Training 2025 Pre Season Thread

[Mojorisin]

“Culture” is one of the most overrated buzzwords in ever in footy. You win = good culture. You lose = bad culture.

Besides the eagles in 2006 this has been the way for over 20 years. Ffs Luke Hodge drove after drinking and played the next week, no one seems to question that.

Most recently Melbourne had no issues when winning the premiership, start loosing games and all of a sudden everything comes to light.
I don't know If it's as simple as winning is viewed as good culture and losing is due to poor culture.
Personally I feel winning glorifies behaviour in the minds of most fans and the media leaving room for reports about boys having fun and enjoying football but as the loses start to build it turns quickly to blaming onfield failings on the very behaviour that was once seen has harmless fun and boys blowing off steam or buried completely.

There have been many examples in the last 20 year.
Fevola, Eagles mid 00's, Hawks dynasty, Pies, Geelong, Melbourne early 20's.

Media recipe for a story
Bad acts + good football = larrikin
Bad acts + bad football = trainwreck/views
Good acts + bad football = irrelevant
Good acts + good football = no story

The way most journalists switch people between all four categories (sometimes on a weekly basis) is both lazy and impressive in that the wider footy public eat it up on repeat.

 

[Mojorisin]

Correct.

Libba, we kept. And he became amazing.

Exactly and I think the biggest difference between Libba and the others is that Libba truly loves the game and the bond of team mates. Where as the others are for the most part more interested in the publicity/money/attention being a footballer gives them rather then actually enjoying the sport and have no interest in football outside of it being a job.

 

[Bald]

In 10 years time there'll be an issue at the club and people will be saying jeez I wish we still had a champion leader like All-Australian Captain, multiple MVP Marcus Bontempelli

Wait you mean Bontempelli won't still be playing in 10 years? :O

 

[lachy]

Which “culture problems” have left the club and gone on to be better footballers?

I’ll wait…..

You will be waiting a long time.

Rarely is it any clubs culture that is the issue, more an individual or small group of individuals who Rarely improve moving clubs.

The only ones that do make the change themselves

On SM-S926B using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[dergert]

I am not buying in to the culture shit. Knock bevo and Bains for other shit but they're rock solid with the group imo.
I mean he cut Premiership Bullgods for heaven's sake. Of those we've pushed out, all have been underwhelming at their new clubs.
Dunkley hurts but he had his issues.
Bailey Sniff is already pissing off Geelong players lol.

 

[Barking Mad]

Hopefully doesn’t make Bevo get ideas to move Lobby out of the backline now.

Buuuuku to kick 40+

 

[adogsfan5]

You will be waiting a long time.

Rarely is it any clubs culture that is the issue, more an individual or small group of individuals who Rarely improve moving clubs.

The only ones that do make the change themselves

On SM-S926B using BigFooty.com mobile app

Exactly. And whilst I understand the upbringing for Jamarra isn’t the same and he may need extra support (I’m trying to be as polite and respectful as possible here) - he needs to now choose to be ingrained within our culture and club expections or it’s cya later.

 

[Golden_6]

Which “culture problems” have left the club and gone on to be better footballers?

I’ll wait…..

I think it's pretty clear that we've had a few bad eggs flow through the football club over the past 5-10 years that may be no fault of the club at all. Guys like Hunter, Libba & now JUH were always being drafted by the Dogs due to pre-draft ties. Stringer just seems like a flog & Smith is a highly unique case.

The issue is probably two fold. Are we struggling to identify characters during the draft process that may turn problematic during their careers? Do we have the capabilities to manage problematic characters, continue to nuture them and allow them to fulfill their best potential on the field for the betterment of the team?

I'd say we seem to be struggling with the second question.

 

[cleveland]

Nothing wrong with club culture. My understanding is the leadership group don't want juh at the club until he has changed.

 

[House_of_Dahl]

Hunter, Stringer, Dahlhaus.. LOLs.

These guys went on to really hurt us...not

 

[Golden_6]

These guys went on to really hurt us...not

I don't know if that's the point though. The question is why so many of our great premiership players went 'off the rails' to the point where we had to ship them off for nothing during a period where they should have been at their footballing primes.

The difficult question to answer is whether these are all isolated individual cases or whether it became widespread due to the environment. I have no doubt in my mind there was a culture issue at the club from 2017-2020 following the premiership. It was likely there before but premierships tend to cover these things up.

Dahl was already showing signs of being cooked but there's a few that really should have had longer periods of their prime at the club that didn't eventuate.

 

[stefoid]

I vaguely remember that hawthorn put in next level 'mothering big brother' treatment for Buddy when he came to them.

 

[Bulldogs85]

Knee injury sidelines Bulldogs utility, VFL gun hunts list spot

Anthony Scott ruled out for at least the next five weeks after injuring his knee in a match simulation session

www.afl.com.au

 

[Dog 36]

Knee injury sidelines Bulldogs utility, VFL gun hunts list spot

Anthony Scott ruled out for at least the next five weeks after injuring his knee in a match simulation session

www.afl.com.au

Out-of-contract superstar Marcus Bontempelli is in the process of completing his best pre-season yet, months after winning his sixth Charles Sutton Medal, sixth All-Australian blazer and third Leigh Matthews Trophy.

The 29-year-old has clearly improved his running across the summer months, with his work thus far not going unnoticed internally ahead of the crucial match simulation block next month.


Extract from above article very scary for the comp and everyone if this is his best pre season and improved his running.

 

[Anja_Nees]

I am not buying in to the culture shit. Knock bevo and Bains for other shit but they're rock solid with the group imo.
I mean he cut Premiership Bullgods for heaven's sake. Of those we've pushed out, all have been underwhelming at their new clubs.
Dunkley hurts but he had his issues.
Bailey Sniff is already pissing off Geelong players lol.

Yep. Stringer was the ballsiest move given the hype and his popularity but he continued being a flashy, inconsistent, unfit forward at Essendon and ultimately was effectively kicked out of there too.

The others have basically been worse than that.

If there are issues which take him into Hunter/Stringer territory then you can try your best but eventually they either get on board or leave.

 

[Unorth]

I think it's pretty clear that we've had a few bad eggs flow through the football club over the past 5-10 years that may be no fault of the club at all. Guys like Hunter, Libba & now JUH were always being drafted by the Dogs due to pre-draft ties. Stringer just seems like a flog & Smith is a highly unique case.

The issue is probably two fold. Are we struggling to identify characters during the draft process that may turn problematic during their careers? Do we have the capabilities to manage problematic characters, continue to nuture them and allow them to fulfill their best potential on the field for the betterment of the team?

I'd say we seem to be struggling with the second question.

I just don’t know if we struggle with it or we’ve imposed some kind of cliche “no dickhead” thing that most clubs look over.

But then again if you turn the other cheek too often, you end up like the Dees. Been some Clayton Oliver comps thrown Marras way lately that aren’t really what you want to see.

Somehow the Cats seem to let their guys do as they please without impacting performance, it’s definitely a draw. And it’s not them “fixing” players, they just make things go away.

It’s not that Hunter, Stringer etc have hurt us. But if you lose Dunkley, Smith (no I don’t like him, yes I think he would have offered something to our side still) and Marra that is a huge problem. That’s feeder club stuff. I’m not sure if we draft more or less difficult players than other clubs but we do seem to struggle getting them in line to at least an extent where we can comfortably look the other way sometimes.

Keeping in mind we gave Libba LOTS of leeway (probably because of his name) and it took him awhile to really get his act together - as he said himself at a B&F. And we have been handsomely rewarded for our patience with him.

 

[VitalDread]

Croft on the wing is looking pretty likely nowadays

 

[gordo2016]

Agree, we need someone with a Rick Kennedy/Jim Edmond/Matty Boyd/Dale Morris attitude to shake things up and get a number of the players (senior players included) playing for the jumper not the pay cheque.

Jock Edmond went to Sydney for the pay cheque. But you left one player out, the greatest player to play for the jumper was the Hawk. He would get down to the club in a heartbeat if they asked him.

 

[lachy]

I just don’t know if we struggle with it or we’ve imposed some kind of cliche “no dickhead” thing that most clubs look over.

But then again if you turn the other cheek too often, you end up like the Dees. Been some Clayton Oliver comps thrown Marras way lately that aren’t really what you want to see.

Somehow the Cats seem to let their guys do as they please without impacting performance, it’s definitely a draw. And it’s not them “fixing” players, they just make things go away.

It’s not that Hunter, Stringer etc have hurt us. But if you lose Dunkley, Smith (no I don’t like him, yes I think he would have offered something to our side still) and Marra that is a huge problem. That’s feeder club stuff. I’m not sure if we draft more or less difficult players than other clubs but we do seem to struggle getting them in line to at least an extent where we can comfortably look the other way sometimes.

Keeping in mind we gave Libba LOTS of leeway (probably because of his name) and it took him awhile to really get his act together - as he said himself at a B&F. And we have been handsomely rewarded for our patience with him.

Geelong put it to the player, get professional or move on. Most of their players understood the ultimatum, why Bailey Smith may be in for a rude awakening

On SM-S926B using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Mofra]

Exactly and I think the biggest difference between Libba and the others is that Libba truly loves the game and the bond of team mates. Where as the others are for the most part more interested in the publicity/money/attention being a footballer gives them rather then actually enjoying the sport and have no interest in football outside of it being a job.

Libba was given a very harsh end of year review one year (the same year we lost Stringer).
Stringer sooked after receiving a similar one and went to Essendon.
Libba did running sessions during the off season and used it as a wake up call.

Same treatment, different responses. The only player who left us and actually did anything was Dunkley who was a football obsessive, although I still think Roughy was good for Collingwood and is an excellent person off field too.

 

[BrisDog]

Libba was given a very harsh end of year review one year (the same year we lost Stringer).
Stringer sooked after receiving a similar one and went to Essendon.
Libba did running sessions during the off season and used it as a wake up call.

Same treatment, different responses. The only player who left us and actually did anything was Dunkley who was a football obsessive, although I still think Roughy was good for Collingwood and is an excellent person off field too.

Lipinski would get a game for us obviously. A little bit of class kicking into our forward line would be handy….although someone has to cover his lack of tackling and defensive running.

 

[Dog 36]

Agree, we need someone with a Rick Kennedy/Jim Edmond/Matty Boyd/Dale Morris attitude to shake things up and get a number of the players (senior players included) playing for the jumper not the pay cheque.

Enter Terry Wheeler none better

 

[goodcop badcop]

Footy Feed: Star Dog still absent, Bont turns heads, Treloar's niggle

Sarah Olle and Josh Gabelich with the latest news from Whitten Oval

www.afl.com.au

Bont and Richards training the house down.

Croft and Davidson having good pre seasons as well.

 

[LondonBulldog]

Find Jamarra a high profile model girlfriend and settle him down. Worked for Judd and Buddy.

In all honesty there is on one person who can fix this and that's Jamarra himself. Yet he has to want to change. Not all players do.

Clubs need to be more ruthless though as the way I see it we don't lose. If he wants to be a footballer and commits great, if not you trade him as soon as possible and move on. Just like they do in American sports.

Everyone needs to be on the same page.

 

[Deadly Darcy]

Yep. Stringer was the ballsiest move given the hype and his popularity but he continued being a flashy, inconsistent, unfit forward at Essendon and ultimately was effectively kicked out of there too.

The others have basically been worse than that.

If there are issues which take him into Hunter/Stringer territory then you can try your best but eventually they either get on board or leave.

I think Stringer will win a flag with GWS. Getting out of Melbourne is the best thing for him. Smith should have gone to Sydney for the same reason. As much as I hated them in 2016, now that we took that flag off them I quite e joy watching them. They have a hell of a team on paper!