mullet wrote:bigcarl wrote:According to Terry Wallet. That's how long he reckons it will take for us to play finals again.
I sincerely hope the club is taking a shorter-term view as I'm not sure the membership as a whole will tolerate consistent failure over that sort of period.
I reckon the trajectory has to be upwards be the end of next season of Watters may be in trouble,
Its funny isnt it. All the scribes say that it will take 8 years, etc, etc, and yet they know that no coach will be given that time frame.
How the hell did port turn it around so fast. I am starting to wonder if we should have got Hinkley, but we would prob need kochie as well
Port got to a GF in 2007. In 5 seasons since then they have finished 10th twice and bottom 5 on 3 occasions. They are mid-table now and challenging for a spot in the lower half of the 8. Port drafted shrewdly in the years they were at the bottom... all of these players are under 23 and were top ten draft picks - Hartlett, Butcher, Moore, Wingard, Wines. In comparison our highest dp under 23 yo is Nathan Wright.
We have been beaten twice this season by 10 goals or more (Roos and Tigers)... but it had been around 6 years since we had such a loss.
So whilst there is bound to be some hand-wringing about out perfomances, a little context is useful. If we compare ourselves to Port Adelaide then we have another two seasons AFTER this one of finishing near the bottom of the table. If we transport ourselves forwards then by 2016 we will have a core of players who will be in their early to mids twenties (Steven, McEvoy, Armitage, Geary, Siposs, Ross, Saunders, Murdoch etc.) with a few older heads (Gwilt, Gilbert), possibly a couple of veterans (Joey, Dal) and a new brigade of under 21yos.... who should include at a minimum 3 top 5 dps and 3 top 25 dps.
By 2015/16 I expect us to bottom out. We then need to make sure that we are primed to resume a climb after that by emulating Port rather than doing what Melbourne did (double dipping). The rate of improvement after 2015/16 is clearly anyone's guess and depends on a number of factors, most important of which is the quality of the talent we pick up over the next three drafts and how we nurture those players.
Hird... The unflushable one is now... just a turd...