Thought long and hard whether to respond to this when it came to my attention but there’s far too much misinformation here to let pass.
The argument on whether we kept Hurley, Hooker, Zaharakis etc too long is an interesting question and one that stems back to 2016 when the WADA bans were handed down. The club felt a responsibility to the players to offer them some surety but also gave them the option to explore opportunities. Many here will never know how close we came to losing Hurley to the Bullflogs, Heppell to Geelong and a few others. Hibberd decided to exercise his option to leave, clearly that’s worked out well for him now. Melksham, Ryder and Carlisle were among those to leave prior to 2016.
2016 was really the time to gut the list and fully rebuild if that was in the planning. We already had a bunch of kids who just had a season full of exposure in the senior players absence and the likes of Hurley & Hooker had great currency coming off recent AA and Crichton Medal seasons. They would’ve fetched a bounty of draft selections at the time and in hindsight, they might’ve enjoyed some success but they opted to stay and the club extended them as they felt obligated to. After what was a heartening 2017, we went for it. We weren’t to know Daniher & Fantasia would be smashed by injury for the next three seasons. Some of the responsibility for that is with the club but largely the players (prepared to cut Fantasia some slack as I think there’s some evidence to suggest he was mismanaged) but Joe was unprofessional not to mention deceitful when concealing his initial injury. I think Stringer was a good get and Smith won a Crichton, I don’t think they were terrible recruits. Saad turned out to be part of the cultural problem and he can rot at that rabble on Royal Parade as long as they’ll fill his pockets. Good riddance. But this is all revisionist and unproductive. We were a broken club post saga and only now are we starting to move on.
Everything I’ve heard about the club recently has been overwhelmingly positive. I wasn’t sure about Rutten last year and I worried we might be making another error (yes, I think Worsfold was an error the last two seasons and we should’ve had a succession plan in place for 2019 onwards). Rutten has proven me wrong so far. His connection with the players, staff and other coaches is really strong. He gets our club. He’s in touch with its history and wants to add to it. I feel in the past we’ve tried to push it to the side and ignore it. The past players are involved again after having been neglected for so long. I know of one who handed back his life membership pre saga. Our players are finally aligned and driven to achieve again. How many times did you watch a game this season and think to yourself when the run of play turned against us “that’s it, we’re done”? Previous years performances indicated that was right but our team now fights for every inch and they don’t give up. We now have a will to apply pressure for longer but we have further to go.
We’re young and improving. We’ve made some tough decisions on favourites of years past and we will make another one or two next year too. The guard has changed at EFC. I have heard the whole club was devastated with the way it all ended and not satisfied with merely making the finals this year. That is a shift from years past. We have a relatively clean bill of health leading into pre season and I know some players are already working on their game in their leave period from the club. I expect us to hit the draft for the next year or two and take a back seat in trade period. We are building.
We’ve invested heavily in S & C and I think Murphy will make an impact here with a season under his belt and some increased intel on the group. We were smashed by “bad luck” injuries that cost chunks of time, Draper, Shiel, McGrath etc. We didn’t have the spate of soft tissue problems in seasons past. I’d argue this was Melbourne’s biggest gain and Burgess will be a massive loss next year when he moves to Adelaide. Mahoney was at Melbourne through their build and is already showing some of his wares only 9 months into his role with us. I think this is the best football department we’ve had in a while.
It’s worth remembering the Bullflogs were 7th last year and Melbourne were 9th. It can change quickly. I’m not as hung up on “winning a final” as everyone else is. St Kilda won a final last year but where were they this year? We need to become a more reliable defensive team that shows greater consistency. We saw improvement late in the year but we’re not the finished product. Far from it. Laverde, Hind, Redman, Ridley, Heppell and Stewart had played zero matches together as a unit before the season. The same in our forward group of Jones, Wright, Perkins, Walla, Smith & Snelling. There will be better cohesion in 2022 and I expect our midfield to improve again with a full season from Draper who is just scratching the surface of what he’s capable of. I was as down on the club as anyone last year but this year I have hope again. We’re finally on the right track.
Sorry for the long winded post.