TeeKray
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- #501
It's not 'year 6'. It's year two. As soon as we went in with Bonner, Houston, Howard, Byrne-Jones, Amon, Powell-Pepper and Marshall in an elimination final against West Coast in 2017, when Ken said 'this is the side we needed to play' when everyone was screaming about Jackson Trengove not being picked, that was when I realised that the list we had was broken and why it was broken (because of Gold Coast and GWS raping the draft with their concessions when we were at our lowest in 2011/2012).
This side has only played how we've wanted to play once, maybe twice (the game against Melbourne) for an entire game. In 2017, that side did it a couple of times, but this isn't the same side from 2017.
I see this year akin to when Ken first took over in 2013 - a list that is good enough to make finals, and could do something miraculous, but it all depends on how much experience they gain over the course of the year. We aren't playing guys like Frampton and Ladhams because we want to, but because we need to.
The only reason why Ken got an extension was because he was told back in 2013 that the list he was taking over had a premiership in it. And the results in 2015 proved that it didn't, because the club went through the same sort of BS that Melbourne is going through this year when a team thinks that it will just happen the year after.
That's why premiership sides are generally (unless they are incredibly talented) built on the back of players with 100+ games experience. The guys who will be consistent in their performance week in and week out and don't think they are at the level, but know they are.
I can speak with absolute clarity when I say that anything worth pursuing takes time. Doubly so when you have to rely on other people to deliver it. The one thing I never agreed with this year was appointing Jonas a captain because I don't think he should always be in our best 22 anymore, and should be more of a horses for courses selection when the opponent as a key forward. But that was a player choice thing.
I'll say it again - as long as we go into the bye 6-5, with our injury list...that's a tick from me. Replicate that and win one more game in the second half of the year, and we play finals.
But even Ken is pragmatic that he probably won't be around long enough to coach this team to a flag. And if he goes, that's okay. What's not okay is thinking that we need to do 'something different', because no one plays the way that the people on this board want us to play anymore. Super coach Clarkson went into the game against us with a structure that was eerily similar to ours, minus the tall forward in Frampton that did nothing but including a general forward in Gunston who kicked six goals. And how did he get those goals? By Hawthorn players identifying that Jonas was playing on him and kicking long and deep over the top of our zone...exactly what I wanted our defenders to do.
But no one mentions that.
Excuses, excuses.
Funny how a team like Geelong don't need high draft picks and don't need everyone to play 100 games together before they actually start playing good football. They just get it done year in year out, regardless of personnel.
It's called coaching and culture.