I like Jade but he is dreaming talking about finals next year given we'll most likely have the youngest list in 2010. Actually he says 8th-10th which is a bit more disturbing. Eighth would be great because that would mean finals but stuff finishing ninth or tenth. The latter two ladder positions are no man's land for a club with a young list like ours that won't mature until 2012-13. That's why we've gone nowhere in the past. With GC17 ripping the guts out of next year's draft, our first pick wouldn't be until the late teens
. It'd be equivalent to having no first round pick at all in a normal draft.
A big part about any future success will be about making the young players believe in themselves and each other. If we have a simple game plan where everyone knows their role and where working for each other becomes instinctual then we will go a long way in shaking the finals next year.
Stripes
Sorry Stripes but this is the bit I cannot get my head around.
You say about players believing in themselves and each other but you also are adamant we have to tank the rest of the year.
We lost yesterday in part because our kids don't know how to win and perhaps didn't believe enough in themselves that could win (the fact we lacked leadership is a seperate issue). I really cannot see how believing is going to translate into wins when we just dont know how to win.
I know I harp on it but I really don't understand it as it appears on the surface to be a mssive contridiction
Players don't tank WP but those off-field can manipulate the side on the ground and at the selection table to make things more difficult. Moving Richie to half-forward after half-time was an interesting move given he was best on ground at half-back and we were 7 goals up. Vickery started the 3rd quarter in the ruck instead of Gus was another interesting move. Whitey on Harvey instead of Jacko... hmmm curious! The umps helped big time too. Maybe us pro-tankers should've thanked them lol. We are also a young side and ran out of juice. Our fitness and conditioning staff have surely been scrutinized in the Club's review of our footy dept. They've been at the club since Spud was coach and we haven't played more than two quarters of decent footy all year.
Recall us playing Hawthorn in round 21, 2005. The Hawks needed one more win to lose their priority pick. They were also 7 goals up at half-time yet lost with Petts kicking the winning goal in the dying minute. While we were all jumping up and down at coming back to win, I can still remember a Hawk fan near me clapping his hands on the way out and rejoicing at how they "tanked" the second half of that game. That sort of defeat didn't do their young players at the time any harm. Just as losing 12 of 13 games in 2006 didn't either. The following year they were playing finals and then premiers in 2008.
Losing should motivate you. It should tick you off that you want to get better and better until you win and win again. It should make you hungry that when this young side matures it is payback time. It's not as though we are still playing our older players who will never get better and give up too easily because they don't have the talent nor the strong mental edge to improve. We're a young side under Rawlings who will get better and hopefully they have the talent and strong mental toughness both individually and as a team to be so peeed off that they are hungry for success and will never give up until they get it whether that is next year, 2011, 2012, 2013, etc. Without putting words in Stripes mouth that's how I interpret his post. Now we also need to add to our existing young talented players because we are still deficient in areas on our list. Tanking for 3 picks in the top 20 is about the latter. Tanking is manipulated by those off-field while those on it (the players) try their guts out to win. Yep it is a contradiction.
I can actually understand you not caring WP. I'm pretty numb about the rest of the season myself. I just honestly don't see how winning games this year against bottom sides can help. How do you know you won against a side and club playing to win. How do you know you ddin't win because they let you win by tanking themselves. That's why the system is a disgrace and needs changing. It's turned the whole competition at the bottom end of the ladder into a farce. Sport is meant to be about striving to compete at all times and rewarding those who do their best and become the best. The AFL draft system with its priority picks and ease to which it can be manipulated by clubs for their own long-term self-interest at the expense of short-term is the antithesis of that
.
