17th Premiership wrote:
So, I’m so frustrated and confused.
It is very hard to diagnose what our real problems are.
It is very annoying because I don’t think the top teams are all that great. I still think Collingwood is doing much better on the ladder than is warranted. Kind of the inverse of us and probably for the inverse reason.
They are winning more than they should and playing better than they are because they are choc full of confidence and have psyched other teams out.
We are losing more than we should because we are devoid of confidence and have psyched ourselves out of most games.
Many of us are way overreacting, and yet our performances warrant some kind of extreme response!
The calls to strip Cripps of the captaincy are rubbish, IMO. If anything, it reminds me of similar calls against Cotchin and the parallels are prominent: Brownlow medallist, trying to do it all on his own. I get that. But, if he can become more selfless like Cotchin did, he is the most inspirational leader on the team without doubt.
Cerra? He is having the best season and putting his head over the ball but if he was captain, we’d still be losing and most of us would be potting him for not being demonstrative. A lot of ‘grass is greener’ going on. Same with so many players in the VFL who magically become the solution despite not performing on the it stage on multiple occasions. I really hope Dow makes it, and I’d love to see Cunningham get back but these players incl Cottrell have never set the world alight.
And whilst we are definitely having a crap year, Melbourne took a long time to finally get it incl several false dawns and a bottom two finish before finally cracking the big time.
Brisbane is 2-3 years ahead of us and still hasn’t achieved much. Yes they’ve made finals but done nothing with it.
Port Adelaide is having a great year after most pundits were sacking the coach this time last year.
And I don’t think Hardwick is the answer. It is rare for a Premiership coach to have success at a subsequent club. Matthews and Malthouse are it since the 80s. It’s one thing to sack the coach, another thing to find the right replacement.
There is so much going on that is sick at the moment. I think we we’d the remainder of the year to really get in there and diagnose the problem with personnel, game plan, players.
And then make a plan to address this on and off the field. But it needs to be forensic, not blunt instrument.
FWIW, I think it is the coaching because I can’t believe so many players can play so badly so often. Whether it be the game plan, or mental it still rests with the coach. Maybe the senior coach or maybe the assistants. And/or the footy boss. But I’m not 100% sure. And it’s so frustrating because the opportunity is there with average teams at the top, IMO.
I just don’t want to throw the baby out with the bath water.
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Your first two sentences and your last are what I connected with the most.
Thanks for the post.
With us, it seems to be lots of things, little and bigger, that coalesce and compound for us to be where we are.
Cook has seen it before and presumably has the wisdom to work through it.
We probably also need a footy manager type with similar experience and wisdom.
So close in some ways and yet so far.
As to the thread topic, I hope we are really smart about how we use the rest of this year.
Not sure how possible these are but I'd like to see:
Build confidence (by winning)
Give younger talent more exposure (eg Cowan)
Deprioritise those who aren't hard enough or deliver (eg Fisher)
Stick fat
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