Vlad Loves the Swans ?!

[baskin]

I have just watched a replay of this week's On the Couch. Can't believe no one mentioned this sooner.
Vlad was the guest, sat next to Roosey, and among many of his 'interesting' answers to questions re: tanking, club protocol, COL etc. he gave the Swans the biggest wrap I have ever seen pass his lips.
I am still in shock.......... maybe that is why no one else has posted this before.

(Sorry I don't have the equipment or know how to link to the show).

[swans_premiers]

Why wouldn't he. We're the best team in the comp and good role models in their most important market.

[liz]

Still sucking up to Roos after his dreadful comments midway through 2005?

[Big Al]

Still sucking up to Roos after his dreadful comments midway through 2005?

It's funny Liz, at the time I didn't think he was wrong. He articulated what we were all thinking at the time. My issue was, as the CEO, it wasn't his place to say it.

[DLBIA14]

Why wouldn't he. We're the best team in the comp and good role models in their most important market.

Exactly. It's in his interest to be complementary. It's in his interest to see us do well when GWS is still flailing along. It's in his interest to defend the COLA - the CEO of the AFL can hardly stand around and not defend their own sanctioned policy.

Just as an aside, It wasn't just AD's comments on our perceived ugliness that irritated me. It's the fact that they immediately looked to curb our gameplan by changing the rules. Funny how the AFL actively tried to speed up the game then and now are looking to slow it down. Football is a dynamic sport, it will naturally adjust without the rules committee barging in every year trying to eliminate aesthetic imperfections.

[liz]

It's funny Liz, at the time I didn't think he was wrong. He articulated what we were all thinking at the time. My issue was, as the CEO, it wasn't his place to say it.

He didn't articulate what I was thinking.

He spoke after the Swans had played a crap game of footy - fumbly, ill-disciplined and lazy. It doesn't matter what the game plan is when the players are off their game. But he took a crap performance and made sweeping statements about the overall style and what the club was trying to achieve onfield, comments that were made to look doubly foolish just a few short months later.

[Xie Shan]

He didn't articulate what I was thinking.

He spoke after the Swans had played a crap game of footy - fumbly, ill-disciplined and lazy. It doesn't matter what the game plan is when the players are off their game. But he took a crap performance and made sweeping statements about the overall style and what the club was trying to achieve onfield, comments that were made to look doubly foolish just a few short months later.

Absolutely right liz. But if he (and others such as Walls) hadn't made those statements, the players wouldn't have been forced to re-evaluate their season, and thus no cup. Sometimes a wake up call like that is just what you need to push you towards your goal.

[GongSwan]

I don't like Vlad's defence of the COL, I think he's setting us up to not blame him when the short sighted presidents vote on it

[annew]

I wonder how they can get rid of our Cola and not GWS's

[liz]

Absolutely right liz. But if he (and others such as Walls) hadn't made those statements, the players wouldn't have been forced to re-evaluate their season, and thus no cup. Sometimes a wake up call like that is just what you need to push you towards your goal.

You're assuming that the players needed negative comments made about them to re-evaluate their performance. That's a bit of a leap of logic. We played crap against the Tigers and Saints in rounds 7 and 9 2012. It didn't require Demetriou or anyone else to publicly slam them after those games for them to realise they needed to improve, or to find ways to improve.

[Big Al]

He didn't articulate what I was thinking.

He spoke after the Swans had played a crap game of footy - fumbly, ill-disciplined and lazy. It doesn't matter what the game plan is when the players are off their game. But he took a crap performance and made sweeping statements about the overall style and what the club was trying to achieve onfield, comments that were made to look doubly foolish just a few short months later.

Maybe it wasn't what you were thinking but most supporters I know had similar concerns about where the club was heading at the time. Playing ugly AND losing don't make a great pairing. Full credit to those who had faith but they showed little to that stage to suggest what would happen later on.

[ShockOfHair]

No surprise that the AFL is defending the Swans. The only 'issue' involving the Swans is the COL beatup, in which the AFL is being attacked for doing what it was contractually obliged to do. Demetriou would be delighted that the biggest club in its key expansion market is stable and successful and last year achieved the ultimate prize.

That aside, I doubt there's still bad blood between Demetriou and the Swans over his remarks eight years ago. The Swans got sweet reveng; Demetriou got Australia's biggest sporting drought broken on his watch. Now he needs the Swans to make the expansion plan work - we need him to help stave off the greedy big clubs. It's us, Sheedy and AD versus the barbarians.