West v Bays Side

Our recruiting was terrible.
Looking at the recruits we got:
Stevens - Pass
Hardy - Fail
Hayes - Fail
Newell - Fail
Skills are terrible, handballs at the feet constantly.
How a team that had won 2 games can come out and kick 7 goals in a qtr is staggering.
Absolute rubbish.....

Good post, Luke.

Good questions, billrobs, also.

Mark has done a coaches report every week and it's only Monday after a late Saturday game.

My take is that Mark has had a tough job this year. He lost the best 3 defenders in the state, with Fergie, Mangan and Tippett gone from last year, along with Slattery. On top of that, Hartlett was suspended for the first 3 games.

From a recruiting point if view, funds were very limited for transfer fees for recruiting. Glenelg recruited several very expensive players, including Lonergan, Joseph and Thorp. They're bottom.

Recruiting is difficult. It's not just a matter of deciding who you want, you have to pay enough to make a player want to change states, keep within the salary cap often arrange a job for the player in the field they want and beat the other teams for the player.

We recruited Stevens and Newell, both of whom I think will be good players for us. Justin Hardy's injury has been disappointingly slow to overcome, but he's a proven player and may turn out to ge a trump card next year. Andrew Hayes has been injured, but has been handy the last two weeks, while I think Riley Milne has been more than useful all year.

Given we lost 3 tall defenders and Hartlett was out for the first 3 games, we had to recruit talls that were available and affordable.

Up forward, he's had Still only available for 6 games and Middleton has hardly played.

Given that, I think it's far too early to judge him.

It is fair to say, though, that the playing group have put in some performances that are unacceptable. They have been fantastic against some of the top teams, but really poor at other times and that is a major worry.

As for our list going forward, I think there's a lot to look forward to and I'll look at that in more detail soon.

Sorry r&b I hate being negative.

I really would like just a fraction of your optimism. For the last few years I have loved going to watch the bloods but now I dread it....like this coming weekend for example.

MM has had 15 chances mate and we are 2nd to bottom, have just lost to easily the worst team in the sanfl and there is a strong probability we will not win another game for the remainder of the year.

To be a coach is a bloody hard and thankless job as is being a recruiter but does anyone honestly think MM has done a good job this year? Is he blameless?????

No worries, billrobs, I share your frustrations, I just don't think it's down to the coach alone.

I think the change of coaches is always a difficult time, especially when a playing style changes so markedly from one coach to another.

That style is good enough to beat the top teams, but I share your feelings when performances such as the Glenelg game are dished up.

That is the problem to be fixed and I just think it's a wider problem than the coach alone.

I respect your view, though.

aldo russian wrote:Still has played only 6 games and is only one goal off being our equal leading goalkicker.

Is now our leading goalkicker, having played just 7 games.