Lol if people cannot see the difference between 2016 and 2023 then they are in serious denial.
What is happening now was always going to happen fmd ive been saying it since 2020.
Id like a dollar for everytime i asked where is the replacements for, well the stars.
A lot of people here were saying we already have em that the kids are all a graders.
The bottom line is very much like wce we thought we could eke out another flag when it was obvious we needed to go to the draft well.They too have an iffy recruiting record and a coach who has refused to play kids over aging favorites who got him a flag.
All the goings on with Hardwick like a rat jumping off the sinking ship, the horrid performances not just this year but the last three. The horrid list management yes we had damn good reasons why we had to get Taranto and to a lesser extent Hopper we needed those types regardless of where we were on the ladder. We had none apart from a few old injury riddled past champions with their best way behind them. Yet some are asking 2016 v 2023.
I hope recruiting List management and footy spend are at the fore front of any discussions we have.
For me we pay good money to people to run the club and a huge part of their responsibility is to KNOW when change and when a list has run its race.
Well we have failed in that and those in charge need to have a good look at themselves.Also its not just on the head coach that need to look in the mirror but the whole footy dept.
What we need to do is 2016 over again where we sacked nearly all the coaches, bought in blokes with fresh ideas poured money at last into the footy dept had the guts to acknowledge that things were wrong and needed to change and had a whole review of the footy dept.
Get it wrong from here on in and we too can look forward to multiple 100 point losses just like the Eagles if we arent already there. Next year will tell that story.
Claw, I think this is a bit dramatic. I agree on the whole that we made the mistake of trying to go for 1 too many, but I'll sleep at night backing the idea at the time and in hindsight I would again in that if it was possible it is rare to be at the top so make the most of it.
I think in terms of nucleus for a mini rebuild you have some decent talent under 30
B: Gibcus Balta Young
HB: Rioli Baker Vlastuin
C: Short Hopper Ross
HF: Cumberland CHF Clarke
F Rioli Ryan FP
R: Nank Taranto Bolton
B: Sonsie Graham Ralphsmith
There are issues sure, top end talent I think you can see there are All Aus potential there in
Taranto, Hopper, Bolton, Rioli, Balta, Short and in time Gibcus. It's thin and would need to be improved upon but missing from that list are current paid stars on our list in
Dusty
Prestia
Lynch
Jack
Cotch
Tarrant
Broad
Grimes
all up would be an enormous war chest that would easily pull in 2-3 genuine stars. Lynch Dusty are on top, top dollar, Prestia wouldn't be fair behind and the older guys added up wouldn't be on pennies either. So the beauty of FA is that we could be really really strong in the market.
I'm with you on the disappointment but I think we have been lucky in a sense that we have developed players well late in drafts and from rookies so that we haven't had to rely on top 10 picks. I'm fascinated to see how we evolve the list from here, I certainly don't think we need a full clean out and be down the bottom for 5 years stock piling picks. In fact we can't anyway with Tasmanian team likely to have a monopoly on those picks soon anyway.
