Opinion Commentary & Media VII

[Woolly Mammoth]

I always find this women's role in football quite bizarre.

As a kid, I was taken to the footy by my mum and nan. My mum always took me to my junior footy and stayed and encouraged (read yell at me).

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You'd think Peggy O'neil would have put that sh*t to bed. For 25 years Richmond had a revolving door of ex-players and cigar chomping Melbourne Grammar old boy 'professional sports administrators' who didnt make a lick of difference to the joint, but under Peggy's presidency they were one bad prelim away from 4 flags in a row. Not sure you can get a better test case than that for the argument that women can and do lead well and thrive at football clubs.

 

[Woolly Mammoth]

So, who’s worse:

Kano, who shitposts and refuses to acknowledge any issues that may lead to; or

Caro, who acknowledges and thinks deeply about the issues it may lead to, but shitposts anyway?

Caro by a country mile. Kane (owing more than anything to the fact he loves the sound of his own voice) will at least flesh out his arguments at length and is willing to debate them til he is blue in the face. Caro just throws incendiary dramatic tabloid soundbites around like confetti. Last week when discussing West Coast and someone asked about the similarity to us, she loudly exclaimed "they have no supporters! and no money!!" just mindlessly and needlessly sh*tstirring an already infuriated fanbase with cliched tropes that aren't even true like that is exactly the kind of thing that sets off an angry, lonely emotionally unbalanced footy nuffie to lash out at anyone they can reach from the club, like her sister in arms Sonja for instance.
To see her pretend to pause and reflect was pretty nauseating.

 

[Woolly Mammoth]

Just came across this. Resonates alot sadly.

Personally I think thats great to see, the Slug Jordan method, but I do wonder if that works with the Gen Z players.

 

[Spud11]

If I got into a lift with Kane Cornes, Craig Hutchison, Caroline Wilson and Matthew Lloyd I'd press the button to get off at the next floor and take the stairs. I'm certainly not going to passively sit down for an hour a listen to everything they've got to say.

Lloyd and to a lesser extent Hutchy I’d exclude from this.
And Kornes would’ve been included until this year. I think his criticisms are usually footy based and valid these days and, concerning us, I welcome pressure now. He’s fine to take aim at North because our culture is horrendous.

 

[sacrilecious]

If I got into a lift with Kane Cornes, Craig Hutchison, Caroline Wilson and Matthew Lloyd I'd press the button to get off at the next floor and take the stairs. I'm certainly not going to passively sit down for an hour a listen to everything they've got to say.

Just make sure you do a rancid fart and push all the buttons on your way out!

 

[The Law]

**** mckay. in it for himself and was part of the problem etc. etc. but his comments do sting.

I've heard nothing but good things about Merrett and McGrath. Langford and Parish too. I do wish we had that level of professionalism at North.

I definitely don't get that vibe from our captains. Maybe good if you need a chat and to settle in but not doing the extra yards and being meticulous with all things football related (I do have a shit load of respect for Jy's attitude towards training though and that would be excellent for the new recruits).

I assume Greenwood and Shiels do a lot of heavy lifting but in terms of North people maybe only Larkey and Sheezel. But Larkey doesn't have anyone to take under his wing besides sellers

 

[The Dingrel]

Honestly, what purpose does Lloyd’s comments about Harley and North tanking the last game serve? ‘North f**ked up heaps to get where they are, now here is what I think is another f up’. Nothing can be changed. I honestly don’t understand why he would make that comment. The story is ‘West Coast will be really happy with Harley’. But no, it’s ‘what a f up by north’ and over something over everyone said they shouldn’t do.

Where's the AFL integrity unit questioning him about this gutter journalism where he's suggesting we fk'd up by winning the game. " "I'd never condone tanking but they should have???" Seriously AFL should be punting him out of the game. You might think that, and a lot might agree BUT why in the hell would you put it into print to suggest that tanking is a part of the game or that North should have. He's saying we should have corrupted betting outcomes, tampered with the draft etc. Cheating is * culture. I'd say publishing that article brings the game into disrepute. Moron.

 

[tazaa]

I haven’t heard the interview but from what I heard Dwayne say it was a comment along the lines that Essendon’s senior players are prepared to watch a lot of videos etc.

It also takes me back to Barlow’s comments pre Geelong game where he said we’re an introverted group. That alone makes things even more difficult because they would be reluctant to take each other to task when required.

Yeh because Rawlings drafts versions of him.
Don't know how George and Finbar got through the cracks.

 

[LB2Snake]

I just caught the end of Dwayne Russell referencing an interview Ben McKay did on SEN this morning whereby Ben alluded to the fact that Essendon’s senior players put more effort in than ours ie more professional. Anyone catch it? I’m interested!

I actually listened to whole thing and thought Ben was great. Not once was he negative about North. In fact went out of his way to be positive about North. Goldy could take lessons.

 

[Gasometer]

Simple ******* skill errors, wtf is this s**t? These mistakes should not be happening by AFL players.

What’s worse is watching them in real time on Tv.

It’s why you turn it off and go get a life midway through the 3rd

Im as pathetic as those skill errors

 

[LuvtheKangas]

What’s worse is watching them in real time on Tv.

It’s why you turn it off and go get a life midway through the 3rd

Im as pathetic as those skill errors

I agree - it's very hard to watch on TV compared to at the ground.

I stopped watching at qtr time when they got the goal on the siren, then watched the rest of the game on fast forward a couple of hours later.

 

[Twinkletoes]

I actually listened to whole thing and thought Ben was great. Not once was he negative about North. In fact went out of his way to be positive about North. Goldy could take lessons.

And that’s why nuffies like me try to listen to every show (in the background) rather than someone else’s perspective on said show. In this case Dwayne’s interpretation of it (I’d missed the actual interview).

 

[Jeremy Jordan]

Just saw the video of John Cougar Mellencamp call that heckler a ‘c**ksucker’. Robbo is going to lose his mind at this homophobe.
$10,000 fine and a 3 concert band.

 

[Val Keating]

I listened to the McKay interview. Watson tried to set him up for a headline North comparison comment. I thought he actually answered it quite well. Reiterated three times he loved his time at North and didn't want to compare. Anyone disagree after listening to the whole interview or we going off a snippet from Dwayne?

I listened to the interview with Gaz and Whisp too and was impressed with McKay tbh. Went out of his way to be positive about his time at North.

I didn’t listen to the pipes show, but man he must’ve really tried hard to get a talking point out of that interview, one could easily come to the conclusion that Dwayne and the producers had already had a segment programmed before the interview to get people engaged.

 

[Caracas]

If it's an indicator of how our players respond and perform under pressure though how do we fix that? We can't have a playing group full of downhill skiers that always need everything 100% on their terms to be able to live up to their potential.

Agree. Hopefully, that’s not the case. The more likely reason is that our list has been savagely gutted over the last few years. The result is we have an incredibly unbalanced lineup with zero cohesion. AFL is one of the most unforgiving ball games when teams end up in our state.

 

[Colby Cheer Squad]

* mckay. in it for himself and was part of the problem etc. etc. but his comments do sting.

I've heard nothing but good things about Merrett and McGrath. Langford and Parish too. I do wish we had that level of professionalism at North.

I definitely don't get that vibe from our captains. Maybe good if you need a chat and to settle in but not doing the extra yards and being meticulous with all things football related (I do have a s**t load of respect for Jy's attitude towards training though and that would be excellent for the new recruits).

I assume Greenwood and Shiels do a lot of heavy lifting but in terms of North people maybe only Larkey and Sheezel. But Larkey doesn't have anyone to take under his wing besides sellers

You really do have to hand it to the Essendon leadership whose level of professionalism has taken the side to so many big finals wins in recent seasons.

 

[Caracas]

Only the most stubborn among us would not admit that the North hierarchy, since 2016 until “Sonja”, have been largely responsible for the hole we’re in. Some of it has been due to misfortune. Plenty of instances of plain “bad calls”, though. However, all that is in the past. Hopefully, we’ve learned our lesson. I’d argue that there has not been a single misstep since Sonja took over. Lloyd’s assertion regarding “we should have tanked” is obviously ludicrous.

 

[Caracas]

I’ve always been anti-Hutchy - due mainly to being influenced by the hate he generally receives on here. Generally, these footy shows just “slip through to the keeper” for me. Over the past few weeks, I’ve run into Hutchy twice on my daily walk. A more pleasant and amiable guy, you couldn’t meet. That doesn’t prove anything, I know. I’ve had similar experiences with Liam Pickering and, even, Eddie Maguire. Go figure.
I suppose that’s how they climb the ladder. They fool the average Joe.

 

[The Law]

You really do have to hand it to the Essendon leadership whose level of professionalism has taken the side to so many big finals wins in recent seasons.

Their new leaders that took over last season captained the team to 11 wins.

At the moment we'd dream of winning 1 game. Perhaps we shouldn't throw stones until we win more than 2 out of the past 20 quarters of football.

 

[Horizons_00]

I'm torn on McKay's comments tbh. On the one hand, I'm sick of ex-players taking these potshots and absolving any responsibility they had to work harder when they were at the club. On the other hand, I've no doubt that what he said is true and it reflects really poorly on the recent and current senior players. Just an absolutely putrid team culture.

Where there is smoke there is fire

No one is going to take pot shots or criticise their old club unless they had little to no respect for them...

 

[Possession]

Where there is smoke there is fire

No one is going to take pot shots or criticise their old club unless they had little to no respect for them...

Clearing out the senior rot is our number one priority this year. Developing good young replacements for the losers and hopefully trading in some reliable ~25 year old roleplayers to provide some stability and guidance to said kids (I am very aware of how our most recent stab at this is going... but I am convinced it can be done.)

 

[blackshadow]

I'm torn on McKay's comments tbh. On the one hand, I'm sick of ex-players taking these potshots and absolving any responsibility they had to work harder when they were at the club. On the other hand, I've no doubt that what he said is true and it reflects really poorly on the recent and current senior players. Just an absolutely putrid team culture.

A decent journalist would have come back with "Ben you were part of the leadership group at North, what did you do as part of that group to improve standards?"

 

[Horizons_00]

Clearing out the senior rot is our number one priority this year. Developing good young replacements for the losers and hopefully trading in some reliable ~25 year old roleplayers to provide some stability and guidance to said kids (I am very aware of how our most recent stab at this is going... but I am convinced it can be done.)

Sheezal sole captain and everyone can **** off

I cant believe Corr, McDonald etc who wouldn't even get a game at another club are in the leadership group.

I thought Clarko would make that decision and not let the players have so much say. Take the helm and be the boss. Seems like the players have picked their best mates lol

 

[blackshadow]

No doubt we are void of strong leaders.

I’m always taken aback when one of our young draftees is asked in interviews, who at the club is your mentor etc and it always seems to me like they struggle to come up with a name or two! But I guess that partly sums up where we are at as a club.

I posted this https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/leadership-where-is-it.1054721/ ten years ago - we've gone backwards in an alarming manner since then.

 

[Caracas]

Where there is smoke there is fire

No one is going to take pot shots or criticise their old club unless they had little to no respect for them...

In all the time I’ve been watching AFL, I cannot recall even a single instance of a player saying that the club they left had a superior “anything” in comparison to their new club. This Goldy/McKay palaver is so manufactured.