Of course blame is placed on the players, but they don't pick themselves and ultimately they're responsible for executing the coaches vision. Were they doing that during the 13 game streak? Were they doing that since then? How many 'generations' of players have or haven't been executing that plan? Ken's responsibility as coach is something akin to that quote about a$$holes...I know I'll get blasted for this, but at what point do we appropriate the blame on the players? Far too many passengers, and our heavy reliance on Butters and Rozee was never winning us a flag.
We were going ok in the first, but for a 15min patch in the second we lost the game.
Then in the last quarter, we put ourselves in a position to come back - loads of opportunities but couldn't finish them. Then they get blokes like Riccardi finishing difficult shots from the pocket. Their defence held up so well when we put on an onslaught.
Such a frustrating game and season - I have no doubt we will be back next season with upgrades to our deficiencies. We were never winning a flag with the defence.
This is exactly how we won our flag in 04, multiple frustrating finals campaigns and straight set exits etc etc I've seen this movie before.
"If you run into an a$$hole in the morning, you ran into an a$$hole. If you run into a$$holes all day, you're the a$$hole."