Mr Fuller wrote:The end of the season can’t come fast enough. Definitely some homework for the brains trust over the long break on a variety of topics:
Recruiting
- Do we continue the flawed approach of only recruiting from within SA and only from other SANFL clubs? Or do we be proactive like other clubs and scour country leagues, scour interstate, use contacts within AFL clubs (i.e. McKenzie, former eagles currently on AFL lists) to put in a good word?
Culture
- Do we continue poaching mercenary players from other clubs who play for $$ rather than playing for guernsey and who ignore coaches instructions on match day? Or do we target and develop players willing to contribute to a tight knit club, who play for the jumper and stick to the game plan no matter how ‘boring’ it might seem?
List management
- Do we keep burying our head in the sand and pretend that there isn’t a problem with the midfield? Or does Godden swallow his pride and finally admit he has failed to anticipate how badly our midfield depth would drop away after the era of Colville, Treeby, Ciccollela, McKenzie, Powell? More importantly, what is his plan to rejuvenate our midfield with talent?
- Do we keep recycling tried and failed players from the reserves throughout the year or do we take a punt (as Fuller frequently did) on bypassing the reserves to select talent from the U18s?
Unless we are in financial strife, am amazed and disappointed with this SA-only recruitment policy, which IIRC heard Godden say in an interview was due to the cost of relocating players vs the return. But then it is hypocritical that we splash cash around the SANFL on established players, who, if they are attracted by money, are implicitly a "mightn't stay too long" risk.
Simply it's the character of the player. There will always be a Raymond, Grocke, Lewis or Templeton coming from another SANFL club who needs a chance or a change of scenery. That's fine, they're coming for the right reasons. But part of our reasonable run of success, Centrals dynasty, South's improvement has been players from lower interstate comps with good character and for whom the SANFL is a standard to strive for. And surely this repays the initial outlay far more so than recruiting too many big name players locally - Colville, Powell, Treeby, McKenzie, Passador and Inkster although the latter two were perhaps a year shy of the ideal length of service. Schwarz and Eddy came for the wrong reasons or in the wrong mindset, and I hope it's not those examples that have influenced this policy.
Parry was the big local recruit who was worth it (but didn't that started from a disagreement with South rather than us initially targeting him?). The jury may still be out on some of the current players, but if they have been targeted and the club hasn't improved, then it is an indictment on either the players or the recruiters (for targeting the wrong positions), and disappointing to see players like Fitzgerald and Staple think they are being forced out.