The Inevitable Rebuild

[frosty]

@Rom

For additional context, how sad.

Oh for the days of a percentage >100

[frosty]

@BAAKKEERRRR

Didn’t they perform beautifully for objective #1?

I’d call #4 “delivered”.

[frosty]

@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.

2012 and 2013 were so long ago that it makes no difference now. The inability to make any meaningful improvement in the decade since the players served their saga punishment is an absolute blight on the club. A decade

[frosty]

@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.

Just checking, is Fiorini Polec, and Gresham Higgins?

[Aceman]

2021

Under Rutten our percentage of 109.1 was the highest since the 2003 season
In the last 23 years we have had a percentage of 100+ just 8 times

[Albert_Thurgood]

@frosty

The inability to make any meaningful improvement in the decade since the players served their saga punishment is an absolute blight on the club. A decade

And yet people say James Hird should still be ostracised.

[Albert_Thurgood]

@Aceman

Under Rutten our percentage of 109.1 was the highest since the 2003 season

Phew. Lucky our Brains Trust sacked him. They don’t need any of that mediocre percentage stuff at Essendon.

[dingus]

If this rebuild is so inevitable then how come we are managing to evit it so well?

[Ants]

I never really understood that sacking. Not like we hadn’t had down years before.

[Ants]

@dingus

If this rebuild is so inevitable then how come we are managing to evit it so well?

Just because it’s inevitable doesn’t mean it will start in our lifetime!

[Clone_Hirdy]

@Aceman

Under Rutten our percentage of 109.1 was the highest since the 2003 season
In the last 23 years we have had a percentage of 100+ just 8 times

I remember we beat WC over there and were so excited about where we were heading. Little did we know that WC were about to plumet to the bottom of the ladder straight after that win.