Johnny Member wrote:I reckon, right now, we're the worst football side I've ever seen.
And it's clearly for 2 reasons....
Our list is awful. It's unbalanced in terms of age and experience. It's unbalanced in terms of size and pace (meaning small guys are forced to play tall, and slow guys are forced to play fast), and it lacks talent.
Some of the guys that we look at through rosé-coloured glasses as being 'talented youngsters' are actually pretty ordinary and will never be good enough to get a spot on a decent side.
The older guys such as Jones, Ray and even Dempster would usually have been forced out by younger guys. But such is the lack of talent and the age balance of the list, these guys really need to play to avoid complete and utter destruction on the scoreboard.
Dempster probably shouldn't be on my list above, as with some support he'd actually be able to play the type of role he's suited too and would probably still do it really well.
The other reason is the coaching.
Sounds like a negative? Well it's not meant to be, because I think the coaching is spot on for the long term. But in the short term, it's making us absolutely deplorable.
We can't win clearances. We can't win contests (and I'm not talking about the dodgy 'contested possession' stats). We can't kick. We make poor decisions. We can't defend unless we have 18 guys in the D50.
But we keep sticking to the structures and the 'full press' and 'sling shot' style of play. With a few years more practice and some decent players to carry it out, I think we'll be good. So full credit to the coach for looking long-term, but clearly in the short term we just aren't up to playing the way we're trying to.
Having said that, with Gwilt, Fisher, Gilbert, Hickey, Armitage, Templeton, Wright, Geary and Webster either in the team or putting pressure on, we'd be significantly better than we are now.
I don't think it's a coincidence that when Hickey and Armitage went down, we went on to get walloped for 5 weeks in a row.
I dont think this side is anywhere near as bad as the sides in the 80's. Obviously cant remember injuries back then but we a have a few now. You cant win 3 out of 5 with at leasty having some ability. Since then we have lost many of the more experienced players through injury. They probably would have only given us one more win at the max but the difference would be that we wouldnt be getting smashed like we are now. How we hung with the Pies and Port in the last 2 weeks is a credit to the players and the coached. Yep we got blown away late in both games but seriously the side we had on the park inst very good. But if want to see bad then I think in either 85 or 86 we lost our first 3 games by over a 100 points. We are no where near that level and thats in the days of boggy grounds. Not near that level but lets not kid ourselves this is going to be a very long rebuild because as strange as it may seem we probably havent hit bottom yet for one maybe two years.
