Have we improved in 2010?

[w3design]

For a yes answer:

1. We have blooded some great kids. Grant, Jones, Wood and Roughead are really impressive. I am no longer as worried that our 'window' will close if this is not our year.

2. The defensive unit is more settled and has performed well. Adding Murphy & Wood there has also freed it up to be more attacking, with Gilbee and Harbrow that's a lot of flair and has setup some great run in our best wins.

3. Until last night :( we haven't been blown away, even in some ordinary efforts. Our contested ball efforts and hardness seemed to have improved (again, trying not to think about last night) though at times that has seemed to be at the expense of our skills and attacking flair, esp early in season.

But for the negative:

1. Marking time: Higgins, Hargrave, Ward, not coincidentally all have had interrupted seasons with injury. Our injury list has been tough this year - we seem to have lost players at the wrong time, and never got a rhythm going - last night showed the jolt that can cause.

2. Breaks my heart to say it, but Jono is just a shadow. Ego should have retired. We often look slow in the forward line.

3. It feels like we are further away from the pacesetters. In 08 we beat the hawks, were clearly the 3rd best team. In 09 we beat pies and cats, only just failed against the cats a second time (jono kick after the siren), were competitive in finals vs cats & saints (maybe we read too much into this - we did lose in both instances). This year pies have beaten us comfortably (yeah, yeah, 9 point margin 2nd time around, we were 7 goals down into the last qtr), and can only be said to have failed dismally against the cats. We should have beaten the saints - but we didn't. You can feel these are all games where there are reasons ( if gia had nailed the goal v saints, etc)..but we consistently don't win them - can we always be unlucky? I personally can't see us going beyond our usual PF effort, and actually have fears we may be killed in a final v pies.

4. I'm starting to reluctanly share the view that Boyd & Cross, valiant though they are, just don't provide enough. They don't hurt the opposition. I cringe when Cross handballs backwards. I hate their predictable '3rd man up' hits often to their unmarked opponents. But I've just started to realise - we praise them so much for their blue collar efforts that maybe we don't notice the fact that they don't bloody well pick a man up!

So in summary - I don't think we've improved this year. But maybe to contradict myself, we are laying the groundwork for a new tilt at it with a different look side whose strengths are the guys that we've blooded this year, and maybe this is a 'transition year.'

[DOG GOD]

Good post. I agree that injuries have hurt, but we had Murph and the likes out for long periods last year. The main difference for me is Johnno, Hahn and Aker. All 3 were on fire last year and all have done bugger all this year.

Yes the kids are coming thru nicely, and the likes of Wood, Jones, Roughy and Grant certainly look like they can play and have huge upside in their ability. That is a definate plus.

Ego and Aker shouldve retired last year to allow 2 young kids to be drafted.

I would also mention that our list management for this year was terrible. Thorne and Markovic were complete wastes of picks imo. To have someone like markovic on the list "In case lake goes down" is just asking for trouble. I wouldve rather taken a punt on Matt Maguire.

Re: Boyd and Cross....with young libba and Wallis coming to the club, over the next few years these 2 will have to get other strings to their bows if they are to remain relevant in the coming years. neither have pace, and if their defensive pressure doesnt exist, then they could be in trouble.

I dont think we have improved either as an overall club, on field and list wise, excpet for the 4 young kids mentioned.

The next few years will be very interesting just to see how far this group can take us.

[bornadog]

Two goods posts and hard to disagree with.

Forgetting last night (which was our worse defeat since the belting by 131 points in 1996), we have improved in defence, allowing the least amount of goals through(until last night).
We have also improved in clearnace work and contested possessions and have blooded some new kids for the future.

However, whether this is enough to take us one step further only time will tell.

[AndrewP6]

Agreed with the intro of the kids - all have shown there's a spot in this team for them...also like to add Williams - although not a "kid" as such, he's made good strides this year.

I think Johnno (and Aker) went one season too long - Johnno has only rarely shown glimpses of his previous efforts, and has spent a large chunk of the year sidelined. And he was pitiful last night.

I think there hasn't been a lift from our core group that we've needed, we're saying many of the same things that we said were problems in 2009... these don't seem to have improved.

Last year's big issue was the lack of a PF. We got one, he's had a great year thus far - and the rest of the group hasn't lifted with his arrival.

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

Really interesting and well thought out thread.

I vacillate in my views on Cross and Boyd, and it's for the very reasons you state. Their hardness at the ball is inspiring, however in times like last night, their deficiencies seem to really stand out.
A decision by the club even to consider moving one of them on though would be done with a very heavy heart, given their workrate, desire and respect within the group they undoubtedly have earned.

Without a doubt the biggest positive of the year has been the introduction of and growth of our next generation players.

To me the biggest negative of the year is our inability to shed the long term confidence issues - that have existed amongst many senior players of this group - and which seem to lay close to the surface and erupt at times of massive pressure.

[Mantis]

Against the top 2 sides this year we have averaged 134 pts against, for the rest it is 67pts.

[w3design]

Before last night the main concern I had about our year was that we couldn't seem to get the balance right between attack and defence. Early on we seemed to have added the harder edge but our skill execution was really down, we had heaps more turnovers, and couldn't get the old mojo happening. Over the last few weeks it felt like that had been addressed, though it was hard to tell as in the games we showed terrific skills and were back to our best with precise kicking and fast ball movement, the opposition were also awful (carlton, freo, nth).

The area where Collingwood seem to have imrpoved so much is the defensive style, they've basically adoped the dreaded saints footy, yet have somehow remained attacking -maybe that's because their best strongest defensive efforts are inside 50, so they score easily once they have forced an error. We haven't improved in this area at all, with the decline of Mitch, and indifferent years from Jono, Higgins and Ward (a lot due to injury), this has become a serious weakness. Jones and Grant do add to this area, but not yet enough to make up for that decline.

[w3design]

I should have added to my 'yes' vote that I think Griff has taken great strides overall, but I also think his damaging games usually come when Cooney is always playing well. Playing last night alongside the plodders who were struggling to get it out of the middle (I have NEVER seen such a centre square slaughter), Griff was very subdued.