News Media Thread, 2023: Insightful, Inciteful and Incomptent

[Miguel Sanchez]

Cornsey is totally correct to many players in our top 10 fairest & best shouldn't be on any AFL list.

Name two.

 

[Altum Volantes]

Klickbait.

He is what he is.

 

[TheNewAnchor]

When I started reading the latest Corne's drivel I was hoping it finished along the lines of, "stunned by ugly West Coast shirtfront". A couple of moments passed and I realised that even if this came to fruition there's nothing in his physiological makeup (brain) to stun.

 

[JackOutback]

Name two.

Yep, bizarre call. You could make the argument Hurn and Gaff should have been moved on by now, but both were champions. And you could make the argument Witherden is a fringe player at best, but Kelly, Allen and Barrass are A-grade, Duggan, Hunt and Williams perfectly serviceable AFL players. Maybe you'd rather a first-year player not be among your best in Long, but given injuries and the way these awards reward games played, it's not surprising.

 

[Ochre]

Name two.

Surely shouldve been Name to.

 

[Deepthroat]

Anyone who watched West Coast play this year knew that Top 10 was coming.

I don't understand how the result would be worth comment to any analyst if they watched all games.

It's clear that Clicks Cornes doesn't watch all games.

Not watching games is the analyst equivalent to a player not completing their training workload.

 

[Truckosaurus]

Just popping in to remind everyone that Kornes is also on the AA selection panel. Please keep this conflict of interest in mind for any fan surveys the AFL put out.

 

[Carbine Chaos]

Kane getting the reacts x keep going bae

 

[Deepthroat]

Just popping in to remind everyone that Kornes is also on the AA selection panel. Please keep this conflict of interest in mind for any fan surveys the AFL put out.

When you line that up with the fact he doesn't watch all games, it's a real problem.

 

[Grahame]

Name two.

Gaff and Witherden would be solid WAFL players. We now have enough good young or youngish players that Gaff, Sheed, Waterman, SPS, Rotham and Witherden can be regarded as depth. (Or delist.)

We need to move beyond mediocre.

 

[Shuestar13]

Cornsey is totally correct to many players in our top 10 fairest & best shouldn't be on any AFL list.
They are at best good WAFL players, but you cannot sack then all in 1 year. WCE will delist at least another 4-6 players & do the same next year.
The biggest mistake we have made is these ridiculous long term contracts with large sums of money to older players if they don't want to be here for X let them move on.

Exhibit A

 

[Campaigner for good]

The club probably should have just called it the best, fairest and least injured this year to be fair. Gaff shouldn't have been anywhere near it on form but you can't fault his ability to not get injured.

I would say that it is more or a case of not being able to fault his ability to play through injury. I saw him in West Leederville the Friday before our last game and he was limping noticeably.

 

[Grahame]

I would say that it is more or a case of not being able to fault his ability to play through injury. I saw him in West Leederville the Friday before our last game and he was limping noticeably.

Yeah if only we could swap Gaff's abilty to be injury free with say Yeo (or Shuey, Gov or NN).

 

[Woobla Stainz]

Yeah if only we could swap Gaff's abilty to be injury free with say Yeo (or Shuey, Gov or NN).

Plodders sustain less injuries than burst/power athletes unfortunately. Seems like our S&C program is more suited to endurance as all out power athletes seem to breakdown

 

[Campaigner for good]

Yeah if only we could swap Gaff's abilty to be injury free with say Yeo (or Shuey, Gov or NN).

That would be awesome.

 

[Bleedblueandgold]

Wish they would just give votes 5 to 1 like on here lol.
There were heaps of games where not even 5 players deserved any votes.

 

[Monsterdarlz]

As bad as gaff as been now that Father Time and injures have caught up with him you can’t accuse him of being soft or not trying he’s as tough as old leather boots gaffy

 

[Shifty1]

Seven Eagles ‘facing the axe’ as big ruck decides future, Crow set to stay: Trade Whispers

Supposedly Nick Bryan re-signing with Essendon is another hit to the Eagles. I don't know how we will ever recover from this...

 

[Miguel Sanchez]

Seven Eagles ‘facing the axe’ as big ruck decides future, Crow set to stay: Trade Whispers

Supposedly Nick Bryan re-signing with Essendon is another hit to the Eagles. I don't know how we will ever recover from this...

I miss the days when they ignored us altogether.

 

[plays tall 1]

Injured players to Qatar for treatment:

 

[Tugga27]

Kane just can't let it go.
Honestly, I don't think I've ever heard a media person critique a clubs B&F before.

 

[Deplorable trumpster]

Injured players to Qatar for treatment:

Sounds like the club is buying a handful of magic beans here. Does anybody think this is going to make any difference at all?

How about they focus on making effort levels non - negotiable for anybody getting a game, getting fitness levels up in the whole squad, developing their players under 24 as quickly as possible and trying to pick up a couple of quality players cheaply (in terms of trade price) from other clubs instead of pinning all their hopes on finding magic solutions to chronic injuries to a handful of over 30's players.

 

[Keys]

Sounds like the club is buying a handful of magic beans here. Does anybody think this is going to make any difference at all?

How about they focus on making effort levels non - negotiable for anybody getting a game, getting fitness levels up in the whole squad, developing their players under 24 as quickly as possible and trying to pick up a couple of quality players cheaply (in terms of trade price) from other clubs instead of pinning all their hopes on finding magic solutions to chronic injuries to a handful of over 30's players.

Yes they’re pinning all their hopes of fixing the injury crisis on sending three players to the Middle East for a week during their holidays

It’s quite the conclusion you’ve leapt to

Magic beans or not, the players are taking time out of their holidays to go to a world renowned medical centre to get help on their respective injuries. They’re also paying part of the costs out of their own pocket

Any normal person would see that as a positive, however small

The trip also has nothing to do with the other things you mentioned nor does it prevent them from being done

I mean if you can explain how sending three players to a medical centre for treatment stops the club from recruiting other players I’d love to read it.

Go on, give it a bash

 

[Deplorable trumpster]

Yes they’re pinning all their hopes of fixing the injury crisis on sending three players to the Middle East for a week during their holidays

It’s quite the conclusion you’ve leapt to

Magic beans or not, the players are taking time out of their holidays to go to a world renowned medical centre to get help on their respective injuries. They’re also paying part of the costs out of their own pocket

Any normal person would see that as a positive, however small

The trip also has nothing to do with the other things you mentioned nor does it prevent them from being done

I mean if you can explain how sending three players to a medical centre for treatment stops the club from recruiting other players I’d love to read it.

Go on, give it a bash

I didn't argue that it "stopped" them from doing anything. I argued that the club's focus for the entire year has been on things that are largely outside of it's control, i.e. injuries. The answer to every question asked of every senior leader at the club all year has been put to pivot talking about their injury list. I have never once heard any of them from Simpson to Nisbett to Fitzpatrick admit that any department at the club has underperformed (let alone how they are going to rectify it). They have never admitted publicly, and i highly suspect from watching them closely they have never admitted to themselves privately either, that any of our problems are self inflicted or that their personal performances and the performances of the departments they oversee are just not good enough. If the small handful of old players with chronic injury problems think this will help them and want to do it then go ahead. I think they are wasting their money but that it up to them. As for the club itself, i am sick of hearing them focus on injuries to this group of players and blame everything on that and thereby absolve themselves of any blame for the problems. They have been doing it all year. Just like it was all Covid's fault in 2022. I don't think there will be a platform for sustained improvement at the club until they start taking responsibility and stop looking for external things to blame their problems on.

Since you are such a cheer leader for these club leaders, lets see you defend what is unfolding, i.e. very, very minimal change. They have sacked the fitness guy and the two most junior assistant coaches. And thats it. That is going to be the extent of the change. 5 wins in two years and that is their response. No external review. We don't want one of those because they might tell us things we don't want to hear. Not going to trade out any older players. Not going to publicly criticise the playing group or leadership group. We're just going to sack the fitness guy and two very junior people on Simpson's coaching panel who have no autonomy or decision making authority over anything (and therefore no real culpability for the bad outcomes). And thats it. Thats all they are going to do. Go ahead and defend that.

 

[the harry]

Kane just can't let it go.
Honestly, I don't think I've ever heard a media person critique a clubs B&F before.

This is slightly connected, but highlights Darling and just how bad the coaches thought he was

Jack’s whack from coaches: Darling cops lowly B&F finish

Jack Darling’s absence from the John Worsfold Medal count’s top 10 despite being available for nearly the entire year was an alarming sign. Here’s where he finished.

thewest.com.au

Kane Cornes has savaged the lack of quality in West Coast’s best-and-fairest results this season as Jack Darling’s inability to finish in the top 10 highlighted his dramatic fall from grace.
Midfielder Tim Kelly won his first John Worsfold Medal after a superb season where he polled 200 votes to finish 37 votes clear of key forward Oscar Allen.
Under West Coast’s voting system, the five members of the club’s match committee awarded players votes from 0-3 after every game.
That gave players who avoided injury a significant advantage over their teammates who were recovering on the sidelines, but while Darling played 20 of his team’s 23 games, he finished 11th with only 78 votes.

Jack Darling finished 11th in the Worsfold Medal. Yes
Shannon Hurn placed fifth in the count despite playing only 13 matches. Tom Barrass tied with first-year forward Noah Long in ninth place, but the key defender only played 14 matches. Long played 19 games.
Luke Shuey and Elliot Yeo were both ahead of Darling after round 16, but they’d played in only five full games at that point compared to Darling’s 12. Both Yeo and Shuey struggled with injury and were subbed out of games during the season. Darling polled 34 of his 78 votes in the last five games to overtake several injured teammates.

Jack Darling struggled to have an impact during the season. YES
Cornes said the breakdown of the top 10 should a raise red flag at West Coast about how bad their list is.
“It is alarming,” Cornes told SEN.
“Tim Kelly won it, and he was deserving to win, he had a terrific season, well done to Tim.
“Oscar Allen was the other standout for what he did, he was in the All-Australian squad and kicked 53 goals in that side.
“After that, it is about as ugly a best-and-fairest result as you’re going to see.
“I’ll give you an example of that. Shannon Hurn finished fifth – he’s now retired, he played 13 games. That must be the softest top-five finish to a best-and-fairest ever.

Shannon Hurn receiving his fifth placed trophy. The West Australian
“Andrew Gaff - who probably shouldn’t be playing AFL football at all with all due respect, despite the fact he’s been an excellent player - but the time is up for Andrew. He finished seventh in their best-and-fairest.
“Alex Witherden probably wouldn’t be on a list of most clubs, once again with all due respect. He finished eighth and their best-and-fairest.”
Darling kicked 26 goals throughout 2023, which is his lowest tally since his debut season in 2011. He is contracted for another two years.
West Coast’s players have begun their annual leave with pre-season training set to start on November 6 for players between one and four years of experience. Older players aren’t required back at the club until November 20.