The perfumed steamroller slams Dimmatina

[Ghost Dog]

Bulldogs rise above attacks
Caroline Wilson
September 10, 2011

THE most generous interpretation of Paul Dimattina's behaviour this season is that he has been poorly advised, suffers from chronic indecision and lacks the courage of his convictions. A less indulgent assessment is he has damaged his old club, the Western Bulldogs, with snide innuendo in what has been a difficult year.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/bulldogs-rise-above-attacks-20110909-1k232.html#ixzz1XUtqatYK

Oh no. You know your team's not traveling well when Caro starts delving into your club's politics.

[mjp]

Bulldogs rise above attacks
Caroline Wilson
September 10, 2011

THE most generous interpretation of Paul Dimattina's behaviour this season is that he has been poorly advised, suffers from chronic indecision and lacks the courage of his convictions. A less indulgent assessment is he has damaged his old club, the Western Bulldogs, with snide innuendo in what has been a difficult year.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/bulldogs-rise-above-attacks-20110909-1k232.html#ixzz1XUtqatYK

Oh no. You know your team's not traveling well when Caro starts delving into your club's politics.

I thought the tone of the article was supportive and respectful of the current admin...didn't really mind it. To me it was a clear 'put up or shut up' message to the agitators and I wouldn't have thought there was too much to complain about?

[Ghost Dog]

I thought the tone of the article was supportive and respectful of the current admin...didn't really mind it. To me it was a clear 'put up or shut up' message to the agitators and I wouldn't have thought there was too much to complain about?

For sure. Be that as it may, would rather Wilson find someone else to write about. Like Richmond or Melbourne.

[comrade]

For sure. Be that as it may, would rather Wilson find someone else to write about. Like Richmond or Melbourne.

We should probably stop acting like them, then.

[LostDoggy]

I think it is a great article and sums up my feelings better thn I can.

[ledge]

Funniest part is he hasnt put his name to anything but has leaked stuff, well Miss Wilson your admitting you, the reporters write articles on no proof?
You have put his name to speculation in which you choose, but he has not admitted to anything.

[azabob]

Funniest part is he hasnt put his name to anything but has leaked stuff, well Miss Wilson your admitting you, the reporters write articles on no proof?
You have put his name to speculation in which you choose, but he has not admitted to anything.

Ledge, how come you have not written similar thoughts when the herald sun publish similar articles with the accusations but no proof? For example the article a few days ago?

She would have connections and I wouldnt be surprised if she has spoken to Alberti directly.

EDIT- you just commented on the other article! Sorry about that!

[ledge]

Ledge, how come you have not written similar thoughts when the herald sun publish similar articles with the accusations but no proof? For example the article a few days ago?

She would have connections and I wouldnt be surprised if she has spoken to Alberti directly.

EDIT- you just commented on the other article! Sorry about that!

Actually think I have said similar, pees me off how a few of them make stories up or go on some sort or rumour , name names then say the names denied it?
I think its got worse since the internet and do believe a lot of reports are written from forums they read because they wont get off the chair and actually do some investigation.

Be surprised if anyone talks to Caro, she lost me the time she claimed things about the Tigers(her own team) that were totally wrong.

[Bulldog Joe]

Actually think I have said similar, pees me off how a few of them make stories up or go on some sort or rumour , name names then say the names denied it?
I think its got worse since the internet and do believe a lot of reports are written from forums they read because they wont get off the chair and actually do some investigation.

I think they believe the forums are their investigation.

In fairness to Caro I think the article is fine and quite supportive of what Smorgon has achieved for the club.

[bornadog]

Good article, well done Caro.

[Flamethrower]

I think they believe the forums are their investigation.

In fairness to Caro I think the article is fine and quite supportive of what Smorgon has achieved for the club.

This is so true. I recently proposed an idea to fix the AFL fixture on BF, and then a few days later Mike Sheahan ran a story about exactly the same thing, using my idea verbatim.

I have also noticed posters deliberately post untruths about players leaving clubs during trade time, and then they appear in the Melbourne tabloid and broadsheet the next day.

Back on topic, in regards to the mystery "white knight" that Paul Dimmatina has been spruiking, I'll believe it when I see it. People with a spare $5 million usually don't throw it away so friviously without getting something massive in return.

[1eyedog]

Decent 'story line' article from an unbiased spectator, bit subjective on Dimma though, makes a lot of innuendos without putting anything on the table and turns Dimma into a bit of an underworld figure. He deserves better, loves the club and wants what's best for it I believe. He may still come through with a bank roll and bail us out.

If she is purely going to put forward her 'opinion' the comment should stop at Richmond. Still, puts the ball back in Dimma's court. Whatcha got for the club Dimma?

[Ghost Dog]

We should probably stop acting like them, then.

Lol - yep - good one comrade

[LostDoggy]

Dimmatina seems to be an attention seeking fool who doesnt care less about the damage he is causing to our club.

If he was serious, he would have put up way back at the start of the year when he was blowing his mouth off about having a wealthy white knight to pay the debt.

[ledge]

Dimmatina seems to be an attention seeking fool who doesnt care less about the damage he is causing to our club.

If he was serious, he would have put up way back at the start of the year when he was blowing his mouth off about having a wealthy white knight to pay the debt.

Has he blown his mouth off or have people like Caro blown out a story in the papers?Every article I read goes on about Dimma then at the end says he either denies it or has been no comment.

[LostDoggy]

He has drawn negative attention to our club at a time when it really isn't helpful.

Amazing how these tools always come out when the chips are down. I now class him in the Brad Hardy and Akermanis category.

Was interesting how Galimberti has been mentioned in this issue as well.

[Bulldog4life]

Decent 'story line' article from an unbiased spectator, bit subjective on Dimma though, makes a lot of innuendos without putting anything on the table and turns Dimma into a bit of an underworld figure. He deserves better, loves the club and wants what's best for it I believe. He may still come through with a bank roll and bail us out.

If she is purely going to put forward her 'opinion' the comment should stop at Richmond. Still, puts the ball back in Dimma's court. Whatcha got for the club Dimma?

I wonder if the White Knight is Mick Gatto :D

[w3design]

Decent 'story line' article from an unbiased spectator, bit subjective on Dimma though, makes a lot of innuendos without putting anything on the table and turns Dimma into a bit of an underworld figure. He deserves better, loves the club and wants what's best for it I believe. He may still come through with a bank roll and bail us out.

If she is purely going to put forward her 'opinion' the comment should stop at Richmond. Still, puts the ball back in Dimma's court. Whatcha got for the club Dimma?

Agree this article paints Dimma and other's as underworld shady people club champions like Hawkins Libba and Beasley. I will give dimma the benefit of the doubt until we have selected our new coach.

[w3design]

I wonder if the White Knight is Mick Gatto :D

Gatto barracks for the pies he's part of Eddie's crew .

[Bulldog4life]

Gatto barracks for the pies he's part of Eddie's crew .

I wasn't being serious.:)

[Topdog]

Has he blown his mouth off or have people like Caro blown out a story in the papers?Every article I read goes on about Dimma then at the end says he either denies it or has been no comment.

He has shot his mouth off enough for the media to talk about it.

[ledge]

Go up to any player who loved the club they played for who are in trouble and they will all comment on what they think needs to be done, especially if they have emotion, Hawkins, Liberatore the list goes on at every club.
The media have decided his opinion is a good one to go with.

[Rocket Science]

GWS targets need to start soul-searching (http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/gws-targets-need-to-start-soulsearching-20110912-1k61s.html?rand=1315832698956)

Caroline Wilson
September 13, 2011

---------------

There is no doubt the team led by Graeme Allan and Stephen Silvagni has targeted the weak.

Melbourne, Adelaide and the Western Bulldogs will say they had no chance of retaining those players given the truck backed up in front of all three.

All insist they couldn't have opened contract talks any earlier, although Adelaide was clearly blindsided in the case of Davis.

All three have rightly blamed the system. But that is only part of the story.

All three would do well to examine their own internal systems and ask why GWS intelligence pointed its aggressive brand of hunters in their direction.

---------------

[chef]

GWS targets need to start soul-searching (http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/gws-targets-need-to-start-soulsearching-20110912-1k61s.html?rand=1315832698956)

Caroline Wilson
September 13, 2011

---------------

There is no doubt the team led by Graeme Allan and Stephen Silvagni has targeted the weak.

Melbourne, Adelaide and the Western Bulldogs will say they had no chance of retaining those players given the truck backed up in front of all three.

All insist they couldn't have opened contract talks any earlier, although Adelaide was clearly blindsided in the case of Davis.

All three have rightly blamed the system. But that is only part of the story.

All three would do well to examine their own internal systems and ask why GWS intelligence pointed its aggressive brand of hunters in their direction.

---------------

We certainly stuffed up big time over the last couple of seasons. Both Harbrow and Ward should still be at our club and a smarter football department wouldn't have let this happen.

[bornadog]

We certainly stuffed up big time over the last couple of seasons. Both Harbrow and Ward should still be at our club and a smarter football department wouldn't have let this happen.

Nah, the money was too much of a lure.

[Topdog]

We certainly stuffed up big time over the last couple of seasons. Both Harbrow and Ward should still be at our club and a smarter football department wouldn't have let this happen.

Do you honestly believe that?

[Sedat]

Do you honestly believe that?
Do you honestly believe that our contract negotiation/list management personnel did absolutely everything in their power to try and hold onto Harbrow and Ward?

The truth lies somewhere in between. To blame the money and nothing else is perpetuate the culture of denial. We should examine what went wrong and how to better manage the process in future seasons. The free agency era is going to require expertise in contract negotiations and list management like never before.

[chef]

Do you honestly believe that?

We could have signed ward to a 3 year deal last year and according to Clayton if we had have been proactive with our dealings with Harbrow GC wouldn't have standed a chance, so what do you think?

[chef]

Nah, the money was too much of a lure.

Only because we left it long enough to become one.

[Sedat]

We could have signed ward to a 3 year deal last year and according to Clayton if we had have been proactive with our dealings with Harbrow GC wouldn't have standed a chance, so what do you think?
Lest I be accused of sounding like a broken record when talking about our head of football operations, but he has proven to be a complete failure in his key role of contract negotiator. Ward's management proactively asked for a contract extension in mid 2010 (when he was out injured) and what was offered to him was embarrassingly under par (no doubt in part due to us paying massive overs to hold onto Lake 6 months earlier) - is there any wonder that he chose to take the deal of a lifetime as a result? Similarly with Harbrow, there was little effort made to negotiate with his management, and an almost shrugged shoulders resignation that he would walk - well guess what, he did because there was bugger-all done to convince him to stay.

How do we all think the Boyd, Cross and Gia negotiations are going? Perhaps what has been offered was a pittance, and Ward saw a vision of himself 7 years from now being similarly shafted by his club? Didn't Melbourne recently shaft loyal servants like James McDonald? Guess what, Scully walks. Adelaide doesn't offer their senior players anything more than 12 months contract extensions? Goodbye Bock and Davis.

We have lost 2 starting 18 platers under 23 years of age, and both of them could have been retained had we had a savvy contract negotiator like a Scott Clayton still at the helm - no self-justifying soundbites from Garlick or Fantasia in the media will convince me otherwise. As a club we cannot shy away from this, and pointing the finger at the brown paper bags of GWS is a cop-out of the highest order as far as I'm concerned. Our club has performed appallingly in contract negotiations and it is high time we review this and fix the damn problem, because with free agency around the corner it is only going to become more critical to get this absoluitely right. I have no faith in the people charged with managing this area for our club, and it concerns me greatly that we will become a basket case in very quick time. The signs are ominous.

[chef]

Lest I be accused of sounding like a broken record when talking about our head of football operations, but he has proven to be a complete failure in his key role of contract negotiator. Ward's management proactively asked for a contract extension in mid 2010 (when he was out injured) and what was offered to him was embarrassingly under par (no doubt in part due to us paying massive overs to hold onto Lake 6 months earlier) - is there any wonder that he chose to take the deal of a lifetime as a result? Similarly with Harbrow, there was little effort made to negotiate with his management, and an almost shrugged shoulders resignation that he would walk - well guess what, he did because there was bugger-all done to convince him to stay.

How do we all think the Boyd, Cross and Gia negotiations are going? Perhaps what has been offered was a pittance, and Ward saw a vision of himself 7 years from now being similarly shafted by his club? Didn't Melbourne recently shaft loyal servants like James McDonald? Guess what, Scully walks. Adelaide doesn't offer their senior players anything more than 12 months contract extensions? Goodbye Bock and Davis.

We have lost 2 starting 18 platers under 23 years of age, and both of them could have been retained had we had a savvy contract negotiator like a Scott Clayton still at the helm - no self-justifying soundbites from Garlick or Fantasia in the media will convince me otherwise. As a club we cannot shy away from this, and pointing the finger at the brown paper bags of GWS is a cop-out of the highest order as far as I'm concerned. Our club has performed appallingly in contract negotiations and it is high time we review this and fix the damn problem, because with free agency around the corner it is only going to become more critical to get this absoluitely right. I have no faith in the people charged with managing this area for our club, and it concerns me greatly that we will become a basket case in very quick time. The signs are ominous.

Sad but true:(

[Topdog]

We could have signed ward to a 3 year deal last year and according to Clayton if we had have been proactive with our dealings with Harbrow GC wouldn't have standed a chance, so what do you think?

Why could we have signed Ward to a 3 year deal last year? Did he ask and we refused? His agent would have been stupid to sign him up a year before his deal ends when a new money bags team are coming in. Even if he wants to stay you still make him come out of contract in 2011 to get more money from the Dogs.

Harbrow well I don't believe Clayton to be honest. We got told for nearly a year that Harbrow was thinking about it to be closer to home / away from Melbourne. Suddenly it's because we were not proactive?

I don't think that our list managers and contract dealings are great but no one blames Geelong for Ablett leaving and no one will blame Collingwood and/or St Kilda when Pendles / Goddard leaves. Pendlebury has signed a 1 year contract (completely unheard of) and everyone says well done Pies on signing him up.

[chef]

Why could we have signed Ward to a 3 year deal last year? Did he ask and we refused? His agent would have been stupid to sign him up a year before his deal ends when a new money bags team are coming in. Even if he wants to stay you still make him come out of contract in 2011 to get more money from the Dogs.

Harbrow well I don't believe Clayton to be honest. We got told for nearly a year that Harbrow was thinking about it to be closer to home / away from Melbourne. Suddenly it's because we were not proactive?

I don't think that our list managers and contract dealings are great but no one blames Geelong for Ablett leaving and no one will blame Collingwood and/or St Kilda when Pendles / Goddard leaves. Pendlebury has signed a 1 year contract (completely unheard of) and everyone says well done Pies on signing him up.

His management asked for an extension.

Sedat sums it up perfectly.

[Jeanette54]

Gatto barracks for the pies he's part of Eddie's crew .

That's odd Billy, I always thought he was part of the "Carlton Crew". :-)