Reset Rants

[kruddler]

I’ll admit it… I’m a rebuild sceptic...a rebuild denier even!
I have been from the start. I saw the announcement that we were rebuilding as a delaying tactic to ward off criticism of our position at the time. It came at a time when we were getting confident messages from the coach at the start of the year, only to fall in a heap in the early stages of that season.
It came in the middle of a power tussle that eventually saw the demise of the coach. You could tell that as far as he was concerned ‘rebuild’ was a bit of a dirty word.
2015 was a bad year made worse by that turmoil. After Malthouse left the agenda was probably more designed towards ensuring the best draft pick possible.

So once you start on a rebuild/reset you virtually have no choice but to follow it through. It’s not something you can change your mind about once you cut deeply into a list.
Silvagni and Bolton were, on the surface, pretty obvious choices to be the builders. The process for choosing Bolton was transparent and thorough.

My concerns are…
Have we cut too deeply leaving no depth or experience?

Would we have been in a better position with a less radical approach?

Have we made the right choices in terms of building a balanced list?

Has our deplorable development of young players improved? Our skills and decision making still seem to require more work.

Are our medical folk on top of things given some of the injuries, which seem in some cases to be overuse injuries. You can’t help rolled ankles but you can allow proper strength and conditioning to ward off soft tissue injuries and also allow adequate recuperation before putting a player back on the park.

Are we asking too much of certain players to the point where we push them to breaking point? I’m concerned with our management of Weitering who I suspect was asked to play on through injury a) because he was good and b) in an attempt to harden him up. Cripps carries such a heavy workload, especially in the absence of Murphy, that he’s also in danger of breaking. With nothing to lose this season we could even give him some weeks off.

How does Bolton go tactically on match day. Does he need assistance in the form of a mentor?

Some of our match day selections seem confusing. Is the focus development rather than results? At some point the latter must take precedence.

How do I feel two years and 6 games into the rebuild?…still sceptical but prepared to give it a little longer!

...and thats all you need to know about the rebuild.

Keeps the wolves at bay. Allows the club to 'get on with it' for longer before the scrutiny comes.

I know you were suggesting it would come midway through last year from memory...but its lasted almost a full 12 months on that before any questions have really been raised and even then, its only the beginning.

The club has bought time, but its not an infinite amount.

Questions remain, and so they should, we've got nothing apart from hope thus far.