Culture

[Thryleon]

As long as our so called leaders stay we haven't cut away enough.
Murphy, Gibbs and Walker all need to find greener pastures where piss weak efforts are not tolerated and they are in the minority.
Only then will our culture change.

Yes and no.

Murphy has become as Judd like as he can.  He may not have the same impact on match day as Judd could (few can), but as we saw against Melbourne, we were much better when he was on the field rather than after he went off.

Gibbs may not play at the best of the best players, but he is generally a fairly consistent accumulator and performs his role well each and every week.

Its a telling statistic that Cripps in his acceptance speech last night credited Murphy, Gibbs and Thomas and also talked up young Byrne and Giles as having been a profound support for him during this season.

Give it time.  These guys are aging and will be cycled out soon enough because of attrition.  Murphy is 28, and the rate he is getting knocked around will be lucky to play past 31 unless he can reinvent himself (small forward looks to be his future with the odd run onball) and Walker is almost done (contracted till end of 16 or 17) and will be a year to year proposition from then on based upon how many players we are turning over.  Gibbs is the one who will probably last the longest of this lot.

We already have enough Jones, Tutts and fairly limited types that we need to work through cycling out, and there is no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Besides, look at the steps Murphy has taken over the last 2 years.  He has grown immensely and is no longer the reluctant meek youngster who shy's away from the spotlight, and last night delivered his speech sounding more like a leader than he ever has.

These guys might not be great leaders, but they are the best we have, and if they can have a positive influence on Cripps, then that's enough to justify retaining them IMHO.