You can drop Matera for Ballantyne if you want, you can bring in Bennell, Crowden, Fyfe Sandilands whoever you want and it will be the same ole same ole. As Ive said before, you can bring in Buddy and Kennedy and we would still play the same way and you would get a great look at what Buddy is like clogging up a backline, if thats your thing. And dont fall for the "players arent putting in" they try their guts out running round and round in circles week after week. Dont confuse effort for the exhaustion that comes from fruitlessly banging your own head against a brick wall.
Ask yourself how many of our players are playing at their best. Anyone?? Maybe Mundy and Wilson are still attacking.
Everybody else doesnt know what to do, frozen into indecision and confusion. We should be able to discern a simplified attacking brand which, whilst we are still not good enough to beat most of the top eight would see us kick bags of goals intermittently, when it all goes right. We dont see that.
There are only two solutions: one sack Roly, which my personal belief is it wont happen and would be too costly anyway. Its why I dont bother calling for it.
The second solution which would be practical and doable would be for someone at Docker HQ to grow a pair and tell Roly he has to change. The recent saga was an opportune time to let him know, were going to do things differently now. Tell him you will bring in strong assistant coaches that will be in charge of actually coaching, coaches that have strong input and that Roly cant bully. Prince was entirely right about the mute sycophants in the box who never even eyeball him back as he rants and raves and explains how the players just arent getting his defensive message.
Rolys strength, if he has one, is maybe putting the philosophical touches on an already strong group to get that last 10% mental improvement out of. It doesnt appear he can actually coach in the true under 10s local football coach back to basics style. If he could, we would be seeing the senior players repeatedly doing the basics well and the juniors not doing the basics well but improving every match with the coaching feedback. What we see is the juniors coming in with attacking flair Wilson, Ryan, S Hill, B Hill, Ballantyne etc etc and then bit by bit losing all ability to take the game on.
The Board will never sack him as it would be too much egg, but its time they stood up and laid down the new "arrangement".
