That was inevitable considering the number of times they’ve ■■■■■■ us recently
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I hope to never see us finish 8th again, in my lifetime.
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Yep.
In soccer finishing in the top 8 can be a huge achievement for small clubs but the culture is different due to the massive differences in squad values.
In AFL we are on level footing so we should be competing for flags on a regular basis just like Geelong, Hawks, Pies and more recently Richmond have been doing. Its a huge achievement for us just to make finals, imagine the celebrations around here if we actually win one.
We have a small club mentality.
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I was drafting a post asking what it’ll take for us to believe we have actually turned the corner and become a top side again. It’ll need more than a finals win. Almost think even a flag won’t do it.
Who says it’s a huge achievement for us just to make finals? I didn’t see one post on here celebrating that, even before we were belted by West Coke.
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There are quite a few on here that believe this year to be a success just for making finals. Some saying that due to the injuries making finals was acceptable.
I don’t agree with that.
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There seems to be a few people who struggle to comprehend concepts.
“Mid table is not terrible” is taken to mean “zomg we are da best”.
And then the “zomg” is fiercely argued against.
We’re a very toey bunch on here.
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I think the logic which has held the club back over the last decade is “we’re mid table, zomg we’re so close to taking the next step into the next bracket”.
Yet we’ve consistently fallen short and not been able to make the right judgmental calls as to how to move forward with the list and how to identify and rectify short comings on and off field.
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- Win Anzac Day
- beat Tigers
- Finish the season strong and win more than lose in August (Collingwood , Port (away), Sydney, Brisbane (Away)
- Win a final, get monkey off the back
- Have multiple players make the All Australian team
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I agree.
As I said earlier, the club’s been in a confused state.
Take a half step towards a rebuild, then a half step towards a push. End up doing neither. It’s the coach’s fault! sack the coach. Rinse and repeat.
We’ll keep churning through coaches and bobbling around 7th-11th until we work out a way out of this.
And I don’t buy that we’ve employed 5 coaches and however many assistants and footy managers who all share the exact same myopia. This is a club, probably board, directive, IMO.
Just be competitive.
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Hence why some of us want Xavier gone despite how much money this club makes. Which in my opinion is not enough considering the supporter base at its disposal.
We lack leadership at all levels and in particular our CEO and Coach.
Saga certainly created unprecedented situation
We were on track for sure, had a very strong side with all the pieces pretty much in place.
Then we got stuck in the trying to keep that side together, still trying to make the most of the basis of that strong team. And the fans expected that would just occur also even though we were going through a rebuild.
At some point, especially given our general recruitment policy around age demographic (unlike what Port did initially) they’ve reset for longer term.
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Sheil, Saad, Stringer, Cutler, Phillips, Hibberd and potentially Townsend is not a long term strategy. They are all in their prime now so that strategy doesn’t hold up.
If we were rebuilding for the long term we would have continued to hit the draft.
They were all essentially 25 and under when recruited.
Bar Phillips and the ruck scenario was definitely about the now with view to Draper being ready to roll soon.
The core group of around 25 and under coming through together is plan.
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Xavier should go as he was a captains pick promoted internally. Done an ok job, but he knows his time is up too hence chasing AFL jobs.
I just hope we get a good CEO, football focused. Not sure id want to poach other clubs CEO’s didnt work well with Robson (he is now the CEO of Rowing Australia)
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Ruck is too fold.
Phillips now to help cover bellchambers/Draper + Bryan for the future…to form a 1/2 ruck partnership with Draper not scene since Ryder and Bellchambers at their peak (but these guys should be more mobile and better, but need to develop forward craft.
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What does that have to do with it when evaluating list management?
They continue to say they are building a side to compete for years to come but Smith, Shiel, Heppell andout two senior rucks will be 27 or older from March next year.
That age is fine if you are in the premiership window and competing for top 4, but if you are still building a list then we aren’t capitalizing on their best years.
I remember when David Hille and Mark Mcveigh retired and I thought, poor buggers played over 200 games and didn’t see any success. It was a really poignant and sad moment having grown up in the halcyon days, to watch guys trudge off in their last game for red and black with no premiership. How unlucky they were. Then Jobe Watson and Brent Stanton retired and I thought wow I can’t believe these guys didn’t taste any essendon success at all and worse than that they had to live through the SAGA, the game can be so cruel. Now I’m looking at Hooker and Bellchambers in their final year or so with Huley and Heppel not that far away and I can’t help but giggle…poor bastards wont even win a final.
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Gap between our senior players with experience and our 1-4 year players is the difference I feel.
The 1-4 year player lack experience another 12 months will get them to a level where they need to be with the experience but some of the older senior experienced player will also start dropping off.
2021 onwards I think we will start to get the balance right, however they need to put more time into the youth and give them that experience and proper development.
We are in a similar position to Hawthorn, however they are ahead with their youth on experience
Based on the age demographic our list balance is actually right where it should be.
We have the majority of our side in the 22-26yo age bracket, a handful of senior players and a low percentage of 18-21yo group.
When you compare to a side like Richmond you can clearly see where we are having issues. We have almost an identical amount of players between the age of 18-26 yet they have been at the top of their game for 3 years now and they still have scope for growth because they actually have more in the younger bracket. You could argue that they have better quality in the older brackets but they won the flag this year without arguably their 2nd best player in Rance.
I think we are under-performing and there are no guarantees we will catapult up the ladder in the next year or two.
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