I reckon having a rubbish reserves side seems to co-align with some of the above mentioned comments 'he got games given to him' - there was nobody better in the reserves to pick and players just cruise if they know they're playing every week.
That rubbish move off being 'Coburg' for a few years stuffed us up until 2015 and it pretty much is aligned with our improvement a couple of years later.
Isn't it "iron sharpens iron" the saying. In 2014 & 2015 the Reserves won 4-5 games, then 2016 went to 9 wins, 11 in 2017, 14 in 2018, 15 in 2019.
No one to put pressure on players isn't a good thing, the guys in the reserves start thinking I'm a chance here to play in finals in the seniors, maybe win a flag with a bit of luck - Townsend and Graham perfect examples the back-end of 2017.
The way our Premierships in the VFL/AFL, Reserves and 3rds teams shows good programs/projects/systems/training facilities/coaching seem to co-align in our great club's history. Below doesn't take in the finals campaigns before and around the premiership successes or I'd be writing a way too massive thread here, but we all know the reserves played finals from 2017-2019 and that's a good enough example for me
VFL/AFL - 1932, 1967, 1969, 1973, 1974, 1980, 2017, 2019, 2020
Res/VFL - 1929, 1966, 1971, 1973, 1977, 2019.
Under 19's - 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1980