The Blair "Which?" Project

[The_General]

Not because Hardwick bailed although that didn’t help, but because
all concerned took a foolish risk on Hopper, who was a mistake and should be moved on.

Might be possible that Dimma might still like him and take him on at GC?

I'm just gonna skip your posts I reckon cause ya got some odd ball ideas.

I think the risk for Hopper was tainted by the desire to get Taranto. I think he was worth chasing. If getting them both was necessary to get one, back 2 years ago - I'm not sure I'd say no either.

We sucked for contested ball, and I'd have expected Hopper to help. His game before the hammy was good, he had moments last year of being very good.

My mind wonders how much is Hoppers's body stuffed and how much compounded by our medical team, who aren't covering themselves in glory right now. I think Hopper can be a piece of the puzzle, provided we get speed run/carry around him. What we paid for in trades for him.....F grading from me.

As for Dimma wanting him.....I've got more chance of getting Elle McPherson to take me on a date.

 

[momentai]

I'm just gonna skip your posts I reckon cause ya got some odd ball ideas.

I think the risk for Hopper was tainted by the desire to get Taranto. I think he was worth chasing. If getting them both was necessary to get one, back 2 years ago - I'm not sure I'd say no either.

We sucked for contested ball, and I'd have expected Hopper to help. His game before the hammy was good, he had moments last year of being very good.

My mind wonders how much is Hoppers's body stuffed and how much compounded by our medical team, who aren't covering themselves in glory right now. I think Hopper can be a piece of the puzzle, provided we get speed run/carry around him. What we paid for in trades for him.....F grading from me.

As for Dimma wanting him.....I've got more chance of getting Elle McPherson to take me on a date.

I will struggle General but I think I will get by..
IIn case you bother with this one let me take you back.

As I recall I.was one of a handful, not including yourself? who opposed the purchase of Hopper. (Your idea that we might have taken Hopper and his problems primarily in order to secure Taranto, seems as insulting to our recruiters as Zips has ever managed)

My major concern at the time was the cost.The use of a future 1st is imo ALWAYS a colossal mistake but supported as it was here by those who reasoned that we were again a certainty to finish top 4.
Just plain foolishness, especially given Dimma's on going and totally misguided commitment to, 'chaos", during 21 and 22.

There were at least two other issues which also were of concern. First was his injury history with him not playing in the latter half of 22 as a result of a foot injury coupled with GWS willingness to move to trade .. Gee I wonder what they knew that we didn't.

And the third was something which I had also been banging on about and that was concerning the need to focus on speed and disposal and address the changes in the game bought in by Hocking, (which bought a new emphasis on both of those matters)

Not saying I attached both of these needs to a failure in Hoppers game at that time, but of course it is on the list now.
Too much of a sameness with Taranto, even when fit.

Five years to go and believe we should accept that he is worth much less than we paid and move to trade him, asap.

 

[Little Ziggyadee]

Collingwood are playing a 26yr old kid this week.
Dominated at Footscary 2nds.
Got a ton of the ball.
We should be scoping the VFL for quality kids that haven't been a chance.
Frankston always has gems

 

[tired'lilah]

Collingwood are playing a 26yr old kid this week.
Dominated at Footscary 2nds.
Got a ton of the ball.
We should be scoping the VFL for quality kids that haven't been a chance.
Frankston always has gems

And then they have 1 rough game & we delist them yeah?

 

[Scoop]

Collingwood are playing a 26yr old kid this week.
Dominated at Footscary 2nds.
Got a ton of the ball.
We should be scoping the VFL for quality kids that haven't been a chance.
Frankston always has gems

There is always talent in the state leagues, look at Sam Clohsey.

The exact type we need. Keep looking.

 

[TigerMad]

As for Dimma wanting him.....I've got more chance of getting Elle McPherson to take me on a date.

So your saying there's a chance?

 

[The_General]

So your saying there's a chance?

Well, Elle is well into her 50s now. She might be desperate.

 

[tigertim]

Well, Elle is well into her 50s now. She might be desperate.

60! And not desperate.

 

[The_General]

I will struggle General but I think I will get by..
IIn case you bother with this one let me take you back.

As I recall I.was one of a handful, not including yourself? who opposed the purchase of Hopper. (Your idea that we might have taken Hopper and his problems primarily in order to secure Taranto, seems as insulting to our recruiters as Zips has ever managed)

My major concern at the time was the cost.The use of a future 1st is imo ALWAYS a colossal mistake but supported as it was here by those who reasoned that we were again a certainty to finish top 4.
Just plain foolishness, especially given Dimma's on going and totally misguided commitment to, 'chaos", during 21 and 22.

There were at least two other issues which also were of concern. First was his injury history with him not playing in the latter half of 22 as a result of a foot injury coupled with GWS willingness to move to trade .. Gee I wonder what they knew that we didn't.

And the third was something which I had also been banging on about and that was concerning the need to focus on speed and disposal and address the changes in the game bought in by Hocking, (which bought a new emphasis on both of those matters)

Not saying I attached both of these needs to a failure in Hoppers game at that time, but of course it is on the list now.
Too much of a sameness with Taranto, even when fit.

Five years to go and believe we should accept that he is worth much less than we paid and move to trade him, asap.

Appears to have been some issues with my post. It double posted, and I deleted one, but looks like the wrong one.

I agree that the cost we paid for Hopper was too high. It was always a risk and 18 months in, it looks worse. He'd need to turn his reliability around for it to look better in the long run.

As for trading him. I think it's too late. You're going to have to pay to move him on, as he's been injured far too much and has too long a contract. Time for us to take our medicine and put the pressure on the medical team to get him right.

He's one paced, agree, but damaging. We can wear that if we put pace around him. I think saying he and Taranto are too similar is lazy. Taranto has flexibility in his game, and is quicker. Worse by foot. (Examples).

As for Dimma's talent laden midfield finding a spot for Hopper, appreciate it might have been a throw away line, but it's a bad one. More likely to send him to Adelaide or Geelong than there.

 

[The_General]

60! And not desperate.

View attachment 22619

Sigh.

She's responsible for a genocide you know... The amount of tissues that died because of that gaze.

 

[seven]

60! And not desperate.

View attachment 22619

Yuck. St Kilda supporter.

 

[momentai]

Appears to have been some issues with my post. It double posted, and I deleted one, but looks like the wrong one.

I agree that the cost we paid for Hopper was too high. It was always a risk and 18 months in, it looks worse. He'd need to turn his reliability around for it to look better in the long run.

As for trading him. I think it's too late. You're going to have to pay to move him on, as he's been injured far too much and has too long a contract. Time for us to take our medicine and put the pressure on the medical team to get him right.

He's one paced, agree, but damaging. We can wear that if we put pace around him. I think saying he and Taranto are too similar is lazy. Taranto has flexibility in his game, and is quicker. Worse by foot. (Examples).

As for Dimma's talent laden midfield finding a spot for Hopper, appreciate it might have been a throw away line, but it's a bad one. More likely to send him to Adelaide or Geelong than there.

Thank you for your considered reply.

My comments about similarity between the two were a little lazy but there is a certain level of sameness there most specifically in regard to disposal, which I believe justified the comparison.

I also disagree on the better course to take now, and don’t care if it is Adelaide, which may be Graham’s intended destination? or Geelong, which apparently were competing for his services, back in 22.

The thing is with adjustments to be made
for changes on TPP he is soon going to be making $800,000.
If things continue as they have for him over the last two years - until the end of 2029, that is going to make for a very devisive element in our team culture.

Also medical people can’t perform miracles, as our Doctors here keep telling us. Beginning to wonder what the likelihood is that his issues are chronic, and would be interested to hear from those who might know?

GWS knew more than we did and wasted little time!

 

[Dyer'ere]

I just wanna get this right. Caro is attacking RFC's list management from 2021-23?

Ok. I'm a big fan of Caro's work. I once described it as "Shakespearean in its diplomacy." No hyperbole. She is a genius at her frequent best. Caro is not a football student. Few are.

RFC. 2021-23. We all get it wrong all the time. That's football. But a lot of us agreed that if RFC could put a team on the park in 2021-23 we would give it a shake.

If Caro has brilliant new insights into football I don't agree with them. I didn't agree with the old ones.

I've been posting on PRE for 20 years or more. For the second time I will criticise Caro. Her take is populist. And revisionist. Sure, it's about football and that's not really her field but... eh.

 

[Brodders17]

I just wanna get this right. Caro is attacking RFC's list management from 2021-23?

Ok. I'm a big fan of Caro's work. I once described it as "Shakespearean in its diplomacy." No hyperbole. She is a genius at her frequent best. Caro is not a football student. Few are.

RFC. 2021-23. We all get it wrong all the time. That's football. But a lot of us agreed that if RFC could put a team on the park in 2021-23 we would give it a shake.

If Caro has brilliant new insights into football I don't agree with them. I didn't agree with the old ones.

I've been posting on PRE for 20 years or more. For the second time I will criticise Caro. Her take is populist. And revisionist. Sure, it's about football and that's not really her field but... eh.

Yeah, obviously it hasnt worked out, so far, but one of the 1st posts on here after we got Hopper was about us being premiership favourites. We were good in 2022, when we got things together. We were good, without Prestia for all but the last minute against the Bears in the elimination final, we would have walked over the Dees in the semi- they were done- and then met our bunnies- the Cats in the prelim. The premiership was ours for the taking until the fARCe intervened (and our backline had a collective meltdown.)
And when you are that close recruiting 2 a-graders to improve our 1 weakness was a no brainer.

Unfortunately since then injuries- primarily to the best key forward in the game- have sent us to the lower reaches of the ladder.

 

[tigersnake]

I just wanna get this right. Caro is attacking RFC's list management from 2021-23?

Ok. I'm a big fan of Caro's work. I once described it as "Shakespearean in its diplomacy." No hyperbole. She is a genius at her frequent best. Caro is not a football student. Few are.

RFC. 2021-23. We all get it wrong all the time. That's football. But a lot of us agreed that if RFC could put a team on the park in 2021-23 we would give it a shake.

If Caro has brilliant new insights into football I don't agree with them. I didn't agree with the old ones.

I've been posting on PRE for 20 years or more. For the second time I will criticise Caro. Her take is populist. And revisionist. Sure, it's about football and that's not really her field but... eh.

She's being silly, and with 20-20 hindsight Transition and renewal after a period of success is tough. Always has been, even before policy made sure of it. I won't go into all the whys and hows because we've discussed it to death. I think our approach and plan was as good as it could have been, it didn't work out as well as we'd all hoped, thats life and footy, but the plan was good.

As my dad, (who still says "HTF did we win a flag with Emmett Dunne in the side?") likes to say; 'the operation was a success but the patient died". But having said that, The draft class of '21 and TT and JH will deliver benefits to the club.

And yeah Geelong blah blah blah, sure they are well run, but they are also the AFLs darling, and have benefitted hugely from a conga-line of cheap stars. They are the exception that proves the rule, and besides, we owned them when it mattered most.

 

[Leysy Days]

Yeah, obviously it hasnt worked out, so far, but one of the 1st posts on here after we got Hopper was about us being premiership favourites. We were good in 2022, when we got things together. We were good, without Prestia for all but the last minute against the Bears in the elimination final, we would have walked over the Dees in the semi- they were done- and then met our bunnies- the Cats in the prelim. The premiership was ours for the taking until the fARCe intervened (and our backline had a collective meltdown.)
And when you are that close recruiting 2 a-graders to improve our 1 weakness was a no brainer.

Unfortunately since then injuries- primarily to the best key forward in the game- have sent us to the lower reaches of the ladder.

We weren't winning the flag in 2022 without Meatball.

 

[TigerPort]

Just trying to wonder what the commentary on our 21-23 recruitment would be like if Gibcus and Hopper would have been injury free

 

[tony_montana]

I just wanna get this right. Caro is attacking RFC's list management from 2021-23?

Ok. I'm a big fan of Caro's work. I once described it as "Shakespearean in its diplomacy." No hyperbole. She is a genius at her frequent best. Caro is not a football student. Few are.

RFC. 2021-23. We all get it wrong all the time. That's football. But a lot of us agreed that if RFC could put a team on the park in 2021-23 we would give it a shake.

If Caro has brilliant new insights into football I don't agree with them. I didn't agree with the old ones.

I've been posting on PRE for 20 years or more. For the second time I will criticise Caro. Her take is populist. And revisionist. Sure, it's about football and that's not really her field but... eh.

100% revisionist. Thats the problem with hindsight, people often forget the rationale behind the decisions made. in 2021/22 every single supporter bar a few outliers still thought we were a very very strong side and capable of having a crack. We actually celebrated that we were still drafting regularly whilst at the top. So we gave up some picks for taranto and Hopper, its not the reason why we're struggling now, and not going to be the difference between being a basket case or not - thats just silly Korn talk. If we didnt take them, what makes people so sure those 4 picks would all be solid pickups?

I always point to collingwood. They paid 2 first rounders for Beams, they gave away a top 5 pick RS player for next to nothing, wasted a number of picks along the way and still rebounded quickly. Stop buying in and perpetrating the falsehood that we've sold the farm and thus our future for taranto and hopper. Even if they were complete duds it wouldnt be the case. Takes more than 3 first round picks to create a premiership team, we, more than any other supporterbase should understand that

 

[jokershoppe]

With Dusty,prestia,Grimes,at best playing on with smaller contracts,
Lots of cap space coming,
Dusty 1.3 to 700
Prestia 750 to 450
Grimes 450 to retired.
On top of a increased cap that's 1.3 million.
Even if some goes to younger players and Baker stays for 150 more ,it still leaves plenty with the rise coming.
If Graham,baker depart,then 100% at least 1 to 2 decent players must be coming,as u don't want to overpay our list to fill the minimum player pay %.

 

[Brodders17]

We weren't winning the flag in 2022 without Meatball.

We matched the Lions for a half without him, and matched the Cats earlier in the season for most of the game without him. The were only 2 teams that could stop us in 2022, and both conspired to against the Lions- ourselves and the umps.