The Messiah Complex

[swantastic]

It's time you moved on from your Commodore 64 mate.

JF

What model was the commodore from 64?

[ScottH]

That post from robbieando has to be the longest post in RWO history.

Scott can you give us some stats.?

Can't you read a paper??

[ROK Lobster]

The Messiah has more personal power within the club than any other AFL coach. His ego has blinded him to the bigger picture. I haven?t spoken to anyone who, more or less, doesn?t think that Roos has run his race. Robert Walls was dumped by Carlton a season and half after coaching them to a flag (twas a Warwick Capper goal that sealed his fate!). Carlton are a ruthless club, which is why, after beating the Swans in ?45, they won another nine flags before the Swans played in another Grand Final.

I?m also highly suspicious of a coach that ordains his own successor three years in advance, as Roos has done with Longmire. Is that a power trip or what? Is it really the coach?s job to do so? Take Carlton, again (I don?t have any affinity with the Blues at all, they?re just a convenient reference) ? the board dumped Pagan, the board appointed Ratten, and he?s shaping up pretty well. Gary Ayres didn?t appoint Mark Thompson, Frank Costa did.

Roos is a good coach who developed an ugly, scragging, bring them down to our level gameplan, that does not work well when other teams are fresh but brought us home with a well sail for a few years. Combined with some great medical staff, 2 years of strict discipline and a freakish individual performance from Davis, it won us a flag. Too much credit for the flag went to Roos, from the fan, the players and the club. The game has moved on and Roos was a one trick pony. Where has all off Paul's innovation gone - coaching from the bench FFS! Time to move him, and Longmire, on. Time for some new blood and some new ideas. The Roos race is run - he is the first to admit that a coach cannot stay forever. I think that the time is now Paul.

[connolly]

Roos is a good coach who developed an ugly, scragging, bring them down to our level gameplan, that does not work well when other teams are fresh but brought us home with a well sail for a few years. Combined with some great medical staff, 2 years of strict discipline and a freakish individual performance from Davis, it won us a flag. Too much credit for the flag went to Roos, from the fan, the players and the club. The game has moved on and Roos was a one trick pony. Where has all off Paul's innovation gone - coaching from the bench FFS! Time to move him, and Longmire, on. Time for some new blood and some new ideas. The Roos race is run - he is the first to admit that a coach cannot stay forever. I think that the time is now Paul.

This week! And on what basis would you sack him before the finals given that he is the most successful coach we have ever had and one of the most sucsessful of the modern era? Or do we just pay him out for 12 months? Talk about panic in the ranks!

[Industrial Fan]

Meh, he was just lucky with the list he inherited.

Not a real coach.

[ROK Lobster]

This week! And on what basis would you sack him before the finals given that he is the most successful coach we have ever had and one of the most sucsessful of the modern era? Or do we just pay him out for 12 months? Talk about panic in the ranks!

Where was it said that he should be sacked before the finals?

I think that you overstate Roos' success. As I suggested in my post, the success that has come the club's way recently is the work of many, not just Roos. He is a good coach, whose time has passed. Rather than sack him, it might be time he considered steppping aside.

[connolly]

Where was it said that he should be sacked before the finals?

I think that you overstate Roos' success. As I suggested in my post, the success that has come the club's way recently is the work of many, not just Roos. He is a good coach, whose time has passed. Rather than sack him, it might be time he considered steppping aside.

Fair enough ROK thought you were suggesting an execution at dawn. I do think he will step down when his contract ends. Hope Stewie Maxfield gets the job.

[smasher]

I heard Robert Walls say that we cannot off load too many senior players at years end because it takes time for Sydney people to know their players.He also said we need to bring a marquee player to the club to create more interest from the press etc.I can see where he's coming from.

[ScottH]

I heard Robert Walls say that we cannot off load too many senior players at years end because it takes time for Sydney people to know their players.He also said we need to bring a marquee player to the club to create more interest from the press etc.I can see where he's coming from.

The comment was more about the fickle Sydney market.
Can't afford to bottom out, as we will be hit too hard by loss of membership and Sponsorship.

[timthefish]

The comment was more about the fickle Sydney market.
Can't afford to bottom out, as we will be hit too hard by loss of membership and Sponsorship.

i'd like to see that theory tested rather than just trotted out as known wisdom every year. especially now that we have a premiership in recent history and far more reliable crowds. i'm not saying we should deliberately bottom out for draft picks or any crap like that, but we should not allow sensible practices such as trading and developing young players to be compromised by superstition.

oh, and we're one of three battle-hardened teams going into the finals (geelong and roos being the other, admittedly presently superior, two) so lets see how far roos can take us when it counts.

finally, i think the annointing of longmire as successor was a very poor move. too often, with little foundation, the chattering classes of afl all start nodding in agreement about who the next great coach is going to be. for a long time, it was as if mark harvey only had to turn up at a club and a premiership would fly in on his coat-tails. so far, at fremantle, turning up is about all he has done. the perennially silly voss/buckley/hird debate has now moved onto prognostication of their apparently limitless coaching potential - and not one of them has done a jot of coaching. 'who the hell is neil craig?' we asked. 'how long will hawthorn keep this clarkson bloke warming lethal's seat?' is another made up retrospective rhetorical question. meanwhile everyone keeps nodding to the emphemeral consensus whether it is gary lyon, gary o'donnell or peter f'n sumich right up to the point where 'he's missed his window' and another favourite son becomes the talk of the town.

[hammo]

oh, and we're one of three battle-hardened teams going into the finals (geelong and roos being the other, admittedly presently superior, two) so lets see how far roos can take us when it counts.

That's a bit of a myth. Adelaide, Hawthorn and Collingwood all played finals last year with the latter two winning finals. The Dogs played finals the year before.

No side can match Sydney's long stretch of consecutive years in finals but that proved irrelevant last year.

Form heading into the finals is what counts so winning our next two is crucial if we're to have any say in September.

[timthefish]

... that proved irrelevant last year.

merely an abberation