The highlighted is what we have to identify. We all come at this from different angles and are obviously working with limited information so it isn't easy but we can all pretty much agree that, with the picks we have had, we haven't had any young guys come in and take the competition by the scruff of the neck like other teams have had in the same period of time. We can go back and forth on whether we picked the wrong kids or whether a gamplan like ours stifles development but I am more interested in looking at the last 2 premiers and the Hawks to see how the industry leaders are doing things.
With the Bulldogs pretty much everyone at their club put the win down to Bevo coming in. He was smart enough to find a balance between keeping a sound defensive structure with pressure a given and giving players the freedom to express themselves.
Richmond were pretty much the same, Hardwick found the balance so that players were trained and gained the composure to decide when to attack and defend in game and to have fun when doing it.
We need to examine what it is holding our young blokes back. Of course it is likely a combination of things including Trout picking the wrong kids but, even if that is the case, we need to make sure that the gameplan we have gives our young guys the tools to blossom like you see at the top clubs in the competition.
A couple of points that myself & I’m sure others have raised over Richo’s tenure as coach:
- Lack of rising star nominations. Did we have any last year? I think our last was Gresham. Prior was Acres, Billings & Dunstan. That’s probably all we’ve had in Richo’s time? Now compare that to other clubs that have spent big in the draft.
- Low amount of players from the list utilised throughout the season. Our injury front has been good however the fact that we haven’t been competing usually means you rotate more players through to expedite development. That hasn’t been the case.
- As you already mentioned, despite bringing in highly rated juniors into the system none except maybe Dunstan have hit the ground running. Gresham looked okay as well but we haven’t had someone have an immediate, consistent & high level impact like a Merrett, Bont, Cripps, Weitering, etc.
- Our youth haven’t been given the opportunity/taken the opportunity to own a position & dominate that position. We’ve seen our youth come in & flip flop around & not have a permanent role. It took Richo three years to finally identify that Billings is & will be a forward primarily. Richo is still scratching his head with regard to Acres. Failure to identify roles is a concern, I refuse to believe he is ‘developing’ them by moving them around.
- Sandingham have deteriorated in the last few years which suggests we lack depth & depth is not developing.
Now that’s just development issues, structural issues & failure to identify, rectify & execute game plans is a separate concern. Richo is a well rounded....poor head coach imo.