Confirmed Bailey Smith: 4-way trade: B. Smith (WB) & pick 45 to Geel / pick 38 to Carl / Macrae (WB) to StK / pick 17 & Kennedy (Carl) to WB

[TheEscapeClub]

Pavlich made some smart decisions ie buying into North Fremantle, and setting up businesses which was off his own back.

He is pretty clued up and would have done that anywhere.

Easy to be clued up with wealthy / influential supporters in your corner.

There's all sorts of ways to skin a cat.

 

[eastfreo75]

Easy to be clued up with wealthy / influential supporters in your corner.

There's all sorts of ways to skin a cat.

Came from a well do family in SA and always had money smarts.

Not all AFL players end up wealthy. Pavlich seems to be good steward with money and clever enough to listen to good advice.

 

[TheEscapeClub]

But over the long run, generationally, with complete freedom, more players should be expected to want to play for Geelong than to play for the Dogs, which in a league where all clubs have an equal stake in, and through their ability to recruit players and develop them and put them on the park should be equal, that remains unfair. I don't really care that there have been periods of time that Geelong haven't been able to recruit players - that has basically been the case for the Bulldogs since literally 1925.

You don't see Geelong willingly share around their Easter Monday fixture, for example, which is why Dogs take issue with Geelong fans insisting on complete and utter freedom - because without restrictions and benefits to the Dogs identifying and developing talent, we'd always lose out to the clubs that get to play blockbuster fixtures, a representation of being a bigger club. Then you extend that out to the supporters and view of the "big clubs" that they're happy to have the Dogs in the league, but only to beat down on, and they don't really want the Dogs to be able to threaten their dominance of being a big club and prevent them from winning flags.

As a Dogs supporter, who do the Dogs have an intense rivalry with? GWS maybe after the 2016 pf? The problem is no one follows GWS.

St Kilda? North?

All match ups that would have struggled to fill the Western Oval, let alone Marvel.

In the mid 80s the Cats couldn't afford an extra $5k or so a year to keep Greg Williams which imo, cost us the '89 and '92 flags.

The club survived off Ablett Snr pulling punters through they gate. He retired and 4 years later we were practically dead, without a pot to piss in.

Geelong in the end were saved by having the right people in the right jobs.

Costa and Cook, Wells and Thompson, Harley and Scarlett and later Balme.

Being regional, with close proximity to the Surf Coast is now seen as a huge advantage compared to the Melbourne rat race.

Being a marginal seat has obviously helped too.

Early days some of it was luck but now it's good management all round, built on the foundations laid 20 / 25 years ago. From a 165 year old club, it's only been a very small window where we've consistently got it right.

Yes the club now has physical and geographical advantages due to societal changes but you can't take them for granted, you still have to exploit it and manage it. In old footy parlance, 'the wind won't do it for you.'