No, Bevo's time is not up but he has run out of brownie points as far as I'm concerned. He has no credits left in the bank - they've been frittered away over the last two years.
He needs to be judged on what he does henceforth, not on a piece of once-in-a-century magic that he pulled off three years ago. We'll be forever grateful for that but it's now history. We have all sat by patiently, thinking his coaching genius will turn it around but instead the side has steadily got worse since 1 October 2016.
Consider this. Since 1950 only three teams have failed to make the finals in all three years after winning a flag. They were
- Melbourne - 1964 in the days when the VFL only had a top 4 (and coming off 6 flags in 10 seasons I reckon they can be excused)
- Hawthorn - 1978 (coming off 3 flags in 8 years so we'll let them off too)
- Western Bulldogs - 2016 ... assuming we don't suddenly turn it around this season
The current finals system (top 8) guarantees 44% of sides will play in the finals each year. No side has failed to make the finals three years in a row after winning the flag in the 25 years since it came in ... until this year. [Yes, I guess there's still an outside chance but it's a long shot at this stage. You can get $8 if you want a punt on it.] How could we have fallen so quickly with such a talented list that offered so much promise?
I must admit I've lost most of my faith in Bevo. Most of the reasons have already been articulated in other posts.
Although I don't have any strong evidence - anecdotal at best - I do worry that he has lost the confidence of some of the players who believed in him so completely in September 2016. I really don't think our current list is that bad. We've lost 8 of the premiership side but the only ones out of that lot that really hurt are Picken and to a lesser extent Stringer, Hamling, C.Smith and Dahlhaus. And don't forget it was Bevo who had a strong hand in the departure of Stringer - maybe Dahlhaus too.
Dickson and Wood have declined I suppose and Moz and Tom Boyd are currently injured but offsetting all that we have acquired new talent (Naughton, Richards, B.Smith, English, Crozier) and our emerging stars of 2016 are now approaching their prime and should be considerably better than they were three years ago.
Instead we are playing like a bottom 4 side. It's difficult to reconcile.
If things don't improve we need to be looking at changes around Bevo before considering whether his time is up. Chris Grant doesn't inspire me as Director of Football Operations. We could use some new blood and new ideas among the Coaching Assistants. We also need some strong personalities around Bevo who can tell him (without fear or retribution) whenever he's got no clothes on.
The best hope is that Bevo realises himself that he's run out of credits and gets back to Footy 101 with a fair dose of common sense. This avant-garde stuff just isn't working.