"The year of exploration," "I haven't coached him year," and various other similar statements that Lyon has made are not excuses or cop outs or platitudes. RTB wants to see which players respond, and how they respond, to the pressure of playing winning footy against different teams in different conditions. Of course he's already got feedback from Enright and others who've been around a bit longer, but not in playing the style or game plan he wants them to play to win finals footy.
There will be ups and downs. We reverted to type against the Hawks and, like me, everyone hates the "traditional" softness we've seen for a decade. I don't expect we'll see too much more of that for the rest of the season.
It might take us a couple of years to assemble a team that can go deep into finals. I expect that we'll see that beginning to emerge after the bye.
Windy, for instance, isn't really getting his "running patterns" right at Sandy. Sandy is a very different team playing at a very different level to AFL football. What he is doing is being given the freedom to attack the football as a prime permanent midfielder to see how he goes when he is responsible for his own decisions, rather than only as a strictly limited "role" player. And he seems to be doing it as expected, very well.
The majority of the other young players at Sandy are coming back from injuries and haven't had proper off seasons. They probably won't be available, or ready, this year. But, by then our coaches will know where, and how, they want them to play to replace some of our older players who will be let go.
I'm not worried that much about where we finish this year. Finals would be great for everyone and it should happen. What I really want though is to see far better decision making during the course of a game. I want some poise and players both providing and choosing different options especially going into the forward 50. We still stuff up so many forward entries by not being clean in our delivery. And like everyone else I want a much improved midfield.
There will be ups and downs. We reverted to type against the Hawks and, like me, everyone hates the "traditional" softness we've seen for a decade. I don't expect we'll see too much more of that for the rest of the season.
It might take us a couple of years to assemble a team that can go deep into finals. I expect that we'll see that beginning to emerge after the bye.
Windy, for instance, isn't really getting his "running patterns" right at Sandy. Sandy is a very different team playing at a very different level to AFL football. What he is doing is being given the freedom to attack the football as a prime permanent midfielder to see how he goes when he is responsible for his own decisions, rather than only as a strictly limited "role" player. And he seems to be doing it as expected, very well.
The majority of the other young players at Sandy are coming back from injuries and haven't had proper off seasons. They probably won't be available, or ready, this year. But, by then our coaches will know where, and how, they want them to play to replace some of our older players who will be let go.
I'm not worried that much about where we finish this year. Finals would be great for everyone and it should happen. What I really want though is to see far better decision making during the course of a game. I want some poise and players both providing and choosing different options especially going into the forward 50. We still stuff up so many forward entries by not being clean in our delivery. And like everyone else I want a much improved midfield.
