I was one who'd lost faith after 2016. Dimma is obviously a likeable guy, but my love for the club and the desire for success wanted a change.
FRom what i'd witnessed of our finals campaigns, it seemed Dimma had been pushed more and more into his shell, that the first finals loss against the Blues who'd actually finished 9th, had scarred him. They got a run on and defensively we just couldn't stop it. A first year Vloss was manning Chris Judd who'd apparently come into the game with a bad knee, but he torched us.
The following season, we started by trying to play a fast brand of footy and got smashed on the rebound, so we reverted to ball security, won something like 8 games straight and scraped into the finals only to get obliterated by Port. FRom then on it looked like ball security became everything, and sure we had a good season in 2015, but we were crap to watch in my opinion. We lost our first final against Norf after they rested all their prime movers the week before.
Watchnig us in 2016, it looked like the burden of loss a potential loss was so great, that we were too scared to try to win. We were absolutely rubbish to watch. Ball security meant we were chipping backwards from half back, racking up meaningless possessions and eventually turning the ball over 30m from goal and conceding scores. Cotchin was under fire for getting 30 or so disposals that mainly went backwards, the media was into us over the re-treads like Houli Grigg etc.
What happened in 2017 completely blind sided me. I remember an interview with Jack Reiwoldt pre season and he was talking about his optimism, that we'd recruited well etc, and then he was asked where the goals would come from. We'd just lost Vickery to Hawthorn so the only 2 genuine tall options we had were Jack himself and Griffiths who couldn't string two games together. Jack admitted we were going to need some luck with injury in so far as tall forward was concerned. "I thought, good luck with that", considering Griffiths history. Jack also spoke of being back int the leadership group and the mentoring he was doing with all the kids that were gonig to be packed into the forward line.
Part way through the interview, i'd got a glimmer of hope, but then as they spoke about our forward line i started to think "Sh!te, other than Jack, there is really nothing dangerous there"! We were talking about a Star Full Forward in Jack, an injury prome Griffiths who had a ton of ability but no real sense of where the play was flowing to, Castagna with about 8 games to his name, Rioli with about 15 games, Butler with 0 games and not much else.
Reading the books of Conrad Marshal and you really start to appreciate how remarkable Hardwick is.
I still have no doubt that those finals losses had severely scarred Dimma and it was affecting the way he coached. But to have the strength of character to completely re-invent himself, re-build relationships inside the group and turn this club into the monolith it is now is nothing short of incredible.
It's like that furnace that he went through is the very thing that has forged what we see now. It's like Dimma himself reccognises what those fears did to his coaching so has completely let it go. Reading "Stronger and Bolder" , the half time address to the group during the Prelim as we stared at a 21 point deficit, he's telling the group that if we lose it doesn't matter, he's still proud of what they've achieved etc etc
It's easy to say you're going to discard the fear of losing, but to actually do it and re-mould yourself as a coach in little more than a few months between seasons, it's a staggering achievement.
On his contract extension, i thought "Well by the time he's gone, Reiwoldt, Rance Ctochin and Martin will be past it, and it's another re-build"!
Instead, his contract extension has delivered the most enjoyable period i've ever experianced as a football supporter, and there was some great periods as a kid. The number of times post 2017 premership that i'd be going through my daily tasks and literally break into laughter and say "we're the f*%ing PREMIERS" - i was still dumbfounded. I mean by round 15 or 16 i was thinking "we'r in this up to our eyeballs", but to actually pull it off against some damned decent sides was incredible, and coming from where we did.................
I have an incredible affection for this group, and the coach i wanted to see sacked.
I hate seeing de-listings, hate seeing the end of Grigg's career or Towner leaving etc, but thats a part of footy. But all of these players.
It's so different watching us play, knowing you can trust the team, rather than watching us play and expecting us to blow leads. With the off field success, the culture we've built and the results we are achieving, i can't see us faltering any time soon.
IT'S AN AMAZING RIDE!!!!!
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