Opinion Commentary & Media VI

[The acurate one]

I disagree with everything he says except BBB and Taz. Unfortunately he's correct there and those are on us.

Well I suggest our plan was to bottom out. Hit the draft and get PP's at some point. We could have kept Higgins, Pittard, Williams, Brown, Tarrant and Macmillan. Think he's just turned 30.
All could be playing, reckon we'd have won 6/8 games easily and I'd be rocking in the corner sucking my thumb. Watching the eyes getting sucked out of the draft and we ending up with the fat slider.

It was a real damned if you do, damned if you don't. IMO

Oh well

 

[Twinkletoes]

Imagine him doing ya plumbing?..

Flush the toilet and your shower comes on..

Haha. Very good Sherm.

 

[leighlee13]

I see the Purple Nurple is at it again going on about how we shouldn’t get an “assistance” package and saying (in hindsight) nor should Fold Coast or Brisvegas or Carltank have gotten any.
Also said the only assistance package we should need is Clarko, umm we have to pay for him, that also at most we should get a lay 3rd rounder and 1 rookie list spot.
Went on about how we “let’” BBB go, and he would have provided support for Souva that we are going on about um didn’t he knock back more with us to go to the GoDees also on about how Taz would have been a good player to help BMac um didn’t Taz also want out.
So we should have retained players that we offered money to keep that went anyway, so hold a gun to their head to get them to say you ******* muppet Purple.

I see being on our side didn't last long. Leopards don't change their spots my friends.

 

[Gumble Frankieton]

Well I suggest our plan was to bottom out. Hit the draft and get PP's at some point. We could have kept Higgins, Pittard, Williams, Brown, Tarrant and Macmillan. Think he's just turned 30.
All could be playing, reckon we'd have won 6/8 games easily and I'd be rocking in the corner sucking my thumb. Watching the eyes getting sucked out of the draft and we ending up with the fat slider.

It was a real damned if you do, damned if you don't. IMO

Oh well

Yep. Somewhere in a parallel universe North decided to sign Brown, Higgins, Tarrant, Macmillan, Williams, Walker, Turner, Ziebell and Greenwood to multi-year deals. As a result, Purple is writing a story every day slamming the club for not having the foresight or courage to go for the rebuild option.

 

[Better Loosen Up]

Running back with the flight of the ball repeatedly during the 90s when we dominated. Scrapping and fighting at every contest.

Might not be an official AFL legend but, like plenty of those players, she is as far as I'm concerned.

Never forgotten when she stood in the hole in front of Tony Lockett in the 96 Grand Final and got completely steamrolled. Very gutsy defender for her size!

 

[see see]

Imagine him doing ya plumbing?..

Flush the toilet and your shower comes on..

And the shower sprays sh*t everywhere. Not unlike Bucky's approach to AFL list analysis.

 

[Colby Cheer Squad]

Never forgotten when she stood in the hole in front of Tony Lockett in the 96 Grand Final and got completely steamrolled. Very gutsy defender for her size!

I always felt that Glenn Archer's Norm Smith Medal owed just a little bit to Laidley. They kind of conflated their games into one.

 

[1975]

Yeah for sure.

Both the late 70s and the 90s were periods where we underperformed.

That article was crap too. It was just a shot at Carey and the club. The only truth it told was that back then good footy players got away with anything but we all knew that anyway, it wasn't just North either. It was widespread across Melbourne.

Well I suggest our plan was to bottom out. Hit the draft and get PP's at some point. We could have kept Higgins, Pittard, Williams, Brown, Tarrant and Macmillan. Think he's just turned 30.
All could be playing, reckon we'd have won 6/8 games easily and I'd be rocking in the corner sucking my thumb. Watching the eyes getting sucked out of the draft and we ending up with the fat slider.

It was a real damned if you do, damned if you don't. IMO

Oh well

Clarkson called 6/14 on the ladder no man’s land.
Two or three years of finishing right down the bottom is not such a bad thing in the long run.

(Ferball inclusion is a typo)

 

[Flawed Genius]

Fair Dinkum You Blokes

View attachment 1493821

*Ing hell. I read this in his voice and immediately chinned myself. *

 

[Orange Peanut]

Purple having a rant about PPs where he is careful to point out that he hates them for everyone. Not as bad as the other shit he's been piling on us the last few years imo.
I mean, he's still a flog, but I wouldn't expect him to suddenly change his tune on this issue.

 

[leighlee13]

Danielle Laidley reveals moments of fear, inspiration as AFL stars helped her find true self​

From the terrifying moments she thought her secret would be revealed to being welcomed back into the AFL fold, Danielle Laidley reveals the footy legends who helped her.

Mark Robinson August 30, 2022 - 12:00PM

In an exclusive interview, Danielle Laidley revealed her harrowing story of drugs, attempted suicide and hiding her true self from the world.
She is now a confident transgender woman, and she says former teammates, coaches and AFL stars have helped her on her journey.

Here are some of those stories.

MICK MALTHOUSE

The radio boxes at Marvel Stadium at Docklands are side-by-side, separated by thick glass.

On June 24, Danielle is in the Triple M box sitting at the back. Next door is Mick Malthouse in the ABC box.

Malthouse coached Danielle at West Coast and when he signed on as coach of Collingwood for the ’99 season, he asked Danielle to join him as an assistant coach. Malthouse is a fatherly figure, although he and Danielle had not seen each other for several years.

“One story encapsulates Michael Malthouse,” she says. “That night we saw each other in the media centre at Marvel, I’m in the Triple M box and he’s next door. And I didn’t see him. We’re doing some pre-game stuff and I get a tap on the shoulder and it’s Mick.

“I turn and there he is standing with his arms out and he says, ‘Give me a hug’. We had a hug and he said ‘Gee, you’re looking great, I’m really proud of you’.


“That’s the type of person Mick Malthouse is. It filled me with joy.’’

SCOTT WATTERS

It’s 2011, and Scott Watters is the newly appointed coach at St Kilda. Watters and Danielle were teammates at West Coast and an ambitious pact was made somewhere along their trails. If Watters or Danielle got a senior coaching job, the other would join as an assistant coach.

Appointed to the role, Danielle would be Dean when he was the midfield coach and would be Danielle at every other possible situation.

At the end of a messy Mad Monday at Port Melbourne Bowling Club in 2012 - Danielle was driving - drunken Saints big man Justin Koschitzke

Justin Koschitzke

Age

42

Ht

197cm

Wt

97kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

11.0

3star

K

6.9

3star

HB

4.1

3star

M

5.4

5star

T

1.6

4star

G

1.2

4star

No current season stats available

D

9.4

3star

K

5.2

2star

HB

4.2

4star

M

2.8

3star

T

0.2

3star

G

0.0

1star

turns to her and asks: Are you a cross-dresser?

“As a transgender person, to be labelled as a cross-dresser is quite indignant, because you’re not,” she says.

“A cross-dresser is a person who likes to dress up in the clothes of the opposite sex, and it becomes a little bit of a fetish, a sexual thing, whereas transgender is not. It’s never been a sexual thing for me. It’s been times of peace and warmth and calmness, just to be myself.

“So when I get asked that I get really annoyed. When he asked me, I said, ‘Give me more credit than that, no I’m not’. And that was that.

“But, you know, and this had been going on since before I played and coached obviously, but when it was always asked who was the gay footballer, I used to hear those conversations and I would run to the hills because I was scared that people would label me either gay or a cross-dresser or whatever.

“I used to run to the hills and think, ‘Wait until you hear about me.”

Many people ask if you were gay? “No.”

A cross-dresser? “There’s a few stories, Akermanis, Koschitzke, there’s one story that’s not in there from when I was at Carlton. That sent me spiralling in that moment.”

PREMIERSHIP REUNION

Upstairs at Dimattina’s in Lygon St, Carlton, a gang of premiership Kangaroos wait to greet Danielle at a dinner organised by former Kangaroo and friend, Mark Brayshaw.

Archer, Blakey, Larkin, Crocker, Allison, Fairley and McDonald are in attendance.

It’s 2021, and it’s a significant night of reconnecting.

In the Uber, Danielle, wearing a long brown dress, films herself to help shed the anxiety.

“I’ve never been so nervous in my life,” she says. “I was in an Uber and I was sweating, and I’m thinking, ‘I can’t do this, I can’t do this, I’ve got to go home’. I got there and there were three or four people there already.

“I remember getting to the top of the stairs and this is where the humour comes into it, sort of breaks the ice, because I was nervous and so were the boys.

“They don’t know what to call you, don’t know whether to shake your hand. One of them went to shake my hand and I knocked it away and said, ‘Hey, give me a hug’. Everyone had a laugh.

“There was a time when we were sitting down and eating and I got up to go to the toilet, and I turned and said, ‘Don’t you go looking at my arse, you boys’.” Everyone laughed.

“The night was something to behold. Yes, there were tears around the table, a lot of them mine, a lot of other people’s, and to a person they just said we can see you’re happy, we want you healthy and we want you to be here, so please make sure that happens.

“I did the same thing with a bunch of West Coast boys at Bluey McKenna’s place.

“Just the empathy, warmth and care ... I’ve now reconnected with all these people. I’ve spoken to more teammates and players I coached more in the past two years than I did in 20 years.”

 

[Uncle_Leo]

*Ing hell. I read this in his voice and immediately chinned myself. *

"Gazey we have Flawed Genius on the line up next, he is one of the very best, we love having him on, Flawed are you there mate? Flawed? Looks like some old technical difficulties there, but you were talking earlier Gazey about the real heart and soul type players of a club and by gee its hard to go past an Ed Curnow type, now the Carlton fans out there they'll understand where I'm coming from here but by golly you'll find it hard to find anyone more important to a club than this man, just a real reeeeal quality person and I don't say this lightly, one of, if not... no can I say that? Oh I will, one of the most important people, even including the women's half of the club, one of the most important and just crucial people to that club is Ed.. Flawed have we got him back? No looks like we might have lost him but he is one of the very best I'm sure he will join us a bit later on"

 

[sutcliffe's hotel]

Danielle Laidley reveals moments of fear, inspiration as AFL stars helped her find true self​

From the terrifying moments she thought her secret would be revealed to being welcomed back into the AFL fold, Danielle Laidley reveals the footy legends who helped her.

Mark Robinson August 30, 2022 - 12:00PM

In an exclusive interview, Danielle Laidley revealed her harrowing story of drugs, attempted suicide and hiding her true self from the world.
She is now a confident transgender woman, and she says former teammates, coaches and AFL stars have helped her on her journey.

Here are some of those stories.

MICK MALTHOUSE

The radio boxes at Marvel Stadium at Docklands are side-by-side, separated by thick glass.

On June 24, Danielle is in the Triple M box sitting at the back. Next door is Mick Malthouse in the ABC box.

Malthouse coached Danielle at West Coast and when he signed on as coach of Collingwood for the ’99 season, he asked Danielle to join him as an assistant coach. Malthouse is a fatherly figure, although he and Danielle had not seen each other for several years.

“One story encapsulates Michael Malthouse,” she says. “That night we saw each other in the media centre at Marvel, I’m in the Triple M box and he’s next door. And I didn’t see him. We’re doing some pre-game stuff and I get a tap on the shoulder and it’s Mick.

“I turn and there he is standing with his arms out and he says, ‘Give me a hug’. We had a hug and he said ‘Gee, you’re looking great, I’m really proud of you’.


“That’s the type of person Mick Malthouse is. It filled me with joy.’’

SCOTT WATTERS

It’s 2011, and Scott Watters is the newly appointed coach at St Kilda. Watters and Danielle were teammates at West Coast and an ambitious pact was made somewhere along their trails. If Watters or Danielle got a senior coaching job, the other would join as an assistant coach.

Appointed to the role, Danielle would be Dean when he was the midfield coach and would be Danielle at every other possible situation.

At the end of a messy Mad Monday at Port Melbourne Bowling Club in 2012 - Danielle was driving - drunken Saints big man Justin Koschitzke turns to her and asks: Are you a cross-dresser?

“As a transgender person, to be labelled as a cross-dresser is quite indignant, because you’re not,” she says.

“A cross-dresser is a person who likes to dress up in the clothes of the opposite sex, and it becomes a little bit of a fetish, a sexual thing, whereas transgender is not. It’s never been a sexual thing for me. It’s been times of peace and warmth and calmness, just to be myself.

“So when I get asked that I get really annoyed. When he asked me, I said, ‘Give me more credit than that, no I’m not’. And that was that.

“But, you know, and this had been going on since before I played and coached obviously, but when it was always asked who was the gay footballer, I used to hear those conversations and I would run to the hills because I was scared that people would label me either gay or a cross-dresser or whatever.

“I used to run to the hills and think, ‘Wait until you hear about me.”

Many people ask if you were gay? “No.”

A cross-dresser? “There’s a few stories, Akermanis, Koschitzke, there’s one story that’s not in there from when I was at Carlton. That sent me spiralling in that moment.”

PREMIERSHIP REUNION

Upstairs at Dimattina’s in Lygon St, Carlton, a gang of premiership Kangaroos wait to greet Danielle at a dinner organised by former Kangaroo and friend, Mark Brayshaw.

Archer, Blakey, Larkin, Crocker, Allison, Fairley and McDonald are in attendance.

It’s 2021, and it’s a significant night of reconnecting.

In the Uber, Danielle, wearing a long brown dress, films herself to help shed the anxiety.

“I’ve never been so nervous in my life,” she says. “I was in an Uber and I was sweating, and I’m thinking, ‘I can’t do this, I can’t do this, I’ve got to go home’. I got there and there were three or four people there already.

“I remember getting to the top of the stairs and this is where the humour comes into it, sort of breaks the ice, because I was nervous and so were the boys.

“They don’t know what to call you, don’t know whether to shake your hand. One of them went to shake my hand and I knocked it away and said, ‘Hey, give me a hug’. Everyone had a laugh.

“There was a time when we were sitting down and eating and I got up to go to the toilet, and I turned and said, ‘Don’t you go looking at my arse, you boys’.” Everyone laughed.

“The night was something to behold. Yes, there were tears around the table, a lot of them mine, a lot of other people’s, and to a person they just said we can see you’re happy, we want you healthy and we want you to be here, so please make sure that happens.

“I did the same thing with a bunch of West Coast boys at Bluey McKenna’s place.

“Just the empathy, warmth and care ... I’ve now reconnected with all these people. I’ve spoken to more teammates and players I coached more in the past two years than I did in 20 years.”

“We want you healthy and we want you to be here.”

A whole hearted love right there, beautiful words.

 

[leighlee13]

“We want you healthy and we want you to be here.”

A whole hearted love right there, beautiful words.

Couldn't agree more. Cudos to all who have supported Dani especially at North. Another reason to love this club.

 

[LuvtheKangas]

I disagree with everything he says except BBB and Taz. Unfortunately he's correct there and those are on us.

I suspect we might have kept Brown if he was willing to take from us the money he now gets at that Dees.

People keep forgetting that it all started when he knocked back a very generous offer to stay, and it was (rightly) later removed from the table.

 

[BigRedRoo]

Clarkson called 6/14 on the ladder no man’s land.
Two or three years of finishing right down the bottom is not such a bad thing in the long run.

(Ferball inclusion is a typo)

The real issue is the quality of the recruiting staff and their ability to pick future players.
We have had so many wasted years of recruitment.
So many player who ended up as also rans or never was never will be.
Just for fun go back thought the draft and play coulda shoulda woulda and see who we could have recruited over the years, it will make you weep.

 

[Flawed Genius]

"Gazey we have Flawed Genius on the line up next, he is one of the very best, we love having him on, Flawed are you there mate? Flawed? Looks like some old technical difficulties there, but you were talking earlier Gazey about the real heart and soul type players of a club and by gee its hard to go past an Ed Curnow type, now the Carlton fans out there they'll understand where I'm coming from here but by golly you'll find it hard to find anyone more important to a club than this man, just a real reeeeal quality person and I don't say this lightly, one of, if not... no can I say that? Oh I will, one of the most important people, even including the women's half of the club, one of the most important and just crucial people to that club is Ed.. Flawed have we got him back? No looks like we might have lost him but he is one of the very best I'm sure he will join us a bit later on"

Sprinkle in a few "great man"s and references to Robert Murphy and wheezing chuckles and you've got the makings of a perfect Radar impression

 

[King Corey]

"Gazey we have Flawed Genius on the line up next, he is one of the very best, we love having him on, Flawed are you there mate? Flawed? Looks like some old technical difficulties there, but you were talking earlier Gazey about the real heart and soul type players of a club and by gee its hard to go past an Ed Curnow type, now the Carlton fans out there they'll understand where I'm coming from here but by golly you'll find it hard to find anyone more important to a club than this man, just a real reeeeal quality person and I don't say this lightly, one of, if not... no can I say that? Oh I will, one of the most important people, even including the women's half of the club, one of the most important and just crucial people to that club is Ed.. Flawed have we got him back? No looks like we might have lost him but he is one of the very best I'm sure he will join us a bit later on"

Wow. Picture perfect.

 

[1975]

The real issue is the quality of the recruiting staff and their ability to pick future players.
We have had so many wasted years of recruitment.
So many player who ended up as also rans or never was never will be.
Just for fun go back thought the draft and play coulda shoulda woulda and see who we could have recruited over the years, it will make you weep.

Been a few clangers that’s for sure but I think we have done ok in the last couple of years, time will tell.
Clarkson’s comment that he thinks the club has done some of the heavy lifting recently is reassuring.

 

[BigRedRoo]

Been a few clangers that’s for sure but I think we have done ok in the last couple of years, time will tell.
Clarkson’s comment that he thinks the club has done some of the heavy lifting recently is reassuring.

if you think about it we typically have 4 selections a year at the draft, we need to average 2 players a year.
Over 10 years that's 20 players or a 50% strike rate.
I'd suggest our long term average over the last 15 years has been well below that, I nominate 2011 as our worst year at the draft.

 

[Farthers]

if you think about it we typically have 4 selections a year at the draft, we need to average 2 players a year.
Over 10 years that's 20 players or a 50% strike rate.
I'd suggest our long term average over the last 15 years has been well below that, I nominate 2011 as our worst year at the draft.

2014 was a stinker too, Durdin, Nielsen and EVW.

 

[koshari]

I see being on our side didn't last long. Leopards don't change their spots my friends.

he has contradicted his own argument because one of the reasons were worse than we could have been is due to us dropping down the draft for those precise reasons, its like a doctor saying i know why your sick and i know you have been contributing to medicare but unlike the patients before you your not getting access to the medicine you need

 

[Passmore]

Well I suggest our plan was to bottom out. Hit the draft and get PP's at some point. We could have kept Higgins, Pittard, Williams, Brown, Tarrant and Macmillan. Think he's just turned 30.
All could be playing, reckon we'd have won 6/8 games easily and I'd be rocking in the corner sucking my thumb. Watching the eyes getting sucked out of the draft and we ending up with the fat slider.

It was a real damned if you do, damned if you don't. IMO

Oh well

Well we nailed the bottoming out bit.

 

[The acurate one]

Well we nailed the bottoming out bit.

Oh did we what wowsers! Some say the best bottoming out side ever in the history of all levels of footyball.

We even went as far as to ignore talent in the drafts and take shitmen to ensure success wasn't to be fleeting.
Those days are over Mr Passmore, a lean mean Clarko machine has set the wheels in motion for mass hysteria amongst all who hate us.

Our next premiership will forever be tainted because we got pick 71 as a PP and access to two country league footballers aged between 26-28 because that we said is where we lack personal.

Well they underestimated the desire for success from the Tittybong Flyer. The other didn't make it because his lawn moving business was taking off.

 

[Passmore]

Oh did we what wowsers! Some say the best bottoming out side ever in the history of all levels of footyball.

We even went as far as to ignore talent in the drafts and take shitmen to ensure success wasn't to be fleeting.
Those days are over Mr Passmore, a lean mean Clarko machine has set the wheels in motion for mass hysteria amongst all who hate us.

Our next premiership will forever be tainted because we got pick 71 as a PP and access to two country league footballers aged between 26-28 because that we said is where we lack personal.

Well they underestimated the desire for success from the Tittybong Flyer. The other didn't make it because his lawn moving business was taking off.

We do love a good Tittybong flyer.