Really looking forward to seeing the future play today. Graham, Menzel, Casboult, Bell, McInnes. It's almost like a throw back to the Brittain/Pagan days where we had a lot of youth.
I just hope the tide turns for us and these young blokes fire for us soon. Its our turn FFS.
They are the future and I am excited because the pressure is off us. Lets see how the Tigers handle the favourites tag.
Never sure it was about coaching so much but the attitude and workrate of the players. Other than the odd moment of the last 11 years it been an ingrained problem since 2002. With the players we do have we should do alot better. This is what MM has inherited and that's sometimes harder to fix than a lack of talent. He did it once at the Pies, hopefully he can do it again. Ratts coached well enough but that workrate and attitude problem reared itself last year again.
Now it's MM's turn to see if he can sort it. When he makes list changes he can look at the players who's attitude and workrate is poor as much as those who he's thinks aren't going to cut it. No good had talent if you're adverse to the idea of gut running and doing the basics, Parko did this in his first year back in 1991. We lost the last 8 of the year that year so he cleaned the list out of not only those who weren't going to cut it but those who wouldn't work hard enough either. In the end he got the type of team he wanted and eventually won a flag.
Excellent post mate.
After the start of the year I defended the Coach - hosing down the usual rantings of a few individuals - stating we were improving. I admit now that we are in fact no longer improving - from being a harder nut to crack - to now going backwards. We are going backwards at a rate of knots.
Who is to blame? Looking at the post game presser - thanks Carrots -, I feel confident that the Players take the brunt of the blame. You could tell, and this is my personal observation of it, that the players really let him down. He spoke of player acknowledgement of tactics. He spoke of the Leadership Group taking their role to the expected levels. I get the feeling a lot of players stamped their papers, and senior players at that. I think a number of key players need to be moved on to help change the culture of the squad - especially to allow the younger players to flourish in a different environment. There's something rotten at the core of the squad. But there is definite change needed in our coaching staff list. The development has been shocking and let's not talk about recruitment
As for MM, well, he HAS to indicate there will be repercussions for poor play and rewards for those who perform for the Northern Blues. He will gain a lot of respect from me if he drops some players and brings in a few Northern Blues players. He has NOTHING to loose by doing so. He put his eggs in one basket and it failed (they failed!?). His reputation has taken a beating. He'll be fired up to prove doubters wrong. Lets hope the players show the same pride. He has my support to turn things around in 2014. After that he is fair game.
Some observations from the game: Jamieson is not half the player he was..what is going on? Does he miss Henderson that much? He looks totally panicked at the moment. Walker - opposition have figured him out and he is struggling. That was the worst game I have seen from Armfield. Real stinker. So many poor disposals. Menzel is the future, that kid shows class. I would be very worried if I were one of the three amigos. I still think Tuohy should be given stint in the middle..he would take the game on and can focus on attack. You can always tell he relishes attacking the game and wanting to unleash that boot of his. Drop one of Cachia or Curnow. McInnes needs to come back in. Assured young man deserves his chance again. Is he injured? How does Boots get a game ahead of him? Bryce "watch the hair" Gibbs - he kills me, he really does. Shepherds instead of tackles, jogs instead of gut runs..and that hand on hips saunter when the crap hits the fan..I wanted to run onto the ground a few times to give him five across the eyes. Shows no pride and looks like someone who knows he will not get dropped. Not good enough. Trade. Simmo and Scotty - I love these two. Uncompromising to the last. We will miss them more that people think. Murphy - if his knee is that bad then give him a spell. Why do we persist playing half cooked players..it makes no sense. Hell, it deprives youngsters from game time and increases the likelihood of further injuring themselves by persisting to play them. All short term thinking. Back them in and drop those who don't perform. It's not that bloody hard. It shows a complete lack of strategic thinking and ambition to strengthen the list overall. Sh?ts me to tears
And yes, I'll still renew that membership and turn up every game. I love this club.
It was wrong to make him sub, yes a mistake by Mick. Mick has frrkd this one up as much as many wont accept it.
You missed it. I will give you another chance.
Goat. How do you think the top clubs would have dealt with Yarrans behaviour?
The behaviour was a result of an action, they wouldn't have made sub, or if they did communicate exactly why and what the expectation is. Whether that happened or not we don't know.
What does this even mean? Can you re-write this in proper English. I could however take a guess and say that it is not the player's fault that he performed so poorly after being subbed. It is the Coach's fault. Correct?
If so..let's not drop anyone ever again for not meeting expectations. In fact, lets have the players pick the team..but then who do we blame if they do not perform?!
Seriously....as we say in Ireland..catch yourself on mate.
Yarran is an ADULT. Not a Boy. He is professional adult paid via sponsorship and our Membership money to perform at his best and his coaches expectations - week in week out. If he does not put his body on the line and toe the company line then he can go and get stuffed. Talent is nothing without buy-in. We have too many Peacocks in this team already. He either steps up or he will be traded for someone who gives a crap.
I left the game after Gibbs gave that goal away. Pathetic.
I'm listening to SEN talk back and you know what? I am optimistic about next year because a few precious players stamped their papers tonight. F?uck em. Pea hearted, limp wristed prima donnas. We move forward without them.
I need MM to put his money where his mouth is and make players ACCOUNTABLE. Ruthless and relentless. Unscrewingbelievable. Players like Gibbs and Yarran should be traded now before their value depreciates even further. No heart. Give me another 2 Tuohys for half the price.
Let the kids play, Murphy to relinquish the Captaincy, give it to Kade and trade aggressively for key position players. And start dropping players who don't meet standards.
Listening to the ABC radio coverage here in Sydney (no TV today) and all we seem to be doing is keep a goal or two ahead of them. We cannot shake them off at all and if they are this close in the last they will be sniffing another victory.
Badly need to boot out to a 5-goal lead and give ourselves some breathing space.
"Lance" Gibbs was woeful last night, did anyone else see him half-heartedly chase a North player on the outer wing ?? He was within a metre and a half of the player at the most, the North guy took off, he trotted a handful of steps and then gave up, it was nearly as embarrassing as the Aussies batting last night.
Sorry, I'm completely over Gibbs now, sure he has great disposal (50% of the players in the competition would kill for his goal-kicking accuracy alone) but it's the other parts of his game that are reducing him to that of a serious passenger in the team. If we don't discreetly put the feelers out and see who will give us a decent trade at the end of the year then we clearly have no focus or plan on winning a premiership any time soon.
His disposal was pretty average last night, apart from that he played a a mainly defensive role and did it well.
He's not for sale and neither is Kreuz so move on.
A genuince KPD for Gibbs? I would take it. I see Gibbs the same way as Yarran. Either show genuine heart or get ready to pack your bags. Given his blatant talent, he has the heart and mongrel of a Mouse. Also see him doing "just enough", never gut runs or see genuine anger. Show Pony. If Melbourne offered Frawley for Gibbs I would say thanks.
I must say that watching MM spray Walker on the sidelines was great to see...never mind his expression when Army was pinged by the refs after making a wonderful tackle. I was waiting for him to do a Clarkson and smash something...loved the anger.
Waite & Casboult out for Scotland & Rowe, not sure that is good for us. They bring in Milne & Riewoldt at the expense of Wright & Saad.
I may sound like the Prophet of Doom here but I've got a very bad feeling about this one.
Same. All depends if our players have some self respect. We have the better list. Quite a few players must surely realise this is last chance saloon. Surely.
MM can try and fire them up, but at some point each player must look inside himself and decide if they truly want this career. If they cannot go 4 quarters against this team and win convincingly, let the culling begin.
This is a must win game if we want to be seen as a serious team that is on the up. Danger Game for a lot of people.
Raydan, any chance we can keep away from he scroller and keep the posts the way they were originally? Actually easier to find the popular posts that way.
Judd isn't the player he was, these days he's become a crash and bash workhorse although a very good one, at his peak he was a game breaker. At his best Murphy is our most dangerous player.
Someone else mentioned true enough how good he is when they pop him up forward when they wanna shake things up. Got great vision and is a decent kick too.
Gointocarlton, its probably nothing for us to worry about, but Kate was giving Hughesy heaps on Nova 100.3 this morning about it. I just wanted to smash the radio because its media exposure for us all over again. I was hoping to forget the last game and just vent hear amongst reliable, friendly supporters. Blowing off some steam and hearing some inspiring insights from those who have some footy knowledge. Do we really want everyone talking about us all week.
Heard enough cr@p from Lyon and Lloyd about how we have chosen the worst draft picks in footy history (Basically in not exact words). Now I will be hearing about this BBQ for the next few days and the footy show will bring this up for certain. Now just imagine we lose to the Saints on Saturday, and what Footy Classified will say, along with the news papers, footy show again and Kate on the radio laughing at Hughes again ? Is this what we need at the moment ? Or do we focus on how we will beat the Saints and make sure it happens at any cost ? Its me isn't it ? I'm the ignorant tool.
He he. Kate can't talk. This is the woman who called get Son Lewis Lewis. Yes, she is a clever one isn't she. Hughsey probably just looks at her and feels awesome inside every single time he goes to work
There's no way I want to see us even consider giving up on this season, no matter how many games we lose or how unlikely it is that we'll play finals.
It simply sends the wrong message to the players and instills a losing mentality. Given we already have so many mental frailties to contend with, the last thing I want to see is us creating more of our own.
We need to be trying to win every game we can regardless of ladder position and we need to finish where we finish in order to get an accurate reflection of where the list is at. If we lose all of those games we'll probably finish about 15th but at least we'll know that we're a bottom four side and rebuild accordingly. If we somehow win all of them, we'll play finals and we'll know that we're not all that far away.
That's the only way we answer the question of whether we need wholesale changes to the list or just some more positional tweaking.
You can't answer that by artificially creating a false environment.
True comment that. Every game should be treated as winnable. No tanking. There are many candidates who played well below their "potential" last week. I suggest it is not just fair but the Coaches and MC's responsibility to drop any under performing players, including the "specials" and let a hungry kid play who will throw his heart and soul into the next game. And yes, I am saying drop players like Gibbs. 150+ games and saunters around the pitch like an aristocrat. if only he showed a fraction of the endeavour and heart of Judd. F$ucking unbelievable waste of talent. I say drop him and scare the crape out of him.
Saints @ Etihad Kangas @ Etihad GoldCoast @ Metricon Freo @ Etihad Bulldogs @ Etihad Tigers @ MCG Essendon @ MCG Port @ AAMI
We could potentially lose every one of those games. That's a scary thought. Time to play Buckley, Menzel, Laidler, Dugan, Ellard, Warnock, Mitchell and the like.
I agree we need to give these guys a run, but I think its important we dont gift players games. Mitchell and Warnock are consistently poor at Northern, and few others have consistently put good games together. MM clearly has no future plans for Duigan and Laidler, so wont play them. We are far to negative playing essentially 3 taggers. In our pursuit of a more defensive gameplan we have lost any offensive drive. Would love to see 2E play in the midfield, maybe Buckley on a wing
I can see where you are coming from.
I am actually of another mind. Maybe it is not a matter of not giving players in the 2s a game if they have not earned it, but rather, it is a question of not dropping players in the 1s who do not meet high enough standards. Maybe they are living off their possible potentials and maybe the Coaches and MC have got this the wrong way around.
It has been mentioned many times before that players were not being dropped. Not only where they not dropped, but the people in the 2s had probably a less than expected chance to play for a spot - given that it was probably never going to appear bar injuries. As a professional sportsman, that has to hurt.
At this stage and moving forward, we give all the kids a run out and from next year drop anyone not meeting KPIs like any professional. I think that is the way to garner not just a competitive environment, but it encourages a collective will to win. If you loose the game, you could be watching from the stands the next weekend.
