If we could make 10 decisions to change the club's fate

[inxs88]

So I am sure we would all love to control decision making at Magpie land especially given the plight we face currently. What can be done? Here goes:

1. Recruit Stephen Wells (tomorrow): this genius Cats recruiter has left the Cats on what looks like a "Silverchair hiatus". Pretty simple Graham Wright, Ned Guy gone, go get the best for 20 years who is AVAILABLE.

2. Stamp the playing papers of: Callum Brown, Brayden Sier, Levi Greenwood, J Thomas, J Madgen, Max Lynch but not Chris Mayne until end of season.

3. Trade Steele Sidebottom and Mason Cox: With limited draft picks, these two are the few who have currency in the market place and are carrying over $1,250,000 in the salary cap. Both are 31 at the commencement of 2022. Exit them classily and with dignity.

4. Money ball player targets: Brayden Fiorini from the Gold Coast, Jarrod Cameron from the Eagles, Derek Egglomesse Smith from the Tigers, Colin O'Riordan from the Swans or Callum Coleman Jones from the Tigers. All have good skills, football DNA but aren't starting 22 at their respective clubs due to depth in their playing positions.

5. Extraordinary General Meeting: God forbid we let the fans exert their intelligence by voting for the Pies future. But a democratic vote is necessary.

6. Free Agents: Obviously Zac Merrett is the highest profile target and despite being sub 6 foot, his skills and general disposal are elite. The current other player who is a free agent and being low-balled is Tom Liberatore who turned 29 today but again disappointed by only a 12 month extension offer by the Bulldogs. Two years and a 3rd year trigger for this likely 2021 All Australian could be a coup.

7. Leadership Group: Taylor Adams to captain next year, Darcy Moore Vice Captain and Brodie Grundy to be Deputy Vice Captain with 3 others: Roughead, Howe and Crisp in extended leadership group. Hey Darcy and Brodie, if you command the cash, LEAD THE WAY.

8. No more tattooed recruits: Sorry but "generally speaking" mass body ink doesn't equal great club culture creation. Look at the Cats, Melbourne, Bulldogs and Port's leadership groups for proof.

9. Fitness and Sports Science: change it. We missed the available Andrew Russell in October 2018 when the Blues snapped him up from the Hawks. Maybe Graham Wright's past relationship with him and his contract with Carlton concluding soon, means we could pursue him now.

10. Assistant Coaches: If the rumours of Bux contract being extended are true, then the gutting of the existing Assistant Coaches squad should be the natural occurrence. Out Harvey, Skipworth, Sanderson etc... and do like the rumoured targeting of Justin Leppitsch. Adding fresh blood just out of the game or astute brainiacs should be a minimum standard.


So there you have it. Thoughts? Your changes if you had the chance?

[Piesnchess]

IF Bucks does stay, my gut reckons he MAY get a one year extension only, just to see how he goes with all these kids next season. and with maybe, with an small injury list, thatd be a miracle in itself. ! BUT, he needs new assistants, id love Choko Williams to come over, for starters. We need a whole new fitness staff, also, i just hope to God we can get Nick Daicos, to add to our kids now. I actually would like John Bertram to be our next President, hes a proven winner.

[The Boy Who Cried Wolf]

If Buckley stayed... what an embarrassment for our club. End of story.

[simon tonna]

Mass body art and the wrong culture go hand in hand, not so sure.
Although I don’t endorse tatts but I like the way Tom liberatore goes about it very much. I guess in a new guernsey such as ours Bart Simpson would be more contrasting than what it is on him now.

Ps Sidebottom and Cox won’t get much in trade value but at least there will a couple of parking spots for who ever.

[Haff]

Lost me at number 8. I don’t have any stickers but they don’t equal poor culture.

[Pies4shaw]

https://www.magpies.net/nick/bb/viewtopic.php?t=82060

Some things never change.

[Pies4shaw]

[BBHS]

I think we should get more tattoos on all the players, notably with the scores of each game from this season.

[Pies2016]

Build for sustained success through the draft for a couple more years ( Wells would / could be part of that direction )
Forget the Hail Marys who can’t get a game at their current clubs. I would rather invest in pick fifty with little impact to our cap, than offer decent money to a depth player from another club. Yes, I know there are success stories but there are more failures. It’s just that you forget about them very quickly cause they’re playing VFL every week.
Set the core of the list up with kids coming through together and then go hard on a quality free agent who wants to come to us because he can see a future at his new destination.
And if we do go hard at the draft for the next couple more years, then we need to beef up our development program to complement the strategy. No point in having a canvas and no paint brushes.

[simon tonna]

There is no simple fix and I’ll quote my year 8 science teacher which rings true for me every single day. “Patience is a virtue”.
We need to trade our way back into the draft. We have learned some very valuable lessons of late and I feel holding onto players for sentimental value or because we can’t get trade value of them will not determine that we keep them anymore. Like pies2016 says, we need to start with a clean slate and develop our own. Send off with dignity our old warriors into the horizon, send the ball hacks along with them and trade the untrainable or for better the players who cannot perform as their contract dollars suggest. (Thanks Ned)
Most importantly physical conditioning needs to be of utmost importance. Never ever should we comprise the players conditioning. This is directly under the coaches management responsibilities. Unfortunately for us Buckley is he’s own worst enemy here. We have mismanaged our soft cap and the proof of the level of incompetence in the past 8 to 10 years from the footy club is now bearing fruit.
A new dawn is needed.

[David]

Some of this is good (apart from trading Sidebottom and the tattoo suggestion, which is totally ridiculous lol), but I'm a bit sick and tired of people obsessing over getting rid of the whipping boys as some kind of solution to our problems. Josh Thomas may never be a star, and he's definitely a good deal closer to the end of his career than the beginning, but he does more than enough to justify his selection every week (check out his brilliant tackling in recent matches), and we will presumably keep playing him for so long as there's nobody better waiting in the wings to dislodge him from the side. If he stays on and ends up spending much of next season in the VFL, then so be it – at least he'll be there if we need to call on his experience.

So I see absolutely no reason to think that getting rid of Thomas at the end of the year will make us a better side unless a) he has trade value or b) we're in total rebuild mode, and I don't think that's the suggestion here (particularly considering the discussion about targeting free agents in point 6).

[RudeBoy]

A lot of good suggestions.

However, I reckon Swannie, Buddy and Dusty attest to the fact that tatts don't impinge on a good footy Premiership winning culture. Give me either one over Dangerfield any day of the week.

On the coaching, I've jumped ship today and reckon it's time for Bucks to give someone else a go. If he goes, then the new coach (hopefully Choco) will bring in his preferred assistants. If the club does decide to extend Bucks contract, then I hope it's a long term one of 5 yrs, to relieve him of any pressure as he re-builds our team - at least a 3 yr project. Who would be his assistants, I've no idea.

[Piesnchess]

[neil]

Libertore no way
Identify list weaknesses first and recruit based on needs ie we need a KPF
Tattoos equal bad culture is a load of bullshit
Sidebottom should remain a one club player Cox probably has zero value as a trade
Sack the whipping boys will be popular but player delistings should be the coach football director decisions

[MatthewBoydFanClub]

All I can say is that it's hardly Derek Hine's fault that the club paid out two first round picks each for Treloar and Beams, then made the decision to ditch Treloar and Stephenson last year. Derek also is not responsible for the three ACL's that Scharenberg suffered, Freeman's numerous hamstring injuries and the chronic knee condition that forced Langdon to retire. All the salary cap decisions that the club made which forced the carnage last year were above the head of Derek Hine. Hine is the last person we should let go (in any case Stephen Wells has no intention of leaving Geelong).