The Lions my choice
I think Essendon will do well with Hird and Thompson running the show. Mediocrity will not be accepted under those two in any circumstance whatsoever, and all players will be playing for their careers, from the best to the worst on the list.
We always underestimate Essendon. Everybody does. I'm tipping 8-12 as a finish.
You don't develop courage by being happy in your relationships every day. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity. ― Epicurus
Why does everyone think this is so important? Do you think other coaches go around accepting mediocrity lightly? Does Voss seem like one who would? Did Tim Watson? Coaching has a lot less to do with extrinsic motivation these days as development, list management, gameplan cohesion, communication, and gameday tactics. Thomson would be well-versed in all of these, but will Hird listen? Will Thomson be happy to be second banana?
And all this is irrelevant if your list is crap -- you can't 'motivate' a list to outperform its own potential.. you can design a strategy that maximises their strengths and minimises their weaknesses (something Paul Roos did well), but their skill level will always be a limiting factor. Even Geelong was crap under Thomson for a while before Gablett turned it on and dragged the rest of the team with him.
Last edited by GVGjr; 29-11-2010 at 07:00 PM. Reason: fixed quote error
You don't develop courage by being happy in your relationships every day. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity. ― Epicurus