Prediction Dr Sonja Hood AM

[Colby Cheer Squad]

The Alex Neal-Bullen comments regarding game plan should put this into perspective.

Yeah, I don' t buy that. Really, how complicated is the game plan? What takes a couple of years is for the young players to mature. We're starting to see it in Scott, and JHF wont take long. But its the likes of Perez and Taylor that need to start getting better. Plus we need our experienced guys playing well. And neither of those are happening.

Well all I can do is refer you back to Alex Neal-Bullen who has lived experience when it comes to learning a game plan and taking it all the way to a premiership. If another premiership player (or at least a current player who has achieved some degree of team success) calls bullshit on this theory, then I'm all ears. But for the rest of us to question this - well how would we know?

 

[ferball]

The old Chas & Dave song comes to mind.

Poor old Mr Woogie ... right???

 

[Mcarcherey]

We've got folks moaning because they don't hear from the Pres. Then we've got folks moaning because they don't like what she says when they do hear from her.

Really what they're saying is that we don't like that she's not verbalising what we've been bitching and moaning about. It's taken me way too many years of my life to realise that there is just no pleasing some people

It's not unreasonable to expect her to say something meaningful within the first 9 rounds in one of, if not the worst season the club has ever had.
It's also not unreasonable to expect it to be meaningful, not the same "this'll turn, have faith" propaganda. We're severely worse than last year, we recruited and were sold a fast offensive game plan, it's slower and there is no consistent style. What are members buying into? What positives am I seeing? Winning a quarter by a few points isn't any part of a "process", tell us something meaningful! What is a single KPI, what is a positive within the process? Because to me it looks like there isn't one and these demoralising losses will be in vain

On Pixel 6 using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[WesternRoo]

A message from the club President Dr Sonja Hood

Nine rounds into the season, and we sit 17th on the ladder. We’ve watched one win, and eight losses, and to say we’ve all experienced a great deal of frustration is an understatement.

When I wrote to you earlier this year, I outlined the five areas of long-term focus for the Board: sustained on-field success in the men’s and women’s programs; improvements to our balance sheet; embedding ourselves in the Arden Precinct; our club culture; and our members.

Over the year, I’ll provide regular updates that address each of these areas as appropriate. Today, we’ll focus on football and members – the two reasons we exist as a club.

Returning to our on-field results – is this where we want to be? Clearly not – as a football club, our primary objective is to win, and that’s what we set out to do every week. But if I look at it in terms of the bigger journey we are on, there are some positives and a whole lot of learnings to take out.

When the club embarked on our aggressive list management program at the end of the 2020 season, we took the decision to hit the draft hard. As a result, we have taken 10 National Draft selections over the last two years, the equal most across the AFL clubs in that time. Our list now contains eight first-round draft picks aged 25 years or under.

This season we’ve seen the AFL debuts of Jason Horne-Francis, Miller Bergman and Paul Curtis, while Hugh Greenwood and Callum Coleman-Jones have played their first games for the club. We were thrilled to see Jason earn a Rising Star nomination in round seven.

David Noble and his coaching group are getting to work on building a physically and mentally healthy football program that will deliver sustained success.

Nobes and our GM of Football Performance Daniel McPherson have been through this process before at Brisbane and Melbourne respectively. They were there when things were tough, they saw success built from the ground up and know that it takes time. There’s nothing in football that will surprise of shake them. They are committed, confident and clear in where we are heading and how we’ll get there.

They are working hard to educate and implement a game style that is selfless, that will be exciting to watch for our supporters and is capable of being successful in finals. It is a work in progress.

In terms of our women’s program – there’s a lot I can’t say as the AFL is still finalising the details for the upcoming season, which we expect to start at the end of August. It’s safe to say, however, that we’ll have some exciting news on the list management front in the coming days and weeks. The coaching and playing leadership group, led by Darren Crocker and Emma Kearney, are plotting a huge pre-season. They’ll be ready whenever the League says we need to be ready.

And so, to our members. As I write this, we’ve passed 47,000 members – another new record for our club. It’s a phenomenal achievement, particularly considering both the on-field performance, and the lack of opportunity we’ve had to go to games in the first half of the season. The team has travelled to Brisbane, Sydney, Hobart (twice) and Perth and played only two home games so far in Melbourne.

We can’t thank our members enough for their support during this phase of the club’s on-field development. I’m constantly reminded about why I love this club so much when supporters reach out to me or other members of the Board to say they are in for the long haul. And that’s been backed up by those wonderful numbers.

I also know the players have missed playing in front of our members. We are all looking forward to the remainder of the season when we play nine of our last 13 games in Victoria (including one in Geelong), and two at our home away from home, Blundstone Arena in Hobart.

With the team being more visible in Melbourne these next few months, we’ll continue to strive to be a club that is accessible to its members and supporters, and for you to receive a personalised and happy experience every time you engage with us. Ben Amarfio and his team are working on a number of initiatives that will enhance our ongoing connection with our people. It’s in that spirit that we again invite our members and supporters to submit questions for Ben, Nobes and our GM of Football Talent, Brady Rawlings, to answer next week about the progress of the club so far this year.

Finally, to all of you – this journey is hard, but we are North Melbourne, and hard journeys are our bread and butter. I’m confident in our playing group and our coaches, our CEO, our Executive team and our administration, and above all else, in our members. We’ll get through this the way we always do – together.

Go Roos and see you at the footy.


Sonja

She clearly is hurting and trying very sincerely to engage with the members.

The burning question is, are we on the right path or not?

To put it diplomatically, the jury is well and truly still out.

I think we have to be very careful we don't become one of these "5 year plan" clubs that doesn't hold itself accountable in the win loss column.

If I had to be critical, I would have liked to have seen a stronger statement about we are here to win games, play finals and win flags.

Why shouldn't we be? The Dockers have a younger less experienced team and are sitting top 4.

 

[Colby Cheer Squad]

She clearly is hurting and trying very sincerely to engage with the members.

The burning question is, are we on the right path or not?

To put it diplomatically, the jury is well and truly still out.

I think we have to be very careful we don't become one of these "5 year plan" clubs that doesn't hold itself accountable in the win loss column.

If I had to be critical, I would have liked to have seen a stronger statement about we are here to win games, play finals and win flags.

Why shouldn't we be? The Dockers have a younger less experienced team and are sitting top 4.

This is fair enough to question accountability but I guess the counter-argument is, how many losses can we endure and how many bottom 4 finishes before we panic and hit the pause button on the full rebuild, then trade away picks to bring in reliable older players to deliver us a safe, cozy 6-12 place finish for a few years? Or do we sack the coach and his team and bring in someone like Clarko who will be impatient for success and will prioritize free agents over developing our young guns? A tactic that saw Hawthorn slide from 2016-21 and Clarko out of a job. I think we have to ride this out for another 12 months and see how we're traveling this time next year. Then if we see no signs of improvement, there may need to be some tough decisions.

 

[justroyal]

She clearly is hurting and trying very sincerely to engage with the members.

The burning question is, are we on the right path or not?

To put it diplomatically, the jury is well and truly still out.

I think we have to be very careful we don't become one of these "5 year plan" clubs that doesn't hold itself accountable in the win loss column.

If I had to be critical, I would have liked to have seen a stronger statement about we are here to win games, play finals and win flags.

Why shouldn't we be? The Dockers have a younger less experienced team and are sitting top 4.

The way she put it, and backed Nobles and McPhersons experience, saying that they’ve done it before. It means we are 100% on the right track. She just put her full confidence in it. Her word is on the line now and can’t go back from that..

 

[ferball]

She clearly is hurting and trying very sincerely to engage with the members.

The burning question is, are we on the right path or not?

To put it diplomatically, the jury is well and truly still out.

I think we have to be very careful we don't become one of these "5 year plan" clubs that doesn't hold itself accountable in the win loss column.

If I had to be critical, I would have liked to have seen a stronger statement about we are here to win games, play finals and win flags.

Why shouldn't we be? The Dockers have a younger less experienced team and are sitting top 4.

The Dockers started rebuilding properly in 2016 or 2017 tho. This is the first time they've been in the 8 since.

I haven't really followed them over that time but out of all these rebuilds people talk about, theirs seems to be very effective and successful.

See this:

The burning question is, are we on the right path or not?

We've only just started down this path. We have brought in people from premiership winning systems to run the footy department. Blakey, McPherson, Rawlings, Cross and even Clayton have all been involved in Premiership lists. (Clayton I'm a bit unsure of... btw everyone criticising Luff - Clayton is his boss isn't he?)

 

[Horizons_00]

We won three of eleven games and had a draw. And we lost the last four games of the year in a row.

That's what happened after the bye last year.

One of those wins was against the eagles. It looked okay at the time.

Every team we beat last year is currently in the bottom seven and was last year as well, except Carlton, who changed their coach and are now top four.

We shown so much fight, spirit, we barely got thrashed and we were in the game most of the time. We actually challenged the opposition and we’re winning quarters. Even took it up to the cats and weren’t easy beats.

Not really talking the wins more so the effort and competitiveness is reducing almost every game since last year.

 

[Mcarcherey]

This is fair enough to question accountability but I guess the counter-argument is, how many losses can we endure and how many bottom 4 finishes before we panic and hit the pause button on the full rebuild, then trade away picks to bring in reliable older players to deliver us a safe, cozy 6-12 place finish for a few years? Or do we sack the coach and his team and bring in someone like Clarko who will be impatient for success and will prioritize free agents over developing our young guns? A tactic that saw Hawthorn slide from 2016-21 and Clarko out of a job. I think we have to ride this out for another 12 months and see how we're traveling this time next year. Then if we see no signs of improvement, there may need to be some tough decisions.

so because clarko topped up at the end of his time at hawthorn you're going to conveniently leave out 2005-2015 where he oversaw a full rebuild? if you had many of the older players from that era you'd top up too. look at geelong, they've been topping up for 10 years!

 

[Massive Unit]

It's not unreasonable to expect her to say something meaningful within the first 9 rounds in one of, if not the worst season the club has ever had.
It's also not unreasonable to expect it to be meaningful, not the same "this'll turn, have faith" propaganda. We're severely worse than last year, we recruited and were sold a fast offensive game plan, it's slower and there is no consistent style. What are members buying into? What positives am I seeing? Winning a quarter by a few points isn't any part of a "process", tell us something meaningful! What is a single KPI, what is a positive within the process? Because to me it looks like there isn't one and these demoralising losses will be in vain

On Pixel 6 using BigFooty.com mobile app

I think there is unbelievable naivety amongst this group that a Board is going to throw open the doors and lay everything bare on the boardroom table. Get real. They have internal KPI's that they're measuring themselves against but that doesn't mean they will disclose these publicly. No board that I know of would do this.

 

[Colby Cheer Squad]

It's not unreasonable to expect her to say something meaningful within the first 9 rounds in one of, if not the worst season the club has ever had.
It's also not unreasonable to expect it to be meaningful, not the same "this'll turn, have faith" propaganda. We're severely worse than last year, we recruited and were sold a fast offensive game plan, it's slower and there is no consistent style. What are members buying into? What positives am I seeing? Winning a quarter by a few points isn't any part of a "process", tell us something meaningful! What is a single KPI, what is a positive within the process? Because to me it looks like there isn't one and these demoralising losses will be in vain

On Pixel 6 using BigFooty.com mobile app

Dude, you seem to have your fingers in your ears while shouting, "I can't hear you!"

Do you see Jason Horne Francis bursting out of the centre and hitting a key forward laces out? Or do you just see the key forward spraying the set shot?

Do you see our running players link up through the middle of the ground? Or do you just see a skill error at the end of the chain leading to a turnover goal?

Do you see us kick a string of goals in quick succession against a top 4 opponent or do you just see the final score?

There are positives but you have to be prepared to look for them. That's what this year is all about. Next year too, let's be honest.

 

[ferball]

so because clarko topped up at the end of his time at hawthorn you're going to conveniently leave out 2005-2015 where he oversaw a full rebuild? if you had many of the older players from that era you'd top up too. look at geelong, they've been topping up for 10 years!

Tarrant, Dumont, Atley, Cunnington and Anderson all out of those sides for most of this year so far. All came back in the second half of last year when we started looking competitive.

 

[Sillygit]

so because clarko topped up at the end of his time at hawthorn you're going to conveniently leave out 2005-2015 where he oversaw a full rebuild? if you had many of the older players from that era you'd top up too. look at geelong, they've been topping up for 10 years!

Should have a chat to how some cats fans feel about their scott.

 

[Nordland]

Dude, you seem to have your fingers in your ears while shouting, "I can't hear you!"

Do you see Jason Horne Francis bursting out of the centre and hitting a key forward laces out? Or do you just see the key forward spraying the set shot?

Do you see our running players link up through the middle of the ground? Or do you just see a skill error at the end of the chain leading to a turnover goal?

Do you see us kick a string of goals in quick succession against a top 4 opponent or do you just see the final score?

There are positives but you have to be prepared to look for them. That's what this year is all about. Next year too, let's be honest.

mr positivity strikes again. There's a huge difference between blind faith and realism.

you seem to have your head buried so far up your own clacker you fail to see the steaming turd performances we're putting out.

and to think you wanna ride that out for another 12 months... Not me. forget that.

Loved your take on Clarko too. kinda proves my point really.

OUT - NOBLE

IN - CLARKSON

 

[Colby Cheer Squad]

mr positivity strikes again. There's a huge difference between blind faith and realism.

you seem to have your head buried so far up your own clacker you fail to see the steaming turd performances we're putting out.

and to think you wanna ride that out for another 12 months... Not me. forget that.

Loved your take on Clarko too. kinda proves my point really.

OUT - NOBLE

IN - CLARKSON

In my experience, people who consider themselves "realists" are more often than not just pessimists in denial. Have you seriously not seen anything onfield this year that thrills you, even momentarily?

 

[gokangas]

At the end of the day what do we expect Sonja to say? Her email was predictable. She has a tough gig being el presidente at this stage of the clubs rebuild.

 

[Only Forwards]

There's a huge difference between blind faith and realism.

OUT - NOBLE

IN - CLARKSON

Bahahahahahaha.

Realism = in Clarko, too funny.

Realism is the awareness that the football club is in a shit fight and that no decision is binary.

 

[Only Forwards]

In my experience, people who consider themselves "realists" are more often than not just pessimists in denial. Have you seriously not seen anything onfield this year that thrills you, even momentarily?

Anyone that was at the dogs game either did or is an out and out liar.

 

[The acurate one]

Sonja Hood= the winked

 

[koshari]

This is fair enough to question accountability but I guess the counter-argument is, how many losses can we endure and how many bottom 4 finishes before we panic and hit the pause button on the full rebuild, then trade away picks to bring in reliable older players to deliver us a safe, cozy 6-12 place finish for a few years? Or do we sack the coach and his team and bring in someone like Clarko who will be impatient for success and will prioritize free agents over developing our young guns? A tactic that saw Hawthorn slide from 2016-21 and Clarko out of a job. I think we have to ride this out for another 12 months and see how we're traveling this time next year. Then if we see no signs of improvement, there may need to be some tough decisions.

The glaringly obvious problem is that this method inst successful either as its basically what we were doing before we went full rebuild. how good are Polec and Corr going? add to that where are Williams, Pittard and other recent ring ins now, recruiting needs to be specific roles to fill gaps, such as richmond bringing in Nank to fill the Maric hole. Hall is the closest thing we have to a pass and Young prolly just breaking even atm. Greenwood a placeholder till cunners recovers and would likey become a depth player in time but he cost us nothing. juries still out with CCJ but given what we gave up looking could be a costly bust.

 

[koshari]

Sonja Hood= the winked

prolly not factual but funny none the less.

 

[The acurate one]

prolly not factual but funny none the less.

Well ya know just after reading some of the comments.

Yes I agree and think she is and will do a grand job.

 

[The Warlord]

Yeah, I don' t buy that. Really, how complicated is the game plan? What takes a couple of years is for the young players to mature. We're starting to see it in Scott, and JHF wont take long. But its the likes of Perez and Taylor that need to start getting better. Plus we need our experienced guys playing well. And neither of those are happening.

Who to believe? The professional footballer who went from an in and out of the side fringe player to premiership hero or a dude on BigFooty?

 

[The Warlord]

At the end of the day what do we expect Sonja to say? Her email was predictable. She has a tough gig being el presidente at this stage of the clubs rebuild.

Madame La Presidente

 

[Mav]

Who to believe? The professional footballer who went from an in and out of the side fringe player to premiership hero or a dude on BigFooty?

come on mate, I'm not just any dude.

Tell me, how long has it taken Hawks to learn their new game plan? Are they just quicker learners than our boys? What about Collingwood?