I thought the statement was a good one.
A five year contract with a view to sustained success.
A three year rebuild turning over 60-70% of the playing group in order to build a squad that is genuinely top four.
In my view this is sustained success an ability to genuinely contend for the premiership.
Hawthorn and Geelong are held up as examples of successful clubs. Did anybody genuinely believe that either of these two teams would win the cup this year? In fact I will declare that neither of these two teams will win it next year and Hawthorn will miss the eight. They have no forward line and are losing the battle for free and restricted free agents.
I am as frustrated as anyone about our performances over the last three years. This doesn’t mean the club is getting everything wrong. There are signs that the club could be well run.
Our drafting over the last number of years seems to have gone well, in line with the above vision. I can’t for the life of me believe that Peter Bell came in at the last minute and executed all of those deals. I reckon drafting in this day and age is a two to three year proposition.
The club and Lyon said in five years I will have no excuses. They then said we needed to change stuff to do this. They have done this and believe we are now equipped to genuinely compete for a premiership.
Going into this year we are the fourth youngest list in the comp, a far cry from 2015 when we were one of the oldest.
If this list is good enough to be a top four contender, there is every likelihood in ten years we will again be one of the oldest lists in the comp, and again have to deal with the issue of sustaining success.
