LIVE: Geelong v Brisbane Lions - 7:30PM Sat
Squiggle tips Cats at 54% chance -- What's your tip? -- Teams on Thurs »
AFLW 2024 - Round 4 - Chat, game threads, injury lists, team lineups and more.
Perhaps because, like Carey suggested, the leadership group at the club has maintained that egotistical nature from when the Duck played and can't realise how petty they are coming off.
I was thinking this the other day. Did they shoot themselves in the foot by sacking him so close to finals? Perhaps they thought they didn't need him, but I'm not so sure they're thinking that way now. Of course it's all hindsight, but since sacking him things have gone from bad to worse, not just with injuries, but also with increased pressure on the club to succeed without him, like they had to prove something?
Veteran
10k Posts
Western Bulldogs Board Tipping Champion
Western Bulldogs - Josh Prudden Player Sponsor 2016
Western Bulldogs - Zaine Cordy Player Sponsor 2016
Western Bulldogs - Bailey Dale Player Sponsor 2016
Western Bulldogs - Mitch Honeychurch Player Sponsor 2016
SuperCoach Club Board Championship League Member
What astounds me is how precious the Bulldogs and their supporters are.
We'll never know whether having Aker in those recent games would've mattered, or if he would've performed come finals time. As for his form being "terrible", well, that's debatable. He certainly wasn't kicking goals, but a player's impact has to be measured not just in these terms...
If he's a "slow dwarf" who wins a Brownlow and places in the Best and Fairest 6 or 7 times I think we'd be pretty happy
Your reports are pretty switched on
He's a player that relied heavily on his pace and athleticism to get around the field. When he lost both of these precious assets prior to the start of this season he was cooked. He would be completely useless on the field for us today - we're not talking Aker circa 2003. It was a mistake in more ways than one to give him another season in 2010 and the club needs to wear that significant error of judgement. We drafted Aker at the end of 2006 specifically to have an impact in September and when he comprehensively failed to do so in both the 2008 and 2009 finals series, both parties should have cut their losses there and then.
Lulz ur just mad because he exposed carltons tanking.
A couple of points. Firstly, I don't feel sorry for Aker at all, and I haven't seen that sentiment expressed in this thread at all. Nobody on here is saying they're sorry for Aker, much the opposite actually. People here accept that Aker is a media whore and attention seeker, but that he may have still been useful for the Dogs had he been retained. Did the Dogs pull the trigger too early on him? A recent run of injuries might suggest so...
not so sure about this part. If someone was writing a book and they were writing things about you such as you're on drugs, if it wasn't true would you just sit back and let it happen or would you deny it?
A few points.
1. Learn to read properly before you so dogmatically categorise my post as wrong. Nowhere did I say you sacked him for nothing. Even Smorgan and Rose said it was for a cumulation of events over time. None of which happenned in the public eye in the 2-3 weeks preceeding his sacking, reread my post to confirm this is what I was saying.
You said "There was no "external" problems from Aker for the previous few weeks before his sacking, well not compared to what has happened since where every comment he makes is magnified because of the sacking." I think you need to go back and have read of the papers leading up to the time he was let go, and perhaps get some transcripts of his radio work to that point. The reason why we sacked him was not because of the way he was behaving amongst the group, it was the way he was behaving away from it.
2. "Apart from the last 2 weeks", so these last 2 weeks don't mean anything is that what your saying, not important, somehow not relevant to the conversation, idiot.
Of course these last two weeks mean something. Our team is in terrible form and in case you haven't noticed copping injuries left right and centre. Leading up to the game against Geelong we played significantly better football than what we did when Aker was playing.
3. You had far more control of him when he was still employed than you do now, that is fact, you just didn't know how to deal with him.
I think after you researched the radio transcripts and read through the papers leading up to his sacking you would agree that lied to the club, let go of club information to his two great mates Sam and Steve, "in confidence" (those bastards betrayed him.....jerks
4. "Just because the media blows every comment Aker makes out of proportion it doesn't mean the Bulldogs do", another idiotic comment, what did you honestly expect, of coarse he was going to say more when he left and of coarse the media was going to blow it all out of proportion. If your administration didn't anticipate this they are incompetant.
The club would have expected him to say a number of things about it and its players, as well as anyone else that he thought could get him a headline. Doesn't mean it affects us, and if you re-read my post you'll realise that the situation where we're not accountable for his crap anymore has to be better than the alternative.
5. The last couple of weeks would indicate that the club might not have all its focus on these "other things".
If you think our current form, recent illness and mounting injury toll is due to Aker's comments then good luck to you.
Your football department should not have renewed his contract after last year, you have plenty of good young kids that could do his role but your FD didn't have the balls to play the young kids instead and kept an injury riddled older player with a big mouth on instead of giving the younger guys an opportunity.
I think if you had a little look at our season you'd realise our young kids, particularly those that could fulfill a forward role have been given extended opportunities. If you didn't think Aker deserved another year after his 2009 season, then fair enough, but you would without the benefit of hindsight be a very lonely figure in the "say no to Aker 2010 column".
You reap what you sow and all but Bulldogs supporters in this thread agree that your club has handled this whole situation atrocioulsy.
I read your entire post, don't worry.When you use two loaded adjectives like "devastating" and "horrible" in the same sentence when discussing the injuries suffered by your club, you're making excuses. It's the excessive nature of the language. Go back and read the sentence..."Sadly the horrible injuries have been devastating".
