Our junior recruitment has been very poor. But where we had no mid-age players in the past, we have a plethora to choose from now.
This team has good depth, and while many of these players aren't superstars and have limitations, they all have strengths.
The problem that has been exposed in the last three weeks is that this dud coach likes to play to our lists weaknesses and not our strengths.
Where we have had dominance in games, freo first quarter, geelong first half, and were highly competitive, collingwood first half, our weaknesses were exposed by poor coaching.
Collingwood game. Obrien loose for the first half but totally free in the third quarter when we went form one on one footy to a loose man. Collingwood played keepings off that quarter and lesson the football community took from that match was that we were a poor tackling side. Overlapping free players and uncontested possession was the problem, you can't tackle someone 10 feet away. Thus we fought it out in the last quarter when it was man on man but Collingwood were too difficult an opponent to overrun once you have given them the game.
Freo was the same, loose man, uncontested footy killed us in the second and third quarters after we had fought so hard one on one to gain dominance in the first. The defensive footy didn't end until the last quarter when we finally realised the only chance we had of winning was to attack and not chip chip over possess and constantly turn the ball over.
Against Geelong, it was the skill errors from the chip chip defensive game plan that finished off a promising first half and then the player frustration that boiled over seeing they were going to lose another game that they should be winning. Frustration that despite their best efforts, Hardwick had replaced Deledio with Edwards, Cotchin was struggling, the massive dud Vickery went off, Maric could barely walk and Tuck was in the reserves. They just didn't have anything left in the tank. Doesn't matter how good your list is, if you don't convert, if you gift goals to the opposition, eventually you get disheartened and run out of energy to go again for another negative result.
Is the rebuild on the verge of failure. If we can't develop some young talent, then its going to be challenging. If we don't get rid of Hardwick, his favourtism, his chip chip defensive game plan that doesn't suit our playing list, his desire to play a loose man to support that game plan when we don't have anyone who can play that role effectively, then it will fail. If we keep using our best players, Riewoldt, Deledio etc as decoys, then surely we will fail.
But with an attacking game plan where they don't overuse the ball and move it quickly to our forwards, and our defenders aren't constantly having to pin point chip passes but their mistakes are from 50m kicks to contests, and our midfielders and forwards can attack the ball and not have to worry about whatever stupidity Hardwick inflicts upon them this week, then this side is strong enough to compete with any club in the afl and its been built from very little and their is a passion to succeed born from years of frustration. There is potential for failure but equally there is potential for success. What the club needs is a coach that can get the most out of this playing list on match day.
