Review 2024 Season Review - The Goodest, Baddest and Ugliest from the season

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Bottom four this year, we'll get a good run next year with double ups against Richmond, Norf and WC, all of whom will not move up the ladder so that's three bonus head start wins the top eight won't get.

We've also got 12 games at AO that we should be able to turn into a fortress. Only downside is 11 away games and now the AFL don't owe us any more, expect to go back onto the country circuit, Darwin, Ballaeffingrat, Tasmania, Alice Springs, Canberra, Kardinia Cigar and anywhere else they need an unimportant club to play the dummy.

With the anticipated recruiting and drafting, growth in the young players, not playing Murphy, McSpud, Smith etc for large numbers of games, we should go very close or into finals. Even Nicks couldn't muck this up.

Happy to be trading F1 into this year to make things happen sooner
 

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On reflection, the last 365 days..
G - emerging players
B - TT & Rankine missing games, bad losses eg vs Rich, the team doesn’t seem to enjoy playing, extending Nicks’ contract
U - coaching and admin (inflexible, slow to react/change, appear complacent)
 
Good:
-Some promising signs from recent draftees once given a shot.
-Finally breaking ground at Thebby.

Bad:
-5th year into rebuild, and we aren't any closer to a flag, whilst the disgracefully underperforming management/Coaching teams remain comfortably in place.
- The old AFC "Culture" of mediocrity is now something we long for.

Ugly:
-We wouldn't have even started making moves to replace or turn over the current dysfunctional executive,managment,football deptartments.
-Despite growing member discontent,this turnover wont begin until the outside (AFL Media)noise gets much,much louder.By which stage, we will once again have no option but to do a halfarse rush job, resulting in us being saddled with "best" available scrapheap finds for another half decade.

Depressing:
- I'd love to eat my words, but I think I'm closer to the eventual truth than not.

Go Crows!
 
The only positives were that our young players showed promise and we got a good draft pick. That's it.

Nicks' extension, finishing bottom 4, continual selection of absolute plodder spuds and failing to keep team issues in-house were the main components of the disaster.
 
Good: We were not robbed of a finals appearance because a year ago I said they won't be robbing us of a finals appearance next year and I was correct. Showdown win, wins over Essendon, GWS, Bulldogs and Carlton. Thilthorpe's return hopefully better days ahead for him but we'll see. Soligo was great in a rough season, Hinge was good, Rachele was good, Fogarty was good and kicked very straight, Rankine was good when available.

Bad and ugly: Pretty much everything else. Stuffing up under expectation, handling of adversity, choking away the majority of close games, extending the coach, panic football and so much more. The god damned awful loss to Richmond. Rankine was promising but could not catch a break. Dropping Rachele after his teeth reaction (if he was with Geelong they would have handled the situation differently). Not giving some younger players opportunities. Re-signing Tex, yes he has been a great player for many years but I think his time is probably up. I can go on and on and on. Murphy was awful at times, O'Brien led the AFL in hitouts but was ineffective.

We deserved to be laughed at in many ways. Look at us against sides such as Hawthorn, Port or Geelong how they have come a long way this season.
 
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Good: We were not robbed of a finals appearance because a year ago I said they won't be robbing us of a finals appearance next year and I was correct. Showdown win, wins over Essendon, GWS, Bulldogs and Carlton. Thilthorpe's return hopefully better days ahead for him but we'll see. Soligo was great in a rough season, Pedlar was very good, Hinge was good, Rachele was good, Fogarty was good and kicked very straight, Rankine was good when available.

Bad and ugly: Pretty much everything else. Stuffing up under expectation, handling of adversity, choking away the majority of close games, extending the coach, panic football and so much more. The god damned awful loss to Richmond. Rankine was promising but could not catch a break. Dropping Rachele after his teeth reaction (if he was with Geelong they would have handled the situation differently). Not giving some younger players opportunities. Re-signing Tex, yes he has been a great player for many years but I think his time is probably up. I can go on and on and on. Murphy was awful at times, O'Brien led the AFL in hitouts but was ineffective.

We deserved to be laughed at in many ways. Look at us against sides such as Hawthorn, Port or Geelong how they have come a long way this season.
Pedlar very good … more information
 

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* The gameplan didn't work, we push back way to hard and opposition team just chip it around and find targets anyway. When we do have the ball, it's just this awful, crabbing, sideways, slow ball movement that looks so out of place. We literally wait for every opposition player to get back and set before moving forward, it makes no sense.
This is salient. Evidently Nicks tried to come up with some too-clever-by-half game plan and it was crap.

A typical example was in our last game vs Sydney, when Murphy was running into an open goal almost directly in front, but tried to pass to Tex who was in the pocket, and failed to score. What the * is that? When watching us with the ball, especially when I've had the displeasure of going to a game in person, it's like we're trying not to score.
 
This is how our VFL masters reward us for meekly rolling over when we were robbed a place in the finals.

They must love dealing with us.

The teams we play have elevated ladder positions because they play us.
 
It's true.

It's a post-fact analysis though, of the final ladder positions of who we played twice and who we didn't.

Before the season the analysis showed we had medium difficulty draw based on last seasons standings.
That is simply innacurate. It was a hard draw at the start for a 10th ranked team but in the aftermath it was an extremely hard draw for a 10th ranked. Why do you say it was medium? Based on what?
 
That is simply innacurate. It was a hard draw at the start for a 10th ranked team but in the aftermath it was an extremely hard draw for a 10th ranked. Why do you say it was medium? Based on what?
10 out of 18 is pretty medium?
It wasn't that tough a draw on paper. Could have been better, but not that shocking.
 
10 out of 18 is pretty medium?
It wasn't that tough a draw on paper. Could have been better, but not that shocking.
This suggests the 6th hardest draw prior to the season.
Given the ladder is broken into 6 team thirds, with all things being equal you could expect to have a draw anywhere from the 7th to the 12th hardest draw, we fell just outside that.l, so not bad.
Hawthorn have more reason to be aggrieved finished 3rd last and had the 5th hardest draw.
Be interesting to see a differential ladder of 2023 ladder position vs hardest draw rating.
 
This is how our VFL masters reward us for meekly rolling over when we were robbed a place in the finals.

They must love dealing with us.

Our bottom 6 double up was Hawthorn 16th to 7th (unlucky)
Our Middle 6 double ups were Sydney 8th to 1st, Geelong 12th to 3rd and Essendon 11th > 11th (unlucky)
Our top 6 double ups were Port 3rd to 2nd and Brisbane 2nd to 5th (OK)

We also lost to Richmond, Gold Coast and Melbourne and 2 of those were at home.

I don't think it was a conspiracy but the club should start looking now for nice Launceston, Ballarat and Darwin/Alice Springs accommodation options for next year.
 
This is salient. Evidently Nicks tried to come up with some too-clever-by-half game plan and it was crap.

A typical example was in our last game vs Sydney, when Murphy was running into an open goal almost directly in front, but tried to pass to Tex who was in the pocket, and failed to score. What the * is that? When watching us with the ball, especially when I've had the displeasure of going to a game in person, it's like we're trying not to score.
Yep, we have a very aggressive defensive unit who seemed to play against their instinct half the time.

Having them turtle up in our bad games drove me insane.

Hinge, Murray and Worrell (+Hamill) are made to get the footy and go. Hinge and Murray especially can get 60M kicks over opposition presses.

I think it was Kane Cornes who said "Nicks hates shootouts". Every shootout we play in, we win?
 
Anyone but Laird, I am worried he will be right up there as he has played every game this year and will consistently be getting votes.

If Laird gets his fourth gold jacket, he will be clear on top. More than Roo, McLeod and Goodwin... Would be an embarrassment.

He would have won it in seasons where we finished 12th, 15th, 14th and 15th. Says it all.
 
We also got many prime time games this year and spat in the afls face with the way we played in a lot of those.
They won’t be so kind again next year.

We were actually competitive in all prime time games (Thursday/Friday/Saturday night - C7 game) :-

Vs Geelong 19 point loss (H)
Vs Melbourne 15 point loss (H)
Vs Essendon 3 point loss (H)
Vs Port 30 point win (H)
Vs Richmond 8 point loss (H)
Vs Sydney 42 point loss (H)
Vs Essendon 2 point win (A)

So 6 home games for 1-5 WL record and 1 away game for 1-0 WL record.
 
We were actually competitive in all prime time games (Thursday/Friday/Saturday night - C7 game) :-

Vs Geelong 19 point loss (H)
Vs Melbourne 15 point loss (H)
Vs Essendon 3 point loss (H)
Vs Port 30 point win (H)
Vs Richmond 8 point loss (H)
Vs Sydney 42 point loss (H)
Vs Essendon 2 point win (A)

So 6 home games for 1-5 WL record and 1 away game for 1-0 WL record.
More the type of footy we played.
The afl don’t care if we win
 

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Review 2024 Season Review - The Goodest, Baddest and Ugliest from the season

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