Now the seasons dead in the water we can look back on things that have worked, been bad or been horrible.
The Good -
Wallis up forward. Many people called for this last year when he was taking midfield minutes off Dunkley. Was great this year and has developed into a real leader on field. Kudos to Wally for making it work in an unnatural position.
Vandemeer. A real surprise packet up forward. He really impressed when he got his chance this year. He's exactly the type we need. Speedy, penetrating kick and willing to take the tackler on. Big tick.
The mid sized/smaller backline. Crozier, Williams and Daniel were great all year. Probably our most dependable area of the ground. I hope all 3 feature highly in the BnF.
The onballers. We have an elite midfield. Question marks on F50 entries and the penetration/pace of some of our high posession winners but overall it's a great group.
The Bad -
The ruck situation. English will be great but needs help. It's cost us dearly a few times in the last couple years. A 2nd ruck seems like the obvious solution but not sure our coach agrees.
Our talls. Still not a great group. Keath has helped a little down back but we still get beaten in the air far too often at both ends of the ground.
Our half forwards. Not producing enough on the scoreboard or with asissts. Played the entire year switching and changing our half forwards and we're still no closer to knowing what our best set up looks like.
The Ugly -
Some very strange selection calls. Bevo likes to innovate a little too much for mine. I still think he has no idea of what his best 22 looks like. Many baffling decisions during the year made an impact on our performance.
Performance of Bruce. A bit harsh but he was a disaster for the majority of the year. I'd argue had we played Schache ahead of him we'd have seen a better result. Hopefully he can get fit and get in a full Summer of training with Naughton and our mids.
Rounds 1 & 2. We completely shot ourselves in the foot with our start of the year.
Lachy Hunter. A Vice Captain missing multiple weeks from off field discretions isn't good enough. This arguably had the biggest impact on our year out of all of the above.
The Good -
Wallis up forward. Many people called for this last year when he was taking midfield minutes off Dunkley. Was great this year and has developed into a real leader on field. Kudos to Wally for making it work in an unnatural position.
Vandemeer. A real surprise packet up forward. He really impressed when he got his chance this year. He's exactly the type we need. Speedy, penetrating kick and willing to take the tackler on. Big tick.
The mid sized/smaller backline. Crozier, Williams and Daniel were great all year. Probably our most dependable area of the ground. I hope all 3 feature highly in the BnF.
The onballers. We have an elite midfield. Question marks on F50 entries and the penetration/pace of some of our high posession winners but overall it's a great group.
The Bad -
The ruck situation. English will be great but needs help. It's cost us dearly a few times in the last couple years. A 2nd ruck seems like the obvious solution but not sure our coach agrees.
Our talls. Still not a great group. Keath has helped a little down back but we still get beaten in the air far too often at both ends of the ground.
Our half forwards. Not producing enough on the scoreboard or with asissts. Played the entire year switching and changing our half forwards and we're still no closer to knowing what our best set up looks like.
The Ugly -
Some very strange selection calls. Bevo likes to innovate a little too much for mine. I still think he has no idea of what his best 22 looks like. Many baffling decisions during the year made an impact on our performance.
Performance of Bruce. A bit harsh but he was a disaster for the majority of the year. I'd argue had we played Schache ahead of him we'd have seen a better result. Hopefully he can get fit and get in a full Summer of training with Naughton and our mids.
Rounds 1 & 2. We completely shot ourselves in the foot with our start of the year.
Lachy Hunter. A Vice Captain missing multiple weeks from off field discretions isn't good enough. This arguably had the biggest impact on our year out of all of the above.