Sharp Axes

[angelopetraglia]

Just listened to the presser. Questions about where you are at as a group. Played nine players under 50 games tonight. Are you playing for the now or the future was a question asked.

He anwsered the question diplomatically. My gut feel is that after the review, maybe they don't have an expectation of a top four spot this year or being a real contender. Maybe they are blooding some younger talent and looking to the future. David King mentioned somehting similar on the first crack a couple of weeks ago.

Maybe he is going to get a chance and a mini rebuild. That is the feeling I'm getting. I really feel like they have come to the realisation that we really don't have the talent to compete right now or the proper list balance.

[MrMahatma]

Just listened to the presser. Questions about where you are at as a group. Played nine players under 50 games tonight. Are you playing for the now or the future was a question asked.

He anwsered the question diplomatically. My gut feel is that after the review, maybe they don't have an expectation of a top four spot this year or being a real contender. Maybe they are blooding some younger talent and looking to the future. David King mentioned somehting similar on the first crack a couple of weeks ago.

Maybe he is going to get a chance and a mini rebuild. That is the feeling I'm getting. I really feel like they have come to the realisation that we really don't have the talent to compete right now or the proper list balance.

We just lost to a rabble Bombers team. Rebuild or whatever…. That is enough for a sacking.

No effort. No passion. No care at all tonight.

Stop
Wasting
Time

[angelopetraglia]

We just lost to a rabble Bombers team. Rebuild or whatever…. That is enough for a sacking.

No effort. No passion. No care at all tonight.

Stop
Wasting
Time

I'm hearing you. I just think there is something else that happened over the preseason. Guidance to Bevo to get the balance right and not pull all chips in for the now. Just the way he is speaking and some of the noise coming from other journos.

[Pleather Sole]

It would be unfairer to a talented list to allow them to underperform and do nothing. AFL careers are short. Some guys play a handful of games. The way we are playing we are mid table. Not bad enough to bottom out, but not good enough to play finals and win. Is that fair?

Yep. If Bevo graciously stood down this week and Egan stepped up as interim there's enough time to get this team to finals. Egan was at Melbourne & Geelong two very recent premiership outfits. Bevo has complained about support, facilities, soft caps, hard caps, staff issues, etc etc etc Everything has gone up a level since August 2023, new coaches, structure. Reviews reviews reviews. But he's lost the players again in a similar vein to the West Coast debacle. No excuses. Its time for him to go.

[Vred]

Just listened to the presser. Questions about where you are at as a group. Played nine players under 50 games tonight. Are you playing for the now or the future was a question asked.

He anwsered the question diplomatically. My gut feel is that after the review, maybe they don't have an expectation of a top four spot this year or being a real contender. Maybe they are blooding some younger talent and looking to the future. David King mentioned somehting similar on the first crack a couple of weeks ago.

Maybe he is going to get a chance and a mini rebuild. That is the feeling I'm getting. I really feel like they have come to the realisation that we really don't have the talent to compete right now or the proper list balance.

Then say that. All the chatter out of the club before the season started was ''we're going for finals this year'' - everybody from KWW down to the players.

5 games in and it's ''oh shit, mini-rebuild time?''

Ship with no captain. Directionless, we don't know what we're doing, all I know is that we aren't winning another final under Bevo.

[jeemak]

Just listened to the presser. Questions about where you are at as a group. Played nine players under 50 games tonight. Are you playing for the now or the future was a question asked.

He anwsered the question diplomatically. My gut feel is that after the review, maybe they don't have an expectation of a top four spot this year or being a real contender. Maybe they are blooding some younger talent and looking to the future. David King mentioned somehting similar on the first crack a couple of weeks ago.

Maybe he is going to get a chance and a mini rebuild. That is the feeling I'm getting. I really feel like they have come to the realisation that we really don't have the talent to compete right now or the proper list balance.

There was a guy on this board who said it feels eerily like the 19-20 build up, but he didn't want to give anyone an excuse.

I don't for a second think the club isn't trying to push for deep finals contention irrespective of ladder position, it's just shitting the bed too much. There's no way Bevo is given rebuild leniency in today's climate.

[angelopetraglia]

Then say that. All the chatter out of the club before the season started was ''we're going for finals this year'' - everybody from KWW down to the players.

5 games in and it's ''oh shit, mini-rebuild time?''

Ship with no captain. Directionless, we don't know what we're doing, all I know is that we aren't winning another final under Bevo.

What else are they going to say when you are trying to build hope and momentum and membership?

Just a feeling I'm getting. You could make a hyphothesis that it is Bevo angling to keep his job. But it is just a feeling that I got listening to the presser and few journos.

[SonofScray]

Hopefully we only have one more week of this absolute joyless, meandering waste of time that our current brand of footy under Bevo is.

The next 7 days should be about someone at the club mustering the courage to make a move. Luke, for as good a person he is, he is finished as coach of our club.

[bulldogsthru&thru]

That feeling you get when we're going bad and then remember we've traded away our 1st this year. Things are bleak.

[Go_Dogs]

Maybe I’m just an eternal optimist, but things can change quickly in footy.

We’ve got a new game plan which is more focussed on scores from turnovers and executing a better defensive transition and work rate without the ball. We haven’t executed this consistently. We’re learning. It may improve.

We’ve got a bunch of new coaches and development folk who’ll be working on discrete things and continuing to mould players and plans over the course of the season. Let’s see if it’s fruitful.

We’ve got some new and developing players getting more responsibility. Let’s keep them going and get a few more players in to see if they’re going to be capable at the level. We need team first players who can execute the plan and have the running power and intent. I’d love to see Garcia and Clarke come in sooner rather than later and more to come. Let’s keep giving Darcy and Sando and Gags opportunities (and also keep them fresh). We do need to transition our list on the fly as all clubs do.

We’ve seen growth in a few players like Marra, West, Buku who are in the age bracket we can expect to start to see their better football. That’s a positive. They’ve got more growth to come but have progressed from 12 months back clearly.

We’ve got Bont, Libba and Treloar who despite not being perfect in all facets of the game are incredible players and playing at a very high level.

There is enough good stuff here, growth and development - but we absolutely need this to start transitioning to improved performance on match day consistently and near term.

I’d see how we’re looking at mid season. A run and we’re back in the mix. A good week, becomes a good month….

[SonofScray]

Maybe I’m just an eternal optimist, but things can change quickly in footy.

We’ve got a new game plan which is more focussed on scores from turnovers and executing a better defensive transition and work rate without the ball. We haven’t executed this consistently. We’re learning. It may improve.

We’ve got a bunch of new coaches and development folk who’ll be working on discrete things and continuing to mould players and plans over the course of the season. Let’s see if it’s fruitful.

We’ve got some new and developing players getting more responsibility. Let’s keep them going and get a few more players in to see if they’re going to be capable at the level. We need team first players who can execute the plan and have the running power and intent. I’d love to see Garcia and Clarke come in sooner rather than later and more to come. Let’s keep giving Darcy and Sando and Gags opportunities (and also keep them fresh). We do need to transition our list on the fly as all clubs do.

We’ve seen growth in a few players like Marra, West, Buku who are in the age bracket we can expect to start to see their better football. That’s a positive. They’ve got more growth to come but have progressed from 12 months back clearly.

We’ve got Bont, Libba and Treloar who despite not being perfect in all facets of the game are incredible players and playing at a very high level.

There is enough good stuff here, growth and development - but we absolutely need this to start transitioning to improved performance on match day consistently and near term.

I’d see how we’re looking at mid season. A run and we’re back in the mix. A good week, becomes a good month….

That’s a great quality to have and it is true.

However, the absolute generosity extended to Bevo is getting ridiculous. We’re in ground hog day, wasting away the opportunities that present themselves year to year in the hope that it all clicks.

I was fine with changing everything up around Bevo, it was a reasonable outcome and would have had to happen if we brought in a new coach anyway to give them the best crack at it. At some point though, the head coach has to be responsible. He’s up the front trying to pull everyone along and it’s just not working.

Could be that the players aren’t buying in.
Could be that the game tactically is beyond his skill now.
Could be that it’s all just happened too late and the damage to his brand/experience is done.

We are going nowhere and have been going nowhere for years now. It’s not the end of the world to sack a coach, it happens hundreds of times a year in professional sport. The club needs to stop living in awe of the bloke, trying to salvage his tenure and just move on.

All those good things you mentioned exist at Whitten Oval the day after we sack Bevo.

[Go_Dogs]

That’s a great quality to have and it is true.

However, the absolute generosity extended to Bevo is getting ridiculous. We’re in ground hog day, wasting away the opportunities that present themselves year to year in the hope that it all clicks.

I was fine with changing everything up around Bevo, it was a reasonable outcome and would have had to happen if we brought in a new coach anyway to give them the best crack at it. At some point though, the head coach has to be responsible. He’s up the front trying to pull everyone along and it’s just not working.

Could be that the players aren’t buying in.
Could be that the game tactically is beyond his skill now.
Could be that it’s all just happened too late and the damage to his brand/experience is done.

We are going nowhere and have been going nowhere for years now. It’s not the end of the world to sack a coach, it happens hundreds of times a year in professional sport. The club needs to stop living in awe of the bloke, trying to salvage his tenure and just move on.

All those good things you mentioned exist at Whitten Oval the day after we sack Bevo.

I absolutely hear you, and if the club decides a change is the best option I’m not going to argue it’s the wrong outcome. There’s definitely enough to suggest we could and should make a change, and also enough to suggest we’re transitioning and have optimising things could and should change across the balance of the first half of the season.

I suppose the logical question that the club needs to weigh is who is available right now that would do a better job? It seems an early call to interim a coach for 17 weeks before we see who may be available at years end - unless there’s someone we think is absolutely the right candidate we could add immediately (internal or external).

[bulldogsthru&thru]

I absolutely hear you, and if the club decides a change is the best option I’m not going to argue it’s the wrong outcome. There’s definitely enough to suggest we could and should make a change, and also enough to suggest we’re transitioning and have optimising things could and should change across the balance of the first half of the season.

I suppose the logical question that the club needs to weigh is who is available right now that would do a better job? It seems an early call to interim a coach for 17 weeks before we see who may be available at years end - unless there’s someone we think is absolutely the right candidate we could add immediately (internal or external).

Yeah there's no point moving Bevo on now. It's too early and would be a very early white flag for the players. Things can turn around but I don't think they will. Bevo is done and we should be sussing out the best candidates to take over next season. But we won't achieve much sacking him at round 5.

[G-Mo77]

Yeah there's no point moving Bevo on now. It's too early and would be a very early white flag for the players. Things can turn around but I don't think they will. Bevo is done and we should be sussing out the best candidates to take over next season. But we won't achieve much sacking him at round 5.

Why is there no point. We should have made the call straight after the season finished. What would be wrong with pulling the pin now and focussing on salvaging what we can for 2024 while building for 2025. Let Egan or Lade take over for now and start the search for next season. I find it hard to see any positives keeping him on.

[bulldogsthru&thru]

Why is there no point. We should have made the call straight after the season finished. What would be wrong with pulling the pin now and focussing on salvaging what we can for 2024 while building for 2025. Let Egan or Lade take over for now and start the search for next season. I find it hard to see any positives keeping him on.

Oh I agree it should've been done last season.

Sacking a coach at round 5 would send the wrong message to the players.....unless its what they want.....