Where to from here ?

[Mugwump]

We clearly are not going to contend in 2017, so the question is what objectives we should have for the rest of the year. Let's assume Buckley goes mid year, if only because it'll stop the thread clogging up with that issue. What should we do ? Here are a few thought starters :

1. Play Scharenberg and Aish - they are top 10 draft picks and they should come good.
2. Rest Pendlebury until he is really fit, again.
3. Play McClarty and Daicos, as they are the future.
4. Get a KPP or two in the next draft, come what may.
5. Move Moore to a more central role - perhaps a wing - to understand better what we have here
6. Continue to pump games into Maynard and Hoskin-Elliott
7. Prepare trade options for Ramsay and Fasolo, both good players with critical defects

[Collingwood Crackerjack]

Time to sell the silverware!

[The Boy Who Cried Wolf]

Stab in the dark prediction - Roos will be coaching us by the Carlton game, and Stuart Dew will be his assistant.

[Doc63]

[The Boy Who Cried Wolf]

[GoWoodsmen]

[GoWoodsmen]

[MatthewBoydFanClub]

For a start, rest Pendlebury until he's fit.
Make decisions now on certain players who won't be part of our next premiership tilt. That's means end of the road for Blair, Greenwood and White. Great game today for Goldsack so he keeps his place until someone can take it off him.
Keep playing Schade, Moore, Ramsayand Maynard in their current positions until they come good.
Recruit a KPP at the end of the season to assist Moore.
We paid big bucks for Mayne and Aish. Play them both in the team now.
Howe is too good to move from the HBF. Keep playing him there.
Reid is too good to move from him from the backline. Keep him there and get his brother under free agency rules to play at CHF next year.
Get Fasolo to a shrink. Find out why he doesn't want to play team football and if he doesn't want to learn, play him in the backline again until he gets the message.

[watt price tully]

The tanking strategy is working fine.

I understand the CFC board is in negotiations with Kim Jong-Un for Bucks & Sanderson to further their coaching experiences abroad - push wide to North Korea while doing some mid season in the DMZ.

In case of hostilities they can be kept as hostages.

[GoWoodsmen]

[mattys123]

TANK.

Bloody tank.

We need key position players, namely a second forward to help Moore for the next 10 years, so tank, go 2-20 and take the best tall in the draft.

We need a Hipwood, A Daniher, A Cameron to assist Moore for the next decade.

We won't get it through trade or free agency so tank.

FInals are gone anyway, and finishing 9th-12th again is the worst place to finish for our future.

[melliot]

Time to partly rebuild the list. Need early picks for kpf and kpd.

Free agents are OK, but no trading for players where we a losing draft picks.

[slangman]

[swoop42]

For better or worse I'd rather just see out the year with Buckley and make the needed change at seasons end.

If the season plays out as expected and once finals are no longer a mathematical chance we look to play the kids and experiment with player position and garner a better draft pick in the process.

[Jezza]

I sensed today was a line in a sand moment for the supporters.

Even Bucks' biggest fans are waking up to the inevitable that his coaching days are numbered whether he leaves now or at the end of the season.

It's telling that the club didn't renew his contract again so everyone knows the day is coming.

Unless something catastrophic happens between now and the end of the season, I think Buckley will be taped on the shoulder by the club and moved on in a dignified manner at the end of the season.

It will be sad moving on a club legend and great man, but the club needs to be ruthless in its pursuit to success.

I know supporters are baying for blood, but I don't see how Buckley being sacked now will do anything apart from merely stem the bleeding for the rest of the year rather than actually improve our on-field fortunes substantially.

In the short-term it won't really help us, so I think we just need to see it out with him and roll with the punches for the next 16 weeks no matter how hard it becomes.

If we finish low enough, at least we'll have the luxury of a high draft pick something we were not afforded last year after trading our future first round pick for Treloar.

I'm sure that the club is already under no illusion that it needs to consider other options if Buckley fails in 2017, which is beginning to happen now.

The club needs to start planning for 2018 and conduct a review into all facets of the football department to see how we can move forward and give the next coach the best chance in succeeding with us.

Recruiters need to be held to account, the whole football department needs to be looked at especially with constant changes of Walsh, Balme, Allen and then Walsh again as head of football.

Coaching staff will need an overhaul. Too many figures have been there for too long and generated very little reward for us, such as Robert Harvey amongst others.

Development and skills coaches will also need to be held to scrutiny.

Lastly we'll need to see whether the list we have in our disposal is good enough to be contending in the next 2 to 4 years under a new coach.

I think some components of our list are flawed, but I think it's a list with enormous potential and just has some key holes that need to be addressed, namely the lack of competent key position talent.

If we can find a coach that can formulate a proper game plan that works, then I think we'll see rewards for that.

I think the prospect of Eddie and the board changing in the near future will be harder to come by.

I have a feeling that Eddie won't walk away until he believes the club is in a decent enough shape on the field for him to hand over the presidency.

He's on a three-year term now that started this year, so I think he should be planning for his eventual departure from the club and leave when his term is up at the end of the decade.

Eddie has done brilliant things for the club and that will always be acknowledged, but at the same time change is required. One man in the same position for nearly 20 years is too long.

I've had strong doubts for over a year, but today is the day where I truly believe Bucks will not be coaching us in 2018.

I'm not going to be calling for his head after every loss, but I don't have the faith he will turn it around.

He's had enough time and faith placed on him to generate good results and unfortunately it hasn't clicked for him despite his best efforts.

The club has shirked the responsibilities of making the hard calls for the good of the club, but the time is coming that they will need to confront the reality that things will not improve if everything continues to stay the same.