The Inevitable Rebuild

[Houli_Dooley]

2018: “Say… young Matt Guelfi and Kobe Mutch show a bit. Plenty to get excited about at Bomberland”

[Ants]

@Stallion

@Stallion

I just don’t understand how after 14 fkn years of bottoming out there’s been no sustained upwards trajectory, of making finals, winning finals, being amongst it.

I’m not talking about making grand finals and winning premierships, just sustained consecutive seasons of finishing higher than 7th on the ladder and winning a few finals.

How do you not get it right after 14 years? Melbourne were winning finals in 2006 while we were finishing equal bottom!!

This was 8 years ago!!!

I think we were building, but S&C and the saga stuffed us. If not for injuries in 2012 and being banned in 2013 we would have played in at least four consecutive finals series (2011-2014). Two of those years we were around the top 4 before injuries (2012) and the finals ban (2013) derailed us. Then the saga completely sunk us in 2015 and 2016, and arguably had impacts for longer.

But certainly we should have done a rebuild somewhere from 2015 on.

[jonovdp]

@FTWinderlich

LOL

Xavier Campbell and Lindsay Tanner.

Yep. What a surprise.

[Yossarian]

You know what would be a great member and supporter experience? Watching our team win ■■■■■■■ games instead of being constantly humiliated

[The_New_Coleman]

So how did we go?

Was purposeful innovation driven?

[jamesm]

It was far beyond driven

[Tbone]

Still trotting out that number 9, I am so sick of hearing about a laser focus on high performance

[James98]

stop being so negative gloomer

[Rom]

@The_New_Coleman

So how did we go?

Was purposeful innovation driven?

Campbell was talking about his new Beer company that he was trying to get off the ground.
His focus was on his Beer brand, Dods was on realestate and Brasher probably didn’t know what year it was.

[CyberBomber]

What’s the beer brand? Hopefully not one I like…

[Sartorius]

The irony of the much referenced “purposeful innovation” is that all these years later our football department seems as far from innovative as you can be. Look at the lengths Mitchell goes to in any attempt to give the hawks an extra inch against the rest of the competition.

It’s almost like we tried to be somewhat innovative once, made a complete and utter mess of it, and now are just happy to try and follow trends a few years after they prove successful.

I’m taking football related areas, not e-sports and flash mobs…

[Ants]

@Nocturnal

@Ants

I’ve been thinking for a while this board and Scott are sleepwalking us into the same position North was in. They (North) went hard, topped up, but failed to develop/recruit young players. When they finally realised that they needed to rebuild, the older players had very little value. They “let” a few leave, but got a handful of second and third rounders for them. All of which left them with the bare bones of a list, no meaningful additional picks and a ten year rebuild.

Covid definitely impacted their rebuild , but Tassie will also impact us.

We’re in a situation where the trade value of Merrett, Langford, Parish, Wright, Ridley, McKay, McGrath, Gresham are all way less than at any point in the last 5 years. We saw this with Stringer, Shiel and Lav, losing them for less than what we’d have got for biting the bullet earlier.

Yet the youngest of those guys i listed is 27. If we take three years to be ready they’re all post 30, many with terrible injury histories, a historical EFC track record of not keeping players going post 30 and question marks on commitment. If they’re all gone and we’ve replaced them with 2-3 successful first rounders (including our 2026-2028 firsts) , how will the team be good enough? Cause it ain’t good enough now.

Which risks us falling into the North difficult rebuild. Let alone if we lose a youngster such as Caddy, Sharp, Robey etc to Tassie for twiddly winks.

I agree there is a real chance that the AFL level players we have get too old before we find enough to fill the hole and get us ahead of the curve. Then when they finally get to the point of realising we need to accelerate a rebuild and offload Parish, Merrett, Ridley, Langford, whoever etc they will have no value and we will be too far down the track and in the middle of a Tassi compromised draft.

This has a real chance of spiring out of control if they are not careful, and where north is at now is a real chance. The easy is first two years development - the hard is getting them from AFL player to top 20% and then top 10% for their areas in the league and doing it consistently.

Brad hasn’t done that with Redman, Langford, Parish, Ridley, McGrath, Caldwell etc, so who says he is even capable of doing it for the next generation, and he clearly never did it at North. He only had 4 AA nominations in his 9 years and none repeated AA, he never got the side good enough to play well enough for long enough to make top 6, let lone contend and were not realistically close in prelims.

If they go chasing a bunch of mid range top up like Polec, Higgins types second tier players, you know we are cooked and Brad is trying to save his job.

Just copying to this thread as relevant and for posterity.

[No.10]

Ragnar likes it.

[Rom]

Never taken one sip of that $hit because of Xavier and never will.

[CyberBomber]

Thanks.

No, thanks.

[Stallion]

DONT FENCE ME IN

[simmo41]

lmaofl i forgot number 6 was actually real

[efc1robbo]

Number 8 is such a cuck thing to do

[Mendozaaaa]

Was a given. Just like Fold Coast winning a final before us will happen. Can probably mark down norf and rich making the 8 before we do as well.

This will be the 25th consecutive year we’ve finished outside the top 6.

[FTWinderlich]

St Essingtons day is coming early this year. We should do a 25th year celebration.