Yep. A few decisions they made didn’t work (Caldwell? Durham, Perkins) but I’m not sure alternatives would’ve really fared any better.
I don’t think there’s much to be gained from shying away from the youngsters.
They’re not ready to take finals by the scruff of the neck yet: that’s fine.
Positives:
The youth policy we have brought in this year. Cox and Perkins playing 20+ games this year (and showing very good signs), Jones arriving, Durham coming from nowhere to play out the rest of the year, and giving guys like Bryan and Reid a taste of AFL level football. Cox and Perkins obviously tired out as the season went on, but this is to be expected with younger players.
Coaching. For the first time in a very long ■■■■■■■ time, I can see the direction in which we are headed in. We are implementing a brand of football that can match it with the best, and could take us a long way. The first half today showed that it can stand up in finals. The second half showed that we still have a lot of work to do yet.
Player development. Huge tick. Parish has become one of the best players in the game. A player who we all thought may be a solid midfielder at best, has become ■■■■■■■ elite.
Development in guys like Laverde, Ridley, Draper, Snelling, and Langford has been very good. Guys like Redman and Merrett returning to their best form, and Heppell re-inventing himself at HBF.
Recruiting. Hind and Wright. Two absolute steals and they cost nothing. Caldwell also looks to have a very bright future (hopefully his hamstrings stay good).
We have ironed out the Essington performances. The first Hawthorn game, and bits of the Port game were our only genuine Essington performances this year. Apart from that, we’ve been very consistent. We have smashed the ■■■■ sides, beaten most of the teams around us, but have fallen short of the teams above us.
We finished 3 games and 20% above “contenders” like Carlton.
Things to work on this pre-season:
We still cannot play in the wet. The Lions game earlier this year, and today, we’ve been blown apart when it starts raining.
Our entry into F50 when teams flood our forward line. We panic, and just blindly bomb it in. We can work the ■■■■ teams around, and hit up a target inside 50 when they do this, but the better teams like Melbourne, Geelong, and the Dogs can strangle us. This is the biggest thing that is stopping us from taking the next step.
We need to continue building up our depth through the draft. We are badly exposed whenever we suffer a few injuries.
Overall:
B+
We exceeded my expectations for this year. I thought we’d be a 5-7 win team. We have shown that we can compete against the best, but we aren’t able to beat them yet. I expect another 8-12th finish in 2022. Imo we need another 1-2 years of drafting and development before we can crack the top 6 or top 4.
Caldwell worked, for the conditions he was the perfect player, maybe missing the engine for four quarters. I think he stood the Bont early and was doing ok.
Durham kept at it and again had the hardness at the footy when wet.
Perkins was a disaster and the kid will be devastated, not sure his opponent but he will learn.
Had you known he was going to struggle that much almost anyone on the senior list would have been a better bet.
I actually had us winning 9 games when I saw the draw at the beginning of the year. So we did better than expected by winning 11.
We were in the main very competitive and the game plan when it clicked worked very well.
I was impressed with the post bye reset where we gave greater attention to defensive deficiencies. That was a solid course correction.
I was never comfortable with making the finals and felt pretty confident that we would get roughed up a bit. Nevertheless we did make the finals and that is some sort of reward for the players and their efforts throughout the season.
A lot of good things to look forward to….Jones, Cox, Reid, Bryan, Perkins, Draper all represent the exciting core of youth talent at our disposal.
Concerns with lack of key forwards. Perhaps Baldwin can emerge as that special talent we need to support Jones and Wright. Small goal kicking forwards as well are needed even if Walla finds his way back.
I give us a B+ for bringing real hope back to the club and expect us to go one better next year.
I give us B+ to A.
Almost every punter predicted us bottom 4. We made finals and unearthed a few potential players. Most people would’ve been happy with ladder pos 10-12.
Concur.
Ridiculous. I couldn’t see us beating anyone but Norf before our first practice match, we were destined for 17th or so I thought.
To turn it around like this is nothing short of miraculous. Players destined for the scrapheap are AA. Let’s Go Dons! A-
Beat one top 8 team all year.
Could best the majority of teams we should have been able to beat, those below and around us on the ladder but nowhere near being a geniune contender.
B+
Avoided a harder draw through our regular methods.
No better than C for the Team, B for the coaches and A for Paul Brasher.
While there is lots of potential and lots of promise, finishing 8th, a long way behind Melbourne, Port, Doggies and Geelong. We go into another year with lots of ifs, including players like Cox, Perkins, Jones, Durham and Reid stepping up into consistent A grade players.
Draper, Merrett, Parish, Ridley and Stringer are our only A-Grade now.
Laverde, Redman and Hind could get there, maybe even 2MP.
Walla, Shiel, Smith, McGrath, Caldwell and Langford need to be consistent and more dependable.
Francis, Waterman and Cutler need to step up, work harder and impose themselves in a game. All are talented.
Snelling, Ham, Stewart, Clarke, Gleeson, Guefli maybe should move on. Still to see the rest perform.
This year does remind me a bit of those years in early 1980’s before we dominated for a few seasons, but I don’t get the same ruthless approach to winning back then or in the years before 2000, when we had a real hard edge to playing and coaching.
It was a much more enjoyable year than the past few to watch, even with our limited live viewing.
But after yesterday, I feel the same disappointment and wonder if it is emotionally worth it.
We lost to Fark Carlton! D+
Seriously though - probably a C. Should have had 13 wins. My major concern is that we couldn’t stand the heat when most finals teams turned it up against us - GWS for a half; Brisbane; Geelong; Doggies; Port.
Probably a C
Lost to Fark Carlton and still played some absolutely putrid football at times. Walloped by the good sides when pressure is applied and still haven’t learnt to play wet weather football.
The old “could do better”
Coming from a F last year it’s a real good improvement though.
Wouldn’t be surprised if we took a step backwards next year though
we would have had this exact same conversation before “man, we’re Improving” kinda talk. “we’ve made inroads”
it’s very hard to believe. how many times in our adult lives have you guys thought we’re improving. I have lost count.
ultimately, it ends up just like yesterday, a elimination final belting from 8th. so until we don’t do that no, I don’t think we’ve improved. that’s our yardstick - it doesn’t fkn matter what we do in a season until we don’t get flogged in a elimination final. really, winning a final will be the true sign of improvement because we’ve seen it all before throughout a year
A season where we went 11-11 and got thumped in a final is an A-
K den
9/10 for progress.
8/10 for outcome.
10/10 for list management.
I smashed the club after the handover, I felt we had given Rutten and impossible task and I was unsure if he was able to step up to the challenge. From a coaching perspective I’m on board big time, he took a fractured list with wasted talent and entitled old players and whipped it into a cohesive, tight nit group all looking down range together.
From a coaching perspective I give Rutten and his assistants an A+. The challenge in 2022, is to not be satisfied and keep innovating and developing. I like the moving on of Dan Jordan. It’s nothing against Dan, just we need to bring in some fresh ideas about our forward line and list. He’s the one with more tenure. I’m going we get somebody not long out of the game.
From a back perspective I’m going to give them a B+, a real development year where all of the backs worked to build a cohesive unit. Lots of individual growth, lots of team unit growth. With Francis and Reid as tall backup options, Laverde becoming a star, bringing Hind homemade Cutler becoming an option at HBF I’m not sure we need to change much. Some more developing HBF talent in the draft would be a nice addition if we exit Gleeson and co.
Mids, it’s a bit of a mish mash, two all Australian and I’m going to give them a C-. Weird hey. The growth of Parish was not only predictable but two years behind schedule IMHO. The signs were there Worsfold and co missed them and didn’t even try. McMerrish nearly became a thing, until McGrath went down with a knee. Where the two all Australians were supported by a defensive crash and bash mid who was their outlet when they got in trouble. Once he went down without Shiel and Caldwell, Stringer was thrust into more minutes and boy did he take the ESS mids to a whole new level. Wings were serviced well with Langford (also forward, mid), Cox and Ham. The challenge now is how do you fit all of this into one side. Especially now it appears our recruiting was based on not fully understanding what we had. My down grading of our mids is based on, whilst we had some exceptional performances we generally could not stack up against the top sides.
Forwards I’ve given a D-. Let’s face it, outside some exceptional performances here and there and Walla carrying us early in the year it sucked. It’s clearly was a year of discovery, Jones and Perkins were good additions, Jones will be a star. Perkins will be a midfielder. So outside Walla, Jones, Snelling everything else is up for grabs. As they are the only real locks I see in the forward line and Snelling is the only consistent performer.
2021 was rebuild year in my mind from the very start and in that sense the team definitely overdelivered against my expectations.
I thought we had killed off essington this year, but essington reared its ugly head again to deliver a new low, a goalless half in a final.
Positive signs nonetheless in 2021. The rebuild continues… B-
Also worth noting our record this year against top 8 sides was 1 win and 8 losses. We still have some way to go
Considering my own expectations and those of many others - bottom four and maybe six to eight wins - we did very well. Credit to Truck and co. for doing that.
The depressingly familiar end to the season - a final interstate and getting belted - shows we still have quite a long way to go. The trade and draft period will be interesting, to say the least.
Clearly, we need a KPF who can mark and kick goals, someone to help Harry Jones and another small forward who can, similarly, kick goals.
2021 represents the start of a rebuild. Let’s see how we go in 2022.