The modern game often sees forward lines vacant when the ball is inside 50 at one end.
Like most teams, short of a horrendous turnover by the team already inside their 50 and a quick kick out to the wings - we’ve had plenty of forwards (though the quality this season was hampered by injuries to Tabs & Walters) available to receive - but hitting these targets consistently proved an issue.
Cammac looks lost at times - running away from the ball carrier rather than towards. That makes hitting the target even harder. Other times the mids didn’t move it on quickly enough to allow one-on-ones before teams flood back. But I also think that was due, in part, to the quality (or lack their of) of the forwards they’re kicking too.
Again - it comes down to skill execution as the primary issue.
I never said all 55,000+ members must support, in their entirety, the club’s direction. But what is patently obvious, if there were less than 2% of members who were of similar views to the more, let’s say, pessimistic on here - our membership numbers would be falling - not rising.
Just to provide some perspective in terms of a side who has suffered an even steeper decline than us - the Bulldogs - their membership dropped 8% (or about 3,800) between 2017-18 having jumped 20% (or about 8,000) from their flag year to 2017.
Ours climbed 14% between 2017-18, having declined by 1.2% (or roughly 600 members) between 2016-17 - when we hit rock bottom. That was after 5 years of year-on-year growth starting in 2012.
Hardly the sort of mass exodus one would expect if the fans weren’t, in the main, supporting the club’s chosen path - despite the short-term pain it’s resulted in.
Some might choose to interpret those numbers in a more subjective manner - such as they would be higher if we:
1. changed coach
2. played more ‘attractive’ footy- whatever that is
3. sacked the CEO/Head of Footy/Board/etc.
4. ??
But as with all subjective arguments, they are impossible to quantify - which often works to the advantage of those who don’t like facts getting in the road of a ‘good story’ (or a personal attack on those within the club they’d like to see gone).
I support Freo and it’s current direction. Not unequivocally or without criticism - I’ve made plenty of comments on here critical of team selections, drafting decisions, etc.
We are a team that was set up to ‘fail’ and have remained bottom-dwellers most of our history. All the hardcore nostalgia proponents who decry the change in jumper, training location, the pre-game ‘anchor’ routine, etc. should, therefore, be embracing our return to mediocrity - it’s what our history has been built upon after all. That is, losing was in our DNA prior to 2012.
However, recycling past comments of the coach or club (e.g. ‘no excuses’ or ‘sustained success’) from the most successful period since our inception - as justification for radical change now when so much else has changed (e.g. AFL interchange caps, player retirements/turnover) is grasping at straws, in my view.
But we’re all entitled to our opinions - not matter how marginal and subjective they may be.
