AFL 2016 Season

[kingofhearts]

On 25/04/2016 at 7:44 PM, hedaik said:

Not interested in Adelaide, but keen to see a game at Adelaide Oval

Fair enough.

Had mates who have been their and they reckon it's pretty good. But after your performance against the blue's, Adelaide ain't looking too good for you lol. Maybe wait till you play port there?

[hedaik]

8 hours ago, kingofhearts said:

Fair enough.

Had mates who have been their and they reckon it's pretty good. But after your performance against the blue's, Adelaide ain't looking too good for you lol. Maybe wait till you play port there?

When I booked it at the start  of the year I had us both around the middle of the table so through it would be a pretty good game. I wish I could have swapped it with the City game last week. 

[thisphantomfortress]

Is there a team in sport that personafies "just there to make up numbers" better than Richmond?

[Thrillhouse]

weekly buckley is still a shitcunt post

having the support from the umps that the dogs get would be nice 

[cadete]

On 5/7/2016 at 11:05 PM, Thrillhouse said:

weekly buckley is still a shitcunt post

having the support from the umps that the dogs get would be nice 

I am still amazed by the Collingwood PPL on the radio backing Buckley, it took the Media three years to finally get on his back but still you have some diehard fans saying everything is going to plan. One guy on SEN said how it was not Buckley's fault he had PPL disrupting the team and he specifically mentioned Heath Shaw...

FFS I have never liked any Shaw's as a Boroughs fan and they can all fuck off back to Preston as far as I am concerned but the bloke was an All Australian last year in a club that did not make finals.

I called it from when he was appointed: How is a bloke who was respected but well known to be disliked by his teammates ever going to make a good coach who could relate to his players?

[bt50]

27 minutes ago, cadete said:

I am still amazed by the Collingwood PPL on the radio backing Buckley, it took the Media three years to finally get on his back but still you have some diehard fans saying everything is going to plan. One guy on SEN said how it was not Buckley's fault he had PPL disrupting the team and he specifically mentioned Heath Shaw...

FFS I have never liked any Shaw's as a Boroughs fan and they can all fuck off back to Preston as far as I am concerned but the bloke was an All Australian last year in a club that did not make finals.

I called it from when he was appointed: How is a bloke who was respected but well known to be disliked by his teammates ever going to make a good coach who could relate to his players?

Its a bit like the old Trevor Marmalade joke of if Eddie came home and caught Bucks in bed with his wife, which side would he get in?

I liked Bucks approach to getting the side how he wanted it, but the results are clearly not there and it appears the group is splintering. Hardwick and Buckley are on their knees as coaches.

[Embee]

1 minute ago, bt50 said:

Its a bit like the old Trevor Marmalade joke of if Eddie came home and caught Bucks in bed with his wife, which side would he get in?

I liked Bucks approach to getting the side how he wanted it, but the results are clearly not there and it appears the group is splintering. Hardwick and Buckley are on their knees as coaches.

Agreed.

I was behind Bucks for a while, and despite what some think I believe he's built a pretty decent list, it just seems that when it comes to the actual COACHING part of this job he's inept. The players look completely lost on the field and either the game-plan that he wants them to execute is completely broken and doesn't work or he's simply unable to communicate it effectively to the players.

After the first 4 weeks I was at the point where I was willing to let him coach out the year and remove him at the end of it, now I just think he needs to go ASAP, we're not going to get any better and we might as well start to explore other options.

As far as Hardwick goes, I don't see how anyone has actually bought into the Richmond hype at any point over the last few years. Ridiculously overrated list that played well above itself last season which resulted in a stupid 2 year extension for Hardwick, they've been brought right back down to their level now. Probably doesn't help that outside of them, the Pies and Essendon, we're seeing improvement in most of the other sides in the comp who've been shit the last few years.

 

[cadete]

22 minutes ago, bt50 said:

Its a bit like the old Trevor Marmalade joke of if Eddie came home and caught Bucks in bed with his wife, which side would he get in?

I liked Bucks approach to getting the side how he wanted it, but the results are clearly not there and it appears the group is splintering. Hardwick and Buckley are on their knees as coaches.

You see I dont... and I felt it was in this case unnecessary as let's not forget that Collingwood were the 2012 Flag favourites as soon as the siren went in the 2011 GF.

They also by no means had a Ross Lyon style list where the age of the list was a major concern. I think some of the players Buckley got rid of probably deserved to be moved on but I also think at the same time Buckley was too ruthless and not accommodating to the fact that some players are going to be different personality types to himself.

Teams need different personality types and one type of personality is the upbeat guys who might not be as focussed at training at Pendles or Bucks but they bloody come in handy to keep the Dressing Room a place other players want to enter when stuff is not going so great. Every side that wins a flag has some of these types, its the coaches job to make sure on game day they are focussed as well as allowing for them to keep things fun during the week.

I honestly think half of Collingwood's problem now is there list is comprised of either too many talented young players and too many serious Buckley types... and this is not helping as the losses stack up.

Edited May 9, 2016 by cadete

[bt50]

2 minutes ago, cadete said:

You see I dont... and I felt it was in this case unnecessary as let's not forget that Collingwood were the 2012 Flag favourites as soon as the siren went in the 2011 GF.

They also by no means had a Ross Lyon style list where the age of the list was a major concern. I think some of the players Buckley got rid of probably deserved to be moved on but I also think at the same time Buckley was too ruthless and not accommodating to the fact that some players are going to be different personality types to himself.

Teams need different personality types and one type of personality is the upbeat guys who might not be as focussed at training at Pendles or Bucks but they bloody come in handy to keep the Dressing Room a place other players want to enter when stuff is not going so great. Every flag has some of these types, its the coaches job to make sure on game day they are focussed as well as allowing for them to keep things fun during the week.

I honestly think half of Collingwood's problem now is there list is comprised of either too many talented young players and too many serious Buckley types... and this is not helping as the losses stack up.

Re the personality thing, I don't think it was ever going to work for Bucks unless he got the characters he wanted. Tbh whether that's a good approach or not is a pretty subjective thing. I can certainly see both sides of the argument. Im still of the opinion Collingwood's list is pretty good but people buying into the hype they were going to be top 4 were well and truly sucked in. FWIW I thought they'd just miss the 8 this year before going into top 4 next year.
The first 7 games they've gone backwards big time and a top 4 assault looks beyond them for next year at least.

As for Hardwick, the Richmond board were stupid enough to get sucked into Kevin Bartlett's crap of getting him reappointed when it was clear he didn't have the runs on the board. A bad start was always going to come with huge pressure. IMO if Richmond can't take more than one win in the next five he'll be gone, and the pissweak Richmond board and Kevin are to blame for flushing another 2 mil down the drain.

[cadete]

15 minutes ago, bt50 said:

Re the personality thing, I don't think it was ever going to work for Bucks unless he got the characters he wanted. Tbh whether that's a good approach or not is a pretty subjective thing. I can certainly see both sides of the argument. Im still of the opinion Collingwood's list is pretty good but people buying into the hype they were going to be top 4 were well and truly sucked in. FWIW I thought they'd just miss the 8 this year before going into top 4 next year.
The first 7 games they've gone backwards big time and a top 4 assault looks beyond them for next year at least.

As for Hardwick, the Richmond board were stupid enough to get sucked into Kevin Bartlett's crap of getting him reappointed when it was clear he didn't have the runs on the board. A bad start was always going to come with huge pressure. IMO if Richmond can't take more than one win in the next five he'll be gone, and the pissweak Richmond board and Kevin are to blame for flushing another 2 mil down the drain.

I guess we would have to agree to disagree but replacing Malthouse with Buckley is one of the dumbest things I have ever seen a football club do... the fact was that Malthouse had the Brat Pack working as a Definite Premiership Challenger and the club had just lost a GF to Geelong who was collecting the last flag of its most dominant era in its history and so Collingwood were rightly predicted to come back and make atone of things.

I honestly think Collingwood with Mick would have probably won the next season's flag and at least made the GF. Of course a few shenanigans would have been going on in the background and the next coach would have to do what Bucks did with some players at the club but it would have been worth it for a GF Appearance or a Premiership ESP now that we see how far away the Pies are from getting to that level again.

Edited May 9, 2016 by cadete

[bt50]

12 minutes ago, cadete said:

I guess we would have to agree to disagree but replacing Malthouse with Buckley is one of the dumbest things I have ever seen a football club do... the fact was that Malthouse had the Brat Pack working as a Definite Premiership Challenger and the club had just lost a GF to Geelong who was collecting the last flag of its most dominant era in its history and so Collingwood were rightly predicted to come back and make atone of things.

I honestly think Collingwood with Mick would have probably won the next season's flag and at least made the GF. Of course a few shenanigans would have been going on in the background and the next coach would have to do what Bucks did with some players at the club but it would have been worth it for a GF Appearance or a Premiership ESP now that we see how far away the Pies are from getting to that level again.

The situation was only brought about by Mick backflipping on his decision to retire. That pretty much fucked everything up because Bucks had been promised the gig on that basis. Half the playing group wanted Mick to stay and then the Pies were in the position of having to choose between what a decent chunk of what the players and fans wanted, or royally screwing their favourite son. Tough decision, and even though it might have been the right decision to reneg on Buckley's contract in hindsight, I can't say I'd have done any different at the time tbh.

Edited May 9, 2016 by bt50

[cadete]

14 minutes ago, bt50 said:

The situation was only brought about by Mick backflipping on his decision to retire. That pretty much fucked everything up because Bucks had been promised the gig on that basis. Half the playing group wanted Mick to stay and then the Pies were in the position of having to choose between what a decent chunk of what the players and fans wanted, or royally screwing their favourite son. Tough decision, and even though it might have been the right decision to reneg on Buckley's contract in hindsight, I can't say I'd have done any different at the time tbh.

Well I guess I have been biased against Buckley for a long time... IMO these Legendary Captain types rarely end in the Modern Era as good coaches.

The four great captains of the late 90's were Buckley, Hird, Voss and Carey and I think all of them were the type who were highly respected by their teammates but at the same time that respect always saw them being slightly separated from the playing group. I am not saying this a bad thing as a Captain - In fact it can obv be a good thing because it makes others lift their performances.

But I feel its different when they become coaches: Voss and Hird will not be remembered as good coaches, Buckley is not tracking well and I think we can all assume that Carey probably would not have been the best of coaches either.

Edited May 9, 2016 by cadete

[bt50]

9 minutes ago, cadete said:

Well I guess I have been biased against Buckley for a long time... IMO these Legendary Captain types rarely end in the Modern Era as good coaches.

The four great captains of the late 90's were Buckley, Hird, Voss and Carey and I think all of them were the type who were highly respected by their teammates but at the same time that respect always saw them being slightly separated from the playing group. I am not saying this a bad thing as a Captain - In fact it can obv be a good thing because it makes others lift their performances.

But I feel its different when they become coaches: Voss and Hird will not be remembered as good coaches, Buckley is not tracking well and I think we can all assume that Carey probably would not have been the best of coaches either.

Without a doubt. Although fwiw, I think Voss would have made a good coach. He gambled on the trade table and unfortunately came a cropper, but imo he should never have been sacked when he was. IIRC he got sacked of the back of winning 8 of his last 10 or something and only just missed the finals?

Voss was always a bit different to the other three in that he was less about him. Id actually pick Voss as the best captain in my time watching the game.

Edited May 9, 2016 by bt50

[Embee]

Just now, bt50 said:

Without a doubt. Although fwiw, I think Voss would have made a good coach. He gambled on the trade table and unfortunately came a cropper, but imo he should never have been sacked when he was. IIRC he got sacked of the back of winning 8 of his last 10 or something and only just missed the finals?

And probably would have won 3 or 4 of their last 5 given the fixture from memory. Had to sack him quickly before they were unable to justify it. 

Never been a Voss fan (for obvious reasons) but must say I've enjoyed Brisbane tail-spinning the last few years after knifing their favourite son for the outside chance of hiring Paul Roos.

[bt50]

6 minutes ago, Embee said:

And probably would have won 3 or 4 of their last 5 given the fixture from memory. Had to sack him quickly before they were unable to justify it. 

Never been a Voss fan (for obvious reasons) but must say I've enjoyed Brisbane tail-spinning the last few years after knifing their favourite son for the outside chance of hiring Paul Roos.

Yep absolutely ludicrous. FWIW, whilst I think he is a good coach, Roos is unbelievably overrated as a coach.

[cadete]

Just now, bt50 said:

Without a doubt. Although fwiw, I think Voss would have made a good coach. He gambled on the trade table and unfortunately came a cropper, but imo he should never have been sacked when he was. IIRC he got sacked of the back of winning 8 of his last 10 or something and only just missed the finals?

It was harsh for them to sack Voss but I dont take much out these Bottom Sides records near the ends of seasons...

If a Bottom Eight Club is still trying its hardest in the second half of these Season then its not that hard to rack an impressive record in your last eight or so games and just miss out on finals. Also let's face it "Just missing out on the finals" is not that much of an achievement when you consider that means you almost it past halfway on the ladder.

 Anyway halfway through the season a lot of the other bottom sides have already put the cue in the rack and start sending blokes to the Surgery Table, giving more time to promising kids and even just throwing other blokes who have never come along into the deep end to make sure they worthy of being put up for trade or delisted.

I call it "Doing a Richmond" and I never understand why Supporters and a lot of the media read into such formlines... its like when a horse racks up four in a row in Winter and comes out as favourite in the first Group Three in Spring and gets swamped at the bend by the Spring horses and then you dont see them in the form guide until Summer comes around.

TBH Richmond fans giving these late runs to make the finals too much credit is half the reason they are where they are now.

[bt50]

2 minutes ago, cadete said:

It was harsh for them to sack Voss but I dont take much out these Bottom Sides records near the ends of seasons...

If a Bottom Eight Club is still trying its hardest in the second half of these Season then its not that hard to rack an impressive record in your last eight or so games and just miss out on finals. Also let's face it "Just missing out on the finals" is not that much of an achievement when you consider that means you almost it past halfway on the ladder.

 Anyway halfway through the season a lot of the other bottom sides have already put the cue in the rack and start sending blokes to the Surgery Table, giving more time to promising kids and even just throwing other blokes who have never come along into the deep end to make sure they worthy of being put up for trade or delisted.

I call it "Doing a Richmond" and I never understand why Supporters and a lot of the media read into such formlines... its like when a horse racks up four in a row in Winter and comes out as favourite in the first Group Three in Spring and gets swamped at the bend by the Spring horses and then you dont see them in the form guide until Summer comes around.

TBH Richmond fans giving these late runs to make the finals too much credit is half the reason they are where they are now.

Absolutely agree on your point, but not relevant to the Voss situation imo. Voss was sacked with 4 or 5 games to go and an 8-11 record at that point. He wasn't in sacking territory really, but as Embee said, was sacked on the off chance they'd get Paul Roos. Shocking administration.

[kingofhearts]

How good are North going this year? Anything less then a Grand final this year surely means the end of one B.Scott. They'll get a big percentage boost this week when they play my mob, another 100 point flogging coming up

GWS as well, i reckon they can get a top 4 spot at this rate. They've done a lot better job constructing their team compared to Gold Coast. They just spent too much on one great player while GWS signed and traded for many good players. I know Gold coast got a few injuries and that, but they are just not performing to standard they should be considering all the draft picks and concessions they have been given by the afl.

Edited May 9, 2016 by kingofhearts

[cadete]

11 hours ago, kingofhearts said:

How good are North going this year? Anything less then a Grand final this year surely means the end of one B.Scott. They'll get a big percentage boost this week when they play my mob, another 100 point flogging coming up

GWS as well, i reckon they can get a top 4 spot at this rate. They've done a lot better job constructing their team compared to Gold Coast. They just spent too much on one great player while GWS signed and traded for many good players. I know Gold coast got a few injuries and that, but they are just not performing to standard they should be considering all the draft picks and concessions they have been given by the afl.

Calm down... they have just gone past the post for the first time around, there is a long way to go with this Season.

(For example I for one am def not getting on the Geelong Hype that seems to be building.)

Edited May 10, 2016 by cadete

[Thrillhouse]

fold brisbane
fold our kicking coach

[HeartFc]

I wouldn't get too excited about North quiet yet. Haven't played the 4 teams behind them on the ladder yet. 

So far I've got Geelong GWS ahead of them at the moment in terms of ability to win the flag this year. Hawks and Swans just behind. 

[Nate]

UP THE FUCKING BLUEBAGGERS!!!!!!

[hakz7]

1 hour ago, Nate said:

UP THE FUCKING BLUEBAGGERS!!!!!!

4 IN A ROW!

[bt50]

4 hours ago, HeartFc said:

I wouldn't get too excited about North quiet yet. Haven't played the 4 teams behind them on the ladder yet. 

So far I've got Geelong GWS ahead of them at the moment in terms of ability to win the flag this year. Hawks and Swans just behind. 

Geelong are clearly the form team of the competition at the minute. GWS have probably played the second best football but have been a little more erratic, particularly away from home.

North aren't playing at all well, and to be honest neither are Hawthorn and Sydney, however those 3 seem to keep finding a way to win despite not fully firing which is a sign of a good side.

IMO the premiership race is out of those 5, and its too early to tell exactly how that will pan out from here.

[kingofhearts]

West Coast are the biggest flat track bullies in the AFL.

They look like champs when playing at home but chumps anywhere else.

[cadete]

12 hours ago, kingofhearts said:

West Coast are the biggest flat track bullies in the AFL.

They look like champs when playing at home but chumps anywhere else.

Another way of saying this is that they are the Archie Thompson of league... anyone else remember he career in Europe.

Edited May 15, 2016 by cadete

[kingofhearts]

12 hours ago, cadete said:

Another way of saying this is that they are the Archie Thompson of league... anyone else remember he career in Europe.

Yep too true. Even his socceroo career i can only ever remembering him dominating such teams like Americian samoa. Biggest downhill skier in history

[Thrillhouse]

danger as accurate as willo was for us

[hedaik]

Fuck North are the biggest cheats. Change the high tackle rule and they won't win another game all year. 

[thisphantomfortress]

Flares at the Adelaide oval, Brisbane "ultras" stickers showing up all over Melbourne. I'm calling it now the AFL are being infiltrated by hooligans who no longer see the a-league as a big enough platform for their ne'er-do-well behaviour

[NewConvert]

Looking forward to the Freo/Bombers game. That should provide some champagne footy.

[HeartFc]

Blues looking more and more like the hawks every week. Bolton's influence has been massive. 

[Thrillhouse]

#freekickbulldogs

cunts won't win a flag in the next 15 years

[kingofhearts]

West coast with another quality win over another quality side

[Shahanga]

20 minutes ago, kingofhearts said:

West coast with another quality win over another quality side

But apparently it's all Bluey McKenna's fault (even though his side actually won games). When is Eade going to be accountable? (Oh and McKenna always had a shed load of injuries). The pricks who hired him are all trying to find some other bastard to blame.

[kingofhearts]

1 hour ago, Shahanga said:

But apparently it's all Bluey McKenna's fault (even though his side actually won games). When is Eade going to be accountable? (Oh and McKenna always had a shed load of injuries). The pricks who hired him are all trying to find some other bastard to blame.

True, and while i don't think Eade's the greatest coach i think the problem is more with your list. You went all in on one very good player whilst the other expansion club GWS got a scatter of good players and mixed on their team.

GWS just seem to have a better mix of mature players and high draft picks on their team compared to your mob which just has more of the latter. Also injuries have really fucked you too, it seems every week you guys lose 2-3 players to injury. 

[Shahanga]

When the media compares the 2 clubs they often overlook that GWS had approximately twice the number of first round picks.

recruiting 2 top class players who we've since lost (1 due to his off field issues) has also hurt.

[thisphantomfortress]

7 hours ago, Shahanga said:

When the media compares the 2 clubs they often overlook that GWS had approximately twice the number of first round picks.

recruiting 2 top class players who we've since lost (1 due to his off field issues) has also hurt.

The treatment GWS got basically amounts to doping. This is why I will always want them to fail and why i don't begrudge WSW success (to an extent) 

[cadete]

On 5/27/2016 at 9:23 PM, hedaik said:

Fuck North are the biggest cheats. Change the high tackle rule and they won't win another game all year. 

I remember a Norf fan on here for a whole Season saying Thomas did nothing of the sort... and Bartel was the real man to blame for such actions.

2 hours ago, thisphantomfortress said:

The treatment GWS got basically amounts to doping. This is why I will always want them to fail and why i don't begrudge WSW success (to an extent) 

The WCE actually got even better draft concessions... if you read through what they got its pretty mind blowing stuff was basically the ability to start a Stateside in a Football State. In fact the craziest thing is that they lost these concessions was only after they won their second flag and Freo joined the competition.

How the fuck should a side that won a flag still be getting concessions two years later on?

The AFL goes on and on about equalisation but in reality it more resembles China, there are always exceptions to the equalisation going on...

AND also Geelong are fucken shit, we need some tougher midfielders as half of our midfielders go missing every second week. Also I wish I was Billie Smedts... plays shit footy for two years in his few senior games and then receives a two year extension because he went to Geelong Grammar.

Edited May 29, 2016 by cadete

[thisphantomfortress]

Roughie press conference tomorrow morning, retirement inbound I'd say. Very sad if that's the outcome