Oppo Camp Non-Essendon Football Thread XVI

[Don Won]

Thank god we don’t play them this week.

 

[joey_jo_jo]

Wonder how theyre very vocal online fanbase spin this as a "good, actually" move.

 

[Don Won]

North - “we will now conduct a thorough review and selection process, where we will leave no stone unturned, no candidate un-checked. And at the same time we will try to get Alister Clarkson at any cost”

 

[faible]

They'll go for Clarkson, end up with Buckley IMO.

 

[eth-dog]

And it's self inflicted. They cut their list to the bone, what did they expect? One reason they shouldn't get a PP IMO.

This I don't get. Of the 20-odd players they delisted over the past couple of years, 4 were picked up by other clubs.

Majak Daw, who was taken purely as depth for a great side and was behind Xerri at the time.
Tom Campbell, who is basically a 30 year old reserve ruck and had no part of their future.
Mason Wood, who was really inconsistent for them and obviously needed a change of scenery
Sam Durdin, who was taken because of Carlton having a billion injuries to their key defenders

 

[isthisit13]

They'll go for Clarkson, end up with Buckley IMO.

They could do worse

 

[faible]

They could do worse

I think that would be a good outcome personally, Buckley would be the right age to do it, commands the respect of the players, and isn't a first time coach which they've now tried twice (Shaw then Noble) and failed at.

 

[faible]

This I don't get. Of the 20-odd players they delisted over the past couple of years, 4 were picked up by other clubs.

Majak Daw, who was taken purely as depth for a great side and was behind Xerri at the time.
Tom Campbell, who is basically a 30 year old reserve ruck and had no part of their future.
Mason Wood, who was really inconsistent for them and obviously needed a change of scenery
Sam Durdin, who was taken because of Carlton having a billion injuries to their key defenders

Their issues started a few years prior to the list cuts anyway, when Scott kept trying to top-up when they should have committed to the rebuild a season or two earlier before all their older guys were cooked.

As bad as Heppell has looked at times this season, Ziebell is significantly worse and has been for 2 years now.

 

[Chief Hopper]

North has few good options at this stage.
No tenured coach wants to go there. Their playing list is way too young to compete. Would take 2+ years to make right.
Why would a coach put themselves through the pressure?

 

[faible]

North has few good options at this stage.
No tenured coach wants to go there. Their playing list is way too young to compete. Would take 2+ years to make right.
Why would a coach put themselves through the pressure?

Because they want to coach?

If you're a coach wanting to coach right now, you go for the GWS job, which only one person can have, then North is out there looking.

If you've had some experience you'd back yourself to get the house in order and have them playing good football in a couple of seasons.

The issue isn't that they've been losing, it's how they've been losing. They're first-year GWS bad, despite not having a list filled with 18 year olds.

 

[ghostdog]

I wonder if North's performance on the weekend gave Clarko something to think about. With LDU, Horne-Francis, Simpkin, Phillips and McKay, he definitely has some cattle.

 

[Beerfish]

They need Ted Lasso.

 

[Dave]

This I don't get. Of the 20-odd players they delisted over the past couple of years, 4 were picked up by other clubs.

Majak Daw, who was taken purely as depth for a great side and was behind Xerri at the time.
Tom Campbell, who is basically a 30 year old reserve ruck and had no part of their future.
Mason Wood, who was really inconsistent for them and obviously needed a change of scenery
Sam Durdin, who was taken because of Carlton having a billion injuries to their key defenders

Don't forget the ones they traded. Sideshow bob was good enough to play in a Premiership. And even if players they cut weren't picked up by other clubs, you need some mature bodies around so that the kids don't get smashed. We saw that with GC and we've seen it again now with lolnorf.

 

[raskolnikov]

Lol Norf. And they have a 1,000 page "Sympathy for Essendon" thread on their board. Keep the sympathy for yourselves ****ers.

 

[faible]

Don't forget the ones they traded. Sideshow bob was good enough to play in a Premiership. And even if players they cut weren't picked up by other clubs, you need some mature bodies around so that the kids don't get smashed. We saw that with GC and we've seen it again now with lolnorf.

Their team isn't that young tbf; Cunnington out with cancer is horrible luck given he's their most important player, Greenwood made a huge amount of sense as an in but hasn't been very good.

Tarrant would have straightened them up down back a lot and helped McKay out

 

[eth-dog]

Don't forget the ones they traded. Sideshow bob was good enough to play in a Premiership. And even if players they cut weren't picked up by other clubs, you need some mature bodies around so that the kids don't get smashed. We saw that with GC and we've seen it again now with lolnorf.

Well yeah, Brown was one everyone knew was stupid at the time. But the guys they cut weren't good enough to be picked up by other clubs by and large, showing that their "gutting of the list" was overstated.

 

[Zach Package]

Unpopular opinion and I have no idea whether he’s interested but I’d love Noble as a VFL coach.

 

[citizen-erased]

Well yeah, Brown was one everyone knew was stupid at the time. But the guys they cut weren't good enough to be picked up by other clubs by and large, showing that their "gutting of the list" was overstated.

contributing factor, but there is more than one

topping up under Scott during those prelim runs, poor drafting (Serong & Jones picks given up, Phillips > McDonald could end up stinging, Pick 19 for CCJ)

experience has really dropped off too. Cunnington missing, Goldy is still good but isn't Goldy of old, no backline to speak of tbh, small forwards are largely non-existent.

Development probably stinging too. Simpkin, Powell, Phillips, LDU, JHF & Thomas should give them a solid young midfield. Missing 50% of them when none are injured (I don't think) doesn't bode well.

 

[andleanback]

This I don't get. Of the 20-odd players they delisted over the past couple of years, 4 were picked up by other clubs.

Majak Daw, who was taken purely as depth for a great side and was behind Xerri at the time.
Tom Campbell, who is basically a 30 year old reserve ruck and had no part of their future.
Mason Wood, who was really inconsistent for them and obviously needed a change of scenery
Sam Durdin, who was taken because of Carlton having a billion injuries to their key defenders

That narrative is getting tiring. Of course it’s their own doing, that’s what a rebuild is cutting away all the dead wood and building with kids. The issue is the older guys they still have on their list don’t do the heavy lifting meaning too much is left up to the kids. They don’t have the luxury of a pendles, Sidebottom Howe etc or Gunston, bruest, Mitchell. Their captain wouldn’t be in the 22 if he didn’t have the c next to his name.

 

[andleanback]

Unpopular opinion and I have no idea whether he’s interested but I’d love Noble as a VFL coach.

He’ll end up back in a footy manager role somewhere again next year. As has been mentioned a few places he was in track to become a ceo of a club, but wanted to take on the challenge of north when they approached him with the role.

 

[brutus76]

Clarko, Choco, Simmo or Pyke are their only real options

Nobes will come back to the Lions in a Development/Manager role - is a real lovely fella

 

[Corleone]

I don't see why Noble is getting it in the neck for North's performances tbh. Their club has serious issues at almost every level and a revolving door of senior coaches isn't going to fix it.

Noble only came in late in 2020, he had one off season to alter the list (which had already been gutted). Only 38 games as a senior coach, nowhere near enough to determine whether or not he can do the job or not.

 

[BrunoV]

Well yeah, Brown was one everyone knew was stupid at the time. But the guys they cut weren't good enough to be picked up by other clubs by and large, showing that their "gutting of the list" was overstated.

The gutting is in the form of Atley, Marley Williams, McMillan, Dumont, Wood, McMillan Pittard, Brown and Durdin (who they never really played). Did they not offer Tarrant a deal or did Tarrant want to leave? I'll grant that Dom Tyson was broken.

Atley is Heppell's age and essentially played 240 games straight from his debut. McMillan and McMillan Pittard were 28/29. The rest had 100 games in them at least.

Who survives the 2020 cull (which Atley was not part of)? Taylor Garner, an injured flake, Polec, another flake and Kayne Turner (the worst player in the AFL).

And it's not like every kid on the list is compelling.

McMillan, Dumont and Atley were pros. Wood and Durdin had ability. Trade Brown for something, I get that. I even get letting Tarrant leave to win a flag.

It seems that average age and games played is only run out when it helps to make a partisan point.

If you allow for years on a list to equate roughly to games played there is the equivalent of 800 games experience (give Durdin 100 ish and the same for Wood). You then go to North's current bottom 5, including Polec who you just sack because he's a flake and you're not worried about salary cap, and remove them.

What is the total effect of that by round 17 2022? It's got to be significant, doesn't it? Is playing Perez and Spicer now that important?

There is then the debacle of key position recruiting and development I've gone in to elsewhere.

They've blown themselves up. The AFL should step in as an administrator because North's profitability is based on handouts anyway. No one should be allowed to survive what has happed (now that they'll ge appointing a 4th senior coach in 4 years, etc).

 

[boncer34]

Well yeah, Brown was one everyone knew was stupid at the time. But the guys they cut weren't good enough to be picked up by other clubs by and large, showing that their "gutting of the list" was overstated.

It's not that the blokes they got rid of were AFL superstars though.

It's that they're better than the blokes North bought in to replace them.

 

[ant555]

North has few good options at this stage.
No tenured coach wants to go there. Their playing list is way too young to compete. Would take 2+ years to make right.
Why would a coach put themselves through the pressure?

Because coaches have egos and have a need to prove themselves. It is an AFL job on top of that the first two years of the rebuild will be done and they do actually have some decent young players.