Autopsy Swans end our 2024 season

[Lighthouse End]

Fact. The story I heard from a very good source….
I think one doesn’t equate to the other.

Depends who the source was, and on this occasion, it was a person quite high in the club's hierarchy and was backed up by a senior Carlton administrator with whom I worked at the time.

 

[Ant Bear]

"Did you watch the game, or just read the stats at the end?"

How long did it take you to come up with that retort?
And after coming up with it, did you chuckle to yourself typing it in?

Now, let's pull apart your reply.
If it's all so easy for a centre square midfielder to rack up tackle stats, HOW COME NONE OF OUR OTHER CENTRE SQUARE MIDFIELDERS HAVE RACKED UP THESE EASY TACKLE STATS? Or is it only easy for Connor to racked them up?
I did read somewhere that there's a lot of stationary opponents around stoppages.

Also, seeing you've watched game and I haven't because I just look at the stats, can you tell me how many other Port players missed tackles? Because from where I'm sitting (not in front of a TV, obviously) if every other Port player out there nailed their tackles, we probably don't lose by 36 points...

You posted he can't lay a tackle. But the truth is, he can. He laid 20 of them in the last 3 weeks - more than any other Port player in this finals series. Now, is he a perfect tackler? Hell no, but I think it's a bit rich when you highlight ONE player.


Maybe, you didn't watch the game either...

Hey, man...sorry for getting under your skin.

Fact is, I could go through the game and highlight the occasions where Connor missed tackles. They were there, and far better judges than me have also pointed this out. You could go through the game and highlight as many occasions when he made tackles. We don't all see things the same.

He is our captain, he sets the example. He will take the glory when it comes, but the spotlight on him will be brighter when we fail.

 

[Harlott]

Depends who the source was, and on this occasion, it was a person quite high in the club's hierarchy and was backed up by a senior Carlton administrator with whom I worked at the time.

With respect that still doesn’t make it a fact. I’m not sure who your source is within the club, but the Carlton administrator? They saw Tredrea tearing them a new one first hand why wouldn’t they be sprouting anything to place a wedge between him and Jack if they were the slightest chance to nab him?
Like I said, Tredrea being so young and immature at the time was probably hurt by the way he felt Cahill was treating him but I highly doubt this was because Cahill didn’t rate him as has been suggested.
I’d back Jack all day with talent identification.

 

[Lighthouse End]

With respect that still doesn’t make it a fact. I’m not sure who your source is within the club, but the Carlton administrator? They saw Tredrea tearing them a new one first hand why wouldn’t they be sprouting anything to place a wedge between him and Jack if they were the slightest chance to nab him?
Like I said, Tredrea being so young and immature at the time was probably hurt by the way he felt Cahill was treating him but I highly doubt this was because Cahill didn’t rate him as has been suggested.
I’d back Jack all day with talent identification.

Agreed. I have always said that not extending Cahill beyond that first 2 years was Port's first big AFL mistake. I'm pretty confident in my thought that had he stayed the finals failures would not have happened and he would have led the list he had to a flag many years earlier than 2004 as well as laying a foundation for long years of success due to his nous in identifying players with talent and plenty of G & D, and weeding out the spuds and half arse Harrys.
The club source has now moved on and has been gone for some time now and in any case it's irrelevant as it never happened. Similarly, Carlton's defence on that day you refer to was full of more holes than a piece of Swiss cheese, and all the forwards had a day out that afternoon. The person I worked with was very close to their board led by Elliott at the time and confirmed Tredrea's manager had approached the board and football department about a trade. There's every possibility it may have been false. There was also the rumour that he approached Collingwood due to the family connection but don't know any details on that one.

 

[Lefti93]

Yeh, not a fan of attending the SCG for the footy. Very unwelcoming.

Quite possibly some of the biggest tossbag fans I've seen.

 

[FishingRick04]

Quite possibly some of the biggest tossbag fans I've seen.

Was okay to me.

 

[Capital Power]

Was okay to me.

Yeah it was fine where I was. Mind you, after 10 minutes of yelling we barely uttered a whimper, so wouldn't have incurred the wrath of any oppo supporters.

Might be one for the unpopular opinion thread but I thought their game day experience was pretty good. Completely OTT, but you can see how younger fans would go for it.

 

[JakeNeadeFan]

Quite possibly some of the biggest tossbag fans I've seen.

By far the worst environment I've been in terms of fan behaviour at an AFL game.

Swans fans are ****wits and I dearly hope they lose this week.

Funniest part was when they were booing Hinkley/doing the aeroplane. Like...thats what we do.

Had much better experiences at Showdowns.

 

[FishingRick04]

Yeah it was fine where I was. Mind you, after 10 minutes of yelling we barely uttered a whimper, so wouldn't have incurred the wrath of any oppo supporters.

Might be one for the unpopular opinion thread but I thought their game day experience was pretty good. Completely OTT, but you can see how younger fans would go for it.

Yeah I enjoyed it also. Good music, fan interaction, singer

Some fans near me boo’d Hinkley for the joke, but he if you can’t beat them join em booooo

 

[Bevoman]

The majority of the board and the Chairman are VFL plants. The club puts bums on seats, good membership numbers and is financially stable. The club is no longer driven by people desperately striving for the ultimate success. This has been evident for quite a while. The club needs a member elected board before any true accountability will return.

It is why Ken has not been sacked, the AFL will not aprove the payout, we can but hope the Eagles help out by offering Ken their coaching job.

 

[power09]

Dixon wasn’t even in our top 10 worst players on the ground. But yeah it’s time, but there were far worse players than him out there tonight.


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

His mere presence destroyed the forward line and effected the offensive decision making of every Port player on the ground, I believe he caused many of our players to underperform.
Selecting him killed any chance Port had of competing

 

[Waspy79]

Quite possibly some of the biggest tossbag fans I've seen.

I sat next to you and saw it all too. It was weird really. I can only pin it down to their fans being sick of us beating them. I honestly didn’t expect that level of shit****ery from what are mostly wealthy theatre goers. It was kind of nice being so hated though, it’s what was once so great about being a Port fan.

 

[rogerjames]

Met and had discussions with both at various times when Port played away and had after match functions at Bells Hotel in Sth Melb. Cunningham was your quintessential Port man, was always talking in terms of the best deal for Port and very candid about issues he thought were bollocks. Boulton, on the other hand, when questioned on issues of ridiculous suspensions to handed to players for miniscule infractions, the Eddie vs Prison Bars saga, the compromised fixturing that saw Nth Melbourne, Sydney and St Kilda not come to Adelaide for 5 consecutive years, etc etc, exhibited the gormless attitude that the club has to roll over and say Uncle and not make waves. As a result the AFL has been wiping its feet on Port practically since day one.

They certainly have treated us with disdain. This has driven me to distraction, almost as much as having to put up with our coach from 2015 onwards.

 

[rogerjames]

Met and had discussions with both at various times when Port played away and had after match functions at Bells Hotel in Sth Melb. Cunningham was your quintessential Port man, was always talking in terms of the best deal for Port and very candid about issues he thought were bollocks. Boulton, on the other hand, when questioned on issues of ridiculous suspensions to handed to players for miniscule infractions, the Eddie vs Prison Bars saga, the compromised fixturing that saw Nth Melbourne, Sydney and St Kilda not come to Adelaide for 5 consecutive years, etc etc, exhibited the gormless attitude that the club has to roll over and say Uncle and not make waves. As a result the AFL has been wiping its feet on Port practically since day one.

Was terrible that Brian left after 2004 as he was such a great asset for us. I was very upset about that & we also lost Clarkson & Josh Carr. We'd won a flag but lost so much leadership straight after. Took some shine off winning that flag for me.

 

[rogerjames]

It is why Ken has not been sacked, the AFL will not aprove the payout, we can but hope the Eagles help out by offering Ken their coaching job.

Why have the Saints been able to pay out numerous coaches. They are a financial cot case?

 

[Malibu#27]

If we kept Cahill, we might have lost Tredrea.

No might about it tredrea said if Cahill stayed he was moving to carton.

 

[Lighthouse End]

Why have the Saints been able to pay out numerous coaches. They are a financial cot case?

Not sure about these days, but they were definitely on the VFL / AFL tit for many years and were paying 16c in the dollar to creditors in 1984 before Lindsay Fox took over.

 

[Lighthouse End]

Was terrible that Brian left after 2004 as he was such a great asset for us. I was very upset about that & we also lost Clarkson & Josh Carr. We'd won a flag but lost so much leadership straight after. Took some shine off winning that flag for me.

That was the watershed moment for Port IMHO. The exodus of leadership on and off field horribly exposed Williams' complete inability to build and develop a list, all apart from one solitary season where filling a few holes with experienced discards resulted in a temporary fix. The club has never really recovered.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Fact.
As mentioned in another post, the story I heard at the time, from a very good source, was that Tredrea approached the board and demanded Cahill be moved on or he was going to request a trade to Carlton. Maybe someone here with intimate knowledge of board machinations can either refute or confirm this definitively.
Cahill didn't see Tredrea in the same light as Williams, i.e a carbon copy of Wayne Carey who he could build a ' Pagan's Paddock ' style game plan around. In Cahill's game plan he was a cog in a multi pronged attack with Cummings, Lockwood, Paul Evans with Chad Cornes (as development projects ) with Morton, Heaver ( later Naish ) and Peter Burgoyne et al as smalls. His first choice for spearhead was Hodges, but injuries and scarring from his treatment by the Cows finished him off prematurely, a real tragedy. I am going to risk ruffling many feathers here with this, and I apologise in advance, but in my view Tredrea had the attitude he was bigger than the club and had a willing ally in Williams in unseating Cahill.

Tredders didnt approach the board. He went to Brian Cunningham and Greg Boulton and threatened to leave because he didnt believe he was getting a fair go under Jack.

His manager Geof Motley set up the meeting at end of 1998 season knowing Port were not going to release him and that the club was going to give Jack the boot and instal Williams.

The club were never going to extend Jack's contract after his attack on Mick Moylan at end of 1997 season.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

AFL from LA's take on why we lost.

 

[Lighthouse End]

Tredders didnt approach the board. He went to Brian Cunningham and Greg Boulton and threatened to leave because he didnt believe he was getting a fair go under Jack.

His manager Geof Motley set up the meeting at end of 1998 season knowing Port were not going to release him and that the club was going to give Jack the boot and instal Williams.

The club were never going to extend Jack's contract after his attack on Mick Moylan at end of 1997 season.

Thanks for the clarification. It's hard to know the full nine yards as there were so many versions flying around and being in Melbourne at the time and remote from the issue made it harder to know the exact truth.
FOrgive my ignorance re: the Jack/ Moylan thing, I thought that blew up mid 97 and was resolved pretty much straight away.

 

[FishingRick04]

Thanks for the clarification. It's hard to know the full nine yards as there were so many versions flying around and being in Melbourne at the time and remote from the issue made it harder to know the exact truth.
FOrgive my ignorance re: the Jack/ Moylan thing, I thought that blew up mid 97 and was resolved pretty much straight away.

What was the blow up?

 

[Lighthouse End]

What was the blow up?

To be honest I really don't know. We got very sketchy details in Melbourne. I think it might have been something to do with differing opinions on list management.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Thanks for the clarification. It's hard to know the full nine yards as there were so many versions flying around and being in Melbourne at the time and remote from the issue made it harder to know the exact truth.
FOrgive my ignorance re: the Jack/ Moylan thing, I thought that blew up mid 97 and was resolved pretty much straight away.

It was 2nd half of 1997, and Moylan had to leave, but when Jack left the club got him back.

Jack was having many issues at the time that the club had to manage, is the best way to put it, so because he didnt make finals he didnt get an extension. No benefit of the doubt given.

Different times and different KPIs from a different board and management team.

 

[DSL64]

Hey, man...sorry for getting under your skin.

Fact is, I could go through the game and highlight the occasions where Connor missed tackles. They were there, and far better judges than me have also pointed this out. You could go through the game and highlight as many occasions when he made tackles. We don't all see things the same.

He is our captain, he sets the example. He will take the glory when it comes, but the spotlight on him will be brighter when we fail.

Sorry mate, reading my reply back, it did come off sounding I was a tad narky.
I was just trying to highlight that it seems like we're very critical on some players, where other players seem to have a hall pass.

I'm sure if the same level of scrutiny was applied across the playing group, there would be many others far worse.

Yeah, he's our captain and sets the example.
Having more tackles than any other player in our finals campaign is setting an example.
Sure he missed tackles, but name me one player who hasn't...

Must admit, when we drafted Connor,

"Gee, what a tackling beast he'll be..."

wasn't the first thought that entered my mind...