News Media Thread, 2023: Insightful, Inciteful and Incomptent

[Avalor]

I have been watching the colts on Streamer today, and the broadcast quality is quite good - and the commentary is better than the AFL I gotta say. No ego tripping there

 

[chunkylover]

I have been watching the colts on Streamer today, and the broadcast quality is quite good - and the commentary is better than the AFL I gotta say. No ego tripping there

No commentators telling other commentators how well they’re calling it?

 

[Goroyals22]

Same with the east Perth v swan district league game. Commentators actually enjoying the game, calling it correctly and not barracking for a side or a player.. No dangers, Charlie’s, buddys or anyone called by their first name or nickname.


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[Deplorable trumpster]

An interesting take on our post 2019 demise. Whilst there’s more to it than what Duffield has highlighted, there’s not much he’s got wrong here



West Coast have gone off the cliff faster than Thelma and Louise – and here’s why.
Between them, Nic Naitanui, Luke Shuey, Elliot Yeo and Jeremy McGovern have won six of the club’s last seven best and fairests.

Between them, they also have nine All-Australian jumpers.

And between them, they have missed 100 games of football in the past three completed seasons (not counting the three each that Naitanui and Yeo have missed this season to date).

If Yeo makes it onto the field for Sunday’s clash with Melbourne, in what would be his first appearance in four games this season, he will be the only one of the four out there.

Your best ability, as they say, is availability.

West Coast’s best players have been unavailable too often.

There are those that believe the Eagles tried to keep this era going too long and that is why their rebuild will be so challenging now. To elaborate: the argument goes that as beaten grand finalists in 2015, finalists in 2016 and 2017, premiers in 2018 and contenders in 2019, West Coast should have read the tea leaves after being rolled by Collingwood in a 2020 elimination final in Perth and declared their era over and window closed.

It is an interesting theory because the night that Collingwood beat them at Optus Stadium in 2020, the Eagles had only four players over the age of 30. Josh Kennedy and Shannon Hurn were 33, Shuey and Naitanui were 30 and the average age of the team was just 26.

Geelong’s premiership team of 2022 was a full two years older on average with 10 players over 30.

There is no doubt that age has got the Eagles now but the 2020 elimination final was two and a half years ago. Injury got them long before age did.

Their plans didn’t survive their injuries.

At the end of 2019, having been eliminated by Geelong in a semi final at the MCG, West Coast went hard after Cats midfielder Tim Kelly, who wanted to come home for family reasons.

The Cats saw them coming and Kelly cost them three high end draft picks. In hindsight, West Coast should have bailed out of the trade unless the Cats were prepared to drop the price. But the plan to bring Kelly in was a plan to extend the club’s finals run and contention – and it was based on Kelly being the cream on a midfield cake that included Naitanui, Shuey and Yeo as its key ingredients.

Instead, Kelly has been the cream on an assortment of crumbs. Kelly at his best is an aggressive and attacking midfielder who positions himself on the optimistic side of contests. Because of injuries to other key personnel, the glass half full Kelly has joined a glass half empty midfield.

Since Kelly arrived, Shuey – who won the club’s 2016 and 2019 best and fairests, finished third in 2017 and won the 2018 Norm Smith Medal – has missed five games in 2020, 15 games in 2021 and five in 2022. He is injured again now with the same injury that kept him out of most of those other games – a torn hamstring.

Yeo – who won the 2017 and 2018 best and fairests, was second in 2019 and was All Australian in 2019 and 2019 – has missed eight games in 2020, 10 in 2021 and 17 in 2022. While there were some soft tissue issues last year, the one constant problem he has battled since the start of 2020 is the dreaded osteitis pubis. Not only has he missed 35 games, the most of this quartet, he has also been well below peak fitness in many of the 27 he has played.

Naitanui won best and fairests in 2020 and 2021, and in 2020 and 2021 won his second and third All Australian jumpers. He only missed one game in 2020 and didn’t miss any in 2021 but he was absent 14 times in 2022 and injured for most of the times when he wasn’t absent. He hasn’t played yet this year and there are growing doubts over whether he will with a fresh two-year contract hanging heavily over ongoing inflammation in the 32-year-old’s Achilles tendons.

Meanwhile, McGovern – who was awarded the last of his four All-Australian jumpers in 2019, missed six games in 2020, seven in 2021 and 12 in 2022 – is injured again and will do well to miss less than 12 this year.

Even allowing for the Covid-19 and injury chaos that engulfed the club and wrecked their 2022 season, this is the real story of West Coast’s rapid demise.

Clubs say you pick your best available.

In the Eagles’ case, the best available hasn’t been anywhere near as good as the best unavailable.

The spitting of the dummy in the hubs was the moment it should have been crystal clear to those in charge that the era was over.

A bit like an army starting to bitterly complain and threaten mutiny because there is no ketchup to put on their dinner, and the flies are bothering them, and it is too hot to go anywhere today so lets just have a day off and sit in the shade playing cards. The moment that happens you know if you are in that army that when the bullets start flying you are going to be on the losing side.

And when the AFL started changing the rules to speed the game up and nullify the gameplans of clubs like us who didn't have gameplans relying on fast ball movement that was another clear death knell.

 

[ziad]

The spitting of the dummy in the hubs was the moment it should have been crystal clear to those in charge that the era was over.

A bit like an army starting to bitterly complain and threaten mutiny because there is no ketchup to put on their dinner, and the flies are bothering them, and it is too hot to go anywhere today so lets just have a day off and sit in the shade playing cards. The moment that happens you know if you are in that army that when the bullets start flying you are going to be on the losing side.

Absolutely and it is a complete failure of club leadership. The lesson had been learnt but the horse has bolted. Simmo,s second word is always no excuses now



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[Farang83150]

The spitting of the dummy in the hubs was the moment it should have been crystal clear to those in charge that the era was over.

A bit like an army starting to bitterly complain and threaten mutiny because there is no ketchup to put on their dinner, and the flies are bothering them, and it is too hot to go anywhere today so lets just have a day off and sit in the shade playing cards. The moment that happens you know if you are in that army that when the bullets start flying you are going to be on the losing side.

And when the AFL started changing the rules to speed the game up and nullify the gameplans of clubs like us who didn't have gameplans relying on fast ball movement that was another clear death knell.

WTF..... ketchup

 

[ep2018]

Never understood the hate we got for our behaviour in the hub. Imagine the AFL telling us we'll be hubbing for two or three weeks and then after we arrive we're told we're hubbing indefinitely. Watching every other team get to stay in their own state (The SA teams were only hubbing for a couple weeks at most until their fly in arrangement was confirmed). A playing group who probably had more kids than most and only brought themselves.

 

[Miguel Sanchez]

We didn’t play well in the first hub but where has the story that the players spat the dummy come from?

(he asks, knowing that the answer is that a poster has just made it up because it’s convenient)

 

[Ochre]

Isn't it widely known the club that complained the most about the hubs was Richmond?

 

[Feeling Groovy]

We made a few comments about being unhappy not knowing how long we were to be in the first hub and Simmo in the end saying fk it, after next week we are out of here. Fair enough in my view. I get the AFL was trying to put on a show and couldn't predict much but equally, it wasn't unreasonable our players, with families, wanted to know what was going on. We suffered the worst of it being first. Thereafter it was far better organised.

 

[Farang83150]

We didn’t play well in the first hub but where has the story that the players spat the dummy come from?

(he asks, knowing that the answer is that a poster has just made it up because it’s convenient)

From memory It was mainly Richmond flogs making up BS

 

[Keys]

On one hand we, and Fremantle, got stitched up with the first hub. Quite simply the AFL would not have been able to restart the season had the WA clubs not agreed to go to Queensland. The arrangement was open ended and the clubs were unfairly criticised for seeking guarantees on a time frame and also for taking a lot of stuff with them to help the hub feel like home. This was also at a time when uncertainty over covid was rampant.

The burden was more significant for west coast than Fremantle given we had more players with families and decisions around whether to take families or leave them behind was complicated

It was ridiculous and other clubs weren’t being asked initially to make the same sacrifices

On the other hand, I don’t think the club dealt with the hub as well as they could have. They did sulk, even if it was justifiable to an extent, and standards dropped and imo, without any actual evidence, fractures developed within the club that compromised our 2020 season and came to a head during 2021

The AFL learned from the first hub and I believe made better arrangements for subsequent clubs. There was also more certainty around time frames but the likes of Richmond still sooked so they got their way

So whilst I think we were unfairly castigated for how we dealt with the first hub, I think the club would acknowledge with the benefit of hindsight we might have handled it better

 

[bzparkes]

From memory It was mainly Richmond flogs making up BS

Ironic considering the rumour Riewoldt and Cotchin kicked up the biggest stink during the players conference prior to hubbing and refused.

 

[WCErevival]

I thought it was just Jetta that played up.

 

[daddy_4_eyes]

Watching the Adelaide - Freo pre-game, some gems from the commentary team.
"Last week Freo showed us why they're a genuine contender"
"They turned it around against West Coast and played a winning brand of footy".
Etc.

Never mind that an 18 man Eagles looked the more dangerous side until the lack of rotations and playing with only 17 fit players on field finally caught up.

It's almost like they didn't watch the game, just check scores/stats and ran with it.

 

[bzparkes]

It's almost like they didn't watch the game

Hit the nail on the head there.

 

[southcoast]

Eagles use of synergy throughout 2022 has been replaced in 2023 by ‘resilience’

Making a regular and frequent appearance in media. Gavin Bell on repeat this morning on ABC Sportstalk.

Didn’t see it in draft or trade list.

On iPad using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[WCE_phil]

TBH the only special comments guy who I actually rate and will gladly listen to is Buckley. Whoever thought there'd be a day when people thought that.

 

[Miguel Sanchez]

Watching the Adelaide - Freo pre-game, some gems from the commentary team.
"Last week Freo showed us why they're a genuine contender"
"They turned it around against West Coast and played a winning brand of footy".
Etc.

Never mind that an 18 man Eagles looked the more dangerous side until the lack of rotations and playing with only 17 fit players on field finally caught up.

It's almost like they didn't watch the game, just check scores/stats and ran with it.

And right now they’re having their third game of the season against a side that’s not crippled by injury, and heading for their third loss.

 

[Deplorable trumpster]

We didn’t play well in the first hub but where has the story that the players spat the dummy come from?

(he asks, knowing that the answer is that a poster has just made it up because it’s convenient)

There you go. Your good mate Keys has confirmed that there was dummy spitting in the hub.

Feel free to apologise for accusing me of making it up.

 

[Miguel Sanchez]

There you go. Your good mate Keys has confirmed that there was dummy spitting in the hub.

Feel free to apologise for accusing me of making it up.

Feel free to point out where he said the players spat the dummy.

 

[Keys]

TBH the only special comments guy who I actually rate and will gladly listen to is Buckley. Whoever thought there'd be a day when people thought that.

Always thought he spoke well as Collingwood coach and turned around the perception I had of him as a player

In the media, he’s been involved at club level recently enough to know what teams are doing and is articulate enough to pass that knowledge on in a way that can be understood

He also comes across as quite fair and balanced whether he be offering praise or criticism

 

[Schtinker]

https://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/geelong-football-club-being-sued-over-allegations-of-serious-sexual-abuse/news-story/2ca3f64eb7c4d46f016171c4c7da2962

A former Geelong player has launched legal action against the AFL club over allegations of “serious sexual abuse”.
The ex-player alleges he was gang r*ped by multiple older players at a residence maintained by the club.

 

[Avalor]

Just watched Simmo's post-game interview from the Dees game - so infuriating, can't hear the journalist's questions. Why aren't they given a mic for god's sake?

 

[Dazzler9]

This is simultaneously hilarious and infuriating. Especially the last part from Damian Barratt.

https://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/rip-it-out-afl-owes-150000-apologies-for-gather-round-mistake/news-story/c107ca2416da54c5e1733087c03dead5