WHO WILL YOU BLAME THIS TIME HARDWICK

[Coach]

Told by Whom?

the oracle

[Jackstar is back again]

and its not as though we have been ruthless with coaches
Frawley 5 years
Wallace 5 years
Dimma ?? if not improvement at years end, why continue.
Someone please give me a GOOD reason

[gerkin greg]

cause it will make you sook like the pregnant ass hooker you are

[Jackstar is back again]

cause it will make you sook like the pregnant ass hooker you are

Now thats a classy post

[SPOCK]

What i cannot understand for the life of me is peoples blind faith when it comes to Hardwick.
Have we learnt nothing from the last 30 years, let alone the last 5? Just because we choose Hardwick doesn't guarantee he was the right choice. Lets be honest, it wouldn't be our first bad selection the club has made. We as members and supporters should question the decisions he makes for our club. Be it, game plan, selection, delistments or whatever.
The reality is we have a coach that has never done this job before.

We seem not to have improved much in nearly 2 seasons. (in any facet)
He still seems to be playing sub standard players. IE Hislop and Farmer
We are still moving the ball so slowly and kicking sideways.
We still seem not to want to tackle and chase and all the 1% things i thought Hardwick would have instilled in us first.
We still seem not to be able to hit easy targets over 20/30 metres.
We still seem to not to wont to work for each other.

Is there anything people think DW has done well since being here? If so, what? And before people say, he got rid of some players last year, well that is the easy bit that you and i could have done.

And one last question, what if at the end of next year we are still bottom 4 with still only 5 odd wins against bottom sides, does DH get another contract?

Interested to hear what peoples thoughts on where we should be and what a pass mark is for Hardwick in his 3 years as our coach.


 

Well said, best post of the month

[Francois Jackson]

What i cannot understand for the life of me is peoples blind faith when it comes to Hardwick.
Have we learnt nothing from the last 30 years, let alone the last 5? Just because we choose Hardwick doesn't guarantee he was the right choice. Lets be honest, it wouldn't be our first bad selection the club has made. We as members and supporters should question the decisions he makes for our club. Be it, game plan, selection, delistments or whatever.
The reality is we have a coach that has never done this job before.

We seem not to have improved much in nearly 2 seasons. (in any facet)
He still seems to be playing sub standard players. IE Hislop and Farmer
We are still moving the ball so slowly and kicking sideways.
We still seem not to want to tackle and chase and all the 1% things i thought Hardwick would have instilled in us first.
We still seem not to be able to hit easy targets over 20/30 metres.
We still seem to not to wont to work for each other.

Is there anything people think DW has done well since being here? If so, what? And before people say, he got rid of some players last year, well that is the easy bit that you and i could have done.

And one last question, what if at the end of next year we are still bottom 4 with still only 5 odd wins against bottom sides, does DH get another contract?

Interested to hear what peoples thoughts on where we should be and what a pass mark is for Hardwick in his 3 years as our coach.


 

i hear what your saying BT and i respect that but i will decide for myself after this trade period is done and dusted.

if the likes of Edwards, Hislop, Jackson, Thursfield and one of King/Nahas are still here then i will agree with you 100%.

This is his biggest chance to trade out some albeit small value, to get some cream and if he doesnt then he is gone.

I do agree i dont see any improvement all those areas, apart from the fact that i think our klicking has improved, marginally. than this time last year but again the season is not dead yet.

I cant believe after all these years our players still dont tackle or shepherd for each other.

[Jackstar is back again]

didnt see one shepherd on saturday

[eliminator]

There are too many players at the club that are not up to AFL standard there has to be a clean out at the end of the year. For example Edwards, Jackson, Hislop, Browne,Graham, Thursfield, Miller, McGuane must go or be traded.

[RollsRoyce]

i think our klicking has improved, marginally.

Which would be good if we were the ciccada's, and not the Tigers

[Dice]

Is there anything people think DW has done well since being here?

DW ? Damien Wallace ?  

[WilliamPowell]

Looks like no one's prepared to answer this one big tone

But here's my take  

What i cannot understand for the life of me is peoples blind faith when it comes to Hardwick.
Have we learnt nothing from the last 30 years, let alone the last 5? Just because we choose Hardwick doesn't guarantee he was the right choice. Lets be honest, it wouldn't be our first bad selection the club has made. We as members and supporters should question the decisions he makes for our club. Be it, game plan, selection, delistments or whatever.

I don't think it's blind faith big tone I reckon it's rational, level headed thinking as opposed knee jerk reactions when things go a little pear shaped.

I would hope in 30 years that's one thing we might have actually learnt. That we (The RFC) have for far too long reacted to with short sighted decisions, knee jerk reactions and quite frankly gone around and around in cirlces always ending up the in the same spot. We never bothered with any type of plan.

Wallace is the perfect example promised one thing when he was appointed and as soon as it went to crap (2 years in) he changed his "plan" and the cycle started again

I find strange that nearly everyone agreed when Hardwick was appointed (and to be honest it didn't matter who the person was btw) it was going to take a long time to re-build this club. Now we seem to be saying a long time is only 18 months?  

Facts are he is 18 months into the job. Has he made mistakes? You bet he has not disputing that for one minute and he is likely to make some more but he isn't the first and he wont be the last.

Even long time coaches make mistakes

The reality is we have a coach that has never done this job before.

I don't think anyone is disputing that fact..... every experienced coach in the business was once in Harwick's shoes - a rookie coach

We seem not to have improved much in nearly 2 seasons. (in any facet)
He still seems to be playing sub standard players. IE Hislop and Farmer
We are still moving the ball so slowly and kicking sideways.
We still seem not to want to tackle and chase and all the 1% things i thought Hardwick would have instilled in us first.
We still seem not to be able to hit easy targets over 20/30 metres.
We still seem to not to wont to work for each other.

I keep asking the same thing and very few seem willing to answer

Six weeks ago after the Dreamtime game when everyone was feeling great - did people think we had improved?

Simple honest answer (if people are willing to be truly honest) is YES.

Now people are saying we haven't  

Yes the last 6 weeks have diabolical, shocking whatever you want to call it and if you look at that in isolation then yeah you'd say there's been no improvement.

But I don't think it is reasonable to just base the answer on the last 6 weeks any assessment has to be based on what he has done since his appointment.  

So here are my questions and my answers

* Over 18 months have we improved? My answers is YES.
* As much as I had hoped we would?  In some areas yes in other areas no
* Has he improved & developed players? Yep, King, Nahas, Rance, Grimes, Reiwoldt & Vickery   are a few I can think that have improved and then there are those that haven't and no doubt that is disappointing. No coach is going to have a 100% strike rate with improving players

* His mistakes? This for mine currently his biggest problem is his tendency to play favourites especially Jackson - biggest mistake IMHO he's made since he has been at the club is making the statement that Jackson would always get a game in his side....DUMB DUMB ...

Is there anything people think DW has done well since being here? If so, what? And before people say, he got rid of some players last year, well that is the easy bit that you and i could have done.

See above and I will add I reckon the fact he has given the recruiting folks a clear set of guidelines on what his requirements we want from kids we draft is plus compared to what the previous senior coaches did.  

And one last question, what if at the end of next year we are still bottom 4 with still only 5 odd wins against bottom sides, does DH get another contract?

Getting another contract cannot be based solely on win/losses when you are where we are.

I say that because if any club with a thin or young list were to lose all their top liners then results wise they would struggle more than what we are now. 2 of our best players are currently horribly out of form and having no impact on games and boy is it costing us - imagine what it would be like if our top 5-6 were to miss  

Any contract extension IMO has to be based on improvement in all facets of the on field, not just win/losses. It needs to be based on the list re-build, the game style, the development of players etc

[10 FLAGS]

I'm still supporting Hardwick because he's been given the toughest job in football, because when people say he has a 3 year contract in effect it was a 1 year contract at best because the first 2 years he had to get rid of crap and sadly even in his 3rd year he will be getting rid of more crap that was put on the list during Frawleys and Wallaces era's. Thats not Hardwicks fault! Hardwick has done what we all wanted- started to cut deep into a poo list and cut the jokers. The sad state of our football club is that he will have to cut 8 to 10 more this year.

Hardwick will make mistakes but he hasnt been given a fair go at it. IMHO the fact that we have seen improvement in the likes of Vickery, Rance as young players and even older players like King suggest that he is on the right road map. He should be given a fair chance.

[eliminator]

I agree mostly with what WP says. I believe that the leadership group is seriously flawed. Cotchin should be elevated to the leadership group. The decision to have Jackson and Foley in the leadership group is flawed. Clearly we have got too many players who are not up to AFL standards and have poor depth particularly in the midfield and defence and no ruckman at all. The decision to vitually not to play Tuck at all is disgraceful. If you were not going to play him this year he should have been let go last year. The decision to play Jackson iregardless of form is seriously flawed.

[cub]

didnt see one shepherd on saturday

That was another that stuck in my craw from the weekend.
Basic under 16 football stuff, give off and protect the man you give it off to, we always seem to try the 1 2. Stupid when under pressure when a shepard would relieive the pressure.

Saw one blatant obvious one we had 2 to 1 and the guys under the immediate pressure handballed off, only the had to block the suns player but decided to go for the fancy poo and hence te player that received was put under immediate pressure, fumbled the hanball, Suns players had arrived by then and TURNOVER.
PATHETIC STUFF.

I still have the replay at home I will see if I can find that particular one I was talikng about.

[WilliamPowell]

I agree mostly with what WP says. I believe that the leadership group is seriously flawed. Cotchin should be elevated to the leadership group.

Cotchin is in the leadership - he's DVC for memory

Our leadership group is:

Newman (c)
Foley (VC)
Deledio (DVC)
Cotchin (DVC)
Jackson
Reiwoldt