Bluey44 wrote:
BigKev wrote:
kingkerna wrote:
how can you be happier now?
I thought that the original expectation of MM coming in and magically producing a premiership overnight, (in a football sense), was ridiculous. I thought sacking Ratten at the time was unfair and he should've got to serve out his contract. I also don't care much for the way MM conducts himself in media. He's someone I've enjoyed criticising for a long time.
That was then.
We've got passed all that initial fantasy and now I'm starting to see change that I like. I can see a change in how we're playing as a team and how certain individuals are playing. Slowly but surely we're becoming less "frilly" and more business like. Flashy players are either being dropped or are starting to become more accountable.
Will this lead to a flag? Who knows, but it's an approach that MM has used well at other clubs and I'm interested to see how things unfold here. If all goes well then next season we'll start to take a few top four scalps.
Great post - sums up how I feel about the difference between Mick and Ratts.
However he needs to get wins on the board.
Also he can't keep hiding behind his quote that we are playing more competitive footy against the best teams - what about the crap teams????
I know the comp is fairly even this year, but we have still got a long way to go to improve our mental fortitude.
We cannot have such predictable & consistent fadeouts to the bottom teams.
People say we are in danger of becoming "the new Richmond"
I think we are more in danger of becoming "the new Norf"
We are falling into that underdog mentality where we can't perform when everyone expects us to.
i hope you are wrong about following the richmond north trend. I think you are. History shows that micks teams have a steely-ness to them that allows them to dominate the competition. CLEARLY our players are not there yet as this is still a weakness. But Mick is onto it and internally i am sure it his number one priority. Say what you like about Thomas, but it seems to me that he fits the mold of player that Mick thinks will help bring that steely ness to the group. THAT is why he was recruited.
I think years end we may be surprised at who gets let go. He clearly wants to change the mentality of the group , and if that is at the expense of skilled players that sometimes go missing, then so be it. That is the process that needs to be followed, to turn this group around. To that end I feel that Mick will encourage Judd to stick around, as he is an obvious example of mental toughness that we need, albeit playing a lesser role. I for one have found that the team as a whole has been playing better, more consistent football since judd has returned. Kreuzer is another player that we have missed, his competitiveness and never say die attitude is another key ingredient.
For me the blues under malthouse are almost the antithesis of the blues under ratten.
Under Ratten, we were flashy, sometimes brilliant, but always it seemed that we were over achieving, that there was a sense of brittleness to the side that eventually would be laid bare. That we were heading in the wrong direction despite the seemingly encouraging results.
Under Malthouse. The Flash has gone, the brilliance is very rarely shown. But now it seems like we are under-achieving, that percolating under the surface there is emerging a new found strength, that hasnt shown itself with results yet- but there are green shoots everywhere...individual players who are thriving under Mick. We just havent put it all together yet. But we are moving in the right direction.