Fingers remain crossed for Sicily but let’s be honest, that looked terrible and the noises coming out of the club suggest we prepare for the worst.
A lot has been discussed about our failed recruiting strategy since the glory years but little is made of the shocking run we have had with our very best players over the last 5-6 years, which has really derailed the whole thing.
Query - with hindsight - whether we should have pivoted earlier but we have had a terrible run to our best players.
1. Just as Roughead was becoming our marque player and next captain as Hodge/Mitchell started to age, he is struck down with with life threatening cancer. Bravely returned but never the same player.
2. Cyril becomes our marque player. Retires out of the blue at 27. We have not recovered from this.
3. Tom Mitchell becomes our best player. Wins Brownlow. Gets us into finals and then destroys his leg pre season and misses full season. Still finding his way again.
4. Impey leading our B&F in 2019. Does a knee. Misses a year and still finding his way.
5. Sicily becomes our leading player. By far our best this year and in my view emerging as next years captain. Now possibly gone for a year.
“Rebuilding” is hard enough without constantly losing your best players (the guys you build lists around) to very serious injuries
There are others who we have knowingly taken after serious injuries who have never become the players they were pre injury (JOM, Scully, Paton). That’s a different story as we knew that risk but it’s been compounded by the blokes above, none of which could ever have been predicted and which have had a major impact on where we have ended up.
Been some seriously terrible luck
A lot has been discussed about our failed recruiting strategy since the glory years but little is made of the shocking run we have had with our very best players over the last 5-6 years, which has really derailed the whole thing.
Query - with hindsight - whether we should have pivoted earlier but we have had a terrible run to our best players.
1. Just as Roughead was becoming our marque player and next captain as Hodge/Mitchell started to age, he is struck down with with life threatening cancer. Bravely returned but never the same player.
2. Cyril becomes our marque player. Retires out of the blue at 27. We have not recovered from this.
3. Tom Mitchell becomes our best player. Wins Brownlow. Gets us into finals and then destroys his leg pre season and misses full season. Still finding his way again.
4. Impey leading our B&F in 2019. Does a knee. Misses a year and still finding his way.
5. Sicily becomes our leading player. By far our best this year and in my view emerging as next years captain. Now possibly gone for a year.
“Rebuilding” is hard enough without constantly losing your best players (the guys you build lists around) to very serious injuries
There are others who we have knowingly taken after serious injuries who have never become the players they were pre injury (JOM, Scully, Paton). That’s a different story as we knew that risk but it’s been compounded by the blokes above, none of which could ever have been predicted and which have had a major impact on where we have ended up.
Been some seriously terrible luck
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