Coach aside.
This is how I see things.
Firstly, who in their right mind decides, with a squad that is clearly good enough to be regularly around top four, that suddenly the high percentage option, when you're close to being a powerhouse team, that ditching everything and starting over is a good idea. Does it make any sense for a regular finals side to do that? Of course not. MAYBE if you made one finals series in 7-8 spot, got belted, and then finished just outside the 8 the next year, you'd consider it. But that's it.
So on that score, no one in their right mind opts to rebuild.
Secondly, it is competitive sport. If you are going out there not aiming to win as many regular season games as you can each and every week, you are in the wrong business.
Thirdly, all the other successful sides of the last decade have made a habit of seeing a gap and filling it with specific players. Even we did it with Ottens - a perfect definition of the 'final piece of the puzzle.' Hawthorn did it with heaps of players, Sydney have done it, even the eagles are trying to do it. The alternative method hasn't even been proven to work and it won't have been proven until Carlton, Melbourne, Richmond or in a way GWS (who had extra help) win something. The Dogs sit somewhere in the middle for me. They kind of had it forced upon them and managed to balance their older players with incoming ones. And even now, they're not in a great position to build on it.
Lastly, whatever anyone thinks about the deficiencies or finals inadequacies of our side, let me say this. If you are in that top 8, more specifically the top 4, you have a chance, no matter what history or the recent past dictates. Should we forget where we are at because in one game of footy, Sydney came out of the blocks and belted us? No. On another day we could well have played out or arses and beaten them, who knows. If you throw enough rice at a barn door, you will hit it eventually. It only takes 3 good games. Give yourself a shot at playing those 3 good games, and you're in the mix. I don't want to throw that gilt-edged chance away on the very flimsy chance that in five years, after losing constantly, we suddenly become a beast again.
This is how I see things.
Firstly, who in their right mind decides, with a squad that is clearly good enough to be regularly around top four, that suddenly the high percentage option, when you're close to being a powerhouse team, that ditching everything and starting over is a good idea. Does it make any sense for a regular finals side to do that? Of course not. MAYBE if you made one finals series in 7-8 spot, got belted, and then finished just outside the 8 the next year, you'd consider it. But that's it.
So on that score, no one in their right mind opts to rebuild.
Secondly, it is competitive sport. If you are going out there not aiming to win as many regular season games as you can each and every week, you are in the wrong business.
Thirdly, all the other successful sides of the last decade have made a habit of seeing a gap and filling it with specific players. Even we did it with Ottens - a perfect definition of the 'final piece of the puzzle.' Hawthorn did it with heaps of players, Sydney have done it, even the eagles are trying to do it. The alternative method hasn't even been proven to work and it won't have been proven until Carlton, Melbourne, Richmond or in a way GWS (who had extra help) win something. The Dogs sit somewhere in the middle for me. They kind of had it forced upon them and managed to balance their older players with incoming ones. And even now, they're not in a great position to build on it.
Lastly, whatever anyone thinks about the deficiencies or finals inadequacies of our side, let me say this. If you are in that top 8, more specifically the top 4, you have a chance, no matter what history or the recent past dictates. Should we forget where we are at because in one game of footy, Sydney came out of the blocks and belted us? No. On another day we could well have played out or arses and beaten them, who knows. If you throw enough rice at a barn door, you will hit it eventually. It only takes 3 good games. Give yourself a shot at playing those 3 good games, and you're in the mix. I don't want to throw that gilt-edged chance away on the very flimsy chance that in five years, after losing constantly, we suddenly become a beast again.
