Some observations

[iscah]

- In our 12 years in the competition, our best ever 5 years (win/loss) have been the last 5 years of Connolly's coaching. In fact our win/loss record was 61/49 (albeit a few games of that was Harvey). Maybe he was not that bad.

- This pain we are going through, with credible performances (we outplayed Port , Geelong, Bulldogs, Melbourne, and got close enough in 4 others to steal a win) will steel the playing group up for the next 5 years.

- Even though I wanted Laidley as coach, I now believe Harvey will take us further forward than we ever have before

- There is a clear agenda by the West Coast press to get Harvey and Pav out of town

- I despise the whole cheating short cut culture of WC so have to have splurge .. Without WC's drug cheating of the last few years (as intimated by Roos, Malthouse, Matthews and Sheedy) they would not have made their lone two prelim finals (ie top 4 ranking) that they have in the 12 years since we joined the comp. Any other sporting comp would have chucked them out for the disgrace they have brought to footy. They are lucky the 16 team TV deal is in place !!

- Our ruck and midfield divisions will be as good as anyone in 2 years time

- The passion of the fans at every home game this season has been fantastic. The atmosphere at the Geelong game was as good as the old days at the WACA. People who say you should not clap and cheer your team when they lose (after an effort like they put in against Geelong), can go hail a queen mary and join the robotic, WC corporate club next door. (

- The wizz may be gone, along with Macca and 3 or 4 others. I hope we get to give them a great send off.

 

[dominguez]

- In our 12 years in the competition,

This is our 14th season.

our best ever 5 years (win/loss) have been the last 5 years of Connolly's coaching. In fact our win/loss record was 61/49 (albeit a few games of that was Harvey).

I count it 61-53 off the top of my head from 2003-2007.

Maybe he was not that bad.

That's a matter of perspective. I think with the quality of players at his disposal we underachieved.

A team should always improve if they aren't losing players to retirement. Each year a new batch of players arrives at the club and considering that we didn't lose many quality players at the other end to retirement our squad should have improved every year from 2001 to 2007. That improvement wasn't translated into results.

Mark Harvey will have a much harder 5 years from that perspective than Connolly because about a dozen quality players will retire, while under Connolly the only real quality to depart that I can think of were Parker and Kickett. Connolly took over a list laden with blokes with plenty of ability in their late teens/early 20's, Harvey inherited a best 22 with most players aged around 26-27.

- This pain we are going through, with credible performances (we outplayed Port , Geelong, Bulldogs, Melbourne, and got close enough in 4 others to steal a win) will steel the playing group up for the next 5 years.

Lets hope so.

- Our ruck and midfield divisions will be as good as anyone in 2 years time

That's a huge call. I hope you're right but I doubt it.

People who say you should not clap and cheer your team when they lose (after an effort like they put in against Geelong), can go hail a queen mary and join the robotic, WC corporate club next door.

Clapping a loss suggests that supporters, like the club, accept mediocrity. You clap 10 year olds for trying but giving 100% should be the norm for professional athletes. It's like you are saying oh well, they tried today so I'm happy.

- The wizz may be gone, along with Macca and 3 or 4 others. I hope we get to give them a great send off.

We have no obvious replacement for Farmer so at this stage I'd be offering him another year.