Blue Steel wrote:
Look I am hopeful that Ratt's will be a coach capable of delivering the rightfully expected success (#17), and I say expected because our list has half a dozen first rounders including 4 x top 3 picks. I do have concerns though.
Comparisons with Knights are I think reasonable, and with a list that most would consider well below ours, he has done exceptionally well. They are organised, aggressive and playing far superior footy to what we are. They look like they are very well drilled, and I don't think we do alot of the time.
He (Knights) has made tough calls in relation to his players (Lovett last year, Lucas this year) and they have responded well, not to mention the development of players that should not be comparable with the talent on our list.
Guys like Grigg, Armfield, Browne are developing, but not as fast as other teams, and their disposal at times is unacceptable at this level. They are examples and certainly not alone.
Consider all the needless fumbles resulting in turnovers we have had this year...tonight obviously a number of them. When a player receives a handball under no pressure right at chest height as Banno did in Q2 and fumbles, it to me is possibly an indication of him thanking "what do I do with this now?"...rather than it being an ingrained response (as it seemed to be when they had the ball).
Consider also the kicks to contests on half back/the wing after a point is conceded. To me this has had little positive impact. There's no Wayne Carey under that ball....and it's [color=#FFFF00]resulted in innumerable turnovers. Why do we do it? Where is the science and philosophy in that?
Are we a possesion style team, or free running? I don't know.
Who are our line breakers? Bower and Kade Simpson (and Jarrad Waite). This is a list deficiency. Judd is also but is often the one having to win the hard ball inside whilst dragging a ouple of opponents as others watch and wait and run by for a cheapy. Murph, Gibbs...it's time to earn your own ball a bit[/color].
As Jack Dyer would have said, we are a good ORDINARY side. Unfortunately with our picks, our resources, and our return to a sound financial position, this is nowhere near good enough.
It needs to be addressed. Not sure what happened with Alan Richardson but his reputation is sound as is his track record. We don't have him, they do. My understanding is that we tried and failed a while ago. Fair enough, but why did Essendon* succeed? I interested to know as surely our list would have offered greater appeal (on paper).
Ratt's may be a nice bloke and probably a legend of the club, as is Sticks, but they need to get results plain and simple, or they need to make way.
POW