Great post Mr Magic
Much of what you articulated made a lot of sense.
I agree that TW let his ego get in the way particularly during his first season at the helm. He did this on the back of renewed enthusiasm and motivation from our more senior players. Unfortunately all this achieved, as you rightly stated, was the same ultimately ladder results that we seemed to have stalled on for years.
In retrospect, TW did the club and himself no favours by motivating the team and coaching the existing players as well as he did in the first year of his tenure. It would have been better in many ways to leave Spud at the reins for another year, use the draft picks wisely and then bring in another coach but then again hindsight is a wonderful thing is it not.
Spud did us no favours. He coached from the heart but ultimately he did nothing but harm to our great club. In fact I would argue that our agonisingly small stint in the finals in 2001 and Spud's (and the other administrators at the time) decisions on the back of this, has set us back potentially 10 years on where we could have been. Comparing TW to Spud IMO is certainly doing TW no favours.
TW always openly stated that he was going to follow the Geelong model and gather a group of talented young players together around a similiar age and breed our own stars. Geelong didn't need to 'bottom out' like Hawthorn or as we ultimately have done because, while they were rebuilding, they still had the more senior players at the club to compete. We didn't and still don't in many instances.
We have some quality if somewhat inconsistant stars on our list. Many of these have been injury riddled over the last two years most notably Browny and Simmonds. These stars actually allowed us to be semi-competitive and even appear a stronger team than the reality during the first two seasons of TW contract but when these players were injuried the truth soon became apparent. We don't have the depth plain and simple. Below the top players we have nothing but evolving youth. We have no mid-age and ability players. Whose fault is that? Not TW, you can blame him for any players recruited to the side in the last 3 years but the whole in the list was inherited.
Unlike Geelong we had no depth at all so unlike Geelong when injuries, retirements and poor form struck our senior players we had no one to step up. Until this void can be filled in 2 -5 years we are forced to rely upon our aging stars and the few young players that advance ahead of schedule.
The worst thing is because our younger talented players have little to no support from above they have to absorb the tags, defenders and general responsibility that in other teams would have been taken by the older players, so this makes our younger players appear to be underpreforming when in reality they are far from.
Harping back on the Geelong model, the reason TW did not attempt to blood the youth immediately was because the Cats had the luxury of allowing their 18-20 years olds time to play together in the reserves for years to gain the size, skills, confidence and awareness of each others game before they were elevated because they still had depth to their list. Last year it became a necessity to elevate players many before they were ready. It was also the reason why we went so poorly.
TW has made mistakes, warranted but he has always recruited and sought to strengthen our list with talented youth. This is not a recent phenomenia but I grant you giving them more game time is. TW did not start on this tack last year, he has been recruiting and rebuilding from the moment he began.
I don't believe he has 'shifted the goal posts' to keep supporters
like me happy. In fact he was too honest at the beginning of last year when he set mentioned the timeframe where he believed we were most likely to begin being successful and when were potentially could start to have prolonged success. Many in the media and supporters crutified him for this when he could have jsut remained quiet and continously did exactly as you said, shift the targets each year. He was realistic and he was up front which he has done again in this article and all he as recieved for it is sceptism and scorn. Ironic really.
I agree that there is no garrentees about our future success or even if TW will last out the year but I think you can almost garrentee that what TW has done, and is doing, will give us some hope, some chance of success and ulimately some restored pride in the club. Something we have been lacking for far too long.
TW is building up our list but without the support above it is unrealistic to expect success in the short term and I think it is unfair to assess TW contract and ability as a coach on our preformance this year.
As supporters we have a history of being impatient but if we are to not be our own worst enemy and derail all the hard work we have done over the last few years, then wait some more we must. For I don't believe we will be a successful club and even challenge for the finals consistently for 2/3 years...and that's being optomistic
and that is not TW fault plain and simple.
Stripes