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Article from Wayne Schwass: http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsartic...4/default.aspx
'IF IT ain't broke, don't fix it' seems to be something good teams subconsciously embrace as a result of their success.
During the Brisbane Lions' rein during the early 2000s, the Lions sparingly introduced new players. Changes were made more out of necessity because of injury or suspension rather than wanting to blood new players.
In 2001, the Lions introduced five new players: Jamie Charman, Ashley McGrath, Richard Hadley, Robert Copeland and Dylan McLaren.
The following year only Shane Morrison and Darren Bradshaw debuted and in 2003 Jason Gram, Luke Weller and Jared Brennan made their first appearances.
The Lions' dominance ended in 2004, losing to Port Adelaide in the Grand Final and the wheels finally fell off when they slipped to 11th in 2005 and 13th in 2006.
Three premierships and four Grand finals is a compelling case but even when a club is successful, it's important new faces are introduced.
The approach of the Lions was short-sighted in the sense that they were totally fixated on winning as many premierships as they possibly could and you'd be hard pressed to argue against that.
But because they kept going back to the well with a relatively unchanged line up during this period, when the wheels did finally fall off, they fell off in a big way because they hadn't exposed enough younger players during this period to fill the void once older players moved on.
The Western Bulldogs have followed a similar path to the Brisbane Lions, albeit without the premiership success.
Read on: http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsartic...4/default.aspx
'IF IT ain't broke, don't fix it' seems to be something good teams subconsciously embrace as a result of their success.
During the Brisbane Lions' rein during the early 2000s, the Lions sparingly introduced new players. Changes were made more out of necessity because of injury or suspension rather than wanting to blood new players.
In 2001, the Lions introduced five new players: Jamie Charman, Ashley McGrath, Richard Hadley, Robert Copeland and Dylan McLaren.
The following year only Shane Morrison and Darren Bradshaw debuted and in 2003 Jason Gram, Luke Weller and Jared Brennan made their first appearances.
The Lions' dominance ended in 2004, losing to Port Adelaide in the Grand Final and the wheels finally fell off when they slipped to 11th in 2005 and 13th in 2006.
Three premierships and four Grand finals is a compelling case but even when a club is successful, it's important new faces are introduced.
The approach of the Lions was short-sighted in the sense that they were totally fixated on winning as many premierships as they possibly could and you'd be hard pressed to argue against that.
But because they kept going back to the well with a relatively unchanged line up during this period, when the wheels did finally fall off, they fell off in a big way because they hadn't exposed enough younger players during this period to fill the void once older players moved on.
The Western Bulldogs have followed a similar path to the Brisbane Lions, albeit without the premiership success.
Read on: http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsartic...4/default.aspx
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