Posted this in another thread yestersay and would like to get your opinion:
fremantle have had good structure and a very sound base to build off.
crowley grover haselby mcpharlin johnson sandilands pavlich hayden duffield dodd mundy tarrant are reasons why people are saying they have underachieved in recent yrs.
these blokes are the mainstays of their club. they are their spine and structure.
sheesh the base they come from is a top 4 finish in 06
their position and situation is totally different to ours.
and cmon they won 10 games in 07 what did those 10 wins do for them leading into the next yr. absolutely nothing is what.
and those late wins in 08 what did they do for them it cost them terribly. what momentum did they get from those late wins for 09 this momentum bullshit is just that bullshit.
.and what momentum did they gain going into this yr they were terrible last yr with most pundits putting them in the bottom 4. they got belted by melb in rnd 20 and geelong in rnd 22 what did that do for them. they beat an insipid essendon at subi in rnd 21 on the backs of pavlich sandilands haselby and mcpharlin.
the other thing people forget is last yr the knives were out for harvey why i will never know his situation was he had to show he was the man for the job we are not in that position and wont be ever i hope. but if things go pear shaped for us hardwick will have at least 3 yrs before the knives are even looked at. like ai said we are in a totally different set of circumstances and comeing from a different place.
if they had lost those nothing games in 08 09 they end up with one of martin scully trengove. and another pick at 6 which would have netted a player like rohan sheppard or butcher. not to mention the pick around 19 they forewent in 08.
the question that needs to be asked is how much better of would they be if they went down this path you cant tell me those late wins in 08 and 09 did anything for them but harm.
they beat carlton on the weekend how many of that team were under 22, 5 or 6 thats it. it was a win on the back of their senior players and a rookie called barlow.
what they have done is inject some leg speed and decent kicks and a couple who can find the ball their window imo is a shallow one.
they delisted retired 9 players at the end of 08. these players were aged sub standard and past it. they should all have gone yrs before.they were bell. black both carrs johnson mcmanus and webster farmer. they were getting little from any of them the only one they lost who may bite them walked out on them it was warnock.
i keep saying we are not other clubs we have few established decent players yet alone established quality players to build from.
the smart thing to do is while in our position maximise the draft while we can.
like barnzy i to am over this debate if people think we could not do with a pp and think that at this stage of of our development and list building that wins are more important than drafting then they are fools.
we had 7 wins in 02 7 wins in 03 what good did those 3 extra wins do for us.
in o4 we finished l;ast and ended up with 5 top 20 picks which we went on to waste. but what if we had done a hawthorn and ended up with buddy and roughhead and lewis the process was correct the execution of that process was wrong.
i would argue hawthorn got it wrong in 05 winning 5 games they cost another pp.at least they stayed bottom 4 and gave themselves every chance in a shallow draft. us well without beating a top 8 side we we won 10 games a lot of good that did us.
i could go on and on for every yr since 01. we are again at those cross roads where our destiny is in our own hands we can chose to win late games with a terrible list or we can put the que in the rack and forgo one or two wins and ensure what should be a quality kid at 4 and a pp in the second rnd.
anyway whats the point of all this you are set in your thinking it has been done to death and i wont change my thinking just because we managed to win a couple of games against some very ordinary or depleted sides.
my perspective comes from i believe we have an ordinary list especially mature players up. i base this on strengths weakness and performance of our players we have few proven quality players and we have many players we need to upgrade on, if not all this yr over the next two or 3 drafts.
finally and not having a shot but how poor were we last yr it could not get any worse any coach we took was going to improve us and focus on what hardwick has done. why do i say this because it was so glaringly obvious.
many who i talk to i know would have done what has been done by hardwick so far and more. while i dont expect wins it was always going to be relatively easy to improve the list and many of the processes.
imo we have done the easy bit now for the hard stuff.
hardwick is in a unique situation. he has a 3 or 4 yr period of grace where no one expects results, apart from deluded ferals this should allow him to do what needs to be done without a knife poking him in the ribs. yet we have supporters already after just one clean out of the worst list of players ever assembled sprouting of about making finals after just one season. we have a chance to go thru this process immune from criticism and both morally and legally well within our rights to do it.