insufficient, class midfielders
- no small defenders who beat their men (even when Docherty is playing). Williamson adds to our run and hardness, but we still have no one for the opposition small forwards
- no pressure forwards ... Maybe it’s Pickett and after a year Garlett, but the cupboard is bare ...
- few players in the 24-28 age group who are best 22 (we have Docherty, Jones, Lang, Lamb, Kerridge, Graham, Phillips, Mullett, O’Shea). The next 3 to turn 24 are Plowman, Cripps and Byrne
- older players who collectively are not great when compared to those at other clubs (Freo had Fyfe, Neale, Mundy, Sandi and Ballantyne for starters, with Walters suspended and Johnson injured, we have Simpson, Ed, then Murphy injured, Wright and Casboult I guess, then fall away dramatically with Rowe, Thomas ... Freo’s 7 pants our 7)
- young bodies who will become a good group as they grow together ... Kennedy, Marchbank, Pickett, Weitering, Charlie, McKay, SPS, Fisher, Williamson, Dow and O’Brien. Add Cripps, Docherty and Lang. The rest we will see ... Cuningham, Jack, Macreadie, Polson, Kerr, TDK, Schumacher, Garlett ...

So the magic ...

- Pre-season with players remaining fit. I want to hear that SPS, Weiters, McKay and Cuningham are killing it
- delist / retire ... Graham, Rowe, Thomas, O’Shea, Lamb, Kerridge and delist rookies ASOS, JGM, Shaw
- trade ... Byrne
- move Cuningham onto the rookie list
(so 8 Senior List spots and 2 rookie list spots)
- trade Pick 1 to highest bidder, could be Adelaide for say current picks 8, 15 and 19 or Gold Coast for current picks 4, 17 and 24. Need more talent and as good as Lukosius might be, I think we will do better maximising Pick 1 for 3 picks in the top 25. If we have 6 Picks in the Draft, take 4 midfielders.
- Take a State league player, say Jye Bolton.
- Two free agents. Say Wallis and Guthrie.
- hang on to Murphy, play him outside.
- Cripps and Docherty co-captains

 

[Weiterbot23]

Fix VFL so we are a powerhouse.

 

[ESKIE]

Well then ………..

Haven't we been a lively lot this last 24-hours ??

The people on this forum swing from "we are the best & our people are the greatest" to "we are a rabble & sack the board" on a weekly basis subject to whether we win or lose & the manner in which that happens.

We have some posters who only come online after a bad loss to tip a bucket of cow poo on everything plus there are the serial "I'm done with this club" types as well.

Added in there is the usual plethora of opinions of what the club should have done previously, should be doing right now & what they certainly should be doing in the future.

You see, we are all armchair experts, we all know way more than those at the club actually making the decisions even though we may have never played the game, coached a team (any sport) or even better, run a club (in any sport).

So given that there has been so much heated & forthright opinion on what is going wrong after yesterdays loss to Freo, I am throwing out a genuine challenge to all of the doomsayers & membership card burners right now.

There are three main areas of the club that seem to get focussed on time & time again, they are :

1. The Board

2. The Coaching Panel

3. The Players

So here is your chance to dazzle us with your brilliance, please list a short (ie. 2-3 bullet points) synopsis of what you would do right now if you were able to.

There are no replies or quoting of posts, just individual plans and/or informed opinions that will surely cure all of our ills.

Knock yourself out here guys & remember, keep your replies to 2-3 bullet points in each of the categories please !!!

Great idea

What’s yours Sheiky

 

[rog1995]

Change your name

Board is much better than the Sticks / Pratt / Smorgon years. It has changed the club’s direction for the better with the coach, investing in recruiting, reset / no quick fixes. Expect a review into injury management, strength and conditioning.

Coaches, Bolton’s had a tough year with injuries to several players and perhaps he has to focus more on nthe players’ strengths and devise a game plan around these, rather than just going defense with added offensive layers.

Players ...
injuries - Docherty, Williamson, Murphy, Marchbank, Cuningham, ASOS, Macreadie
returning from injury - Pickett, Kennedy, Casboult, Lebois
injury interrupted - Kreuzer, Lang, SPS, Weitering, Silvagni, Phillips, Lobbe

List is unbalanced with:
- insufficient, class midfielders
- no small defenders who beat their men (even when Docherty is playing). Williamson adds to our run and hardness, but we still have no one for the opposition small forwards
- no pressure forwards ... Maybe it’s Pickett and after a year Garlett, but the cupboard is bare ...
- few players in the 24-28 age group who are best 22 (we have Docherty, Jones, Lang, Lamb, Kerridge, Graham, Phillips, Mullett, O’Shea). The next 3 to turn 24 are Plowman, Cripps and Byrne
- older players who collectively are not great when compared to those at other clubs (Freo had Fyfe, Neale, Mundy, Sandi and Ballantyne for starters, with Walters suspended and Johnson injured, we have Simpson, Ed, then Murphy injured, Wright and Casboult I guess, then fall away dramatically with Rowe, Thomas ... Freo’s 7 pants our 7)
- young bodies who will become a good group as they grow together ... Kennedy, Marchbank, Pickett, Weitering, Charlie, McKay, SPS, Fisher, Williamson, Dow and O’Brien. Add Cripps, Docherty and Lang. The rest we will see ... Cuningham, Jack, Macreadie, Polson, Kerr, TDK, Schumacher, Garlett ...

So the magic ...

- Pre-season with players remaining fit. I want to hear that SPS, Weiters, McKay and Cuningham are killing it
- delist / retire ... Graham, Rowe, Thomas, O’Shea, Lamb, Kerridge and delist rookies ASOS, JGM, Shaw
- trade ... Byrne
- move Cuningham onto the rookie list
(so 8 Senior List spots and 2 rookie list spots)
- trade Pick 1 to highest bidder, could be Adelaide for say current picks 8, 15 and 19 or Gold Coast for current picks 4, 17 and 24. Need more talent and as good as Lukosius might be, I think we will do better maximising Pick 1 for 3 picks in the top 25. If we have 6 Picks in the Draft, take 4 midfielders.
- Take a State league player, say Jye Bolton.
- Two free agents. Say Wallis and Guthrie.
- hang on to Murphy, play him outside.
- Cripps and Docherty co-captains

Great post..

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

They bring their expertise for free/at a greatly reduced rate.

• Marcus Clarke is our club lawyer, representing players at the tribunal (example: the curnows)
  
• Luke Sayers and MLG mainly look after our books and compliance.
  
• Judd obviously looks after the footy department and has actual insight into the game and players.
  
• Zac Fried oversees brand & marketing... could be better, given recent slogans and Nike being a terrible supplier for the club.
• Kate Jenkins runs community outreach, heads our foundations and helps oversee the programs that get our club and our players into schools which builds future fans and engagement. She's lawyer and is Australia's sex discrimination commissioner and was the Victorian human rights commissioner; very helpful for dealing with governments, ie: the recent funding announcements for princes park

Again, Mathison and Jeanne are only on the board because the amount of money they bring in, token boardmembers and from the old 'jobs for the boys' mentality of previous eras at the club. At least we cut the board from 13 down to 8 the other year so those two only providing cash is adequate.

Also the fact they all come with connections in business and other high circles.

I appreciate their qualifications but they must stay active in helping us progress. I'm also not sure that doing things for the club for free should entitle them to a seat on the board where they get to vote on our direction.

 

[jezzajay]

Patience.
I know we've used up a fair amount of this already, but I really do think some are jumping the gun and holding to higher expectations for where we are at with the kids etc.
We put in a good performance one week...everyone's glossing over it and fair enough...but we hit a speed bump like Saturday against Freo and everyone starts throwing the toys out again.
I know that is touching the surface of what it takes to make a club successful...but we need this(patience) to be firmly in place for the rest to have the room to improve and grow.

 

[drunkill]

I appreciate their qualifications but they must stay active in helping us progress. I'm also not sure that doing things for the club for free should entitle them to a seat on the board where they get to vote on our direction.

Sure, are there better people out there to lead the club as board members? You betcha.
However, they would probably not be existing members or supporters of Carlton, they would be selected as the best candidate for the open position and we'd have to pay them greatly to give up other corporate gigs to oversee a football club. I don't think the club can currently afford an extra $3-4 million a year to pay our 8 board members like Hawthorn or Essendon.

I also wouldn't want them to be paid positions because they would then make decisions to hang on and keep their paycheque and become insular. Imagine if Elliot was earning $500k+ a year back in the day, he would have done even more s**t things to * up our club just to secure his position.

 

[Soapy V]

Only change I would like is McKay out and a more credentialled General Manager of Football. A strong voice to support Bolton & Co.

I like the way Liddle speaks and I like that MLG doesn't come out out every 5 minutes to comment. If he said anything it would be overanalysed and misinterpreted anyway. Judd is a great spokesman for the club and board.

More and more money is being spent on the football department and things are improving all the time.

I believe with all the crap going on outside the club it is holding together and mainatining the path very well.

 

[LFTWNG11]

Sack the coach

 

[Chism]

I want a serious look at how were developing our players. We seem to have a lot of 1st round draft picks on the list that simply haven't come on.

That's got to be deeper than recruiting.

This is my main gripe also and besides Fisher everyone else is stagnant, Dow and LOB get a free pass as 1st yr players but we are asking to much of them currently and they have been good.

We just have to many holes on our list and to many recycled players that are just plain rubbish and it is going to take more than the next 2 drafts to fix it.

 

[Soapy V]

This is my main gripe also and besides Fisher everyone else is stagnant, Dow and LOB get a free pass as 1st yr players but we are asking to much of them currently and they have been good.

We just have to many holes on our list and to many recycled players that are just plain rubbish and it is going to take more than the next 2 drafts to fix it.

We could easily replace nearly all of Kerridge Lamb Mullett OShea Graham Rowe Lobb Thomas G-Mac ASOS Wright Shaw this trade/draft period.

Replace them with 4-5 very good ready to play 22-26 year olds and 5-6 talented kids and then it's fairly close

 

[Stamos]

We could easily replace nearly all of Kerridge Lamb Mullett OShea Graham Rowe Lobb Thomas G-Mac ASOS Wright Shaw this trade/draft period.

Replace them with 4-5 very good ready to play 22-26 year olds and 5-6 talented kids and then it's fairly close

I don't think it will be easy

 

[blue89]

e=mc^2

 

[Soapy V]

I don't think it will be easy

It will happen. Imagine replacing them with Gaff, M.McGovern, Dahlhaus, someone like an Ainsworth from GCS (that age/talent) Lukosius, BSOS and another 3-4 young guns we look a lot better IMO

Plus I have no doubt that SOS will land a very good player we won't even mention

 

[Stamos]

It will happen. Imagine replacing them with Gaff, M.McGovern, Dahlhaus, someone like an Ainsworth from GCS (that age/talent) Lukosius, BSOS and another 3-4 young guns we look a lot better IMO

Plus I have no doubt that SOS will land a very good player we won't even mention

Like I said, it won't be easy.