Prediction Dr Sonja Hood AM

[Samsquanch]

You mean if only he was list manager a decade ago?

Its the three drafts before Jy and Souv were drafted where we have one player to show and there are what ... two in total? ... playing in the comp.

You have to admit it, selecting Mason Wood looks like a genius pick in retrospect.

 

[Gasometer]

I fell like there a few posters here that will defend the club no matter what. It’s almost as if they are not prepared to level any criticism to the people in charge who run the club. We are one worst performing sports organisations in the country year after year. That’s just the facts. Some criticism is warranted.

On field performance is beyond her control but the functionality of the Membership Dept is and I shouldn’t have to start the OP of the 2025 Membership thread to check off on aspects that saw Members furious last year.

 

[Gasometer]

It's because they work for the club and/or are related to the senior people involved at the club.

There is only a few of them left now - no actual football insight between them and not one original thought in their 1000's of pots - they just continually criticise those who put money into the club.

Put them on ignore as they pop up - whack-a-mole style - it will raise the intelligence of who you engage with on this Board quite sharply.

Wat? There are posters that work for the Club or who are in the know? Who?

 

[Dodecahedron]

Go back and read the euphoria on this board leading up to, during and after Clarkson’s appointment. Pages and pages and pages of ecstatic joy. So what exactly has Sonja done wrong? Sorry - This is all on Clarko, the Coaches and the Players. They are embarrassing her, themselves and all of us.

 

[Jasemon]

1. You spelt her name wrong. Amazing respect and admiration there.

2. You are responsible for your mental health.

Check my post above. I’d say you must be a member of her inner circle with that kind of defence. Apologies for spelling her name incorrectly. I do think she’s an amazing woman and been fantastic for our club BUT it doesn’t change the fact North supporters have just sat through 91 losses in 5 years. References to mental health should have been taken figuratively. Our team does genuinely make me question my sanity however.

 

[chubbspeterson]

Completely understand that.

My frustration / concern is more around the fact that the club thinks it is "backing themselves into a corner" by publicly committing to such a lowly goal...

Not sure the Ben Buckley route of "we will win a flag in 3 years" is the way to go in terms of public comments.
There's setting goals and then there's saying something stupid that is actually beyond the realms of possibility within 3 years when you have started a full scale rebuild.

I'd like a bit more urgency in the comments but there is a bit of the unknown with a young developing team as to when things will click. I'd prefer a bit more "we're in a hurry to get up the ladder" or "we won't put a ceiling on the group".

Looking at OKC Thunder in the NBA, there is nobody in that organisation saying "we will be in the playoffs in 3 years and get 40 plus wins". The messaging was just "improvement" and "no ceiling" on the group.
What is being said internally is the most important thing imo.

 

[shimaburnsgrieg]

Go back and read the euphoria on this board leading up to, during and after Clarkson’s appointment. Pages and pages and pages of ecstatic joy. So what exactly has Sonja done wrong? Sorry - This is all on Clarko, the Coaches and the Players. They are embarrassing her, themselves and all of us.

Of course they are - and as President she needs to say that (not exactly that as such but words to that effect). She needs to make it clear that the strategy is not working (or at a minimum it is not working as quickly as the Board had planned) and as a result there is now going to be additional oversight/review/resources applied to assess what has gone wrong and a plan of how to improve things. Her job is not to just dish out an AI type of response when the club you are the head off is so overwhelmingly failing.

Everyone loved the appointment of Clarko - Sonja did tremendously well to sign him up - but to insinuate 'we remain on track, there are plenty of positives and nothing needs to change' is just plain stupid, reflects poorly on her and is insulting to members.

 

[The Warlord]

I fell like there a few posters here that will defend the club no matter what. It’s almost as if they are not prepared to level any criticism to the people in charge who run the club. We are one worst performing sports organisations in the country year after year. That’s just the facts. Some criticism is warranted.

This will be news to our teams that just won a flag, or made a grand final.

Our senior men's team is shit right now, but we've loaded up on picks and have the best coach of his generation in charge.

I mean, not sure what else we can do to set up improvement.

 

[DuckYeah]

This will be news to our teams that just won a flag, or made a grand final.

Our senior men's team is shit right now, but we've loaded up on picks and have the best coach of his generation in charge.

I mean, not sure what else we can do to set up improvement.

Intensive CBT and self efficacy intervention

 

[Ball Dont Lie]

This will be news to our teams that just won a flag, or made a grand final.

Our senior men's team is shit right now, but we've loaded up on picks and have the best coach of his generation in charge.

I mean, not sure what else we can do to set up improvement.

Which team just a won a flag or made a grand final? I believe our last final appearance was 2016 and last grand final appearance was 1999. We have loaded up on picks not through choice but through results.

 

[archereleven]

I mean, not sure what else we can do to set up improvement.

We could sack the bloke who can't pick players outside of the first 2 rounds? 50% of the posters here could have drafted better than Snoz, imho. He's missed on the ND, RD, and MSD and then signed shit trucks from within and from outside the team to ****ing ridiculous contracts.

His tenure has been shithouse and 5 years in our list composition is the worst in the AFL.

On SM-G991B using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Hearts to hearts]

Which team just a won a flag or made a grand final? I believe our last final appearance was 2016 and last grand final appearance was 1999. We have loaded up on picks not through choice but through results.

Our VFLW team just won the flag. Our AFLW team lost the last grand final and has come back as flag favourites this season. Under a coach, by the way, whose mantra is “we just all work to get better every day” when he is pressed about specific targets. The VFL team performed much better in the season just gone.

It’s not news to anyone that the AFL men’s team has a long way to go to turn around the past few years, but that doesn’t say the entire organisation doesn’t know how to perform at a high level. The Board has gone out and recruited people to run the AFL team exactly because they know that - this group has been given five years to get things on track, and we are two (interrupted) years in. Also not news. Not sure she needs to say more than she has at this early stage of the rebuild. It’s not going as well as we’d have liked, but we are confident in the people we have in charge and will give them the time we agreed on to keep pushing ahead. And thanks to all of us for sticking with the club.

 

[Ball Dont Lie]

Our VFLW team just won the flag. Our AFLW team lost the last grand final and has come back as flag favourites this season. Under a coach, by the way, whose mantra is “we just all work to get better every day” when he is pressed about specific targets. The VFL team performed much better in the season just gone.

It’s not news to anyone that the AFL men’s team has a long way to go to turn around the past few years, but that doesn’t say the entire organisation doesn’t know how to perform at a high level. The Board has gone out and recruited people to run the AFL team exactly because they know that - this group has been given five years to get things on track, and we are two (interrupted) years in. Also not news. Not sure she needs to say more than she has at this early stage of the rebuild. It’s not going as well as we’d have liked, but we are confident in the people we have in charge and will give them the time we agreed on to keep pushing ahead. And thanks to all of us for sticking with the club.

Fair enough. I think it’s very smart of posters to use the success of the AFLW program to deflect the failure of the AFL team. It’s hard to argue against. The VFL team finished 15th this year versus 10th last year. I personally feel as if the rebuild has been going on longer than 2 (interrupted years) based on results and our list profile since 2021 but perhaps I am wrong. We will just have to wait and see.

 

[TennisPlayerAndy]

The ‘success’ of the Women’s program has absolutely zero to do with what’s being discussed here.

Reeks of pointing to KPI’s that aren’t related to the one thing that needs to improve. ‘Fan experience at the football…’

The AFL side needs to be winning games of football. Fast.

Everything else is irrelevant.

 

[The Warlord]

Which team just a won a flag or made a grand final? I believe our last final appearance was 2016 and last grand final appearance was 1999. We have loaded up on picks not through choice but through results.

Our VFLW team just won the flag and our AFLW was in the last grand final.

 

[The Warlord]

The ‘success’ of the Women’s program has absolutely zero to do with what’s being discussed here.

Reeks of pointing to KPI’s that aren’t related to the one thing that needs to improve. ‘Fan experience at the football…’

The AFL side needs to be winning games of football. Fast.

Everything else is irrelevant.

If people want to say the AFL side is historically shithouse, that's an undeniable fact.

Not sure what more people want that getting Alistair Clarkson to fix it though.

But saying we're not a successful sporting organisation is not a fact either.

 

[The Warlord]

Our VFLW team just won the flag. Our AFLW team lost the last grand final and has come back as flag favourites this season. Under a coach, by the way, whose mantra is “we just all work to get better every day” when he is pressed about specific targets. The VFL team performed much better in the season just gone.

It’s not news to anyone that the AFL men’s team has a long way to go to turn around the past few years, but that doesn’t say the entire organisation doesn’t know how to perform at a high level. The Board has gone out and recruited people to run the AFL team exactly because they know that - this group has been given five years to get things on track, and we are two (interrupted) years in. Also not news. Not sure she needs to say more than she has at this early stage of the rebuild. It’s not going as well as we’d have liked, but we are confident in the people we have in charge and will give them the time we agreed on to keep pushing ahead. And thanks to all of us for sticking with the club.

After we win the next AFL flag, I will be starting a recriminations thread for the identification and shaming of the cowards who wilted under fire during the rebuild.

This thread will be a rich source of material.

 

[Only Forwards]

Intensive CBT and self efficacy intervention

Absolutely agree that a lot of the on field issues that we currently have within the AFL reside here.

I will go as far as once we lost to West Coast the last two round were lost inside the players minds.

the weight of the belief they would lose anchoring them to not even try beyond going through the motions.

We so desperately need mature on field leadership that endows a belief in our ability to win.

We are clearly trying to import it and we are trying to build it, and every ounce of it we get is going to be hard fought.

Also, very little of that is controllable by the president.

 

[TennisPlayerAndy]

If people want to say the AFL side is historically shithouse, that's an undeniable fact.

Not sure what more people want that getting Alistair Clarkson to fix it though.

But saying we're not a successful sporting organisation is not a fact either.

We have the longest GF drought of any side in the competition. Level with Carlton.

We haven’t made one since the years started being written with the number two at the front.

Twenty five years of various shades of mediocrity and shitfulness.

And now, we’ve got a president pointing to a whole host of peripheral ‘successes’ that are irrelevant to the one thing that matters.

Winning games of football.

 

[Passmore]

Absolutely agree that a lot of the on field issues that we currently have within the AFL reside here.

I will go as far as once we lost to West Coast the last two round were lost inside the players minds.

the weight of the belief they would lose anchoring them to not even try beyond going through the motions.

We so desperately need mature on field leadership that endows a belief in our ability to win.

We are clearly trying to import it and we are trying to build it, and every ounce of it we get is going to be hard fought.

Also, very little of that is controllable by the president.

That second half was a self inflicted kick in the nuts that we never recovered from. Go on to win that game as we should have, the whole season looks different.

In contrast to last year though, no one is going to be patting themselves on the back after winning a dead last game. They got humiliated. Interesting to see who comes back with some fire in the belly.

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[Colby Cheer Squad]

We have the longest GF drought of any side in the competition. Level with Carlton.

We haven’t made one since the years started being written with the number two at the front.

Twenty five years of various shades of mediocrity and shitfulness.

And now, we’ve got a president pointing to a whole host of peripheral ‘successes’ that are irrelevant to the one thing that matters.

Winning games of football.

Or perhaps more accurately, the only thing that matters is winning games of football played between combatants with the requisite spread of chromosomes.

 

[Hearts to hearts]

Fair enough. I think it’s very smart of posters to use the success of the AFLW program to deflect the failure of the AFL team. It’s hard to argue against. The VFL team finished 15th this year versus 10th last year. I personally feel as if the rebuild has been going on longer than 2 (interrupted years) based on results and our list profile since 2021 but perhaps I am wrong. We will just have to wait and see.

It’s not a deflection - just noting that the senior men’s team is not the whole organisation.

Of course for us the rebuild has been going longer - it feels interminable, maybe since end of 2016, certainly since 2019 - but when they got Clarkson and Viney in and changed pretty much everything around the AFL team that was a major reset and we have to count their efforts from then, not hold them accountable for what happened before.

On topic, Sonja and most of the Board were part of the false starts, so they actually do have accountability for that. They are all chips in on this setup. If it fails too, their positions will be pretty untenable.

 

[The Warlord]

We have the longest GF drought of any side in the competition. Level with Carlton.

We haven’t made one since the years started being written with the number two at the front.

Twenty five years of various shades of mediocrity and shitfulness.

And now, we’ve got a president pointing to a whole host of peripheral ‘successes’ that are irrelevant to the one thing that matters.

Winning games of football.

We won a game of football three days ago.

If your view is only the blokes count, that's fine, you go for it.

 

[Colby Cheer Squad]

We won a game of football three days ago.

If your view is only the blokes count, that's fine, you go for it.

You can so easily tell the North supporters who follow AFLW from those who don't. The former have an overwhelming sense of hope and expectation about them. The latter remain angry, miserable, and joyless. I would advise everyone to get on board if only for their own mental health.

 

[blackshadow]

Wat? There are posters that work for the Club or who are in the know? Who?

I'm on the lookout