Refresh V Rebuild the cause of the angst?

[the dog's kennel]

Think the OP is spot-on.

I like Macca, and hope he succeeds. However, I do think that Eade deserved a chance to rebuild the club - couldn't have hurt, we weren't going anywhere for 3 years regardless of who was coach. Sacking Eade immediately just made life tough for the poor sap who had to come in at the very beginning of a natural dip rather than at the usual time - the bottom of a dip.

And if Eade had managed the rebuild well, I would have had no qualms keeping him as coach for 6 more years.

 

[the dog's kennel]

I beleive it is unfair to tar Eade with this brush. He may have been 1 year too late with the rebuild but 2010 was the final crack with the list we had and after being so close in 2009 I do not blame him.

He had either 9 or 10 first gamers in 2011 so to say he was not aware of the state of the list AND was beginning to do something about it is not right.

Like I wrote in my last post, I was happy to give Eade a chance at rebuilding.

But I think this is a very rose-coloured view of history. Eade did play a stack of first gamers in 2011 - after we began sucking.

At the start of the year we were in full premiership mode. I will never forgive the club for trading a 1st round draft pick for Justin Bloody Sherman. In my view that was a complete dereliction of duty. That is NOT what you do when rebuilding.

So yes, I agree that Eade was flexible enough to adapt to rebuilding mode halfway through 2011. But he certainly didn't start the year that way.

 

[dogsfan]

The refresh and rebuild is not the cause of the angst for me its :

1. Our senior players this year as a whole are not performing as well as we expected
2. Bmacs game plan of learning to crack in defend and play "properly" is actually leaking more goals ( hopefully as a team the penny drops soon )
3. We haven't got the best out of promising draft picks over the years in Grant, Howard and because of recurring injuries to Higgins Williams Wood.

Frustrating but still optimistic.

 

[dogwatch]

It's probably just me but in my view there are scarier words than 'refresh' and 'rebuild'. For example, 'merge or die' and 'Greater Western Sydney Bulldogs' also have a rather unpleasant tone. Aren't the two expansion clubs just stalking horses for the AFL's vision of a rationalised competition? Give them a bland identity then get them up and running to the point where they can absorb another club.

Interesting post. I hope you're wrong.

I agree the losses are the main cause of the angst but I do agree that false signals were sent with the "refresh" spin. It meant that there were unrealistic expectations from 2011 onwards and this has not helped Macca's cause.

No doubt it's been worse than he expected - and harder - but I don't think we would be in a significantly better position if we had engaged any other available coach. I think the next two weeks (StKilda and Port) will be very instructive. If we fail to impress in those games there will be a lot more angst and mutterings.