Imagine if he’d done his job and put out a proper one of these based on Peter Jackson going with the cheaper option and promoting Matthew Knights to Senior Coach in September 2007 when he could have had Mark Williams. (A story Choco has brought up in the Sacked podcast in 2019 and is in the news again recently)
Williams was coaching Port in the 2007 Grand Final and asked for more time.
Jackson appointed Knights.
Peter Sumich and the laptop challenged Damien Harwick were the media’s other candidates.
However, it has come to light that the club contacted the experienced coach who had won a premiership three years earlier, had gotten his team to a Grand Final in that year, and decided on the untried Reserves coach rather than waiting a few weeks to interview him.
So here’s my take.
2007 Draft, he would have pushed for Cyril Rioli instead of David Myers.
2008 would be a development year, as he build skills into players
2009 we show slight improvement, and continue to draft bigger bodies than we actually do for Knights’ gameplan, who Choco builds skills into.
We probably would have won as many games in 2009 as we did, finish 8th.
We’re picking guys like Talia instead of Melksham, Gunston instead of Colyer.
No need for speed if your game plan doesn’t completely depend on it.
I would also expect he would have traded in some Port experience and strength.
Maybe Shaun Burgoyne doesn’t choose Hawthorn when he leaves Port. It’s my Sliding Doors, so he ends up with us.
2010 -12 would have seen Hird come in as an Assistant Coach, not Senior Coach
The club wins a final or two in 2010-2011. The natives are restless, we’ve only won a coupe of finals since the 2000 premiership.
Due to the drafting of bigger bodies, we don’t see the need to embark on a program Geelong have been using, so Dean Robinson and Steven Dank stay on the Gold Coast & Cronulla respectively.
2012 There are no soft tissue injuries, and the 8-1 start becomes a 17-5 season. We finish top, beat Hawthorn in the GF. (Mero flies back from Canada for the GF; which he attends with Bomberman, Reboot, Koala & Fogdog)
Choco make a comment in his speech about “certain members of the Essendonians can get stuffed.”
2013after a late start to the preseason, we start slowly, finding our feet by the bye. We finish 15-7, good enough for 5th, and then beat Richmond in the first final. We get robbed by the umpires in Sydney the next week (See, I’m trying to base this on as much reality as possible)
2014 is Choco’s last year. The club is preparing James Hird to transition into the role of Head Coach. The uncertainty around this causes us to finished 14-8 and play North in the same final as we actually did, though as the Home team. But in this scenario the older wiser heads prevail. Though there is no Paul Chapman and Courtenay Dempsey. There’s Jack Gunston & Shaun Burgoyne. Also there’s no idiot Drew Petrie and his train Bull5h1t.
We’d roll Geelong and again be up against 21 on-field against Sydney. So we’re 3rd.
2015 Sir James takes over as Senior Coach and put his stamp on the team. They have the skills Choco is famous for developing into his players. With a slightly revised game plan, we score less but make another finals appearance. We bring Bomber Thompson back into the fold as his life since Geelong has been a struggle.
2016 Some of the senior players for the 2012 premiership are starting to show their age and there is a further decline in performance. We finish 9th and Hird is questioned as to whether he has what it takes to make it as a coach.
2017 He proves them wrong. A good run with injuries and we make the Prelim. but get rolled by Damien Hardwick, his laptop (now working), and Dustin Martin.
2018 and we continue to improve. The club is stronger than ever. 100k members. We beat Collingwood in the Grand Final with a kick after the siren by Orazio Fantasia who had been tackled by Collingwood midfielder Zach Merrett and got paid for too high.
2019 we have 110k members, Hird is coach, Solly his Assistant Coach. The team is known as being highly skilled, team focused. We finish in the finals again, but go out in a Prelim.
2020 is what 2020 was. We go to wherever the state governments allow us to play, though we win more than we lose.
2021 We again make finals, because we have a skill base that’s built on the development of ball skills first, game plan & positioning second.
2022 Shaun Burgoyne & Jack Gunston retire. Our draft picks are all late picks because we’re always finishing on top. We’re predicted to slide down the ladder, but we make finals and go out in the first round.