Funny how at the start of last season, Ross kept faith in the ‘old guard’ early on as we suffered back to back hammerings. Just to recap, it was 89 points against PA. Our skills were terrible, effort largely non-existent and structures out the window. Both those defeats were at the hands of eventual finalists.
Having given the old guard a chance to show why they should be getting a game - he promptly ditched 7-8 for ‘kids’ and we went on a 6 week winning streak.
Pretty sure I recall RL was to blame for the losses but the players were credited for the wins by many on here who seem to have no other objective other than to sack our longest serving and most successful coach.
As others have pointed out - we had in effect 5 ‘new’ players out there yesterday (or roughly quarter of the team) and whilst I liked the look and/or intent of all of them - I felt it was senior players with bigger bodies (e.g. D Pearce) who butchered disposal, made poor decisions and were too easily moved off the ball.
Add to that MJ seems a bit lost in the new fast- paced, end-to-end style that the AFL wants played, Ballas went missing & Sutcliffe still can’t stick a tackle (zero for the game).
We showed good intent early but couldn’t make it count on the scoreboard and PA are going to give plenty of other teams some headaches this year- especially at home. They’re attempting to ‘do a WCE’ by loading up at the trade table to nab a flag. And might I say they have picked up a few handy, older blokes from what I saw yesterday.
I reckon our list is in the best shape it’s been for years - the 100 point schellacking Peel dished out to East Perth with both sides fielding 14 AFL listed players is some indication of our depth. We have plenty of talls knocking down the door and a few handy others, including a no.5 pick, there as well.
For mine, bring in Hamling for AA Johnno, Darcy/Cox for Kersten (and leave Tabs as a permanent FF), Cerra for Sutcliffe (if S.Hill doesn’t get up) and my left-field choice is Brady Grey for D.Pearce and throw Banfield into the middle.
No disrespect to those long-term servants but footy is a brutal game & results count. I admire RL’s loyalty to his troops (not just since he’s been at the Dockers’s) and time has shown his players give the same to him.
But the fact remains we currently rely on a very small group of talented, experienced players to dominate (think Fyfe, 211, Neale, Mundy, B.Hill, Sonny) and when they don’t - like yesterday except for 211 & Neale - we get exposed.
Go back and check the stats for those who disagree with that assessment - you’ll find our purple streak (excuse the pun) last season was built around those aforementioned experienced players starring with the kid’s filling roles.
