Coach Adam Simpson Megathread est. 2017 - Staying for 2024, Lyon’s Cryin’

[Obeanie1]

No, not soft at all.

To the point he completely destroyed Adelaide's culture by refusing to listen to the players when they objected to a second pre-season of Collective Minds' camp on the Gold Coast...

Not having a go at you personally but I'm genuinely curious as to why people on this board rate Pyke so highly. I wouldn't disregard him as a choice, should Simmo move on, but I'm in the Ash Hansen camp myself.

Was that all on Pike?

Prior to that issue he was building a very good coaching CV. And at the Swans has continued to even further.

 

[bzparkes]

Was that all on Pike?

Prior to that issue he was building a very good coaching CV. And at the Swans has continued to even further.

Supposedly the leadership group went to him directly, asking not to go on the camp. He told them that he wouldn't cancel it and they had to go.

The rest is history.

 

[Rowan18]

I think media and supporters look at who played for the club first and then others second

It should be remembered that Neil Craig virtually had the job back in 2001 but Worsfold was chosen late for reasons I forget now. Then Sumich was heavily favoured in 2013 before the club nominated Simpson which wasn’t universally popular either

Hansen has been away from the club for some time now and has done all his AFL coaching over east so he’d be more removed than say Cox or Graham. Even Pyke for that matter

I don’t have an issue with any new coach being a past player so along as the likes of Giaransircusa, Caracella etc aren’t ignored as being possible candidates

The Rumour was Freo was about to sign Woosha, so we jumped ahead to get him first.

 

[kaiserchief13]

No, not soft at all.

To the point he completely destroyed Adelaide's culture by refusing to listen to the players when they objected to a second pre-season of Collective Minds' camp on the Gold Coast...

Not having a go at you personally but I'm genuinely curious as to why people on this board rate Pyke so highly. I wouldn't disregard him as a choice, should Simmo move on, but I'm in the Ash Hansen camp myself.

And he can learn from that? That's a lot easier to fix than having no tactical nouse and inability to motivate

 

[Biggie]

 

[bzparkes]

And he can learn from that? That's a lot easier to fix than having no tactical nouse and inability to motivate

Can he? Players said they hated it the first time and he refused to listen to them the second time around, which led to the club imploding.

You'd really hope he learnt from it, especially when he should've listened in the first place after the initial camp.

 

[bh90210fan]

It was Kaiser who reached out to Simmo

 

[kaiserchief13]

It was Kaiser who reached out to Simmo

Yeah I asked him if he'd like to be inaugural Tasmania coach

 

[Obeanie1]

Can he? Players said they hated it the first time and he refused to listen to them the second time around, which led to the club imploding.

You'd really hope he learnt from it, especially when he should've listened in the first place after the initial camp.

Id suggest he learned plenty from the experience.

Its not like he agreed with players being injected with unknown substinces. It was a high intensity boot camp that wasnt very well thought through or implemented. By a contract company.

 

[Deplorable trumpster]

Wikipedia suggests Craig pulled out of the race.

I'm assuming family reasons?

I recall it being a fairly vehement and nasty supporter backlash against Craig when it was leaking out that he was the front runner that caused him to withdraw. Nobody knew who Neil Craig was back in 2001.

 

[Deplorable trumpster]

Id suggest he learned plenty from the experience.

Its not like he agreed with players being injected with unknown substinces. It was a high intensity boot camp that wasnt very well thought through or implemented. By a contract company.

And it's not like the club started setting the world on fire once Pyke was sacked, thus proving Pyke was the problem. They have been in or close to the bottom 4 ever since he left. I think that club had and maybe still has attitude and entitlement problems amongst it's playing list similar to ours.

 

[Balls In]

At this point I wonder what steaming turd this team needs to serve up for Simmo to be on the hook. Looks like he just rolls into 2023 regardless of what happens.

 

[bzparkes]

Id suggest he learned plenty from the experience.

Its not like he agreed with players being injected with unknown substinces. It was a high intensity boot camp that wasnt very well thought through or implemented. By a contract company.

I'm sure he would've learnt.

The narrative at the time about him refusing to take the players' position about the camp into account is somewhat concerning though.

But I'm just some pleb on the internet.

 

[Deplorable trumpster]

At this point I wonder what steaming turd this team needs to serve up for Simmo to be on the hook. Looks like he just rolls into 2023 regardless of what happens.

My own internal sense of what is going on and will happen, just judging from the outside like all of us, is that the club is in chaos internally. Nobody really is in charge. Nobody is there acting with authority and a sense of direction and purpose. The assistant coaches were sacked, there was that weird s*** with Vozzo disappearing from the club on personal leave for a long period of time, there were the cryptic comments suggesting internal divisions by Simpson at last years B&F, now there are suggestions that Rohan O'Brien is going at the end of the year. Nisbett has been in hiding for most of the year, despite this being the worst year in the clubs history, except for a couple of softball interviews he has done where he said pretty much nothing of substance. When organisations get into situations like this they generally just keep drifting and avoid making decisions. When difficult decisions need to be made but nobody is in charge then usually no decision gets made and the status quo prevails just by default. I think Simpson will survive this year purely because there is nobody there to actually make a decision on him.

 

[HoneyBadger35]

Nisbett has been in hiding for most of the year, despite this being the worst year in the clubs history, except for a couple of softball interviews he has done where he said pretty much nothing of substance.

There is a thread on this board taking the piss out of how frequently Nisbett was sending emails to members, because everyone was astonished we heard so much from a bloke you usually hear from once a season.

I hope the club has a total transformational change from top to bottom, because some of them have been there simply way too long to still be on the cutting edge of the industry, but far out Nisbett has been anything but in hiding. We can’t move for Nisbett statements and comments and emails this year. I wish he’d go into hiding.

Simmo will survive the year, not because nobody is making the calls, but because various members of the club’s hierarchy have openly and repeatedly stated he has a contract for years to come and will be here next year.

 

[Deplorable trumpster]

There is a thread on this board taking the piss out of how frequently Nisbett was sending emails to members, because everyone was astonished we heard so much from a bloke you usually hear from once a season.

I hope the club has a total transformational change from top to bottom, because some of them have been there simply way too long to still be on the cutting edge of the industry, but far out Nisbett has been anything but in hiding. We can’t move for Nisbett statements and comments and emails this year. I wish he’d go into hiding.

Simmo will survive the year, not because nobody is making the calls, but because various members of the club’s hierarchy have openly and repeatedly stated he has a contract for years to come and will be here next year.

I don't regard generic emails with Nisbett's name at the bottom, but almost certainly not one word of it having been written by Nisbett himself, as examples of Nisbett being visible. You do realise when you get a promotional letter from a bank or some other company you purchase things from telling you how great the company is and how great you are for being one of their valued customers, and it has the CEO's name and signature at the bottom of the letter that doesn't mean that the CEO themselves personally sat down and wrote it? The PR department wrote it and put the CEO's name and signature at the bottom. What has Nisbett said of substance that actually means something this season? That Simpson won't be sacked and that we won't be trading our draft picks out. Thats it. That is the sum total of meaning from everything Nisbett has said in 2022. Not exactly an all encompassing vision of the future is it?

 

[HoneyBadger35]

I don't regard generic emails with Nisbett's name at the bottom, but almost certainly not one word of it having been written by Nisbett himself, as examples of Nisbett being visible. You do realise when you get a promotional letter from a bank or some other company you purchase things from telling you how great the company is and how great you are for being one of their valued customers, and it has the CEO's name and signature at the bottom of the letter that doesn't mean that the CEO themselves personally sat down and wrote it? The PR department wrote it and put the CEO's name and signature at the bottom. What has Nisbett said of substance that actually means something this season? That Simpson won't be sacked and that we won't be trading our draft picks out. Thats it. That is the sum total of meaning from everything Nisbett has said in 2022. Not exactly an all encompassing vision of the future is it?

I think this is rehashing old ground from earlier in the week so I’ll largely leave it, but you yourself have just said there that Nisbett says Simmo isn’t being sacked where your previous post says Simmo is only going to survive purely because nobody is running the show.

Add on to that Gibbs saying that Simmo will be here next year and you’ve got essentially the two most prominent figures in the club saying Simmo will be here. Doesn’t exactly scream to me ‘he’s only skating by because nobody is steering the ship’, as though nobody has noticed he’s still our coach or something.

Out of interest, and acknowledging this will probably lead to a retread of earlier in the week, but what can Nisbett do when his emails don’t count as communication and his interviews don’t count as communication? How should he best communicate this vision?

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

I recall it being a fairly vehement and nasty supporter backlash against Craig when it was leaking out that he was the front runner that caused him to withdraw. Nobody knew who Neil Craig was back in 2001.

That doesn't sound like our supporter base at all.

I say in the Sack Simmo thread started in 2017.

 

[Godfather32]

Out of interest, and acknowledging this will probably lead to a retread of earlier in the week, but what can Nisbett do when his emails don’t count as communication and his interviews don’t count as communication? How should he best communicate this vision?

He needs to just go round and knock on everyone's door and just have a chat. It worked on Jack

 

[Goroyals22]

That doesn't sound like our supporter base at all.

I say in the Sack Simmo thread started in 2017.

The late George grizzleguts Grljusich went on his 6pr sat morning show at 9 and broke the news that Neil Craig was going to get the Eagles job. What followed was at least 3 if not 4/5 hours of people ringing up losing their minds that he got the job ahead of a club great who worse still was about to accept the Freo gig and be announced on the following Monday as Freos new coach….. i seem to recall many callers saying they were going to jump ship if that happened. In the space of a day Woosha had another interview with the board, They backflipped and offered him the gig and Craig had to come up with something to say he was withdrawing to tie up the loose ends….

The full story of what happened has never come out but it was fun listening at the time.

 

[Deplorable trumpster]

I think this is rehashing old ground from earlier in the week so I’ll largely leave it, but you yourself have just said there that Nisbett says Simmo isn’t being sacked where your previous post says Simmo is only going to survive purely because nobody is running the show.

Add on to that Gibbs saying that Simmo will be here next year and you’ve got essentially the two most prominent figures in the club saying Simmo will be here. Doesn’t exactly scream to me ‘he’s only skating by because nobody is steering the ship’, as though nobody has noticed he’s still our coach or something.

Out of interest, and acknowledging this will probably lead to a retread of earlier in the week, but what can Nisbett do when his emails don’t count as communication and his interviews don’t count as communication? How should he best communicate this vision?

Instead of bogging down threads with constant nit picking of other peoples posts who have opinions you don't like, why don't you focus on posting a convincing counter opinion of your own. Start with the sentence "I love Adam Simpson and think he should coach WCE forever because ..." and then carry on and tell us why. Tell us what changes you would make and why, or if you would make no changes to anything at the club then tell us that. Tell us how many players you would be looking to move on. Tell us if you would be looking to trade players out or not. Tell us if you think the current ladder position is a fair reflection of where we are at or not and if it isn't where do you think our list is at? Write something original from your own mind, that whether people agree with or not is interesting to consider, and try and convince people of your point of view that way. Rather than lurking around in the threads ****ing your panties every time somebody says they think it is better if Simpson goes. Post your own opinion, avoid reference to other posters and try and be clear and detailed. All of your posts are just silly immature attempts to play word games with other posters who have offended you by saying Simpson should go. Try and summon all of your mental resources and write something that convinces people of your Simpson fan boy point of view without referencing other posters or playing silly word games.

 

[bzparkes]

Instead of bogging down threads with constant nit picking of other peoples posts who have opinions you don't like, why don't you focus on posting a convincing counter opinion of your own. Start with the sentence "I love Adam Simpson and think he should coach WCE forever because ..." and then carry on and tell us why. Tell us what changes you would make and why, or if you would make no changes to anything at the club then tell us that. Tell us how many players you would be looking to move on. Tell us if you would be looking to trade players out or not. Tell us if you think the current ladder position is a fair reflection of where we are at or not and if it isn't where do you think our list is at? Write something original from your own mind, that whether people agree with or not is interesting to consider, and try and convince people of your point of view that way. Rather than lurking around in the threads ****ing your panties every time somebody says they think it is better if Simpson goes. Post your own opinion, avoid reference to other posters and try and be clear and detailed. All of your posts are just silly immature attempts to play word games with other posters who have offended you by saying Simpson should go. Try and summon all of your mental resources and write something that convinces people of your Simpson fan boy point of view without referencing other posters or playing silly word games.

Having an opinion challenged is a kind of counter argument.

The fact that the people who post the same repetitive bullshit get pissed about being pulled up about it is telling.

Why don't those people put forth an actual argument as to why Simmo should be sacked?

 

[donpyke92]

You know that scene in the Office where Michael Scott’s boss tells him he isn’t getting the promotion and he asks to be taken out of the running?

I assumed it was like that.

Still reckon I'd prefer David Brent's response, but yeh, ok man

 

[HoneyBadger35]

Instead of bogging down threads with constant nit picking of other peoples posts who have opinions you don't like, why don't you focus on posting a convincing counter opinion of your own. Start with the sentence "I love Adam Simpson and think he should coach WCE forever because ..." and then carry on and tell us why. Tell us what changes you would make and why, or if you would make no changes to anything at the club then tell us that. Tell us how many players you would be looking to move on. Tell us if you would be looking to trade players out or not. Tell us if you think the current ladder position is a fair reflection of where we are at or not and if it isn't where do you think our list is at? Write something original from your own mind, that whether people agree with or not is interesting to consider, and try and convince people of your point of view that way. Rather than lurking around in the threads ****ing your panties every time somebody says they think it is better if Simpson goes. Post your own opinion, avoid reference to other posters and try and be clear and detailed. All of your posts are just silly immature attempts to play word games with other posters who have offended you by saying Simpson should go. Try and summon all of your mental resources and write something that convinces people of your Simpson fan boy point of view without referencing other posters or playing silly word games.

A simple “no I can’t answer that” would have sufficed. My opinions on nearly every Eagles topic are so widely available in whatever format suits you best, it’s a miracle I still have a job for all the posting on here. People are allowed to not agree with your opinion or my opinion, but the unhinged rant after simple questions like “what do you want Nisbett to do” is not the way to deal with that.

But fine, you want my Eagles thesis? That’s famous last words. Apologies to those who don’t like walls of text. I’ll use spoilers to save some pain.

Start with the easy one: No, I don’t think Adam Simpson should coach West Coast forever because at some point he will inevitably die, and I think even by my standards it would be hard to mount a case for a dead coach over a living one. Beyond literal death itself he should coach us forever, that much is evident to anyone with a brain.

Nah go on then, this is the concise version if you can believe that:

Coaching in General

Spoiler

• Every fan base of every sport in every country wants their coach sacked. See: Richmond fans wanting Hardwick sacked this week, while many on here clamour for him. See: Geelong fans who are sick to death of Chris Scott, a coach whose entire tenure has been shitting out wins, prelims, Grand Finals and the odd flag like it’s nothing. And they ****ing hate the prick. See: this thread, started in 2017.

• Every coach is either a hero, or they’re terrible, a fraud, a charlatan whose assistants did all the work and now that they’re gone the true insert head coach here has been shown to the world as an imposter. There’s not a single “yeah he’s alright” coach in world sport right now according to the fans. It’s a complete zero or 100 game.

• Why is that? I think it’s because people find it easier to assume your problems lie with one person, one anchor dragging your club down, whose removal will unlock everything and your team will thrive. The reality is, high level success in professional sports is incredibly hard and takes many, many, many people all delivering at the same time to achieve, but that’s hard and complex and often takes years to align. I can sack one person now and it’ll all change? Let’s do that one!

• In short - “sack the coach” is a cop out that too many lean on because it’s easier and quicker to assume it’s all down to one thing that you can flick like a switch.

Simmo

Spoiler

• I like Adam Simpson. I support the Eagles. There is a major difference. If someone could show me that sacking Simmo tomorrow would get us challenging again in the near future, I’d do it in a heartbeat. Thanks for your service Simmo, cya later mate. The club comes first always.

• To reiterate, I like Adam Simpson and respect Adam Simpson. I wouldn’t give two shits if Adam Simpson got sacked and the next guy immediately made us a better. I’d sleep like a baby, because the Eagles are bigger than any one person. I’ll always hope our current coach can make us a flag threat, because they’re our coach. The day Simpson leaves and a new person steps in is the day I stop giving a **** about Adam Simpson’s coaching career. Seems a nice guy and I hope he has a good little life for himself, but I’m an Eagles supporter not an Adam Simpson supporter so cya later mate, hope the Eagles beat you every ****ing time.

• Simmo is clearly on the hot seat next season, as has been publicly confirmed by multiple senior staff members despite your insistence there’s nobody telling us anything and nobody making the calls. He’s on the hot seat, as he should be. The last few years have been a steady decline of a team exiting its prime, and the results this season have been piss poor. He should have been on the hot seat this year, but the single most ****ed preseason/early season/Covid/player usage has given him a reprieve.

• The outline of a new game plan is evident to anyone who is watching the games, and the club has been on the general improve since the bye. They’re also facing the future with extended exposure of Bazzo, Trew, Hough, Edwards, soon to be Culley. They’ve acknowledged that we need to, and will, rebuild.

• This is why I’m still in on Simmo, because his actions are aligning with what the club are saying and the footy is on the improve, albeit slowly. That said, he has an incredibly short leash next season and I could absolutely see him sacked by the bye, which nobody could argue against if things don’t improve. It’s very publicly put up or shut up time, and the club isn’t shying away from this.

• The club have backed him with everything he could need. Contract, widespread changing of assistant coaches, public support. If it doesn’t work and he gets sacked, the blame lies at his doorstep. Thanks for your service but you weren’t up to this portion of the task. And that’s fine, that’s good, that’s how sports should be. Back in your guy and get a conclusive answer, then act. Don’t get itchy the minute things go south like us internet weirdos want.

The Club

Spoiler

• I’ve already said two posts ago that I want a comprehensive review of the back of house staff, from CEO to board and all the way through. Many of them are lifers and do not appear to be on the cutting edge of the industry. This is not how you succeed. That said, the Eagles are an unbelievably conservative and insular club, so I’m not holding my breath.

• Our ladder position is a fair enough reflection of where we’re at. I think in a normal season, ie not a historic level of player usage, injuries and Covid ****ery, we might have been a touch better and finished 14th or some other unremarkable spot. Still bad, maybe not tragically bad but still very far from being a speck of a speck on the finals picture. So yeah, ladder spot is near enough to right to not be worth arguing over.

• While 17th sucks for now, it is almost better in the long run, as you’d rather be properly bad and get a great pick than be stuck in the middle and on that treadmill for years.

• If/when Simmo goes, I’m not all in on giving the job to a favourite son. I’ve posted about that many times in the last 24 hours. The Eagles are too much of a jobs for the boys organisation where once you’re in, you have a job for life. I’d rather take on an external voice if we’re going for a complete shake up, which we should be once we’re done with Simpson whenever that may be.

List Management

Spoiler

• Our list is where it is because we went all in on a core group of players to try and capture more than one flag. A noble idea that looks to have backfired, or at least left us not well prepared to transition away from that group in a strong position.

• Just while we’re on that, I cringe at the “only one flag” comments. They’re impossibly hard to win from outside Vic, and the “we’ve had the best list” argument can be undone by looking at the first 20 pages of this thread. People wanted a full scale rebuild in 2017 and come October 2018 we’d always been that dominant and how could we have wasted our window with “only” one flag.

• Back to today. Who should we trade out? I’ve asked you directly before and you avoided it, but I think the answer is sadly probably nobody. I’d like to trade people out, but I don’t know that any of them have currency. BigFooty style “give them Jackson Nelson for a late second rounder” trade hypotheticals are a waste of everyone’s time.

• We don’t need to do, for example, Jack Redden for pick 54. I don’t think that’s better for us than just having the option of using Redden as a battering ram to lighten the load on the new wave of young mids. If someone will give us pick 30 for Redden then giddy up let’s have it. But I don’t think it’s real and I don’t think pick 80 for Luke Shuey helps us more than just having Luke Shuey.

• Darling is the only player who is getting on in years that has actual currency, and we’re so much better with him. Nothing stifles development faster than midfields with nobody to kick to. We could get a first rounder for him. I’d rather keep him and use him to help Oscar and our mids come along.

• I’d love to find a way to eat some salary and turn Gaff in to a usable pick but I simply don’t see it happening. If we could cop a salary hit and get pick 40 for Gaff I’d break your hand off shaking it so quickly.

• Everyone else is either old, broken, has no currency or is young enough to still be contributing throughout the rebuild and hopefully through the other side. No, we should not trade Willie Rioli.

• List turnover is inevitable, as we discussed at the start of the week, given there are 18 players out of contact this year and a further 13 next year. 31 (!) players who have a maximum of one season to save their jobs. That’s plenty of list turnover for me.

• We only have six players contracted for 2025. That list is going to be unrecognisable to this one. You can’t skip to the end, sadly. You just have to cut away, bit by bit, and reshape it over time. It’s going to suck. I’m sorry.

• Draft - as discussed earlier in the week we have the strongest draft hand by far, and should take as many picks as possible. Particular focus on those first three picks which, along with Chesser, Hough and Culley, should be the foundation of our draft built youth movement.

So how’s that for a start? Happy to expand on any of them, but that’s a shitload of text as is. Now, instead of doing another massive unhinged rant, you could answer any of the direct questions you’ve dodged like “how do you want Nisbett to communicate, given neither interviews nor emails count”, or “who should we be trading that would net us a usable pick”.

 

[Biggie]

Simpson fan boy