For success we need to follow the Port Adelaide business model:
All we need to do is make Karl Stefanovic president - our off field will then be sorted. He is a morning show host so very similar to Kochie.

Then for a coach we need to find someone who has been overlooked by all clubs. Make Jason Ackermanis coach. Our on field issues will then be sorted.

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It is not as bad as you are lead to believe.......it is %$#^& worse!!!

Chin up Rexy.

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dane's trolling again

I would argue that Port is the one that has learnt from US.

Tanking for picks has destroyed every facet of this football club. The difference between the top teams and the rest lies in culture, we were once the envy of the competition because only a premiership was accepted as a successful season. This gave direction to the board, the football department and the players of exactly what was expected from this club

We didn't embrace the draft because this would result in having to take a step backwards to move forwards which didn't fit with our ethos, so when we eventually had no choice but to embrace the draft, we threw out all our values and even conditioned our supporters into cheering for a high draft pick rather than the win.

Once Port realised that it was drifting into this mindset, where they could have topped up with a few more high draft picks by languishing on the bottom of the ladder for a couple years. They drew a line and sent a cry for help to its supporters, where Kochie came onboard to right the ship in the off field and ultimately Hinkley the on field.

So I'm sorry Cret, but our time to learn from Port has well and truly passed, when they came to the fork in the road, they looked at the road we and melbourne had taken and realised it lead to fools gold and rightly took the correct path. We realised a couple years ago (about same time as port) that we were down the wrong path and started the long walk back to the fork in the road which took to R16 this year. They however are still ahead of us, so now it's just a question of who travels down the path quicker that we can judge the winner.

Chad Wingard says hi.

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BLUES 2010: PAV AND JUDD = FLAGS. DOING IT FOR THE LOVE OF DICK PRATT.

HAVE YOU SIGNED UP FOR TALKINGCARLTON SUPERCOACH 2009 YET?

Not sure of your point

Are you implying that Port tanked?

Jesus Christ, we didn't have to tank in 2005 and 2006, we were just plain shit.

In 2007, we weren't as shit, but pretty shit nonetheless, we just contrived to make sure we kept the valuable Number 1 pick.

We probably stuffed the trading scenario, but we bought Judd to the club, which we needed.

Port didn't tank but they loaded up on quality young midfielders and their draft selections were a whole lot better than ours, and they didn't trade the farm on dubious picks (eg. McLean & Warnock) and we're not reamed with trades like Jacobs.

Tanking had nothing to do with it, Port were just a smarter football club, which isn't a huge compliment given how dumb we have been.

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

This is the problem in a nut shell with our club

WE STILL believe that we do things better than anybody else, and are always at the forefront of the game - innovating and taking risks.

We really haven't done anything radical as a club since the early 1990s which set up the 1995 flag. (Parkin giving the playing group ownership of the game tactics and match ups etc and a large rotating midfield)

We still use the silver bullet approach - GET Pagan, or GET Mick, GET JUDD, GET Daisy. Things will flow from there, Silver bullets dont work anymore.

Clubs need to get almost every aspect of their organisation on and off the field, SPOT ON and the club working as a committed unit that values honesty, courage, creativity and hard work etc....

This is not about any other club or individual - its about what we have been doing over the past 20 years to stay at the forefront of success rather than fall back into the pack and live in the safe world of mediocrity, timidness and self pity

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Vice President, International Extreme Sarcasm Society (IESS)

I've brought this topic up before and didn't get much traction, but I feel its worth mentioning again..

Port are on gear

The transformation of its players in a matter of weeks over the pre season makes Essendon*'s sudden improvement look tame. I know of players who were ready for retirement before Ken came in, one player saying he couldn't continue playing due to his back and not being able to train. 3 months later, he is a machine. If Burgess is that much of a miracle worker, he wouldn't have signed a contract extension at port I can guarantee that

I don't think I can find the words, so....

you're still trolling I see...

It's ok mate everything is going to be alright. If you need some support just PM me.

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dane's trolling again

Please read my post again.

I said that Port learnt from our mistakes and didn't compromise their culture for draft picks. At no stage did I refer that we are doing thing better than anyone else, quite the contrary.

I don't agree that the club has taken a silver bullet approach since sacking Ratten, but rather a methodological and tactical one.

Get Mick - why? because we have developed a poor culture and we chose to recruit a coach whose values and discipline are well known. This was not about premiership window rather that we wanted a mature coach who would be respected to successfully achieve the standards of commitment that the top teams expect as a given.

Get Daisey - Mick felt that our on field leadership lacked a voice and daisey was recruited with the view that once he overcome his injuries that he would add to the midfield and defensive depth that we lack. Whilst he builds his fitness base, his on field communication would set the standard for the rest of our players and try and break the mould of our introverted personality. Anyone who has watched the game live will be well aware of how much more vocal our players are now in comparison to the beginning of the year.

Further to that we have recruited guys like Docherty and Everitt who add depth to the squad and bring a competitive spirit whilst demoting flakey players (lucas, waite) so that all players are clear of what is expected from them. Young players were left to earn a spot and not gifted games just to appease fans, this also sets the bar and adds consistency to the message 100% effort 100% of the time.

So where are we at now?

Build team spirit - tick
Build culture of success - commenced and should be achieved next season for the narrow losses become wins
Build membership - Not started, really need a complete overhaul during this off season
Fight for top 4 - not started, but all going well should be able to achieve over next 3-4 years
Premiership window - Realistically 4 years at earliest if we pickup enough talent over the next 3 drafts

Interesting points Steve. I think DT does bring leadership, but we recruited him to be a really good player and the jury is still out on that. We have a long way to go for culture of success and the handling of the various off field misdemeanours will be crucial to that. Our membership is going backwards which is opposite of the normal trend with a new coach and a finals win last year. We have a lot more work off field on on field to achieve that. The jury is still out on most things. How well Mick is taking us forward will probably be clearer next year, but this year we had a number of shocking losses against sides below us which is never a good sign and our under 23 talent is way don on most sides, so a long long way to go

I agree. I believe they stocked up on GH-promoting peptides (likely ipamorelin and cjc-1295). This combination is invaluable for recovery of ongoing injuries as well as physical development. Slightly different stack to what Essendon** appears to have used (much safer actually). Completely untraceable by tests within minutes of administration, and it stimulates ones natural growth hormone production and is not synthetic. There are clinics around the country that prescribe the stuff, and it is very easy to self-administer - I hate needles but I am a hobbyist weightlifter and I know heaps of people at the gym that use the stuff. The Essendon** case seems to revolve around players being administered by practitioners but the white elephant around the whole competition is players self administering outside of a club's processes (perhaps directed how by the club, or on behalf of the club, but left to do this at home). FWIW, I think use of peptides is systemic around the entire competition. I was watching some older matches (late 90's) with the old man recently and we both commented on how much less developed (and even pudgy in some instances) the players were. Use of peptides is rampant. Maybe not everyone, but certainly many across all clubs including our own.

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O say does that star spangled banner yet wave.

So if Port is such a great club and have recruited so well I guess they no longer need to be spoon fed extra millions of dollars from the AFL every year anymore? Would you stop it this year? or wait a few more years? If you were in the AFL when would you stop the assistance to Port, Brisbane and North Melbourne? 5? 10? 20 years?

Would a $14 million "rescue package" for Port Adelaide from the AFL have assisted them at all in the rise up the ladder?


If your answer is "no" then it is time to return the money and give some of it to Carlton, which is still in debt.

The AFL wiping out Port's debt enabled them to put funds into off-field areas and would seem to indicate that Port is a more important club to the AFL than Carlton, which is a club they haven't assisted at all in debt reduction.

The dollars and Port being a smarter club are two entirely separate issues.

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

Ok, so you would approve of the AFL funding to stop as of this year seeing as they have achieved their objective of making Port a bona-fide finals team?
Or should the funding continue?

None of this funding I am guessing would have been put into player development, player retention, player recruitment etc...all just for other things.

....if it was due to football department budgets OR club revenue, then the blues should be miles ahead of Port. (Blues revenue last financial year was 57 million compared to Ports 41 million, and the footy department budgets also favour the Blues 21 million to 14 million).

Port also have higher overheads during the season, with more than double the interstate trips Melbourne clubs have to do.

There are two areas where Port are clearly in front of the Blues

1. winning games
2. Membership (55,000 to our 48,000 odd)

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Vice President, International Extreme Sarcasm Society (IESS)

during the AFL handout period, Ports revenue jumped from 37 million to 41 million

The Blues are sitting on 57 million at the moment.

The rise up the ladder is due to 3 or 4 million dollars per year of extra funding?

When Hinkley took over Port at the end of 2012, he was one the lowest paid coaches in the AFL. Still managed to win the AFLCA coach of the year in his first year.

Its not just about money - Their president is a very impressive operator and has surprised the public. One of the few presidents that has been refreshingly honest about the EFC* drug saga and made some critical comments in public.

The Port Adelaide tradition - I didnt know much about it to be honest.

I do now - their history is about winning flags, and they had plenty of them prior to joining the competition.

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Vice President, International Extreme Sarcasm Society (IESS)

Not an overhead...