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

[VicBased]

Simpo is below average, if you think otherwise you’re wrong, just my opinion, you don’t have to like it.

Yeah/nah i don't like it.

 

[Shuestar13]

Yeah/nah i don't like it.

There is zero point engaging with that individual. The “calibre” of their posting tells you all you need to know. Very very sad, desperate appeals for attention. Best to ignore it and hope it goes away.

 

[Miguel Sanchez]

It’s really the depth and eloquence of the argument that gets you. It’s the closest you’ll ever get to being transported back to the philosophical discussions of ancient Greece.

 

[bzparkes]

Adam Simpson in 'Ask Simmo":

Breaking the mould from what we did a few years ago with our ball movement, trying to go a bit quicker. Still falls into some older players hands and they go back to the premiership style, which we're trying to move on because it doesn't work anymore.

Does anyone still think he's trying to play the old gameplan?

 

[Chris_6678]

The bottom 3 teams on the ladder have 7 flags between them from the last decade.

 

[HoneyBadger35]

Thread ban could be fun.

 

[Royalbeagle]

My view on Simpson is I think he wants to go. He looks tired and annoyed. He looks like he is not enjoying the job and needs a break. I am not saying that to have a go at him. You can't stay in the same job forever. And being a senior coach at AFL is not just a job, it is a whole lifestyle. You have to live, eat, breathe and sleep the job. Nobody wants to do that forever.

My reasons for thinking that are that are how tired he looks. How little effort he puts in the parts of the job he doesn't like such as selling the club and selling hope to supporters. I think it is significant that Nisbett and the guy from the Board were the ones doing the clean up job from 22 and sales job for 23 at the end of last season. Simpson disappeared. Even though the senior coach is usually the main hope salesman for a club. Then at no stage during the pre season did he back up or echo the Nisbett line that we were going to make the 8. He steered right away from any selling of hope for the future and his comments were mostly restricted to injury updates.

Then in interviews he has repeatedly answered a question that nobody asked him which is how he feels about investing in and developing the young players even though he may not be around to reap the rewards and get credit. Very strange. The very fact that he is speaking in interviews about an end point to his time at the club and handing over to somebody else means he has already had this discussion with the club. He is no cowboy. He wouldn't drop bombshells on the club in a media hit.

My guess is he has told the club that he is not planning to be around for the long term from this point forward. They have asked him to give them another year or two because (for whatever reason) they would rather not be looking for a new coach right now. He has agreed to that. He wants to leave on good terms and not leave the club in the lurch. But I think he wants to go. I am expecting he will go at the end of this season or end of next at the latest. And it will be presented as neither a resignation nor a sacking. Just a mutually agreed and good spirited parting of the ways.

I am agnostic on him. I don't care if he stays or goes, although if he is not all in and wants to go then I think we are better off facing up to that sooner rather than later. But the senior coaching role is not the most important one at the club over the next 3 – 5 years anyway. The drafting department is. Whoever makes the call on draft selections (I assume it is ROB) is the most important person at the club. We are about to go through a prolonged period down the bottom, we have really bad demographics on our list and we need to nail our picks. If we have another 5 years that are as bad with our drafting as we have been from 2015 till now we might aswell close the doors and fold it all up.

I would say that we should have an internal review into why our drafting and development has been so awful (probably close to the worst in the league) over this period. But I don't think it is possible to have an honest review into anything at the club whilst Nisbett is in charge. He is a megalomaniac and will be telling the reviewers what the result of the review needs to be and who to blame before they even start. Which is a really good reason why he needs to go. In fact, when you look at how abominable the drafting has been you start to feel sorry for Simpson and realise that no coach could have prevented us from declining to where we are now with a drafting department coming up with a production line of lemons like ours has.

Underrated comment. I agree, cannot underestimate how poor the recruiting has been. Earlier on, when we were in the window, march committee selection was also poor and we should have won another premiership. Total overhaul required.

 

[Miguel Sanchez]

Underrated comment. I agree, cannot underestimate how poor the recruiting has been. Earlier on, when we were in the window, march committee selection was also poor and we should have won another premiership. Total overhaul required.

Which year should we have won a premiership?

 

[RookiePick]

Which year should we have won a premiership?

2019.

We went all in on beating the Tiges in the penultimate round and lost. Forgot to show up vs Hawthorn the following week and missed top 4(2).

Then we got ambushed with a whack on the Willie getting off the plane and lost our semi.

We were definitely good enough to win the whole show again in 2019 but in a lot of ways tried to coast to the finals before "getting serious". We got ahead of ourselves, some players off the field as well as the group on it and we left one on the table there IMO.

 

[Miguel Sanchez]

2019.

We went all in on beating the Tiges in the penultimate round and lost. Forgot to show up vs Hawthorn the following week and missed top 4(2).

Then we got ambushed with a whack on the Willie getting off the plane and lost our semi.

We were definitely good enough to win the whole show again in 2019 but in a lot of ways tried to coast to the finals before "getting serious". We got ahead of ourselves, some players off the field as well as the group on it and we left one on the table there IMO.

So we went all in on beating Richmond, the eventual premiers, at the MCG in August and couldn’t?

Doesn’t that mean we probably wouldn’t have beaten them a month later at the same ground?

 

[RookiePick]

So we went all in on beating Richmond, the eventual premiers, at the MCG in August and couldn’t?

Doesn’t that mean we probably wouldn’t have beaten them a month later at the same ground?

Maybe. We are all just spitballing here.

Pretty sure we blew them off the park in the sunshine 1st Q and then slowly let them back in over the next 2 quarters before getting doused out by the rain in the 4th.

A month later conditions would have been more likely to have suited us. AFL wants to run with BtB premiers promotion and gives us an armchair ride in the big dance. Who knows?

In my opinion we were a good enough side to win another one in 2019. We didn't. Them's the breaks.

 

[Forward Press]

Like with all premiership sides you need a healthy dose of luck and in 2019 although we had the talent we didn't have the luck.

We were in a winnable position against Richmond at the MCG until the weather gods and bad bounces of the ball got Richmond the four points, and of course the whole Willie Rioli

15

Willie Rioli

Age

29

Ht

175cm

Wt

78kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

12.0

3star

K

8.0

3star

HB

4.1

3star

M

3.3

3star

T

2.8

4star

G

1.2

4star

No current season stats available

D

11.0

3star

K

7.4

3star

HB

3.6

3star

M

3.0

3star

T

1.8

4star

G

0.6

3star

thing arguably had a big impact on team morale. It's balanced out by the luck we had in 2018 to squeak past Collingwood and then Richmond surprisingly getting belted at their fortress by the aforementioned team.

In retrospect one flag and two GFs is a fair reflection of Simmo's and West Coast's talent and form during that time period.

 

[greatwhiteshark]

Like with all premiership sides you need a healthy dose of luck and in 2019 although we had the talent we didn't have the luck.

We were in a winnable position against Richmond at the MCG until the weather gods and bad bounces of the ball got Richmond the four points, and of course the whole Willie Rioli thing arguably had a big impact on team morale. It's balanced out by the luck we had in 2018 to squeak past Collingwood and then Richmond surprisingly getting belted at their fortress by the aforementioned team.

In retrospect one flag and two GFs is a fair reflection of Simmo's and West Coast's talent and form during that time period.

We went to sleep for a quarter and a half against Richmond in 2019 and got beaten. There was no weather issue. We dominated them and then did what is quite normal for us, switch off. Totally beaten by a better and more professional side.

We were lucky to win in 18 but you take your luck when you get it.

 

[Cuzz09]

We also should've won the 18GF by 5 goals but kept Pies in it in the 4th with poor kicking.

A 24-30 point win would've looked upon as a dominant win

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[Shueygod]

The playing list was far more talented than Richmond’s.

 

[Forward Press]

The playing list was far more talented than Richmond’s.

Perhaps more individual stars but Richmond won 3 flags for a reason (even discounting them playing interstate opposition in two of them) - their game plan was simple but incredibly effective. We were underdogs in 2019 in that Richmond game but even then we almost managed to get them and if we did, I'd argue the course of the finals would've been radically different.

Anyway, all hypothetical now and the rest of the competition are probably glad we and Collingwood stopped them winning four flags in a row.

 

[Cuzz09]

Richmond just wanted to win.

Every. Single. Week

Very tough, get it forward any way possible.

We were the opposite trying to finesse our way to B2B.

Needed to be harder

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[Miguel Sanchez]

Flags are difficult to win. Our early 90s side was probably the strongest we’ve ever had and it won two flags. Our superstar midfield of the mid-00s (Cox, Judd, Cousins, Kerr, Stenglein, Embley, Fletcher, Braun) only won one.

The suggestion that our late-2010s team left flags on the table by not equaling the haul of the 90s side and beating that of the mid-00s side seems laughable to me. I thought it was a damn good result getting just the one.

 

[Shueygod]

Flags are difficult to win. Our early 90s side was probably the strongest we’ve ever had and it won two flags. Our superstar midfield of the mid-00s (Cox, Judd, Cousins, Kerr, Stenglein, Embley, Fletcher, Braun) only won one.

The suggestion that our late-2010s team left flags on the table by not equaling the haul of the 90s side and beating that of the mid-00s side seems laughable to me. I thought it was a damn good result getting just the one.

Disagree, you could argue that 2018 team easily had the potential to be better than the 90s one.

By the time we added Kelly we had 12 AA caliber players on our list + Redden, Allen, Rioli, Duggan, Cripps, Cole, Sheed.

That’s a ****ed good top 20.

 

[Miguel Sanchez]

Disagree, you could argue that 2018 team easily had the potential to be better than the 90s one.

By the time we added Kelly we had 12 AA caliber players on our list + Redden, Allen, Rioli, Duggan, Cripps, Cole, Sheed.

That’s a ****ed good top 20.

Who are the 12 AA caliber players?

 

[Shueygod]

Who are the 12 AA caliber players?

Naitanui, Yeo, McGovern, Kennedy, Darling, Shuey, Hurn, Sheppard, Gaff, Ryan, Barrass, Kelly were all in AA discussions over the last 5 years.

Only hurn and Kennedy would’ve been over 30 in 2019.

 

[Godfather32]

Flags are difficult to win. Our early 90s side was probably the strongest we’ve ever had and it won two flags. Our superstar midfield of the mid-00s (Cox, Judd, Cousins, Kerr, Stenglein, Embley, Fletcher, Braun) only won one.

The suggestion that our late-2010s team left flags on the table by not equaling the haul of the 90s side and beating that of the mid-00s side seems laughable to me. I thought it was a damn good result getting just the one.

Honestly it was my favourite one out of the four, the way we lost Nic Nat, Gaff and Sheppard along the way made me think we were no chance but we just kept going.
That prelim against Melbourne at Optus was amazing to watch at the ground and the comeback in the GF was great.
I don't think I've been happier as an Eagles fan before or since.

 

[Godfather32]

Disagree, you could argue that 2018 team easily had the potential to be better than the 90s one.

By the time we added Kelly we had 12 AA caliber players on our list + Redden, Allen, Rioli, Duggan, Cripps, Cole, Sheed.

That’s a ****ed good top 20.

Nope, the 90's team was incredible and more talented than the 2018 team

 

[Tugga27]

Disagree, you could argue that 2018 team easily had the potential to be better than the 90s one.

By the time we added Kelly we had 12 AA caliber players on our list + Redden, Allen, Rioli, Duggan, Cripps, Cole, Sheed.

That’s a ****ed good top 20.

Wouldn't have thought so.

Dermie reckons the 1991 side played some of the best footy he's ever seen.
Finished 3 games clear with a percentage of 162.

 

[Cuzz09]

Nope, the 90's team was incredible and more talented than the 2018 team

Agree the 90s side would be my favourite.

If another Eagle side can ever do better or equal 2 flags in 3 years and 3 GFs in 4 years then they can enter the chat.

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