Poor Knighta

[hop]

Whilst accepting he walked into the job eyes wide open, consider what he has been left with.

- A magnificently talented but ageing group of stars gone in 2 years.

- A magnificently talented running group of players, but who are not physically strong in tight.

- Good Rucks. Bellchambers is shaping up as a bargain.

- The Footy Gods hate us re injuries

- Quinn.

Whats missing? Big bodies for inside work that have not been recruited have they Mr. Dodoro, whose job is to get the aget out to aforesaid running group. That is why we are getting smashed around the clearances. Blokes like Andy Lovett are NOT built to be in and under players.

We ain't got any. Watson couldn't hit the side of a barn despite getting it 30 times yesterday makes clanger after clanger that costs a goal everytime at this level.

Hocking is the bloke I am waiting for to do this job but has been hamquinned. Hislop is supposed to be able to do it but is always hurt.

Knighta has a massive job on his hands and if the GC comes in 2010, this next draft we have to pick big inside type players or his job will be impossible.

I hope your right filth - we need someone coming through in the ruck division. The Gawker wont get any better unless selection pressure is applied - he needs to be spelled for the sake of his game and the team.

[bombercol]

Laycock needs some "serious" pressure put on him for his spot.

Maybe a Bellchambers elevation to the senior team will get looked at.

[swoodley]

What's with this "Poor Knighta" bullshit?

He applied for, and won, the job as coach because he had a vision of what eh could do with the playing group available.

Although he has had only the one preseason to develop the players and teach them his plan, he was quite upfront in talking about us playing finals (quite possibly this year)

Injuries have certainly (and significantly) hampered the performance of the team and he has been very open in admitting where we are at in terms of learning his eventual game plan.

However, there can be no excuse for the fact that our tackling and endeavour was deplorable yesterday. I can't imagine that the players have been told not to chase or tackle and yet that is what happened.

We bleed inside 50's and prior to yesterday were ranked 15th in that stat ahead of only Melbourne (and we might be 16th after tomorrow). And yet he won't apply basic defensive tactics to slow the game down when opposition sides get a run on.

These last few issues are his responsibility regardless of the players he has at his disposal.

PS: And please don't start blaming Dodoro again....practically everyone on here has been very impressed with our drafting over the last 2-3 years.

[jimmyc1985]

Woody......Could you please point out big bodied inside players where the ball is won and games lost that have been recruited in the past 5 years?

Maybe this should be a focus of our drafting this year, but injuries have really exaggerated the shortfall of inside players we've currently got.

McVeigh is probably inside player #1 at the club (Watson might argue this point), Lonergan stepped up early this year as a good inside mid, and Hocking is certainly a tough inside mid who hasn't been able to get on the park due to OP. I've only seen bits and pieces of him, but Hislop also looks like he enjoys the tough stuff inside the packs, and he hasn't been eligible for selection due to a broken wrist. Houli is capable of playing inside and he really needed to step up to help out Watto in the clearances on Friday but unfortunately he didn't do it.

We'll look significantly better in this department come round 8 when McVeigh and Lonergan will be hopefully be back, and perhaps even Hislop could come in assuming he continues to improve at Bendigo. Unfortunately though Bendigo have their bye next weekend so guys who need matches like Hislop and Neagle won't be getting one.

[Windy_Hill]

Woody......Could you please point out big bodied inside players where the ball is won and games lost that have been recruited in the past 5 years?

Unfortunately though Bendigo have their bye next weekend so guys who need matches like Hislop and Neagle won't be getting one.

Just play them in the firsts in that case!!

[pevfan]

Filthy wrote...


Whilst accepting he walked into the job eyes wide open, consider what he has been left with.

- A magnificently talented but ageing group of stars gone in 2 years.

- A magnificently talented running group of players, but who are not physically strong in tight.

- Good Rucks. Bellchambers is shaping up as a bargain.

- The Footy Gods hate us re injuries

- Quinn.

Whats missing? Big bodies for inside work that have not been recruited have they Mr. Dodoro, whose job is to get the aget out to aforesaid running group. That is why we are getting smashed around the clearances. Blokes like Andy Lovett are NOT built to be in and under players.

We ain't got any. Watson couldn't hit the side of a barn despite getting it 30 times yesterday makes clanger after clanger that costs a goal everytime at this level.

Hocking is the bloke I am waiting for to do this job but has been hamquinned. Hislop is supposed to be able to do it but is always hurt.

Knighta has a massive job on his hands and if the GC comes in 2010, this next draft we have to pick big inside type players or his job will be impossible.





Was gonna post this under a separate heading but you've kinda stolen my thunder Filth so I'll just add my two bobs worth here but you see...I have a Dream

I dream that one day (probably not in my liftetime tho) this commusnistic system that is the AFL will be overrun just like it was in the good ol USSR and that clubs will be left to live or die on their own merits just like in country footy. i.e. the more you put in to the club the more you get out of it. If the club is willing to lift itself up with good on and off field management in all areas then it will succeed just as good, well run country clubs do like North Ballarat for example where I served and where my boys both started their footy careers. The home of Big Plugger and a score of other names that went on to make it the big league. A club that won flag after flag in the Ballarat League before it moved on to bigger and better things in the VFL. But any club that doesn't put in and help itself, instead relying on the "State" to prop it up, then that club will wither and die just like the scores of country clubs that have gone the way of the Dodo over the years and to that I would say TOUGH TITTIES!! You get what you deserve and that there's no such thing as a free lunch in any sphere of life.

I also have a nightmare...that with the introduction of further "State" sponsored clubs the talent pool is just going to get thinner and thinner and that when push comes to shove with these new AFL babies that clubs just like Essendon will be turned to yet again to to be fleeced of the best of it's talent just like we were with Roger Merrett (who went on to play more than 200 games with them) Frank Dunnell and the others that went to the Brisbane Bears. Like Gavin Wanganeen (who still had many years of very fine football left in him) Dimma indeed practically a third of the best starting 18 that was Port Power and for which we have NEVER got ANYTHING back in return with the possible exception of Mal Michael and even than we had to get him through the back door as it were AND it is at the tail end of his career, unlike the Dodger and Wangas.

In my nightmare I can also see one of the best ever run clubs in AFL/VFL history having to face years in the wilderness as a struggling "Also Ran" Forced into that position by the draconian policies off a state run system that for years has taken what this grand club has brought to the game of football for granted, just like an ungrateful beneficiary.

One day,(again prob not in my lifetime) I can see the State being challenged a la Kerry Packer with cricket or the new Indian IPL league and Football being run along the same lines as the rest of true Democratic societies. Maybe we will see private ownership take over just as in the English Premier League.Maybe a second Division, again like the English system. With 18 teams (and who is to say that it will stop at that number) you are creating a monster single division league, a second division with a promotion/relegation system in place might just be the way of the future, I don't know but I welcome any further discussion on all/any of the above.

[Madden]

What's with this "Poor Knighta" bullshit?

He applied for, and won, the job as coach because he had a vision of what eh could do with the playing group available.

Although he has had only the one preseason to develop the players and teach them his plan, he was quite upfront in talking about us playing finals (quite possibly this year)

Injuries have certainly (and significantly) hampered the performance of the team and he has been very open in admitting where we are at in terms of learning his eventual game plan.

However, there can be no excuse for the fact that our tackling and endeavour was deplorable yesterday. I can't imagine that the players have been told not to chase or tackle and yet that is what happened.

We bleed inside 50's and prior to yesterday were ranked 15th in that stat ahead of only Melbourne (and we might be 16th after tomorrow). And yet he won't apply basic defensive tactics to slow the game down when opposition sides get a run on.

These last few issues are his responsibility regardless of the players he has at his disposal.

PS: And please don't start blaming Dodoro again....practically everyone on here has been very impressed with our drafting over the last 2-3 years.

Woody......Could you please point out big bodied inside players where the ball is won and games lost that have been recruited in the past 5 years?

We had 2 of those players Filth and now they both play for the Dockers.

Besides, 'big-bodied inside players' do not come ready made out of the TAC.

[jimmyc1985]

We had 2 of those players Filth and now they both play for the Dockers.

1) Neither Tony Delaney nor Todd Ridley were ever inside mids;
2) Neither of them play for the Dockers any more.