Positives:
Miles - but has a negative attached because it took half a season for him to be played. But as a player massive win for us
Martin - continued improvement in the consistency stakes
Rance - took a further step as a leader
Ellis - been harsh on him but his last half of the season (bar the final as he was terrible) was very good. Needs to be the norm now
Maric - our best leader and it shows and how
Game wise the wins against Adelaide, Essendon and Sydney
Negatives:
The first half of the season. Nothing can hide that it was disgraceful and totally unacceptable
Constant playing of favourites while not rewarding good VFL form.
The Newman contract extension. In a word BEWILDERING!
Rebuking Jack for having the guts to be honest. Was made all the more annoying that once we started winning everyone jumped on the honesty bandwagon
The Melbourne loss - nothing anyone can say
The failure by the Captain to even acknowledge that maybe just maybe he got the call wrong in the final when he decided to kick into a gale.
The spin - members put in their hard earn $$$, they deserve better than the nauseating spin we got while the losses mounted. In a word disrespectful
When it's all said an done what happens now becomes the key, how much have we actually learnt from the mistakes, the negatives?
Good summary WP.
I'd add..
Positives- Griffiths and Astbury starting to show genuine signs of improvement.
- Grimes recovery from chronic hamstring injuries.
- The players turning their season around to make finals for only the 2nd successive time in 40 years.
- Club's work and stability off field. Outstanding.
Negatives- Failure to bolster coaching staff after the loss of Leppitsch.
- Alarming number of players were down in the first half of the year. Few on our entire list have improved.
- Standards dropped in the first half of the year.
- Tweaks to last seasons game plan that took half a season to recognise weren't working.
- Hampson is a complete dud.
- No options to replace Morris despite requiring a shoulder reco and playing poorly.
- The Elimination Final debacle.
