Primus

[Booney]

Is he up to it? IMO, no.

As evidenced by playing into Fremantles hands last week with our jilted stop/start game plan and 3 weeks ago by playing only one ruckman against Adelaide and Jacobs having 6000 hitouts to kill us at stoppages.Did nothing in the second half that I could see to turn that around.

All too often I think this year our game style/plan stinks and the players are only doing as they are told. Sure, poor skills will breakdown any "structure" or style the coaches are trying to implement but I think we are heading in the wrong direction.

As Im typing this I feel a million words hitting my finger tips. I'll leave it here and open it up to others....

[valleys07]

In short- No

My elaborate response....

A friend of mine summed it up perfectly in a message on facebook:

"The only way to get out of this mess is to hold people accountable for their awful performance. Our football department has been farcical since Rhode took over, but he continues to collect a pay cheque whilst our skills, strength and conditioning, list management, selection, match day strategy and performance rank amongst the worst couple in the league.

Accepting mediocrity gets you 30+ years in the football wilderness ala richmond. Our club is better than that and our members need to demand better than that.

First things first is a football operations manager who hasn't been an abject failure where ever he has gone in the AFL. Getting rid of Rhode is the first step in getting this once great club off its knees"

IMO- the worst mistake this club made was appointing primus ahead of somebody like Chris Scott or Brenton Sanderson. Hawthorn proved throughout the mid to late nighties and a little bit of the 2000's that if you persist with your own for too long you will make mediocrity an art form. Example- After Allan Joyce left in 94, the club appointed Knights, Judge and Schwab, whom were all Hawthorn Legends. Result- the trio produced the worst win / loss percentages since Jack Hale coached the club between 52-59 and apart from 2001, were never a serious threat, finishing 15th in 95,97 and 04, with 9th, 10th and 13th appearing between 98 and 03. What Hawthorn has put in place since Clarkson arrived at the end of 2004 is a team built on discipline, with great skills coaches and an innovative coach that constantly revolutionises his gameplan, smart recruiting, a cleanout of dead wood and a fantastic football department.

Im not saying for one minute that port can recruit a new coach and the whole world changes, but what i am saying is that port adelaide has persisted with port adelaide people for too long. We need to look outside the square and bring someone in with fresh ideas and a fresh image that is prepared to make tough decisions that are in the best interest of the club moving forward. Moving on primus is just the beginning of what needs to happen at our club if we are to return to our glory days.

[GWW]

Unfortunately you get what you pay for.

The club couldn't pay any more for a coach, and now we're paying for that in other ways.

Chris Scott would have been great obviously, but I do wonder what changes he wanted to make to the way the club was run.

[jackpot jim]

Give him some players with 1/2 a brain and 1/2 decent skills would be a start.
Doesn't matter who you get in as coach nothing will change if he /she still has the same sub standard players to work with.
Hard to know if the game plan of Primus is failing the players but what i do know is that the players are defintely failing the game plan simply because the skills of most of the players F*****G SHIIIIIIIIT !!! Been saying this for years.
FFS blind Freddy can see this and combined with the deplorable decision making of the players, it's just a recipe for disaster.

[overloaded]

Hard to blame the coach. Look at our key position players (we dont have any) Look at our midfield (crud). We have no decent cattle. Simple. How can you coach that group of players and expect to be competative in AFL football?

Malthouse wouldnt be able to do any better or Scott

[Ruben Carter]

Hard to blame the coach. Look at our key position players (we dont have any) Look at our midfield (crud). We have no decent cattle. Simple. How can you coach that group of players and expect to be competative in AFL football?

Malthouse wouldnt be able to do any better or Scott

Crap.

[hearts on fire]

Feel sorry for Matty, hope he gets another chance at AFL level to prove he can coach and is a good coach, i think he can, but he just didn't have the players and resources at the club.

Who can we target as coach though? need someone with experience and history of success, or atleast build a half decent coaching panel that can relieve some pressure and help out the senior coach, cause no way is one man going to clean this mess up at the club.

[Ruben Carter]

DAMIAN HARDWICKE

[overloaded]

Spoke with an insider over the weekend and he reckons Chalmers will be at least an assistant next year. And a smokey for the top gig.

Any thoughts?

[GWW]

Magpies Reserves perhaps.