News Media Thread, 2023: Insightful, Inciteful and Incomptent

[Eaglemaniac]

As far as Simpson goes, I have been questioning a lot of his decision-making over the years, but lately he seems to be doing some really strange shit. I’ve never coached higher than a wafl level but most coaches Ive worked with would rather try and win the centre bounce and get the ball straight into the forward line, then set up defensively outside your 50 so you can control the time in the forward 50 and hopefully ultimately turn that into scores, than put your best players in your backline and try and just stop the opposition from scoring. that story about the little Dutch boy with his finger in the dike wall comes to mind.

I think it’s time for a clean out from top to bottom of this club. New coach, new CEO, new players, including retire some of those that cannot play each week such as Naitanui, Hurn and possibly Shuey. Give them mentoring roles or coaching roles to help pass their experience and knowledge onto the up-and-coming players, but their time on field is done in my opinion.

 

[Farang83150]

Can we lock a poll to our board members only? Genuinely interested in the outcome as long as it's not cooked with other posters coming in here to vote without a real dog in the race..

Get your poll up.

 

[CountryLad]

AFL Debate Club: Giving West Coast a priority pick would set a 'dangerous precedent'

The Eagles are as bad as they've ever been. In fact, they've won just two of their last 39 games and have been smashed by 100 points three times this year, but there's no way they deserve a priority pick, according to ESPN's AFL experts.

www.espn.com.au

Great debate not one point in favour of the Eagles. It’s what we will get from the media though.
Hopefully the AFL commission are happy to hear both sides. I’d still say we won’t get a PP but possibly other forms of assistance or concessions at best.

 

[KERRPOW]

How much money we have shouldn't have any influence over whether we "deserve" a PP, dumb argument by Connolly.

Afl has done this to themselves by not having a hard and fast rule (like they used to) or better yet, not giving out PPs to anyone ever.

If we have another 2 win season next year then we should request a PP or some drafting concessions.

3 years for 6 wins...

 

[KERRPOW]

Missing the duff and quarters podcast.

Its not the same with barich and duff. I fond myself turning it off after they talk about the eagles.

Barich is ****ing boring to listen to.

 

[Keys]

AFL Debate Club: Giving West Coast a priority pick would set a 'dangerous precedent'

The Eagles are as bad as they've ever been. In fact, they've won just two of their last 39 games and have been smashed by 100 points three times this year, but there's no way they deserve a priority pick, according to ESPN's AFL experts.

www.espn.com.au

How much money we have shouldn't have any influence over whether we "deserve" a PP, dumb argument by Connolly.

Afl has done this to themselves by not having a hard and fast rule (like they used to) or better yet, not giving out PPs to anyone ever.

Plus the oversight that despite our cash, we're not allowed to spend it because the minnow clubs want to keep the cap as low as possible.

This would be the expected reaction to any request for a priority pick and as I’ve said previously despite two historically bad seasons our relative success prior to 2022 negates any serious consideration of a PP.

However, although I agree with Connolly that we shouldn’t receive a PP, the comment below illustrates just how stupid the media are

In fact, quite the contrary. West Coast is the very definition of an affluent AFL club, rich in resources, not wanting for anything, so its poor returns of late are hardly the consequence of having to do things on the cheap.

Yes we are a rich club but the soft cap takes away ALL of the advantages that wealth could provide in a football sense. We have the exact same amount to spend on coaching, recruiting, S&C and list management as every other club.

We are doing things on the cheap because that’s what the AFL have dictated to protect the minnows. They also have the 6 month payout protection for sacking a coach that isn’t available to WCE and other well off clubs

You’d think an experienced journalist would understand this but obviously not

I get that there’s a view of if you don’t ask you don’t get but in this instance I’d question whether the simple act of asking is worth the inevitable backlash and further reputational damage.

If we ask for assistance it should be less lofty targets such as additional soft cap spending to allow for S&C or a push for a better ability to match academy bids

 

[CountryLad]

This would be the expected reaction to any request for a priority pick and as I’ve said previously despite two historically bad seasons our relative success prior to 2022 negates any serious consideration of a PP.

However, although I agree with Connolly that we shouldn’t receive a PP, the comment below illustrates just how stupid the media are



Yes we are a rich club but the soft cap takes away ALL of the advantages that wealth could provide in a football sense. We have the exact same amount to spend on coaching, recruiting, S&C and list management as every other club.

We are doing things on the cheap because that’s what the AFL have dictated to protect the minnows. They also have the 6 month payout protection for sacking a coach that isn’t available to WCE and other well off clubs

You’d think an experienced journalist would understand this but obviously not

I get that there’s a view of if you don’t ask you don’t get but in this instance I’d question whether the simple act of asking is worth the inevitable backlash and further reputational damage.

If we ask for assistance it should be less lofty targets such as additional soft cap spending to allow for S&C or a push for a better ability to match academy bids

Our PR team have been about as good as our match day team to be honest. We have failed to sell anything to the media except that we are a bunch of whinges.
The only chance we have is to keep it behind closed doors and hope not much leaks to the media.
God I make myself laugh at times

 

[Farang83150]

Stocksy!

 

[Altum Volantes]

They won’t ask for a priority pick.

Apart from the fact that the Vic media would absolutely froth at the prospect of giving WCE any kind of ‘leg up’, the club (ie Nisbett) has said in the past that they aren’t in favour of giving out priority picks and don’t believe that should be available.

 

[bzparkes]

As far as Simpson goes, I have been questioning a lot of his decision-making over the years, but lately he seems to be doing some really strange s**t. I’ve never coached higher than a wafl level but most coaches Ive worked with would rather try and win the centre bounce and get the ball straight into the forward line, then set up defensively outside your 50 so you can control the time in the forward 50 and hopefully ultimately turn that into scores, than put your best players in your backline and try and just stop the opposition from scoring. that story about the little Dutch boy with his finger in the dike wall comes to mind.

I think it’s time for a clean out from top to bottom of this club. New coach, new CEO, new players, including retire some of those that cannot play each week such as Naitanui, Hurn and possibly Shuey. Give them mentoring roles or coaching roles to help pass their experience and knowledge onto the up-and-coming players, but their time on field is done in my opinion.

If you're referring to Yeo in the backline, I presume he was there because there were zero senior leaders on that line, whereas Shuey, TK and Sheed were in the middle, with Allen and JD in the forward line.

When your only key position player is a 19 year old with 15 games under his belt, someone needs to be down there to direct traffic. Yeo had the most defensive experience of the leaders, so he went back there. He's also been alternating between HB & mid anyway, so it made the most sense.

 

[Tugga27]

Missing the duff and quarters podcast.

Its not the same with barich and duff. I fond myself turning it off after they talk about the eagles.

Barich is ******* boring to listen to.

Barra makes Jacovich look like a Rhodes Scholar.

 

[daddy_4_eyes]

The purpose of priority picks is to help uncompetitive clubs rebuild faster.
Has nothing to do with how rich we are, how recently we won a flag, whether mistakes we've made has lead us to the state we're in.

The AFL is striving for an even competition where the gap between #1 and #18 is increasingly small.
How can anyone argue we shouldn't be given assistance to help us be competitive sooner?

 

[Byron_Clanger]

The purpose of priority picks is to help uncompetitive clubs rebuild faster.
Has nothing to do with how rich we are, how recently we won a flag, whether mistakes we've made has lead us to the state we're in.

The AFL is striving for an even competition where the gap between #1 and #18 is increasingly small.
How can anyone argue we shouldn't be given assistance to help us be competitive sooner?

The sad thing is we haven't even started our rebuilding phase. We've won 4 out of the last million games because we apparently got the worst strength and condition program on the planet. The REAL pain when we move the senior players on is yet to come.

 

[Agent93]

We are doing things on the cheap because that’s what the AFL have dictated to protect the minnows. They also have the 6 month payout protection for sacking a coach that isn’t available to WCE and other well off clubs

We're also doing things on the cheap because like other industries, to pry staff from cozy scenarios in the eastern states generally requires better remuneration packages. Or, we're giving better opportunities to less credentialed individuals and having success in these areas related to their experience.

 

[Grahame]

We are doing things on the cheap because that’s what the AFL have dictated to protect the minnows. They also have the 6 month payout protection for sacking a coach that isn’t available to WCE and other well off clubs

You’d think an experienced journalist would understand this but obviously not

I get that there’s a view of if you don’t ask you don’t get but in this instance I’d question whether the simple act of asking is worth the inevitable backlash and further reputational damage.

If we ask for assistance it should be less lofty targets such as additional soft cap spending to allow for S&C or a push for a better ability to match academy bids

Agree. The Vic media don’t have much time for us because we’re rich and successful. By comparison there’s a degree of antipathy towards the Dockers because they know their place (by not taking ‘VFL’ cups).

The other factor that is only mentioned in passing is our injury list … as in ‘we know they’ve got injuries but … ‘.
I’d challenge anyone to find a side in AFL history which has been so decimated. Regularly having only 24-27 players to select from is unheard of. Any serious discussion of our performances must look at this factor in some detail not gloss over it like we’re just having a slightly worse than usual season.

If this was happening to a ‘proper’ AFL club - like Coll or Ess or Rich - the media would be all over it. And someone would have done an analysis to show just how bad it is by historical standards.

 

[WCErevival]

The purpose of priority picks is to help uncompetitive clubs rebuild faster.
Has nothing to do with how rich we are, how recently we won a flag, whether mistakes we've made has lead us to the state we're in.

The AFL is striving for an even competition where the gap between #1 and #18 is increasingly small.
How can anyone argue we shouldn't be given assistance to help us be competitive sooner?

I'd say the argument will be that its only been 5 years since our last flag. 3 years since finals. Teams like North have been mostly uncompetitive since the 90s.

 

[Flarn Rarn]

The purpose of priority picks is to help uncompetitive clubs rebuild faster.
Has nothing to do with how rich we are, how recently we won a flag, whether mistakes we've made has lead us to the state we're in.

The AFL is striving for an even competition where the gap between #1 and #18 is increasingly small.
How can anyone argue we shouldn't be given assistance to help us be competitive sooner?

The AFL has given you plenty of evidence to suggest they don't actually care about fairness. They like the appearance of it, if they can muster it, but it's really not a high priority for them.

Somebody has to finish last every year and if the AFL had their way it would be us. What better team than the one that makes money hand over fist, has a membership wait list, whose fans will tune in every week and overall have probably the least elastic demand of any club regardless of results. For a bean counter, which is what they are, this is a wet dream.

 

[Godfather32]

Is there a single person on this board that will go into bat for Nisbett hanging around right now?

Toddy_Nesbitt

 

[Dylan82]

There is zero chance of the club receiving any compensation, especially any notion of a priority pick.

Every single request from the club over the last 3 years to the governing body has been rejected, and then leaked to in-house media to openly discredit the club and confect a narrative that it is acting like a misbehaving spoilt brat.

Even when it did not have the numbers available to field a team the response was dismissive and derisory.


To be honest, I am becoming increasingly convinced that perhaps the only way any meaningful change can occur is if the club were to put its finger on the nuclear button and threaten legal proceedings over the current discrepancy relating to:

• the soft salary cap on football department spending, its ignorance of player fatigue induced by travel and the resultant increased risk of player injury.

 

[Rowan18]

There is zero chance of the club receiving any compensation, especially any notion of a priority pick.

Every single request from the club over the last 3 years to the governing body has been rejected, and then leaked to in-house media to openly discredit the club and confect a narrative that it is acting like a misbehaving spoilt brat.

Even when it did not have the numbers available to field a team the response was dismissive and derisory.


To be honest, I am becoming increasingly convinced that perhaps the only way any meaningful change can occur is if the club were to put its finger on the nuclear button and threaten legal proceedings over the current discrepancy relating to:

• the soft salary cap on football department spending, its ignorance of player fatigue induced by travel and the resultant increased risk of player injury.

Another option would be to refuse to rush any players back and just forfeit the next game. That would set the cat amongst the pigeons.

Also back a player to challenge the legal status of the draft.

 

[ThePuma #9]

Hardly a debate...

Side 1: "No".
Opposing View: "Also no".

Debate over.

“but I've always felt you are basically disqualified if you've reached a preliminary final in the last seven years, let alone winning a premiership.”

Interesting that he feels it’s a seven year period, not 6 or 8 years but 7.

Trust me when I say that it’s completely coincidental that North last made a prelim in 2015, exaclty 7 years later they were eligible for the priority picks. Funny how that works hey!!

 

[THE A5]

 

[UseR2006]

It’s time to temper the outrage towards coaches

It’s never as good as it seems, it’s never as bad as it feels and we need to temper the scrutiny on the men in the hot seats, including under-fire coaches Adam Simpson and Michael Voss, writes Michael Barlow.

thewest.com.au

After he's been bashing us for the last month or two. sheesh.

 

[Byron_Clanger]

If some people actually feel this way about our losses then I suggest they take up a couple more hobbies or take stock in what's going on in the world around them. Sure, getting bent over ever week is bad, but it's not THAT bad in the grand scheme of life.

 

[Agent93]

If some people actually feel this way about our losses then I suggest they take up a couple more hobbies or take stock in what's going on in the world around them. Sure, getting bent over ever week is bad, but it's not THAT bad in the grand scheme of life.

If grief and loss = the absolute indifference I feel about watching AFL on the weekend, then sure.