Sorry, it just doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Bringing in players who aren't ready into a side already stacked with inexperience and middling ability? Its naive wishful thinking.
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Damien Hardwick
- Thread starter Tigers of Old
- Start date
Martiyn Dow, RCD, Naish, Higgins then Higgins leaves! There’s the reason why we are rooted through the midfield no quality . Ross is handy midfield depth only at best but not the quality the club desperately needs going forward.
They got it wrong with the drafting and trading when we were kings.
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What's a 33% midfield???? Is that the one we're playing at the moment because there's no Dusty, Cotch, Lamblett, Shedda, Ross or any other mid available to help Presty n Shai out??
Who says they aren't ready? They probably thought Cumberland wasn't ready or of 'middling ability' and he proved them wrong. You won't know unless you give players a shot. You're effectively advocating for known mediocre quantities over unknown quantities with the possibility of improvement. That's a sure fire way to the bottom of the ladder.
I actually think over the last 4 or 5 years, we've generally done well in playing young players. However our team selection at various points over the last year or two has been baffling though. For example, Soldo as sub, flip flopping Balta, Ryan debuting in a tsunami, continual selection of Castagna until recently, Baker being stuck at the forward pocket, Rioli Jnr being dropped, playing a crippled Lambert, playing a cooked Edwards.
We likely won’t have Nank for a month possibly two depending on the injury and might not have Soldo for a few either with a broken thumb. We ain’t competing without Nank.
Mansell was going to play on Rankine, when he withdrew (early) we changed our plan
We should have stuck to the plan. Without that extra defender we didn’t have the luxury of shifting Baker around the ground.
We have, because we've rolled them through in a measured and sustainable way. After good form in the seconds, and plenty of experience around them.
Yep. Also think Mansell's desperation could have been crucial in the final minutes with the luxury of adding Baker into the guts with 2-3mins to go. Another shocker from coach and MC
And we've been prepared to back them in to succeed. Which we seem to have gone away from. Yesterday we had Broad, Grimes, Tarrant, Nankervis, Riewoldt, Prestia, Edwards, Short, Rioli and Lynch all playing. Surely enough experience to play some more younger players and not have to revert back to the same olds.
The way we're playing this year there's no need to tank at all. But instead of continuing to pick players like Georgie or Aarts when we already know exactly what they bring, or sadly Shedda who's a ghost of his former self why don't we rotate the new kids through a game or two. Give them an education and a level that they need to work toward over the next preseason.
Reckon over this last two years we've been very forgiving of a raft of bad habits that have crept into our game n tried to nurse some premiership stars through extended form or injury slumps while ignoring development opportunities for some of our kids.
3 flags and a new woman i just wonder how much hunger is left in Dimma to go again. He could be tired or content. Seems like that could be rubbing off on our players.
If this season peters out, are we ruthless enough to swap Hardwick for Clarkson?
No thanks. Clarkson is past it. When he talks he sounds like Malthouse did at the end of his time. Just ums and aah’s and rambles.
Clarko is probably sitting back waiting for the AFL to wave the big cheque in front of him to start up the Tassie side.
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No it wasn't enough. Nowhere near it, we also had Dow, Cumberland, MJ, Hugo, Miller. Already over the threshold of inexperience. I wish L2, RIP, was here with his magic numbers to back me up!
No, but I’d want to see a wholesale change over of assistant coaches, inc VFL
This is something we need to do. Hardwick, good as he has been, seems to need guys around him who challenge him. We’ve been losing off field talent and not aggressively pursuing good replacements. Same thing happened to the Hawks.
