Quote Originally Posted by comrade View Post
What a load of shallow garbage that doesn’t even scratch the surface as to what’s going on this year.

Easton Wood was no longer an interceptor and his retirement has had no bearing on our performance beyond providing some leadership on field. Duryea has been a bigger loss to the back 6 by far.

Lewis Young is a reason we’ve fallen from grace? Please. Yes, we look very silly for letting him go but again, his departure has no bearing on our ladder position this year (unless the group are pissed we mucked his development around and effectively pushed him out the door and they’re rebelling via crappy performances?).

The lack of support for Bevo probably gets closer to the source of our issues but Gullan has no real idea (as all of us here don’t either) about who does what within the four walls of the club. We’re a closed shop.

Yes, Bruce is a big hole in our structure but one we knew we needed to fill for 12 months at a minimum yet didn’t. A better line of enquiry would be why we didn’t/couldn’t.

Heat rightfully needs to be applied on the club and our underperformance this year (and how we fell apart late last year) but this article is tilting at windmills.
I think you're sort of right. So some counter points:

1) Wood in 2021 was not Wood in 2016, but as someone who could zone off and take a mark, using his athleticism to cut off opposition attacks he is someone we are missing more than we realise. O'Brien was seen as the Wood replacement, but he hasn't hit the mark either as an interceptor or as a lockdown backman;

2) L Young is a loss and probably bigger than we realise. At 25 he has 6 or 7 years ahead of him as a key back. Now he is not the interceptor, but moving him on has meant that Keath contnues to have to play the lockdown role he is not suited to. Where Keath could become our interceptor, L Young going means we have to use him as a key defender. Young for O'Brien was bad business in October and it's a rank prawn in the sun now;

3) Hansen's unplannned departure on the back of King's departure has hurt. Coming so late in the day we really didn't fill the gap all that well and in hindsight it has resulted in a coaching team that is not all dinging from the same hymm sheet. Bevo needs more support. He needs a mature and experienced No.2 who can take some of the pressure off him, but also challenge both him and the other coaches. Every good exec has a number 2 to do their dirty work. We agree on this point.

4) Not replacing Josh Bruce.......what were we thinking? Maybe we hope JUH would develop. Maybe we hoped that Schache would blossom with the opportunity. To be honest the best we have looked up front is when Khamis played alongside Naughton. It was a mistake, but a mistake Blind Freddy on a night on the gas could have seen.

I think the article scratches the surface (in true HS style). The Kennel is not a happy place at the moment.