Autopsy Sydney Legacy in Grand Finals continues 10 goal loss to the Lions

[The King!]

Yeah just got the email that's more like it

 

[zyzzbruh]

This is the reality. If they do start 25 shit and have a bad year people will grumble but we will just start looking ahead. If they win we will all be excited. If anyone genuinely was checking out they wouldn't be here now

Yep, and had we won the GF and then started 2025 shit, we'd all be moaning. Human nature.

 

[Jewelsbon]

Robbie Fox - Throughout the finals series, we did a lot of work with (sports psychologist) Emma Murray and we were like 'one game won't define us'.

Was talking to someone and was telling him about this comment and his response was interesting, he said this mind set is a group of individuals who mentally haven’t got over the previous results and this is a coping mechanism to try and release the pressure to win, obviously didn’t work.

This group is damaged goods now after 2 horrendous losses for some 3, time to turn the list and coaching staff over as neither are ever going to bring us the ultimate success we all desire. Absolutely shattered as a supporter/member it has ended so badly.

This is exactly how I feel.
I am always little Miss Sunshine, but I still feel so flat after Saturday and struggle to see how we could possibly ever win a flag.
To think only a month or two ago we were talking of a dynasty

 

[Nuggetz]

This is exactly how I feel.
I am always little Miss Sunshine, but I still feel so flat after Saturday and struggle to see how we could possibly ever win a flag.
To think only a month or two ago we were talking of a dynasty

Me too. Physically, mentally & emotionally drained.

 

[TheGoatBaron]

Liverpool being on top in England is helping me keep my emotions in check. But if we lose to Everton though, I’d lose my shit

 

[The King!]

I feel like we will be better as the underdog and written off.

Be nice to tweak the list a bit in trade period though

 

[Tedeski]

I can see why the club instantly gave Francis another contract. Because they know we have a real depth problem at our club & he is going to be important hanging around.

We don't have ANY Lohman type players that would be able to cover the loss of a player for the season like Brisbane did, let alone 58 players gone for the season.

We had a remarkably injury free season & that will probably not happen in the next few years & we couldn't cover those missing & when they came into the senior team, the disconnection was huge.

At other clubs the saying of one soldier out, another soldier in just couldn't be further from reality at our club.
So we had a big disruption to our method when even only one player was out because we did a reshuffle of multiple players to other positions they are not strong in.

We have too many players playing multiple roles. Not enough specialists.
Attacking defenders rather than one on one, beat your opponent first type defenders.

 

[ashep]

Yeah just got the email that's more like it

Any chance you could post here or DM me? My emails go to my FIL who arranges the membership.

 

[Kiama Chris]

I can see why the club instantly gave Francis another contract. Because they know we have a real depth problem at our club & he is going to be important hanging around.

We don't have ANY Lohman type players that would be able to cover the loss of a player for the season like Brisbane did, let alone 58 players gone for the season.

We had a remarkably injury free season & that will probably not happen in the next few years & we couldn't cover those missing & when they came into the senior team, the disconnection was huge.

At other clubs the saying of one soldier out, another soldier in just couldn't be further from reality at our club.
So we had a big disruption to our method when even only one player was out because we did a reshuffle of multiple players to other positions they are not strong in.

We have too many players playing multiple roles. Not enough specialists.
Attacking defenders rather than one on one, beat your opponent first type defenders.

That last sentence is very important in two ways:
1) I was delighted that we finally got Lloyd, Florent and Campbell playing little or no time in defence. Building a defensive unit around these guys is lunacy. Two wingers and a forward who still play that way.
2) I have no problem with setting up as a zone but I saw some footage earlier in the season of how we switched to man on man and handed off to each other to maintain coverage. It was brilliant. No idea where that went.
The number of times I saw Cunningham on his own trying to cover two attackers drove me crazy.

 

[Bloods86]

Yeah just got the email that's more like it

Still a mediocre response, still presenting it like it was just a bad game after a successful year.

If Horse isn't going, you probably can't address staffing this soon, but at least allude to getting someone from the outside to review our grand final prep and strategy. Surely that's a no brainer because of the last decade.

 

[Wheresbuddy]

I can see why the club instantly gave Francis another contract. Because they know we have a real depth problem at our club & he is going to be important hanging around.

We don't have ANY Lohman type players that would be able to cover the loss of a player for the season like Brisbane did, let alone 58 players gone for the season.

We had a remarkably injury free season & that will probably not happen in the next few years & we couldn't cover those missing & when they came into the senior team, the disconnection was huge.

At other clubs the saying of one soldier out, another soldier in just couldn't be further from reality at our club.
So we had a big disruption to our method when even only one player was out because we did a reshuffle of multiple players to other positions they are not strong in.

We have too many players playing multiple roles. Not enough specialists.
Attacking defenders rather than one on one, beat your opponent first type defenders.

Agree. I felt we were short on defensively oriented medium / smalld in our backline as reflected by the fact Lohman, Ah Chee and Raynor killed us. Cameron had his best game on Harry in recent times.

 

[The King!]

Any chance you could post here or DM me? My emails go to my FIL who arranges the membership.

To our valued members,

Clearly things did not go the way we wanted them to on the weekend, and we know that it was bitterly disappointing for everyone. We know that you are hurting – we are all hurting. And we all feel it in different ways. Thank you to those of you who have written to us to share your emotions and experiences. We have heard you and we acknowledge and appreciate your feedback.

It is important that we firstly acknowledge the performance of the Brisbane Lions. They played a brilliant game and had a strong season. They are very deserving Premiers.

For us, the weekend’s game is still very raw. Our entire club is processing the Grand Final. Whilst I appreciate that you are looking for answers for what went wrong, we need to take time to work through this ourselves to make sure we ask the right questions.

We are united. Our players led by Callum Mills and our coaching staff led by John Longmire have represented us extraordinarily well this season. I thank them for allowing us to compete and wholeheartedly support them in defeat.

It is very important that we balance the disappointment of our performance in the grand final with what was a very strong performance throughout the year. Finishing as minor premiers and then winning two finals demonstrates that we got many things right. However, we must also address our shortcomings. We will do this in a calm and measured way.

At this time of year, it is inevitable that changes to our list occur and already you may have seen the news that Luke Parker has requested a trade to North Melbourne. We will work through that in the fullness of time. It is never easy on a player or club given the strength of relationships. Luke is a premiership player, three-time Club Champion, and a fan favourite. He and Kate will always be part of our red and white family.

One thing I do know about our club is that we are resilient. We exist for our members and your support this year has been enormous.

Amid the raw emotions, the overwhelming feeling throughout the club is one of gratitude. We have been truly overwhelmed by the support this season, from the 75,000+ people who have joined our red and white family as members, to the 500,000+ people who came to games at the SCG, and the partners who have helped us along the journey, we say thank you.

Getting to a grand final takes an enormous effort from every facet of a footy club, and we wouldn’t have got there without your support.

Later this week you will hear from our club leaders at our Club Champion event, the Bob Skilton Medal. For those unable to attend, we will live stream the evening through our club website.

Importantly, football continues. Our women’s team returns to Henson Park on Sunday for the Pride Game against Geelong. Just like our men’s team, the support for our AFLW team has been phenomenal and for that we are immensely grateful.

This season was a special one for our club, marking 150 years of the Bloods. While we didn’t have the fairy-tale finish we had been hoping for, this chapter of our story has delivered emphatic joy and heartbreaking tears – a full gamut of emotion because we all care so much. We will get through this together and be stronger as a result.

Onwards.

Tom Harley
CEO, Sydney Swans

 

[ashep]

Thanks mate

 

[Bloods86]

To our valued members,

Clearly things did not go the way we wanted them to on the weekend, and we know that it was bitterly disappointing for everyone. We know that you are hurting – we are all hurting. And we all feel it in different ways. Thank you to those of you who have written to us to share your emotions and experiences. We have heard you and we acknowledge and appreciate your feedback.

It is important that we firstly acknowledge the performance of the Brisbane Lions. They played a brilliant game and had a strong season. They are very deserving Premiers.

For us, the weekend’s game is still very raw. Our entire club is processing the Grand Final. Whilst I appreciate that you are looking for answers for what went wrong, we need to take time to work through this ourselves to make sure we ask the right questions.

We are united. Our players led by Callum Mills and our coaching staff led by John Longmire have represented us extraordinarily well this season. I thank them for allowing us to compete and wholeheartedly support them in defeat.

It is very important that we balance the disappointment of our performance in the grand final with what was a very strong performance throughout the year. Finishing as minor premiers and then winning two finals demonstrates that we got many things right. However, we must also address our shortcomings. We will do this in a calm and measured way.

At this time of year, it is inevitable that changes to our list occur and already you may have seen the news that Luke Parker has requested a trade to North Melbourne. We will work through that in the fullness of time. It is never easy on a player or club given the strength of relationships. Luke is a premiership player, three-time Club Champion, and a fan favourite. He and Kate will always be part of our red and white family.

One thing I do know about our club is that we are resilient. We exist for our members and your support this year has been enormous.

Amid the raw emotions, the overwhelming feeling throughout the club is one of gratitude. We have been truly overwhelmed by the support this season, from the 75,000+ people who have joined our red and white family as members, to the 500,000+ people who came to games at the SCG, and the partners who have helped us along the journey, we say thank you.

Getting to a grand final takes an enormous effort from every facet of a footy club, and we wouldn’t have got there without your support.

Later this week you will hear from our club leaders at our Club Champion event, the Bob Skilton Medal. For those unable to attend, we will live stream the evening through our club website.

Importantly, football continues. Our women’s team returns to Henson Park on Sunday for the Pride Game against Geelong. Just like our men’s team, the support for our AFLW team has been phenomenal and for that we are immensely grateful.

This season was a special one for our club, marking 150 years of the Bloods. While we didn’t have the fairy-tale finish we had been hoping for, this chapter of our story has delivered emphatic joy and heartbreaking tears – a full gamut of emotion because we all care so much. We will get through this together and be stronger as a result.

Onwards.

Tom Harley
CEO, Sydney Swans

I'd like them to concede that the season was ultimately a failure.

They can still talk about how it is a good effort to get to a grand final, lots of good memories during the season, but at least come out and say it isn't good enough.

 

[JackHiscoxWasFast]

Big Footy Style


To our valued members,

How can I say it any more clearly but we choked again and let you down. From our coaching staff to all our players, we had the wrong game plan, poor mental and physical preparation and once again selected injured players.
Once again we recognise our shortcomings in the contested game, the importance of clearances, a disastrous zone defence, how to adapt to cover a kick-mark uncontested match, a losing mentality where one game doesn’t define us (it does) and the pitfalls of going cheap on the lawyer front.
As a result and effective immediately we are seeking a new senior coach and assistants for 2025, will be holding a review in mental and physical hardness led by Stuey Maxfield and will be undertaking several positional changes for Round 1 next year - Sheldrick, Adams and Cleary will be in the starting 23. Those making way will be determined through the off season.
I want to make it very clear that winning Grand Finals is everything and every waking moment will be spent towards this aim - we will be ruthless and relentless.
Finally, thank you to our Big Footy posters (too many to mention), we come here daily for your sage advice.

Failure is not an option

Yours,
Tom Harley

 

[Heeney2Franklin]

Its not a "fairy tale finish" if your the best team for 23 rounds and capitulate again nobody would of been surprised had we ran through Brisbane last Saturday.

 

[sataris]

I'd like the club to issue a statement from the players along the lines of;

We realise we left ourselves, the club and our supporters down on the weekend.
Together we will review the GF and the season as a whole and seek to understand our failings and how we can improve going forward
We cannot let this performances define the club or our legacy as players
We understand actions speak louder than words and we hope and expect to show all our supporters a team they can be proud of in the seasons to come.

Accept responsibility, accept the failure, seek to understand the issues, address those issues, implement change
Not easy to do, particularly publicly, but if they don't I fear history will repeat.

Do I expect it to happen?
NO

We've heard all of this before

Any statement they make is going to be hollow, meaningless and will be relentlessly mocked. (by me).

Something something actions something something words.

 

[Benmacca33]

Tom Harley give me a ****in spell …
What’s this club become

 

[caesar88]

I feel like a lot of teams have certain issues they struggle to overcome. Port's is clearly their inability to get to a grand final. Let's not forget that for years Geelong and Brisbane had this same issue and were called finals chokers.

But those are issues they got to face and address every single year.

Our issue is grand finals - preparing for them and performing in them.

We don't get to tackle that issue head on every year like those other clubs do their issues. Getting into a grand final once every two years is difficult enough, but I think it means we don't get to really address the issue and adopt new learnings each year.

It ****ing sucks and whether you're a staunch Horse fan or not, it's hard to deny that this is one of the worst imaginable legacies for him to have as a coach, especially considering how it started (a flag in his second year.)

 

[The King!]

I feel like a lot of teams have certain issues they struggle to overcome. Port's is clearly their inability to get to a grand final. Let's not forget that for years Geelong and Brisbane had this same issue and were called finals chokers.

But those are issues they got to face and address every single year.

Our issue is grand finals - preparing for them and performing in them.

We don't get to tackle that issue head on every year like those other clubs do their issues. Getting into a grand final once every two years is difficult enough, but I think it means we don't get to really address the issue and adopt new learnings each year.

It ****ing sucks and whether you're a staunch Horse fan or not, it's hard to deny that this is one of the worst imaginable legacies for him to have as a coach, especially considering how it started (a flag in his second year.)

Horse is in the same boat Chris Scott was, that feeling he won a flag with the precious coaches list too.

 

[Punts]

Tom Harley give me a ****in spell …
What’s this club become

Can’t stand him and along with the dumb shit pridam spills to

 

[Benmacca33]

Can’t stand him and along with the dumb shit pridam spills to

Its boarder line disrespectful to the clubs die hard fans I’m just sick of hearing this bullshit of being contnent with a good season ..
Good ticket sales and memberships it’s just lip service to money driven rubbish admin atm
The out and out number 1 thing that people and Tom have tried to gloss over with rubbish regular season success is we have been non competitive and I mean zero competitive in these grand final loses so tell em Tom what’s gunna change cause I’d love to hear it 80k members next year won’t fix that

 

[strauchanie59]

Can’t stand him and along with the dumb shit pridam spills to

100%. All both of them do is complain to the media about something or act like they're God's gift to earth.

 

[Dubai Quacker]

I can see why the club instantly gave Francis another contract. Because they know we have a real depth problem at our club & he is going to be important hanging around.

We don't have ANY Lohman type players that would be able to cover the loss of a player for the season like Brisbane did, let alone 58 players gone for the season.

We had a remarkably injury free season & that will probably not happen in the next few years & we couldn't cover those missing & when they came into the senior team, the disconnection was huge.

At other clubs the saying of one soldier out, another soldier in just couldn't be further from reality at our club.
So we had a big disruption to our method when even only one player was out because we did a reshuffle of multiple players to other positions they are not strong in.

We have too many players playing multiple roles. Not enough specialists.
Attacking defenders rather than one on one, beat your opponent first type defenders.

Agreed.

We sacrificed list depth for:

(a) extending Buddy; and
(b) signing some good players long term.

In my view, (b) was prudent, (a) less so.

Added to that, our draft hauls over the past 2 years have been underwhelming.

Why am I saying this?

We had a charmed run with injury this year. In a normal season, we’d need to call on more depth players - and that’s a problem given where our list is at.

The stars aligned & we really blew our big chance this year.

 

[fit 4 life]

Well my thought have been put down and emailed into the club, it wont make any difference but at least I feel better, I think