Review R22: The Good, Bad and Ugly vs. Footscray

Remove this Banner Ad

I like winning, it's nice. Should try it more often. It's incredibly frustrating when these wins come at this time of the year when they are essentially meaningless.

I'll repeat again though, just to make it reaaaaaal simple, there is no excuse whatsoever to be one of just two teams to lose to the worst team in the competition, at home.

Richmond are not a good football team, and we made them look like the Brisbane Lions.

Any amount of mental gymnastics to justify otherwise is embarrassing.

You can talk like a condescending w***er all you want it just reduces the impact your words have...

I agree wins right now are meaningless. I am frustrated with how this year has gone. I am not defending the effort vs Richmond, personally I think our game the week before was far worse (maybe cause I was there?)., Surely you can see that Thilthorpe, Worrell, Murray & Rankine missing games has hurt us this year and our squad is not deep enough to going close to covering this?

Perhaps I ma perceived as someone who is accepting of the performances... I'm trying to look on the bright side as I personally don't think changing the coach will have any real material change to our performance. That's my opinion and many have the opposite opinion and that's fine.

** the other team to lose to Richmond is 1st, doesn't make it ok but it's a fact
 

Log in to remove this ad.

This makes no sense, at all.
"Anything but a loss" = a win or draw. So, a win or a draw is all Nicks' fault? Wtf?

We Nicks-sackers apportion blame quite rightly to Nicks' manymanymany mistakes:
--- playing favorites with seniors like Laird/ Sloane (but for his eye injury, Nicks would still be playing him)/ Smith, by rewarding poor form with continued selection.
WHY has it taken him so long to get Laird out of the midfield and drop Smith? (Hint: because he is dumber'n a sack of hammers).
--- stuffing up sub selections
--- still picking Murphy who has been useless
--- only making good youth selections because of injury to his favoured players
--- starting the season with a shitty, chip-chip, slowdown, defensive game plan
--- being unable on game day to stop opposition goal runs of anywhere from 5 to THIRTEEN goals, yes, THIRTEEN vs Hawks, and so on.

OK, let's talk about win-loss.
Your genius Nicks is 8-12-1 so far this year. He's lost 50% more often than he's won.
Overall, 37-66-1 <== I'll spell that out; he loses 78% more often than he wins. That's a garbage Coaching record. Let's all give Nicks a great big fat pat on the back for those 37 wins, fine --- HUZZAAAAH!! --- but let's kick him in the nuts for every one of the 66 losses.
Yeah, he's been lucky, that several of those wins have been against NM and WCE, or he'd be the shittest AFL Coach ever!
As it turns out, he's only the second-shittest. Big ****ing woop.

Oh, wot?
Last season we were 12th after 22 rounds. We're currently 15th.
Yes, the new faces have a lot of promise which Nicks consistently ignored until his faves got injured :poov1: :madv1:.
And what does "down form from our best players" actually mean, ffs?
If it wasn't for our best players' good form, we'd be looking at another spoon.

FINALLY! and only by accident, ie the injuries to his golden boys and others.
Nicks has not made a single imaginative, exciting selection of his own where he took a risk and backed in a raw talent that I can recall.
Only maybe Soligo, who used to knock on his door every Monday for a game, then begged to be moved to the midfield himself.

You're counting Murphy as a success? Jones? Hately? Cook? McAsey?
As for Pedlar, he has been Nicksed, possibly to an irretrievable level.
Forced ridiculously by Nicks to play on Stewart and got dropped for it, Nicks has crushed Pedlar's confidence and now Pedlar (who was showing real, exciting flair when allowed to play his own way) is injured.

Our last 5 years of failure, especially the last three (18th, 15th, 14th, 10th and now back to 15th) of spirit-destroying mediocrity are all on Nicks.
Open your eyes.
Ill rewrite: The "sak nix" brigade think that a loss is all Nicks' fault and a win is luck.


Its laughable to think Nicks has destroyed Pedlar, because he sure hasn't destroyed: Keays, Walker, Thilthorpe, Berry, Soligo, Fogarty, Worrell, Hinge, Keane, Murray et al. Maybe he has destroyed Murphy and McHenry?

I am sure if Pedlar didn't go to Stewart, you would probably be saying "I would have put Pedlar on Stewart, dumb Nicks"

Perhaps the new faces have taken a bit of time in the SANFL to develop and get AFL ready? Did you see Curtin against Brisbane? No way was that AFL standard. Stupid Nicks hammer sack should have known that Worrell was going to get injured, right?

Dawson, Laird, Smith and Walker haven't been as good as 2023. Our defence has been in and out, missing or injured minutes into games.

Were Jones, Murphy and McAsey drafted after 2020? Was Nicks supposed to know that McAsey had mental health issues? Is Cook an abject failure?

Galucci, Jones, McHenry, Lever, Milera, Doedee, McAsey and Pedlar (at least their respective draft positions) should have all been playing on the weekend for us to be a finals side.

Neil Craig has a better coaching record than Paul Roos and Adam Simpson, coaching records are a dumb stat sometimes.

Nicks has made heaps of mistakes, lots, like any player or coach. Can't deny that. But there is no way known that he deserve to get the sack with the 2nd youngest and 2nd most inexperienced side in the comp running around every week.

It just comes across as entitled, sulking supporters demanding success from a very young and inexperienced list.

Look at what Carlton, Gold Coast, Essendon and St Kilda have done to themselves over the last decade.

We sack Nicks we end up just like them.
 
Nicks has made heaps of mistakes, lots, like any player or coach. Can't deny that. But there is no way known that he deserve to get the sack with the 2nd youngest and 2nd most inexperienced side in the comp running around every week.

The problem with this logic is that it means there is literally nothing that Nicks can do to be worthy of sacking.

He's been here for five years. It is perfectly reasonable to look at our trajectory and see whether we think he's the man for the job. Are we happy with how players are developing under him? How the side is performing under him?

He didn't need to have the 2nd most inexperienced side, either. If he had invested in more of our youth earlier, we wouldn't be as inexperienced as we are. It's a bit rich to then say that makes him immune from criticism.

Also, just on your comment about Craig, Neil Craig was a good coach in the beginning. Obviously by the end he was past it, but he was great in the first couple of seasons.
 
Neil Craig has a better coaching record than Paul Roos and Adam Simpson, coaching records are a dumb stat sometimes.

If you count win loss only, sure. A bit like counting total medals at the Olympics instead of gold medals.

Roos and Simpson are both premiership winning coaches though, so their overall record is better
 

(Log in to remove this ad.)

Be careful voicing even an opinion here folks- already started in the UK now. Oz next 1984 not 2024 I'm just being real.
Season 6 What GIF by The Office
 
Nicks has made heaps of mistakes, lots, like any player or coach. Can't deny that. But there is no way known that he deserve to get the sack with the 2nd youngest and 2nd most inexperienced side in the comp running around every week.

It’s not so much that he deserves the sack, it’s this question:

Would the board have extended him for another two years if they knew the club would finish near the bottom?

Yes or no please.
 
He didn't need to have the 2nd most inexperienced side, either. If he had invested in more of our youth earlier, we wouldn't be as inexperienced as we are. It's a bit rich to then say that makes him immune from criticism.

Nicks has played 64 players at least once since taking over. Soligo has played 58/67, Rachele 55/67, Max 43/44, Jones 83 / 104, Sholl 72 /104, Berry 55/89 Thilthorpe 51/89.

He moved on Hartigan, Kelly, Gooch, Poholke, ROC, Gibbs, Knight etc in favour of playing the "kids".

You can say he has wasted games on players for sure (everyone has) but the whole he hasn't invested in youth or hasn't played the kids is a joke. The stats don't support this theory at all.
 
The problem with this logic is that it means there is literally nothing that Nicks can do to be worthy of sacking.

He's been here for five years. It is perfectly reasonable to look at our trajectory and see whether we think he's the man for the job. Are we happy with how players are developing under him? How the side is performing under him?

He didn't need to have the 2nd most inexperienced side, either. If he had invested in more of our youth earlier, we wouldn't be as inexperienced as we are. It's a bit rich to then say that makes him immune from criticism.

Also, just on your comment about Craig, Neil Craig was a good coach in the beginning. Obviously by the end he was past it, but he was great in the first couple of seasons.

If he doesn't produce next year he would be in a lot of trouble. 100% on board with that.

Yep, I loved Neil Craig as a coach but he wont be remembered in the same vein as Roos or Simpson. Thats the only point I am making. Flags >>>> Win %

I am completely happy with the development of guys like Sholl, Soligo, Berry, Worrell, Keane, MM, Nankervis, Thilthorpe, Rachele and Murray.

Taylor, Bond, Dowling, Curtin, Ryan and Edwards are the next phase and the signs are pretty good I feel.
 
If you count win loss only, sure. A bit like counting total medals at the Olympics instead of gold medals.

Roos and Simpson are both premiership winning coaches though, so their overall record is better
That's correct. Using win % as a measure of a coaches ability is a red herring was the awfully made point I was making :think:
 
Nicks has played 64 players at least once since taking over. Soligo has played 58/67, Rachele 55/67, Max 43/44, Jones 83 / 104, Sholl 72 /104, Berry 55/89 Thilthorpe 51/89.

He moved on Hartigan, Kelly, Gooch, Poholke, ROC, Gibbs, Knight etc in favour of playing the "kids".

You can say he has wasted games on players for sure (everyone has) but the whole he hasn't invested in youth or hasn't played the kids is a joke. The stats don't support this theory at all.
He's had almost no choice. Until the last few rounds, which experienced players has he left in the SANFL? Crouch for half a season and that's it.

He could have moved on several players sooner to get more games into more youth. He could have dropped players like Murphy or McHenry years ago. Instead, he has prioritised experience at almost every junction, and the end result is he now has a super inexperienced side. Which apparently then renders him immune from criticism, funny how that works.
 
That's correct. Using win % as a measure of a coaches ability is a red herring was the awfully made point I was making :think:

So what measure can be used to claim Nicks is a good coach if he has no premierships, no finals appearances and has a terrible win-loss percentage?
 

Remove this Banner Ad

Review R22: The Good, Bad and Ugly vs. Footscray

Remove this Banner Ad

Back
Top