Player Watch Josh Rachele - Sent To The Gulag!

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Yet we won two flags in two years! ;)

We did and that seems to be us getting lucky rather than working to put ourselves in good positions for success.

Our strategy of trying to replicate something lucky is probably why we haven't won anything since then
 

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Here’s Mark Thompson in his famous 2005 presser, when a struggling, young, rebuilding Cats outfit were not going so well, and Brad Ottens was being torched in the media.

This is what a real coach does when his players are under fire.

This is real leadership.

This is what unites a playing group.

This is supporting your players.

This is what makes players want to play for you. Want to be the best they can be. Want to strive for the ultimate success.


2 years later they won a flag, and then won a couple more within 5 years. Ottens retired a 3 time premiership player.

Wonder if they would’ve done that if Bomber, his midfield coach, some cooked senior player and their captain had all come out within 48 hours of each other and publicly assassinated Ottens.



Don’t even get me started on the differences between the way Adelaide and Geelong have dealt with Tyson Stengle.



Shit club vs great club.
 
These guys are setting the standards?

Captain: Jordan Dawson
Vice-captain: Brodie Smith, Ben Keays, Reilly O'Brien
Leadership group: Darcy Fogarty, Lachlan Murphy, Wayne Milera, Mitch Hinge

Half is generous...
Only half are best 22
 
Oh I’m frustrated as well! But I can’t think of many teams who have completely bottomed out and decided to do a full rebuild who were competing after 5 years.

I laugh more at how most of the issues are on Nicks, even though most of these issues existed prior to him. List management, some senior players, Roo etc are bigger issues.

JFC, Hawthorn are this year.

A club that allows the behaviour we don't
 


Here’s Mark Thompson in his famous 2005 presser, when a struggling, young, rebuilding Cats outfit were not going so well, and Brad Ottens was being torched in the media.

This is what a real coach does when his players are under fire.

This is real leadership.

This is what unites a playing group.

This is supporting your players.

This is what makes players want to play for you. Want to be the best they can be. Want to strive for the ultimate success.


2 years later they won a flag, and then won a couple more within 5 years. Ottens retired a 3 time premiership player.

Wonder if they would’ve done that if Bomber, his midfield coach, some cooked senior player and their captain had all come out within 48 hours of each other and publicly assassinated Ottens.



Don’t even get me started on the differences between the way Adelaide and Geelong have dealt with Tyson Stengle.



Shit club vs great club.

Bomber Thompson was blessed with a team in 2007 that went on to have 15 All Australian players, 2 Brownlow medalists, 5 300+ game players. The 09 flag added Harry Taylor (All Australian) and Tom Hawkins (Coleman Medalist, 5x AA, 350 games played). Not sure Thompson's after game presser 2 years prior was the catalyst of their success, maybe list management (which we suck at)? They are such a well run club that a first year coach in Scott could win a flag.

How many chances did you want the Crows to give Stengle? Leaving the club, and realising Geelong was his last chance was probably the kick up the ass he needed.

Bomber Thompson was an Ice user who also played a role in the Essendon drug saga.
 
The pile on is genuinely incomprehensible.

How is there not a single person in this shit organisation with the balls and the authority to put a stop to this?

How is it possible they ALL think this is a good way to approach it?

We have corrupt management and inept leadership.

It was the only way this was ever going to turn out
 
Bomber Thompson was blessed with a team in 2007 that went on to have 15 All Australian players, 2 Brownlow medalists, 5 300+ game players. The 09 flag added Harry Taylor (All Australian) and Tom Hawkins (Coleman Medalist, 5x AA, 350 games played). Not sure Thompson's after game presser 2 years prior was the catalyst of their success, maybe list management (which we suck at)? They are such a well run club that a first year coach in Scott could win a flag.

How many chances did you want the Crows to give Stengle? Leaving the club, and realising Geelong was his last chance was probably the kick up the ass he needed.

Bomber Thompson was an Ice user who also played a role in the Essendon drug saga.

You can have a team full of champions and they will achieve nothing

Turn them into a champion team...

I mean I can lead you to water but I can't make you drink
 

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Bomber Thompson was blessed with a team in 2007 that went on to have 15 All Australian players, 2 Brownlow medalists, 5 300+ game players. The 09 flag added Harry Taylor (All Australian) and Tom Hawkins (Coleman Medalist, 5x AA, 350 games played). Not sure Thompson's after game presser 2 years prior was the catalyst of their success, maybe list management (which we suck at)? They are such a well run club that a first year coach in Scott could win a flag.

How many chances did you want the Crows to give Stengle? Leaving the club, and realising Geelong was his last chance was probably the kick up the ass he needed.

Bomber Thompson was an Ice user who also played a role in the Essendon drug saga.
How many all-Australians did they have in 2005 and 2006?

Thompson built and developed that team into a great one, from being a shit one.

Are you telling me that none of Soligo, Rachele, Fogarty, Thilthorpe, Michalanney, Worrell, Murray, Rankine and co would have a shot at being AA in 2026 if we were coached / led by someone competent?

Players use drugs all the time. How many chances do you think Lance Franklin was given? How about Swan? Beams? Stengle is clearly still on the gear at Geelong now. All-Australian in 2022 and on the verge of it again this year.

Manage the guy from a disadvantaged background appropriately and reap the benefits maybe?


As for Bomber being an ice user, that blatantly came after this phase of his life. He was a fantastic coach at Geelong and if we had someone with half his coaching ability we’d be well on the way to something resembling success.
 
How many all-Australians did they have in 2005 and 2006?

Thompson built and developed that team into a great one, from being a shit one.

Are you telling me that none of Soligo, Rachele, Fogarty, Thilthorpe, Michalanney, Worrell, Murray, Rankine and co would have a shot at being AA in 2026 if we were coached / led by someone competent?

Players use drugs all the time. How many chances do you think Lance Franklin was given? How about Swan? Beams? Stengle is clearly still on the gear at Geelong now. All-Australian in 2022 and on the verge of it again this year.

Manage the guy from a disadvantaged background appropriately and reap the benefits maybe?


As for Bomber being an ice user, that blatantly came after this phase of his life. He was a fantastic coach at Geelong and if we had someone with half his coaching ability we’d be well on the way to something resembling success.
Must have forgotten the club review prior to 2007 where he was very lucky to not lose his job when most wanted him gone.
 
Do we have 15 potential All Australians on our list?

We may but we will never find out because we throw them under the bus before they reach that potential.

I remember that speech from Bomber, it was huge because he came out and backed his player in when he was getting canned by the press and he called everyone out.

And here we are, calling out a player whilst everyone in the press is backing our player. If you can't see the difference, I just can't help you.
 
Must have forgotten the club review prior to 2007 where he was very lucky to not lose his job when most wanted him gone.
But the decision makers at the club were smart enough to keep him around, and the rest is history.

I’m sure our club review will produce similar results.

Just gotta keep rolling out the press conferences where we throw 21 year olds under the bus and we’re almost there! I can taste it!
 
But the decision makers at the club were smart enough to keep him around, and the rest is history.

I’m sure our club review will produce similar results.

Just gotta keep rolling out the press conferences where we throw 21 year olds under the bus and we’re almost there! I can taste it!
I'm not sure anyone is throwing him under the bus though? I didn't love Laird's comments but no one is saying he is the reason we lost. Josh has had a few silly moments this year.
 
I'm not sure anyone is throwing him under the bus though? I didn't love Laird's comments but no one is saying he is the reason we lost. Josh has had a few silly moments this year.
Dawson literally said “that doesn’t help us win” in relation to Rachele’s pre-game teeth comments.

Nicks, Laird, Dawson and Van Berlo have all publicly roasted Rachele, with 0 consistency in the message as to why he was dropped.

Nicks said it wasn’t due to the teeth comments.

Dawson said it was.

Real consistent messaging.


The club is a laughing stock. Rachele is a 21 year old kid who is now being asked on camera if he wants to leave a club that he is signed at for another 5 years.

An impeccably reliable BF poster with a long history of accuracy (C4[2]Yo`DooR ) has posted that Rachele’s family want him to leave the club.

Same poster has stated that Nicks and the current regime have “divided the playing group and had players deliberately turn on and isolate each other for “the good of the team””.



If Rachele has, as everyone and their dog have unnecessarily publicly stated, broken some “team first” type rules, you deal with it INTERNALLY.

There is nobody in football who agrees with how it has been handled publicly. Nobody.

This could all have been avoided with a “personal reasons” / “managed” designation with absolutely no comment required publicly from anyone other than something to do with family / whatever.

This happens weekly around the league. It often relates to breaking team rules or drug use, or any number of things.


Utterly bewildering and borderline abusive behaviour from the club towards a kid. Pathetic. And there’s a groundswell of people who have had enough.
 
I still don't get the "Rachele pulls out of contests" label.

Yes, there was one or two instances early on when he ducked his head in a marking contest, not knowing what was coming. He owned up and moved on.

But in almost every other instance people point out, he is trying to play the ball. Rather than just run blindly into an opposition tackle, he is trying to extract it and attack with it. Trying to create a bit of separation, and either cleanly grab the ball, or else knock it away from the opponent, and then run off with the ball. Sometimes when you do that, you get it wrong and the opponent runs off with the ball. Other times, you get it right and you get a clean disposal off.

For a player who gets most of his possessions in the forward half of the ground, it makes sense. A clean possession from Rachele is likely to end up with a score, whereas the opponent is still several disposals away from goal.

You can say this is dumb football, or that it messes with team structures, or whatever else if you like. But to paint it as some act of football cowardice misses the mark, in my opinion. This is not Rachele not wanting to get his hands dirty - it's him trying to maximise our scoring opportunities.


For the instance on the weekend, if Rachele had got it right (and he was just inches away from getting it right) then he would have been running forward with nobody between him and the goals. Worth the risk, rather than just wearing the tackle and neutralising the ball.
You're delusional if you think he doesn't avoid the hard ball more than the average player. He's made progress later in the year, but the port game showed he still has that in him.

Rachele is a good example of an endowment effect. I think if he was a draftee and you read out his profile, it would say he needs to work on his hardness at the contest and very few here would want to draft him especially with such a high draft pick.

To be clear I think it stinks how he's been treated by the club and our organisation is weak. That doesn't mean every player under a certain age should be off limits to any criticism.
 

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Player Watch Josh Rachele - Sent To The Gulag!

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