Clubs normally do a review of a football program when things are wrong.
Normally after a period of intense media scrutiny.
It’s reactive and perhaps staged.
Our last one was in 2016.
I think it’s almost time we did another one.
I love the overall ambition of a last to first rebuild.
Heck, we just did one in the last 20 years.
But they are painful and riddled with resets and course changes before settling into their last ascent.
We had the worst season in our history in 2024 and while we won 5 games in 2025 our percentage - a good gauge of competitiveness - was the same of 2024.
It’s not as good as we think it is and I worry the club is already getting a little cosy with it’s lack of progress.
I think regular external football reviews would be a good way to check in on this rebuild.
Why?
1. It didn’t start as a rebuild. Benny famously said “we don’t rebuild” in 2023. Perhaps we made this decision on the fly and some of the resources required need to be different
2. The rebuild hype is largely built on the back of one (albeit sensational) draft. It was brave and looks promising. But beyond that and hopefully this years draft, our playing largely looks either old or limited. 5 of our top 10 in the B&F are over 30 and we also had Hopper and Taranto in the top 3.
3. Fitness staff. It doesn’t seem like the world class department that we had 10 years ago when it rebuilt Dylan Grimes hammy’s and got our injury riddled team back on track in half 2 of 2019. They were a vital cog in that flag year. There are several players that have looked mismanaged
4. The AFLW and reserves mens programs look poor - AFLW seems unprofessional and lacking energy.
5. Despite our 5 wins, we look completely uncompetitive in blocks of games - 4 game streaks on 2 occasions where we lost by an average of 60 points. The Norf loss late in the year was awful.
We have become increasingly insular in our appointment of key football and non football staff which runs the risk of us not being open minded enough to seeing what is going on externally in the AFL.
There are several ex Tiger players in the systems if other clubs Shedder, Cotchin, Grigg and Rance.
These clubs are all doing well.
Is it time for us to get one of our ex flag champs to lead a major and extensive review of the football program?
I think this should happen next year and I also think we should have waited for a review before extending Yze (or given him one extra year).
It might sound negative but my point is this :-
The scrutiny on the club and football program should match the ambition.
There is no greater ambition in football than last to first.
We are miles behind clubs like Hawthorn and Geelong in attracting talent and we are about lose 6-7 of our premiership players in the next year or two so it might actually get worse before it gets sustainably better.
Let’s not pretend we know everything along the way and make sure we get the right level of external scrutiny on those doing the job today and make sure they are the right people with the right resources to get us there over the next 5-7 years.
Normally after a period of intense media scrutiny.
It’s reactive and perhaps staged.
Our last one was in 2016.
I think it’s almost time we did another one.
I love the overall ambition of a last to first rebuild.
Heck, we just did one in the last 20 years.
But they are painful and riddled with resets and course changes before settling into their last ascent.
We had the worst season in our history in 2024 and while we won 5 games in 2025 our percentage - a good gauge of competitiveness - was the same of 2024.
It’s not as good as we think it is and I worry the club is already getting a little cosy with it’s lack of progress.
I think regular external football reviews would be a good way to check in on this rebuild.
Why?
1. It didn’t start as a rebuild. Benny famously said “we don’t rebuild” in 2023. Perhaps we made this decision on the fly and some of the resources required need to be different
2. The rebuild hype is largely built on the back of one (albeit sensational) draft. It was brave and looks promising. But beyond that and hopefully this years draft, our playing largely looks either old or limited. 5 of our top 10 in the B&F are over 30 and we also had Hopper and Taranto in the top 3.
3. Fitness staff. It doesn’t seem like the world class department that we had 10 years ago when it rebuilt Dylan Grimes hammy’s and got our injury riddled team back on track in half 2 of 2019. They were a vital cog in that flag year. There are several players that have looked mismanaged
4. The AFLW and reserves mens programs look poor - AFLW seems unprofessional and lacking energy.
5. Despite our 5 wins, we look completely uncompetitive in blocks of games - 4 game streaks on 2 occasions where we lost by an average of 60 points. The Norf loss late in the year was awful.
We have become increasingly insular in our appointment of key football and non football staff which runs the risk of us not being open minded enough to seeing what is going on externally in the AFL.
There are several ex Tiger players in the systems if other clubs Shedder, Cotchin, Grigg and Rance.
These clubs are all doing well.
Is it time for us to get one of our ex flag champs to lead a major and extensive review of the football program?
I think this should happen next year and I also think we should have waited for a review before extending Yze (or given him one extra year).
It might sound negative but my point is this :-
The scrutiny on the club and football program should match the ambition.
There is no greater ambition in football than last to first.
We are miles behind clubs like Hawthorn and Geelong in attracting talent and we are about lose 6-7 of our premiership players in the next year or two so it might actually get worse before it gets sustainably better.
Let’s not pretend we know everything along the way and make sure we get the right level of external scrutiny on those doing the job today and make sure they are the right people with the right resources to get us there over the next 5-7 years.
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