Rocket on Footy Classified

[LostDoggy]

Just seen an ad for the show tonight, Rocket is on.

[chef]

Thanks mate.

[Pickenitup]

Granty on One week at a Time

[angelopetraglia]

Great to see Bulldog players getting a gig in the media, definitely helps our profile. What a good group of guys with their heads screwed on right we had in the one era. Grant, Darcy, Johnson, Smith etc. All that was missing was a Premiership .... Arrggghhhh they had their chance.

[AndrewP6]

Not really groundbreaking, but always good to see a Bulldog on TV. A summary for anyone who missed it.

- On the break- went away with family, good time for some staff to get away.
- Discussed the bye when draw came out. Gave players fairly light week. Would've preferred it around Round 7-8
- Asked about list by Thomo. Current group dynamic changed when Boyd appointed captain. Boyd is a challenging individual. Can see growth from players. Johnno delegated more as captain, left things to others. Hutchy asked "do want or deserve to continue". Spoke about the "Pass mark" – based from supporter’s view. Expectations should be high. Asked whether he needs to win a Premiership, replied it’s for others to judge. Says we’re good enough.
- Comp is tough, but we can. Experience of playing in PF will help.
- Need to execute better ‘under the heat’. Reaches games coached record on Monday. Caro asked what next yr holds. Rocket wants to go on. Prem doesn’t drive him personally, but wants others to experience it.
- In hindsight, no regrets with keeping Aker, Johnno, Eags.
- Thinks Gablett needs to set example for younger team.
- Split with Nixon when he said he wasn’t going to manage. Spoke about other managers.
- Asked about relationship with C. Rose, Rocket replied that once some issues were sorted out (James Fantasia started), they had a good relationship.

Apologies for the shorthand :)

[westdog54]

Not really groundbreaking, but always good to see a Bulldog on TV. A summary for anyone who missed it.

- On the break- went away with family, good time for some staff to get away.
- Discussed the bye when draw came out. Gave players fairly light week. Would've preferred it around Round 7-8
- Asked about list by Thomo. Current group dynamic changed when Boyd appointed captain. Boyd is a challenging individual. Can see growth from players. Johnno delegated more as captain, left things to others. Hutchy asked "do want or deserve to continue". Spoke about the "Pass mark" – based from supporter’s view. Expectations should be high. Asked whether he needs to win a Premiership, replied it’s for others to judge. Says we’re good enough.
- Comp is tough, but we can. Experience of playing in PF will help.
- Need to execute better ‘under the heat’. Reaches games coached record on Monday. Caro asked what next yr holds. Rocket wants to go on. Prem doesn’t drive him personally, but wants others to experience it.
- In hindsight, no regrets with keeping Aker, Johnno, Eags.
- Thinks Gablett needs to set example for younger team.
- Split with Nixon when he said he wasn’t going to manage. Spoke about other managers.
- Asked about relationship with C. Rose, Rocket replied that once some issues were sorted out (James Fantasia started), they had a good relationship.

Apologies for the shorthand :)

No apology needed. Done well, good summary.

[MrMahatma]

Not really groundbreaking, but always good to see a Bulldog on TV. A summary for anyone who missed it.

- On the break- went away with family, good time for some staff to get away.
- Discussed the bye when draw came out. Gave players fairly light week. Would've preferred it around Round 7-8
- Asked about list by Thomo. Current group dynamic changed when Boyd appointed captain. Boyd is a challenging individual. Can see growth from players. Johnno delegated more as captain, left things to others. Hutchy asked "do want or deserve to continue". Spoke about the "Pass mark" – based from supporter’s view. Expectations should be high. Asked whether he needs to win a Premiership, replied it’s for others to judge. Says we’re good enough.
- Comp is tough, but we can. Experience of playing in PF will help.
- Need to execute better ‘under the heat’. Reaches games coached record on Monday. Caro asked what next yr holds. Rocket wants to go on. Prem doesn’t drive him personally, but wants others to experience it.
- In hindsight, no regrets with keeping Aker, Johnno, Eags.
- Thinks Gablett needs to set example for younger team.
- Split with Nixon when he said he wasn’t going to manage. Spoke about other managers.
- Asked about relationship with C. Rose, Rocket replied that once some issues were sorted out (James Fantasia started), they had a good relationship.

Apologies for the shorthand :)
Thanks for that. I hate that show. Bunch of clowns on it. Now I don't have to watch it :)

[LostDoggy]

Thanks for the summary Andrew - I don't watch this one either!

[SlimPickens]

Granty on One week at a Time

Granty was great on one week at a time, except for the bit where Quarters was trying to talk about Freo and Granty started going on about Geelong not sure what he was thinking.

[Templeton31]

thanks for summary Andrew. SHow doesnt even come on up here (Canberra) so getting that summary is great. cheers.:)

[BulldogBelle]

I watched it last night, and was underwhelmed by the panel's line of questioning and also Rocket's responses to some of those questions.
Too much of the interview centered on 'peripheral' issues such as Eade's contract status, his relationship with Rose and his dealings with Nixon. When they finally got down to team performance discussion it was way too retrospective, dredging up the retirees from last year conversation and whether we went 'one more time, too many' with the old guys last year. Even when they discussed Boydy's captaincy, it was discussed through the prism of Johnson's captaincy.

As a supporter I was hoping they would talk more about the now and what Eade & co. were doing to bridge the gap to Collingwood and how he plans to atone for the loss to Essendon.
In fairness, Grant Thomas did ask that particular question, but the conversation moved on very quickly without Eade providing anything of much substance as a response.
Asked if we could make the grand final Eade answered in a quizzical tone "I think we can" and then immediately qualified it by saying something along the lines of "It is however a tough competition and some teams are doing alot better than expected". His delivery of these answers was a little unconvincing.
Thomas asked "How will you bridge the gap from prelim finalists to GF participants". Eade answer was mainly that we need guys to execute in big games and didnt offer much else. Again this didnt fill me with alot of confidence. It seems we've heard the same responses to similar questions over the last few years, and I was kind of hoping that we would be getting some new angles and perspectives from our coach.

I am not an Eade 'hater' by any stretch, but I am for the first time (in his tenure) on the fence about his ability to change the way we play to combat the forward pressure and spread employed by the top teams over the last couple of years.

Maybe I read too much into it, but would be interested in the opinions of others who watched the interview last night.

[AndrewP6]

Asked if we could make the grand final Eade answered in a quizzical tone "I think we can" and then immediately qualified it by saying something along the lines of "It is however a tough competition and some teams are doing alot better than expected". His delivery of these answers was a little unconvincing.


I think that is an honest answer.



Thomas asked "How will you bridge the gap from prelim finalists to GF participants". Eade answer was mainly that we need guys to execute in big games and didnt offer much else. Again this didnt fill me with alot of confidence.


IMO that says quite a lot. How many of us here have bemoaned players' inability to execute, both around the ground and in front of goal? I wouldn't expect too much to be given away in that sort of setting.

[Greystache]

Thomas asked "How will you bridge the gap from prelim finalists to GF participants". Eade answer was mainly that we need guys to execute in big games and didnt offer much else.

I watched it too. Just on this part, like you said, he said we need players to execute better in big games, but he also said "some players haven't been able to do that, I don't know whether it's a physical abilty not to be able to do it or whether it's mental" and then he trailed away from the topic.

Sounded to me like he acknowledges many players haven't performed when it counted, he hopes this year will be different, but we're pretty much going to do the same thing we've done the last few years and hope the result's different.

[LostDoggy]

I watched it last night, and was underwhelmed by the panel's line of questioning and also Rocket's responses to some of those questions.
Too much of the interview centered on 'peripheral' issues such as Eade's contract status, his relationship with Rose and his dealings with Nixon. When they finally got down to team performance discussion it was way too retrospective, dredging up the retirees from last year conversation and whether we went 'one more time, too many' with the old guys last year. Even when they discussed Boydy's captaincy, it was discussed through the prism of Johnson's captaincy.

As a supporter I was hoping they would talk more about the now and what Eade & co. were doing to bridge the gap to Collingwood and how he plans to atone for the loss to Essendon.
In fairness, Grant Thomas did ask that particular question, but the conversation moved on very quickly without Eade providing anything of much substance as a response.
Asked if we could make the grand final Eade answered in a quizzical tone "I think we can" and then immediately qualified it by saying something along the lines of "It is however a tough competition and some teams are doing alot better than expected". His delivery of these answers was a little unconvincing.
Thomas asked "How will you bridge the gap from prelim finalists to GF participants". Eade answer was mainly that we need guys to execute in big games and didnt offer much else. Again this didnt fill me with alot of confidence. It seems we've heard the same responses to similar questions over the last few years, and I was kind of hoping that we would be getting some new angles and perspectives from our coach.

I am not an Eade 'hater' by any stretch, but I am for the first time (in his tenure) on the fence about his ability to change the way we play to combat the forward pressure and spread employed by the top teams over the last couple of years.

Maybe I read too much into it, but would be interested in the opinions of others who watched the interview last night.

There's no way Rocket is going to divulge any real plans he does have. Personally, I think that's wrong, and coaches and players should open up a bit more to the media as a whole — and thus be in the papers for the right reasons — but this is reality.

[Rocco Jones]

It's just my opinion but I think Eade is downplaying expectations and I believe it is at least partially due to the very harsh expectations placed on him from all facets of our club for this season.

It seems like the majority of our fans are with Smorgo in believing anything less than a GF is a failure. I think that's a very simplistic attitude. Whilst I believe we must have high expectations, I feel that a lot of it comes from a negative/cynical place due to the club's history of failure.

I guess what I am trying to say is that Eade is downplaying our expectations to help ease his own pressure but even if that's true, who can really blame him? I am definitely in the camp that believes that we need to wait and see whether he gets an extension at the end of the year but I also not a fan of the source of our high expectations.

For me there are two main sources for high expectations and they often get confused by footy fans.

The first source is genuine. We believe in ourselves, we are great, we expect to reach our potential.

The second source is borne from desperation. There's almost an ease to the familiarity of failure and conversely, a great difficulty with being close to success (don't let us down yet again!!)

No prizes for guessing where I think ours falls. We are also a rare case with our overall massive history of failure and our 'oh so close' constant when we are up there.

[G-Mo77]

I managed to catch the Eade segment last night.

Crumby questions! I really didn't expect a lot from a very ordinary show. Thomas only asked a decent question and the rest were just the usual fluff. I rarely watch that show and won't be tuning in any time soon in the future.

[Rocco Jones]

I managed to catch the Eade segment last night.

Crumby questions! I really didn't expect a lot from a very ordinary show. Thomas only asked a decent question and the rest were just the usual fluff. I rarely watch that show and won't be tuning in any time soon in the future.

I find Thomas the archetype bully. I can definitely stand criticism of Eade but he is so often snide about him but really didn't hit him hard at all when the opportunity was definitely there at times.

[bornadog]

I managed to catch the Eade segment last night.

Crumby questions! I really didn't expect a lot from a very ordinary show. Thomas only asked a decent question and the rest were just the usual fluff. I rarely watch that show and won't be tuning in any time soon in the future.

Same here, can't stand anything Channel Nine produce.

[Rocco Jones]

Same here, can't stand anything Channel Nine produce.

Channel 7 footy productions often seem to reek of lameness to me while Nine's reek of egotism.

Whilst Ten and Fox are hardly perfect, I much prefer their approach to both 7 and 9.

[bornadog]

Channel 7 footy productions often seem to reek of lameness to me while Nine's reek of egotism.

Whilst Ten and Fox are hardly perfect, I much prefer their approach to both 7 and 9.

agree on that. I love watching the footy on Fox as there are no ads in between goals. Can't stand some of the commentators like DWAYNE, but can put up with it as you can watch the full quarter of footy.

[Rocco Jones]

agree on that. I love watching the footy on Fox as there are no ads in between goals. Can't stand some of the commentators like DWAYNE, but can put up with it as you can watch the full quarter of footy.

Yep, Shaw and Campbell are two others I struggle with. Along with the ads, I also like the production aspect of Fox Footy.

Seven's delayed coverage has to be by far the most dislikeabe trait of any footy channel. Sunday's delayed telecast of GC vs Melbourne was another example but hey, I will stop my tangent.

[the banker]

It's just my opinion but I think Eade is downplaying expectations and I believe it is at least partially due to the very harsh expectations placed on him from all facets of our club for this season.

It seems like the majority of our fans are with Smorgo in believing anything less than a GF is a failure. I think that's a very simplistic attitude. Whilst I believe we must have high expectations, I feel that a lot of it comes from a negative/cynical place due to the club's history of failure.

I guess what I am trying to say is that Eade is downplaying our expectations to help ease his own pressure but even if that's true, who can really blame him? I am definitely in the camp that believes that we need to wait and see whether he gets an extension at the end of the year but I also not a fan of the source of our high expectations.

For me there are two main sources for high expectations and they often get confused by footy fans.

The first source is genuine. We believe in ourselves, we are great, we expect to reach our potential.

The second source is borne from desperation. There's almost an ease to the familiarity of failure and conversely, a great difficulty with being close to success (don't let us down yet again!!)

No prizes for guessing where I think ours falls. We are also a rare case with our overall massive history of failure and our 'oh so close' constant when we are up there.


Personally I think the Club as a whole has moved beyond our born to fail mentallity. ThIs has come very clearly through the excellent leadership of David Smorgon and his selections of people around him. Rocket is a winner. I think his approach us OK. The playing group need to believe. Marty Boyd is such a determined person Cooney Lake Griffen are stars that have success in their DNA.

Growing up in Footscray in the 50's and 60's and following the Dogs for 50 years I see a very different culture there now. There is no glass ceiling for our team from the mighty West.

[Rocco Jones]

Personally I think the Club as a whole has moved beyond our born to fail mentallity. ThIs has come very clearly through the excellent leadership of David Smorgon and his selections of people around him. Rocket is a winner. I think his approach us OK. The playing group need to believe. Marty Boyd is such a determined person Cooney Lake Griffen are stars that have success in their DNA.

Growing up in Footscray in the 50's and 60's and following the Dogs for 50 years I see a very different culture there now. There is no glass ceiling for our team from the mighty West.

I agree with most of that mate. Even though I am younger, I grew up in Footscray in the 80s and understand (as much as I can) and agree with your sentiments.

I like our pursuit of excellence approach for the most part and really think we have come along way. The issue I have is that we seem rather extreme in it and it seems to me that it has a negative/cynical vibe, with a base of frustration overriding all else. I don't blame Rocket for that. Once again, just my theory.

[GVGjr]

Same here, can't stand anything Channel Nine produce.

I hope they don't win the next footy broadcasting rights. I think 10 do a good job and I can handle 7. Fox have some good shows but they haven't mastered calling the games yet

[comrade]

Channel 7 footy productions often seem to reek of lameness to me while Nine's reek of egotism.

Whilst Ten and Fox are hardly perfect, I much prefer their approach to both 7 and 9.

Have you watched a Carlton game when Walls and Lane are commentating (which seems to be EVERY week)?

It's nauseating.

[chef]

I hope they don't win the next footy broadcasting rights. I think 10 do a good job and I can handle 7. Fox have some good shows but they haven't mastered calling the games yet

I actually hope they do as they couldn't be any worse than Seven.

[LostDoggy]

I watched it last night, and was underwhelmed by the panel's line of questioning and also Rocket's responses to some of those questions.
Too much of the interview centered on 'peripheral' issues such as Eade's contract status, his relationship with Rose and his dealings with Nixon. When they finally got down to team performance discussion it was way too retrospective, dredging up the retirees from last year conversation and whether we went 'one more time, too many' with the old guys last year. Even when they discussed Boydy's captaincy, it was discussed through the prism of Johnson's captaincy.

As a supporter I was hoping they would talk more about the now and what Eade & co. were doing to bridge the gap to Collingwood and how he plans to atone for the loss to Essendon.
In fairness, Grant Thomas did ask that particular question, but the conversation moved on very quickly without Eade providing anything of much substance as a response.
Asked if we could make the grand final Eade answered in a quizzical tone "I think we can" and then immediately qualified it by saying something along the lines of "It is however a tough competition and some teams are doing alot better than expected". His delivery of these answers was a little unconvincing.
Thomas asked "How will you bridge the gap from prelim finalists to GF participants". Eade answer was mainly that we need guys to execute in big games and didnt offer much else. Again this didnt fill me with alot of confidence. It seems we've heard the same responses to similar questions over the last few years, and I was kind of hoping that we would be getting some new angles and perspectives from our coach.

I am not an Eade 'hater' by any stretch, but I am for the first time (in his tenure) on the fence about his ability to change the way we play to combat the forward pressure and spread employed by the top teams over the last couple of years.

Maybe I read too much into it, but would be interested in the opinions of others who watched the interview last night.

Surely you didnt expect that bunch ask intelligent questions???

[Ghost Dog]

Surely you didnt expect that bunch ask intelligent questions???

HAHA. The worst thing is Grant Thomas often turns out to be the best of the lot!

[MrMahatma]

Off topic - but good grief there are too many panel shows now. Way too many. I remember when it was Talking Footy on Monday night and The Footy Show on Thursday (back when that was worth watching) and that was it.

[Sockeye Salmon]

Off topic - but good grief there are too many panel shows now. Way too many. I remember when it was Talking Footy on Monday night and The Footy Show on Thursday (back when that was worth watching) and that was it.

The problem with having so many of them is that if they aren't bigger, better and more sensational than the rest no-one pays them any attention so we end up with 30 different shows all trying to out-sensationalise each other.

[Remi Moses]

Off topic - but good grief there are too many panel shows now. Way too many. I remember when it was Talking Footy on Monday night and The Footy Show on Thursday (back when that was worth watching) and that was it.

Couldn't agree more . Some are just a waste of space,I mean I've seen the Richmond footage passing through the Magpie press about 4 times. Personally I Liked the light hearted shows such as Before the bounce(haven't seen it since it moved).
AFL 360 is enjoyable but we're getting overkill.
Thomas doesn't like Eade,they had a stoush over a floodfest bore back in 02.Blaming each other.

[immortalmike]

The problem with having so many of them is that if they aren't bigger, better and more sensational than the rest no-one pays them any attention so we end up with 30 different shows all trying to out-sensationalise each other.

You just described Jounalism in Australia...

[jeemak]

You just described Jounalism in Australia...

Absolutely.

The segment last night was disrespectful, not only for the questions asked which were pedestrian at best, but more for the time they allocated a senior coach who is giving up his time to be put under the pump in front of a panel that has a mandate to be "cutting" and "controversial". Eade, for all of his troubles got 12 minutes on Footy Classified. He got the same amount of time on SEN yesterday as well. That's not enough for senior coaches, they're at the top of the tree in terms of being accountable stakeholders within the industry.

The media has a real problem with the way the clubs respond to requests for air time with coaches and players. However, when they have a guest like Eade on a show such as Footy Classified they present with out of date lines of questioning and an agenda that is clearly designed to breed headlines rather than analysis.

There is a lot of football to discuss on a weekly basis, but I find that there is an over representation of high profile commentators that have dual roles in print media and television. The result is television programs riddled with self serving lines of questioning, that are devised to produce a platform for what will be discussed in print the following day.

I can't watch or read a lot of it these days.

[The Coon Dog]

Seven's delayed coverage has to be by far the most dislikeabe trait of any footy channel.

Particularly Friday night games. You have to impose a 'communications' ban on yourself if you want to watch the game; no checking phone messages, logging onto Facebook or Twitter or even checking the quarterly Supercoach score updates.

[bornadog]

Particularly Friday night games. You have to impose a 'communications' ban on yourself if you want to watch the game; no checking phone messages, logging onto Facebook or Twitter or even checking the quarterly Supercoach score updates.

It doesn't worry me too much about the Friday night delayed, but what I don't like is having to sit through the whole half time and quarter times when really they can skip moist of it and then get closer to the live time. We don''t need the full 15 minutes of half time as then it ends up the telecast finishes way too late, especially for kids.

[Murphy'sLore]

It doesn't worry me too much about the Friday night delayed, but what I don't like is having to sit through the whole half time and quarter times when really they can skip moist of it and then get closer to the live time. We don''t need the full 15 minutes of half time as then it ends up the telecast finishes way too late, especially for kids.

Agree! Why on earth do they feel the need to give us the whole half time break... especially when most of it is taken up with ads... oh, I think I just answered my own question...

[Topdog]

It doesn't worry me too much about the Friday night delayed, but what I don't like is having to sit through the whole half time and quarter times when really they can skip moist of it and then get closer to the live time. We don''t need the full 15 minutes of half time as then it ends up the telecast finishes way too late, especially for kids.

Pretty sure they actually go to 20 minutes on Ch 7.

[LostDoggy]

Agree! Why on earth do they feel the need to give us the whole half time break... especially when most of it is taken up with ads... oh, I think I just answered my own question...

I bet if they had their way they'd double the breaks.

[Jasper]

It's just my opinion but I think Eade is downplaying expectations and I believe it is at least partially due to the very harsh expectations placed on him from all facets of our club for this season.

It seems like the majority of our fans are with Smorgo in believing anything less than a GF is a failure. I think that's a very simplistic attitude. Whilst I believe we must have high expectations, I feel that a lot of it comes from a negative/cynical place due to the club's history of failure.


I think kudos to the Pres for stepping up and airing those expectations.
Too long we've been satisfied with good efforts in the finals.
If he can at least change that mentality of expectation, surely that's a positive.

Compare him to Jeff Kennett who on face value appears a buffoon on most footy issues has still managed to lead a winning culture that created a flag when very few expected it.

[Remi Moses]

I can't understand the song and dance about Smorgon aspiring for a GF and flag!Collingwood did the same thing last year and McGuire got bagged.