This thread needs to be made.
Sorry for the length of this post, but please hear me out here, I know the DH haters still exist, because I was (for a period of time) one of them.
It could have been made when we beat Fremantle in Perth, and it could also have been made when we beat Sydney at the SCG.
But tonight seems like the right time to finally fess up, and say that earlier in the year, I got it wrong.
Between 2010 and 2014, despite the two early exits from finals, I was always a Hardwick supporter, and believed he was the right man for the job. My argument for this was simple - every year, he'd improved this team, and made us a competitive unit.
The question I had about him coming into this season was, could he take us to the next level, and have us competing among the best. And I'll admit, after the Round 2 loss to the Bulldogs, and then a few weeks later that insipid performance against Melbourne, I believed the answer to this question was "no".
It's very clear now that in 2013, despite beating Hawthorn and Fremantle that year, we weren't mature enough. Our defence couldn't stop runs of goals, and whilst our attack in that year was superior, it was those costly lapses in games that stopped us from being a genuine chance. Plus the occasion of making finals for the first time in 12 years, this club simply wasn't ready for the big stage.
That loss made Hardwick re-evaluate the direction he was taking us, and something I've said since early this year, is that I feel it "spooked" him into making changes. Now it seemed as if he was pulling the trigger early, and by reverting us to a more controlled method of play, it cost us against some teams in early 2014, and unfortunately we were learning on the job on the way to a 3-10 start to the year.
Then, it STARTED to click.
I say "started" because, whilst we won that infamous 9 in a row, we STILL weren't matured enough to make any real September impact yet, and we spent all our petrol tickets building that winning streak, and not accepting a place outside of the Top 8. Consequently, we got smashed in the Elimination Final by a rampant Port, who I say to this day, would have not lost to anybody on that day.
Then 2015 rolled around, and we started the year 2-4, and it looked like it was going to get ugly again. But after that North loss, you could sense a change. It wasn't disappointment anymore in Hardwick, it was ANGER at losing, and ANGER at this playing group not doing what they were told.
And that's when the penny dropped for this group.
Hardwick called them out. He answered the critics by saying that "we can beat anybody", and he put his neck on the line. People on here, and in the media, scoffed at him, saying how the "holes" in the list were too many and too deep. We were also-rans, who needed to sack the coach, and rebuild the list again.
I never believed the list was bad, in-fact the quality of our list was my great white hope at this point. I did, however, believe that Hardwick's time was up, and that he should be sacked.
I was wrong.
We haven't won a final yet. We haven't even guaranteed a place in the Top 8 yet. But what I've seen from this club since Round 6 is REAL and GENUINE, and Hardwick's ideas, whilst they have seemed scattered and unsure at times, have all started to come together.
Ironically, the big hit on Hardwick during some of the leaner times of the past 24 months has been "No Plan B", when in-fact what he's been doing is actually building that very thing.
This team is now the real deal because we don't simply rely on one style of game-play anymore. As annoying as that "chip chip" nonsense was in early 2014, it now makes perfect sense what Hardwick was doing. He was training us, in match, how to control possession of the ball, because he knew that in order for us to get to the next level, we needed a way to stifle Hawthorn, the ultimate pace-setters of attack.
I thought highly of Hardwick for most of his tenure, but the faith wavered and almost disappeared early in 2015. But I get what he was trying to do now, and this match against Hawthorn is the end product.
We just kept a team who was averaging 127 points per game in the last 2 months of footy, to 53 points, and we did it by MAINTAINING POSSESSION!
Hardwick, I was wrong. Whatever happens this season, you clearly DO know what you're doing mate, and tonight was proof of that.
This footy club is in good hands.
Does anybody else need to confess?
Sorry for the length of this post, but please hear me out here, I know the DH haters still exist, because I was (for a period of time) one of them.
It could have been made when we beat Fremantle in Perth, and it could also have been made when we beat Sydney at the SCG.
But tonight seems like the right time to finally fess up, and say that earlier in the year, I got it wrong.
Between 2010 and 2014, despite the two early exits from finals, I was always a Hardwick supporter, and believed he was the right man for the job. My argument for this was simple - every year, he'd improved this team, and made us a competitive unit.
The question I had about him coming into this season was, could he take us to the next level, and have us competing among the best. And I'll admit, after the Round 2 loss to the Bulldogs, and then a few weeks later that insipid performance against Melbourne, I believed the answer to this question was "no".
It's very clear now that in 2013, despite beating Hawthorn and Fremantle that year, we weren't mature enough. Our defence couldn't stop runs of goals, and whilst our attack in that year was superior, it was those costly lapses in games that stopped us from being a genuine chance. Plus the occasion of making finals for the first time in 12 years, this club simply wasn't ready for the big stage.
That loss made Hardwick re-evaluate the direction he was taking us, and something I've said since early this year, is that I feel it "spooked" him into making changes. Now it seemed as if he was pulling the trigger early, and by reverting us to a more controlled method of play, it cost us against some teams in early 2014, and unfortunately we were learning on the job on the way to a 3-10 start to the year.
Then, it STARTED to click.
I say "started" because, whilst we won that infamous 9 in a row, we STILL weren't matured enough to make any real September impact yet, and we spent all our petrol tickets building that winning streak, and not accepting a place outside of the Top 8. Consequently, we got smashed in the Elimination Final by a rampant Port, who I say to this day, would have not lost to anybody on that day.
Then 2015 rolled around, and we started the year 2-4, and it looked like it was going to get ugly again. But after that North loss, you could sense a change. It wasn't disappointment anymore in Hardwick, it was ANGER at losing, and ANGER at this playing group not doing what they were told.
And that's when the penny dropped for this group.
Hardwick called them out. He answered the critics by saying that "we can beat anybody", and he put his neck on the line. People on here, and in the media, scoffed at him, saying how the "holes" in the list were too many and too deep. We were also-rans, who needed to sack the coach, and rebuild the list again.
I never believed the list was bad, in-fact the quality of our list was my great white hope at this point. I did, however, believe that Hardwick's time was up, and that he should be sacked.
I was wrong.
We haven't won a final yet. We haven't even guaranteed a place in the Top 8 yet. But what I've seen from this club since Round 6 is REAL and GENUINE, and Hardwick's ideas, whilst they have seemed scattered and unsure at times, have all started to come together.
Ironically, the big hit on Hardwick during some of the leaner times of the past 24 months has been "No Plan B", when in-fact what he's been doing is actually building that very thing.
This team is now the real deal because we don't simply rely on one style of game-play anymore. As annoying as that "chip chip" nonsense was in early 2014, it now makes perfect sense what Hardwick was doing. He was training us, in match, how to control possession of the ball, because he knew that in order for us to get to the next level, we needed a way to stifle Hawthorn, the ultimate pace-setters of attack.
I thought highly of Hardwick for most of his tenure, but the faith wavered and almost disappeared early in 2015. But I get what he was trying to do now, and this match against Hawthorn is the end product.
We just kept a team who was averaging 127 points per game in the last 2 months of footy, to 53 points, and we did it by MAINTAINING POSSESSION!
Hardwick, I was wrong. Whatever happens this season, you clearly DO know what you're doing mate, and tonight was proof of that.
This footy club is in good hands.
Does anybody else need to confess?
