plugger66 wrote:Lets be totally honest on here. SW has some average or young players to work with. he also has some very good older players to work with and 3 young to middle aged players to work with in Steven, Armo and ben. if you looked at our list it is certainly a better side than a 3 win for the season side. Anyone thinking otherwise is lying to themselves to feel better or lying to themselves to justify that SW is some sort of great coach for the future. I mean some rated his season 9 out of 10 for 3 wins. We have lost 9 more games than last year if we dont win another game which is now probable. We have excuses. Our backline has had good players out most of the year and we lost BJ and Gram from those positions. The people who said BJ can be replaced by Siposs are looking rather silly now.As silly as those that said Gram was no loss at all.
Now to those who think we should get rid of SW well I think they are being a bit over the top. I have little doubt some other coaches may have got us to maybe 5 or 6 wins for the season but really there isnt that much difference. SW has a contract for next year. Lets see how he goes to about this stage next year before we get rid of him or re sign him.
And to those saying I am having it both ways well they are right. dont try it by the way it hurts. Keep SW but make a decision on his future this time next year. And stop whinging about the coach because if you are now wait until we really hit rock bottom.
I think that's simplistic.
I don't think you can simply look at a list and decide what the win-loss ratio should be, or decide that a team has underperformed based simply on their list.
If you look at our backline, in reality - not the list, but the actual backline that has made it on to the park - then I think having 3 wins and 2 close losses is an overachievement.
If you look at our midfield, in my opinion it is what it is. We lost a superstar player, and have Armitage and Steven as our two main men in there. Add in a junior ruckman with no senior support, and clearly it is the most undermanned midfield in the comp. Joey and Dal going through there helps, but they're both outside players and that doesn't really help the young guys that much.
The forward line, as always, is one dimensional and old. Milne is over the hill, the other smalls that have been playing forward are juniors and well below being 'good', plus the other talls such as Stanley, Kosi and Maister have either had to go back or have been injured.
There is no structure due to availability, and there is no continuity due to injuries.
So all in all, 3 wins and 2 close losses is pretty much exactly where I think we're at. Based on the ladder and catching teams at certain times, we beat the Dees and GWS which I'd expect and probably should have/could have beaten the Dogs and/or Gold Coast - but were fortunate to beat Carlton.
So yeah, 3 wins is par for me. Anything more would have been a bonus, anything less would be disappointing.
But if we played the Dees twice and GWS twice, we'd probably be a 5 win team.
