2019 season review

[Bloods05]

I like it! There's a place for Eeyore. He's well loved despite his gloominess.

Absolutely!

[Aprilbr]

Interesting review of us by ESPN. They got it pretty correct in my view.

AFL season 2019 grades for non-finalists



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[Bloods05]

Interesting review of us by ESPN. They got it pretty correct in my view.

AFL season 2019 grades for non-finalists



Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

Except it really says hardly anything.

[bloodspirit]

Except it really says hardly anything.

+1

[stevoswan]

Overall, 2019 was a poor season. A few injuries exposed some very large holes in our list which should have been anticipated. We essentially wasted the mid season draft on a player we didnt play, while a number of other teams got ready made players.
Coach speculation didnt help. The playing surface of the SCG was a mess, and our home record really needs addressing. Now at season end, persistent rumours of player departures is not good.
We not only missed the finals, but never looked likely. We currently have a lot of players who 'could be great' but as yet aren't. Turning those into great is the next major challenge and by no means certain.

Hopes for 2020:
Plug list holes, and improvement in players. Might sneak into 8 if lucky.

Long term:. Need to find the trade and draft bargains that have made us famous, as the list needs a bit of work.

Do you simply wake up everyday feeling pessimistic Barry?

[Thunder Shaker]

Nah, the AFL commission will review this policy and change it for next year, especially after Brisbane used it to their "advantage" to finish 2nd and it "punished" the Dees for being successful

We'll probably get a 1-2-2 fixture: 1 top 6, 2 7th to 12th, 2 13th to 18th. The haters won't let the AFL give us the 1-1-3 fixture that is more usual for a low finish.

We'll probably end up playing 2 of this year's bottom-6 sides twice next year - and the AFL will probably make sure it's Melbourne and Carlton (two sides that beat us this year).
If the Giants finish 7th (losing to Dogs week 1 is likely), that's one of our 7-12 sides. They'll probably make the other one Port just out of spite.
And the one top-6 side we play will probably be Geelong. So we would end up with a tough fixture despite finishing 15th (playing Geelong, Giants, Port, Melbourne and Carlton twice).

Yeah, I'm not optimistic about the AFL. They do everything the haters tell them to do. Just look how much spittle the haters were spraying when we were sitting on the bottom and looking like having the first pick. Apoplectic.

[Legs Akimbo]

Do you simply wake up everyday feeling pessimistic Barry?

Celebrate diversity and a different perspective.

[Thunder Shaker]

Do you simply wake up everyday feeling pessimistic Barry?

He probably endured the horrors of the 1993 season. That would have left many scarred for life.

[stevoswan]

He probably endured the horrors of the 1993 season. That would have left many scarred for life.

Yes it would.....but I have endured every bad season from the 60's through the 90's and onto the 'good times'.....and I remain eternally optimistic!

[sprite]

I don't think 2019 was a poor season, but rather a season that posed challenges and forced us to make changes via structures and playing our younger players and we have come out better for it.

As I said the new talent we played proves we are still at the top of the game in our recruiting. Yes we have a lot of players who could be great and the only way to find out is by playing them and having faith in them. We can't continually turn over players on a belief that after 5/10/15 or 20 games they haven't shown "greatness".

Define greatness? Not everyone can be or will be great, the majority will be quality players who will fulfill the requirements of the club and coaches.

I think someone has the saying "the futures bright in Red and White", well I believe it still is and it may take a little while to be even brighter. I have supported the Bloods for over 50 years and have stuck with them through the hard years. Just because we miss a final series once after so many years at the pointy end, it's not the end of the world.

[stevoswan]

I don't think 2019 was a poor season, but rather a season that posed challenges and forced us to make changes via structures and playing our younger players and we have come out better for it.

As I said the new talent we played proves we are still at the top of the game in our recruiting. Yes we have a lot of players who could be great and the only way to find out is by playing them and having faith in them. We can't continually turn over players on a belief that after 5/10/15 or 20 games they haven't shown "greatness".

Define greatness? Not everyone can be or will be great, the majority will be quality players who will fulfill the requirements of the club and coaches.

I think someone has the saying "the futures bright in Red and White", well I believe it still is and it may take a little while to be even brighter. I have supported the Bloods for over 50 years and have stuck with them through the hard years. Just because we miss a final series once after so many years at the pointy end, it's not the end of the world.

Exactly......in the years before 'the good times', we would reach the finals with less frequency than we now miss them....and I expect we will be back there next season.

[barry]

It's not pessimistic at all. The stats don't lie.
We finished 15th. More importantly we played like a 15th ranked team. That's a poor season. The second biggest drop behind Melbourne.

Anyone who thinks that's good is not doing the club any favours.

[Nico]

It's not pessimistic at all. The stats don't lie.
We finished 15th. More importantly we played like a 15th ranked team. That's a poor season. The second biggest drop behind Melbourne.

Anyone who thinks that's good is not doing the club any favours.

I agree Barry. We were poor all year at keeping the ball in our forward line. Yes our transition into the forward line was substandard, but when the ball hit the ground the opposition was there waiting for it. Is that "youth" or the ability of our players or coaching. Our % was 97.7, the highest ever for a team to finish that low on the ladder so it wasn't the defence, they played manfully all season, and it could be argued that our mids did a good job getting back to assist. To me it was so frustrating that we were unable to keep the ball in our forward line, and when we did our clearance rate from stoppages was poor. Can we reverse this next season? This and our skills and decision making must improve markedly, not just natural improvement, for us to make the finals in 2020. Can Isaac Heeney finally go to super star status?

[Thunder Shaker]

Exactly......in the years before 'the good times', we would reach the finals with less frequency than we now miss them....and I expect we will be back there next season.

Not only did we make finals only rarely in those days, we went half a century without winning a single final.

[aardvark]

2019 was the season we had to have. The changing of the guard. I'm not expecting huge improvement next year but it will be exciting to see how we progress.