09-06-2023, 12:25 AM
The rebuild took too long for a many reasons, but given the relative talent of the list, we needed a bit of luck.
Ultimately the biggest issue we had during the Ratten years, was that we had a heavy reliance on too few, and the kids didnt kick on, and the mature agers didnt really pan out either.
Good teams don't rely on too few to be competitive, they rely on a few to be good. We were the opposite. The other thing that our rebuild struggled with, was key position players. We had a makeshift forwardline and backline with not enough options in both ends, which meant we struggled in those areas.
We also had a mini exodus of setting standards to the playing group, where we were forced into a situation where we sacked players for non football reasons. These proved to be some of our better performers at the time, but its possible that this set the scene for us to transform our groups mentality to the point where we were then able to start a rebuild properly, as opposed to the half pregnant approach we did under Pagan, Ratten and then Malthouse. Bolton I think was the coach that got the rawest deal. He was given a list in transition, and then had to cope with heavy changes to the list year in year out.
All in all its as simple as this. Our draft crop of 2015, have played more games together on the list in season 2023, than they had prior to this season, which is no ones fault but dumb luck.
Ultimately the biggest issue we had during the Ratten years, was that we had a heavy reliance on too few, and the kids didnt kick on, and the mature agers didnt really pan out either.
Good teams don't rely on too few to be competitive, they rely on a few to be good. We were the opposite. The other thing that our rebuild struggled with, was key position players. We had a makeshift forwardline and backline with not enough options in both ends, which meant we struggled in those areas.
We also had a mini exodus of setting standards to the playing group, where we were forced into a situation where we sacked players for non football reasons. These proved to be some of our better performers at the time, but its possible that this set the scene for us to transform our groups mentality to the point where we were then able to start a rebuild properly, as opposed to the half pregnant approach we did under Pagan, Ratten and then Malthouse. Bolton I think was the coach that got the rawest deal. He was given a list in transition, and then had to cope with heavy changes to the list year in year out.
All in all its as simple as this. Our draft crop of 2015, have played more games together on the list in season 2023, than they had prior to this season, which is no ones fault but dumb luck.
"everything you know is wrong"
Paul Hewson
Paul Hewson