Tripe. I believe we were the winningest club over the course of the AFL up to 2002 then we fell away badly. We still have winning records against a lot of teams even with our junk years.
We had a losing culture that just happened to win more than any other in the competition, this smacks of laying ground work.
You can say this culture has been breed over a decade of crap and this group in particular is fragile as anything, no issue there but since the inception of the AFL? What simplictic rubbish analysis.
Good point IOT; the only teams that have better win loss ratios with us are Fremantle and Port Adelaide. Even in our darkest years Malthouse only managed 12 wins against us to our 8 wins over a high flying Collingwood (not that that is anywhere near acceptable).
While I agree that some of our recent losses may be put down to a lack of determination to win, it is a very simplistic analysis. In fact, if my memory is correct, Collingwood at its best unaccountably lost games in which it was clear favourite. I wonder how Mick would explain that.
Yes Cookie there are definitely a few who will need to live up to their potential or it will be "don't let the door hit you on the arse on the way out".
If the Club is not working very hard now to keep Gibbs, Jamison, Murphy, Simpson and Walker then the powers that be have rocks in their heads.
Interestingly, there's not much on offer from other clubs via free agency and those players who would make a difference to us are apparently close to signing contract extensions.
Scotland will probably pull the pin but, if Waite has a good season, I suspect he'll go around again.
MM is in the process of weeding out the "quitters", the "faint-hearted ones", the "useless ones" and the "losers". He's made a start - next year will see how much more of this is needed. We won't get near a flag until this work is complete.
Well, he's got rid of a couple of useless players, and we've lost a star and a bloke with potential.
I don't think "quitters", "faint-hearted ones" and "losers" would survive at AFL level and I wouldn't put any of our list in those categories. What we do have are players that may not be good enough, or who may need some adjustment "above the shoulders". Malthouse has had 12 months to identify and address those deficiencies and I think that he has strengthened our list significantly in that time. Depending on how much improvement he can wring out of our fringe and developing players, and how durable our established players are, Malthouse should only have to fine tune the list for us to be genuine contenders.
Rather than weeding out underperformers, Malthouse's real challenge will be retaining the team's core with Bryce Gibbs, Michael Jamison, Marc Murphy, Heath Scotland, Kade Simpson, Jarrad Waite and Andrew Walker eligible for free agency. Excluding Scotland and Waite, we would have to hang on to at least four of that lot.
That's my benchmark too Shadesy. Malthouse was employed to win a flag and we have to make this season's GF to have a realistic chance in 2015. Of course, we could exceed expectations and get the job done in 2014 and 2015
The only way we will make the Grand Final in 2014 is if we do a "Bradbury" as others fall around us unexpectedly.
You may be right Sheik but, if we don't, it will be a monumental failure and an indictment on the Club's management.
Given the adage you need to lose one to win one, We need to be playing off in the Big one this year.
Anything else is a fail.
That's my benchmark too Shadesy. Malthouse was employed to win a flag and we have to make this season's GF to have a realistic chance in 2015. Of course, we could exceed expectations and get the job done in 2014 and 2015
Sounds like some sort of admittance that he forked up at the start.
We told him that
Exactly Lods!
I wonder how many more games we would have won if Malthouse paid more attention to our pontifications
It was a monumental blunder on his part though. Blind Freddy could see that we didn't have the cattle to run the Collingwood gameplan. Plan B should have been trialled in the NAB Cup
It's all been said before and I'm not going to attempt an original tribute.
I think the best story today was Malcolm Fraser talking about his first meeting with Nelson Mandela when the latter was still incarcerated. Mandela's first words to Fraser were, "Mr Fraser, tell me, is Don Bradman still alive?"
Anyone who can maintain an interest in cricket and the health of the Don after three decades in a political prison must have tremendous resilience!
RIP Madiba - the world is a better place for your wisdom and compassion.
I once dreamt that I was shot in the throat and was lying in a lane with blood pumping out of my neck. I could feel my life ebbing away and died in my dream. The funniest part was how calm I was as I was bleeding to death. The bloke who shot me had a pistol and I thought he couldn't possibly manage a hit at the range I was from him.
It was a relief when I woke up and discovered that I was alive and kicking
Clarke and Haddin did well to get the Aussie score right up there. It just looked at one stage as though every player would get a start but no go on with the job. Mind you the Poms didn't help themselves one bit. Dropped Clarke early and dropped Haddin a few times. not to mention to have Haddin caught behind on a "No Ball". They couldn't buy a wicket at one stage. Not sure if the Australian team has improved as much as the English players have been quite pathetic over the last 2 days. probably as bad as I have seen them for quite some time. Better we teach them how to hold catches over the next few days.
Maybe I'm being too generous Mantis but I reckon the aggressive cricket from our boys is largely responsible for the Poms' errors.
I think that a lot of credit for the team's improved performance has to go to Boof.
He seems to have disposed of the sports science approach to the game and is hammering the requirement to play aggressively. The players are sticking to the game plan and, for the most part, they seem to be benefiting from Boof's approach to the game.
Mate Love Robbo to death but I've got this inkling that his days are numbered. Clean ball use is the order of the day going fwd and he just doesnt cut it. You can see by what they are trying to draft in that this is the case (at least thats how I read it). I just think his hardness and toughness "petrol vouchers" are running out and have taken him as far as they can. As for Levi, boy does he need to improve his fitness by a country mile to even be considered for a game. Another whos days may be numbered IF he doesnt get himself supremely fit.
Clean ball use is important but it means nothing if you can't win your own ball.
Robbo's brain fade against the Tigers paled into insignificance when he threw himself to mark, and then goal. How many clean ball users would have even contemplated attempting that mark?
The same applies to fitness; what's the use of a marathon runner who can't take a contested mark?
The coach and the fitness staff have to get the best out of every player even if that means more time on the pine for some and covering errors for others.
having a first home buyers grant available to anyone that's a first home buyer - it should have been means tested pink batts - millions were lost in that rort, and continues to loose with investigations etc the millions in focus group researchers and "consultants" I m all for innovation, but sometimes the haste and cost and the somewhat blind spending, to what appears to be a politicians legacy comes at a cost, which must produce a gain, directly or indirectly
It is not exclusive this waste issue.
Superannuation incentives through tax breaks that only millionaires or billionaires can access?
A publicly funded maternity scheme that is open to millionaires and billionaires?
Innovation is good, rolling out more copper phone lines and cutting education is not innovative it is archaic.
This is the whole point at the moment, the blokes who sold themselves as the great fiscal managers are going to weddings and building private libraries using tax payer funds. Can I have a tax deduction for attending my cousins wedding?
Hard to see how any of them can claim the high moral, ethical or economic ground!
They are all pigs at the trough, and equally as bad!
I agree, this country aint like it used to be
Yes, it hasn't been the same since Pig Iron Bob got the top job after WW2!
