Guy who needs a good memory when you’ve got Google? But yeah good point, our brains can be selective both in our memory of distant events as well as in current perceptions with a bit of over-emphasis on certain things.
As an example, my comment was more on the conditions Phil Smart had to contend with as a recruiter, rather than anything near a serious critique of CC & Schwab’s reign. I remember looking at it a little while back with a bit of a query of whether Smart had a patchy record, but seeing that almost every second year he had the shuffled down picks stone to squeeze some blood out of. He did seem to get some decent material to work with when he had some decent material to work with.
Also CC has our second best win/loss ratio as a coach and we rapidly improved when he came on the scene, from 2 wins in 2001 to 9 in 2002 and then 14 in 2003.
Although while we’re there…I don’t remember the holdings being in any particular peril at the end of 2006. Certainly putting the farm under mortgage wasn’t required for survival. There they gave up on the development of a couple of young forwards to import the shanker virus from Collingwood. We’ll also never know whether that particular set of events severely hampered the confidence and development of Murphy, but I always thought it might. So yeah, playing the kids, having patience for their foibles, can work a number of ways.
