Outlook Rocky: he likes an expensive Tawny

[winged1]

The problem for the AFL is that it actually worked.

It was supposed to make us "competitive" without us getting all the chocolates.....three times.

Bye bye Retention Allowance,

And because of that we can't overpay, it is why we have been on the bottom for a decade. A line has been drawn. Frankly I am fine with that.

 

[Big Sauce 21]

I sure hope we draft a gem because I'm not interested one bit in trading another reject player from another club who can rot away with the flops were already brought in.

 

[cotter101]

Looking forward to a new midfield dynamic and a consistent and restrained approach to managing our list and salary cap. Onward and upward.

Bit of irony in him ending up at Port considering the events leading up to his drafting too.

Well this is what I take out of it too. We've had a gun midfield on paper for years. But 'on paper' doesn't win you games. Sometimes quality players just don't gel and in our case they all get injured. Either way, our current midfield set up was not working. That was evident throughout the whole year. The pressure our defenders were under comes back to the midfielders imo. They were all pretty unaccountable.

We won't be what we see in our eyes overplaying for players anymore. Which essentially means we offer what we seem fair and we probably don't see anymore Tom Bell, Jordan Lisle, Ryan Bastinac, Josh Walker or Jack Frost types end up at the club on deals of 400k+. Although admittedly Bastinac and Walker built as the year went on.

Whilst Rockliff was probably my favourite Lions player and despite all I heard regarding where he would be playing in he future, I am really happy with the direction we are taking both on and off the field. We need to set the foundations and look towards the long term.

It's been a long time since I've felt confident in the direction of the club, but I'm filled with confidence now.

 

[3KZ is Football]

Backing the football club 100% on this'un.

This is the best post in this thread by a country mile! Mr Ripper by name, Mr Ripper by nature.

 

[winged1]

I sure hope we draft a gem because I'm not interested one bit in trading another reject player from another club who can rot away with the flops were already brought in.

As I said in the other thread our drafting in the last few years has been good or trading has been hit and miss.

 

[Haso]

Pretty bloody disappointing all round if you ask me, particularly for a rubbish pick.

Just when we need experience players we can’t wait to turf them out the door.

Shit form by the club and by Tom IMO.

I'm optimistic Dylan. He was always going to go somewhere where he was offered 4 years (which he doesn't really have left) over 3, and it looks like he has taken the larger pay packet too. That translates to a healthy pick.

If the club don't feel like matching, you would have to suspect that they prefer the likely high pick over a broken Rockliff.

The pragmatic approach, which seems to characterise this administration.

 

[WhiteLionFeva]

As I said in the other thread our drafting in the last few years has been good or trading has been hit and miss.

Not a coincidence really. We can force a draft pick, we can't force a trade. Despite what Billy says, we are not a destination club, yet.

 

[Lazza16]

Was it Swan who let Eddy Betts go from Carlton for the sake of 100K a year??

Not sure the CEO makes these decisions

 

[Hollow Knight]

 

[Dylan12]

We have managed to offload a 27 year old former all australian who averages 30 plus possesions a game, is a clearance and tackling machine and pretty handy in the forward half. A major positive for our club apparently. Good times.

So they'd have you believe and then followed up with bringing in a busted up player that struggled getting on the park all the year.

Not sure I'm quite seeing anything positive.

 

[Billy Puller]

Not a coincidence really. We can force a draft pick, we can't force a trade. Despite what Billy says, we are not a destination club, yet.

Get your negativity out off this board. The Brisbane Lions are the DESTINATION CLUB and I'll bet my bottom dollar we'll spring a few more surprises this trade period.

 

[MacMum]

What the hell does it matter what the tigers do? Thats their culture - ours is happy to have the players player leave . the young ones picked rocky as their best in ground more times then anyone else so it obviously means they respect him. I sure hope Hodge can fill those shoes cause its a big loss. And given Fagan has been working on on that for a while and hasn't done anything to retain the onfield leader it could rebound ugly. Real ugly.

Ok Mr Grumpybum, whatever you say

 

[Big Sauce 21]

Half the list is overpayed and will need to continue to be paid more than what they're worth.

 

[SizeMatters]

Half the list is overpayed and will need to continue to be paid more than what they're worth.

We are stuck really. We will have to overpay to bring in quality recruits, or hit the draft hard but then overpay our young blokes as we need to hit 95% salary cap.

 

[irish]

It's a shame too lose an experienced hand , he left the tracks and god knows how bad his offences last season when we would have given him away. He fought back under fagan and got his cred back

We then cut the contract back to what we see as a fair deal as far as the clubs interests are. And he exercises his right too shop himself and heads to port ( says a decision totally $$ driven )There are very good reasons we played it this way , reasons we will never know but we need to move forward.

Sad to see him leave , I thought he would stay for one ! but welcome to the new administration where we no longer will be the soft end of the wedge who bends over too other clubs and players

We finally have balls ,

 

[Big Sauce 21]

We are stuck really. We will have to overpay to bring in quality recruits, or hit the draft hard but then overpay our young blokes as we need to hit 95% salary cap.

They should be already loading Alex Witherden's account. One we can't afford to lose.

 

[Lazza16]

What the hell does it matter what the tigers do? Thats their culture - ours is happy to have the players player leave . the young ones picked rocky as their best in ground more times then anyone else so it obviously means they respect him. I sure hope Hodge can fill those shoes cause its a big loss. And given Fagan has been working on on that for a while and hasn't done anything to retain the onfield leader it could rebound ugly. Real ugly.

How do you know the young ones voted for rocky?

 

[jackess]

I won’t feel so bad next year when in round 1 we have Beams, Zorko, Martin, MRobbo, Bundy, Bastinac, Squizzy, Clugg and Berry running around in the midfield.

 

[Harris Specter]

Poor Jack, has to grow up in Adelaide, surrounded by Port fans.

 

[jackess]

Poor Jack, has to grow up in Adelaide, surrounded by Port fans.

Some of us found a decent footy team to follow despite those difficult circumstances.

 

[Gadzorks]

How do you know the young ones voted for rocky?

Cause that's mostly who was on field. You only vote in games you play in.

 

[Gadzorks]

Half the list is overpayed and will need to continue to be paid more than what they're worth.

Um they are worth what we pay. Free market stuff and all

Not directed at you but the whole concept of a retention allowance that still gets floated here regularly is that we want /need to over pay to attract and keep aa players at our club. Bit silly to think we need a retention allowance but then get twisted when we do over pay.

It'll be interesting to see how this pans out if it is in fact a move to flatten the pay structure.

 

[notliondown]

I'm happy to wish Tom well and wish him all the best. For both his own benefit and the clubs he was a reborn player this year. It's great he gets to part ways with the club on a far better note this year than he would have last. He regained my respect for his turnaround.

But it's time we leveled the ship up a bit. We need to sort out our pay scales. For all those saying Rocky has been screwed over I'm pretty damn certain he's been more than well compensated during his time here if compared to what he would have got at a Hawthorn or Geelong in a team full of stars. We've over paid players for years. A fair amount still are.

No, we're not a destination club. Probably never will be. What we were though until this year was a fiscally broken and structurally fractured organisation. We've had periods where the players had excessive control - Rocky included, and footy departments unable to navigate any sort of course for the future because of it. We were under resourced and doomed to continue down the same path that we've trodden for a decade.

Theres finally a plan and a direction that everyone at the club seems to agree on. Everyone has a purpose and a role. The players seem to be treated with courtesy and respect and seemingly by and large, going by the number of resignings, trust the system and methodology.

Rocky's situation is symptomatic of the change thats taken place. He was always going to be a difficult case. An ex captain who would have been on a very good wicket for a very long time, finding himself fronting the negotiating table with a few blots on his copy book, and a body that's starting to fail him. Despite all those saying he was one of our best, our midfield results speak for themselves - something isn't just quite right. Add to that the rumours of his gunning for Voss, his alleged run ins with the GH5, the re-visitation of coach issues with Leppa. Was he really the "loyal" clubman some want to believe? Or was he happy being a big fish in a little pond? Trouble seems to have followed Tom a little...

So, the club faced with all that makes an offer that from all accounts is sensible and logical. It's hard to make an argument against something that actually seems like a fair offer. Clearly others think he's worth more - and maybe Port think he'll help with their window - fair enough. But he won't with ours. And that's why our offer makes sense, and maybe so does theirs.

We are in for a bumpy road still. We would have been had Rocky stayed. But personally I'm happy for that road to be taken with players who to me at least, fit far better into the role of a championship team, and are buying into this new direction without reservation.

 

[Dylan12]

Half the list is overpayed and will need to continue to be paid more than what they're worth.

Exactly. You can say that we aren't going to overpay players when, like you said, half the list is well overpaid that don't have nowhere near the credentials of Rockliff.

 

[Big Sauce 21]

Um they are worth what we pay. Free market stuff and all

Not directed at you but the whole concept of a retention allowance that still gets floated here regularly is that we want /need to over pay to attract and keep aa players at our club. Bit silly to think we need a retention allowance but then get twisted when we do over pay.

It'll be interesting to see how this pans out if it is in fact a move to flatten the pay structure.

More along the lines that we're either very young or quite average barring a few. We have to pay overs to some because of that 95% cap rule.