What are your expectations for 2017?

[laj]

So

There is no way this is a fail?
So when we decided to keep the list together last year, those that argued against cutting deeper argued you can't afford to continue to bottom out.
So, winning 2 less games and finishing lower on the ladder... there is NO WAY this can be considered a failure?

I disagree.

I think the coaching staff has done as well as I would expect. I don't have an issue there.
I think the club has performed at about the level I PREDICTED, as in I thought we already had the worst list and 14-16th was going to be the result, no matter how hard we traded out our top players.

So with us performing at a level that saw us bottom 3 (and make no mistake, I think we will go to that 10th area on the ladder next year), I think we missed a chance to bring in even more youth and to try and find homes for some of our elder players (who actually had good seasons in my opinion).

So I think with the playing list we performed adequately and developed players nicely, but I think the board cannot get a free pass forever. I think drafting players like Smedts was a perfect example of horrible list management.

I give our coaches a 5-7/10 this year, this list they maintained to me was still the worst (or close to worst) list in the competition.
But I give our football club, overall... about a 3/10.
And if they don't get into that top 10 next year, then there will need to be serious ramifications and it should not start with the coach.

Think a bit more. We went much younger this this. We had so many teenagers and blokes under 22. We were extremely competitive most of the year against very good sides, have led 7 times in last qtrs before losing and 5 rising star nomination suggesting list management and development is pretty spot on. Make no mistake, very few sides enjoyed playing us as we often made things very difficult for most sides. People who think about will realise this, those that just look at wins/losses are thinking very simply.

Every side has a few crap players on their list. Most of our crappy were steak knives that come with picking good players. List management is the least of our problems. Because of injuries we had to play more of them than we wanted.

Given our circumstances of course it's a pass. Problem is some supporters expect miracles. It's a hard road starting from scratch and you take you little positives as you go.