17th Premiership wrote:
I think we have been stronger for longer than I expected this year. We haven't thrown in the towel like we used to. Other teams have worked us over and worn us down but we haven't given up like in previous years.
The big question for me now is how we will respond, having tried hard but failed several times and now get to play a lower team - are we shot and lower our standards a bit because the team we are playing is not as good as most? Or do we redouble our efforts knowing that if we play well we should win?
I also disagree with those who contend that we have gone backwards. We are behind where we would have liked to be at this stage of the season but we have made clear progress in terms of effort and consistency of effort (which was always the biggest disappointment for me over many years), connection from back to forward, scoring. And Big Harry is having the break-out year we were hoping he would, Walsh and Weitering continue to get better. And Fogarty and Parks are doing well (if not every week). And we aren't getting blown away at all.
The next things we need to be working on are team defence incl tackling effectiveness (am hoping Worsfold could be helping with this), keeping our players on the park (Martin, Fisher, Charlie would be handy), individual improvement from Williams, Dow and SPS, and hopefully McGovern. Injection of new, young blood e.g Kemp, Carrol, TDK, Honey & Philp.
How many of you would have sacked Goodwin in 2019? or in 2020? They went from a Prelim to 17th!! And then 9th. With pretty much the same list they have now.
What about Beveridge? The Bulldogs went from a flag with a very young list to 10th and then 13th.
It's not great at the moment but it's not the end of the world.
See thats the thing both teams went from prelims and premierships and slid so of course their coaches should be backed in because they got them to those levels … cannot compare those situations to ours though …