Quote Originally Posted by Mofra View Post
Johnno expressed concerns about our game plan off the back of the JLT games. Not personnel, gameplan.
As far as I can tell everything he said has come true.

I think our issues are fixable but I really don't think that much can be done mid-season. It will take some analysis and a pre-season of changing strategy to fix our problems - the main issues for mine being ball-retention, pressure on the ball carrier and forwardline efficiency. We still seem to be playing in a similar manner as 2016 and other teams have caught up, changed their style, and gone past us.
This is even more damning for Bevo and the match committee than the results indicate. Our 2015/2016 'Men of Mayhem' game plan has already been vastly improved upon (by Richmond in 2017), completely superseded (by West Coke in 2018) and is now well and truly dead and buried (by all the top 5-6 contenders in 2019, who prioritize retention of the ball and moving it slowly and carefully into F50). The fact that Bevo and his assistants seem to think the 2016 game plan is still relevant today is astounding. Richmond just had a sobering moment that their window with the mosquito small forward fleet has been unceremoniously slammed shut - we are still playing around the edges with an even older and less relevant game plan.

I very much fear Bevo has been exposed as a one-trick pony who has shown a complete and utter inability to adjust and adapt to stay ahead of the curve. He had no answer whatsoever to 3rd man up, he hasn't been able to find any advantage for the team with the recent rule changes, and he has been out-coached most weeks by inferior playing lists in the last 2.5 years. Player development is also clearly a major issue - who has actually improved from pre-season 2017 to today?

I'm leaning towards Bevo and the Dogs parting company sooner rather than later. He was absolutely perfect for the club in 2015-2016 but time waits for nobody.

As for off-season analysis, this is 1.5 years too late. Bevo has allowed the club to drift into the abyss since Oct 2017 (arguably 12 months prior but I'll cut the club some slack just as Hawthorn 2008 and Essendon 1993 can attest when a flag is won 'ahead of time').