Exactly, Punter. The upshot of my constantly banging on about the poor clearance work, is realising that it's the beginning of a chain, but the rest of the chain is looking pretty promising.
Throw in a good strong +195cm KPD, to mix it up in the backline with all of Wright, Roberton, Stanley (I still think that's his spot), Gilbert, etc - that's going to be one hell of a backline.
Throw in Lee and/or Spencaa into our forward line, with Saad past his 2nd year blues, Riewoldt, a fit Sippos, and a more experienced Hickey as Ruck/forward, and you've got one hell of a forward line. Add Boyd, and it's getting scary.
Throw in Macca around the ground and filling a hole in defence, and Hickey for the tap and stretching things in the forward line, with Pierce growing as a backup, and that's one hell of a ruck combo.
Strengthen the clearance work, and the run in the midfield - recognising that already, Steven is looking like a future star, Armitage is growing into a solid Luke Ball type, Ross is looking like with 25 games he'll be a very good midfielder, Webster is a jet - you've got the start of a great midfield.
Once the midfield is strong, and they get first go with the pill, the forward line will have more opportunities to score; and the backline will have less work to do, which they will be more than capable of coping with.
It all revolves around fixing the midfield, and getting necessary experience into the talented kids we've got. But PART of that, is making sure it's the RIGHT experience - and losing isn't a great part of that. Still, I'm hopeful.