Whilst it would appear the dogs will win the spoon this year I still maintain that
your team isn't that bad. [/quote]
Are you serious? They haven't won a game all year and don't look like winning one this year. How many other wooden spoon sides were win-less, other than Central's 1964 side. They rarely score more than 5 or 6 goals a game.[/quote]
I'm referring to overall competitiveness. Whether you finish bottom and get 2 wins or whether you get 0 wins is really beside the point. I'm talking about how hard you push the better sides. Whilst bottom, your side is far more competitive than some of the sides Sturt was fielding in early 90s as I recall. For example, I googled season 1991 and 1992 the three and two wins but with a percentage of sub 40%!! They were getting belted virtually every week. Your team is not getting belted i.e a much stronger team. And kicking 5-6 goals per week isn't that bad when the opposition is only kicking 8-9 goals. The point is it will only take 1-2 good recruits and/or a couple of juniors to come good and things will turn around very quickly. Its not all doom and gloom
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Agreed, the only problem is that it is getting difficult for Central to recruit players. For one, we are struggling financially; perhaps a bit more so than other clubs. Secondly, most recruits want to be based nearer the city. I know of a few players from other clubs who have stated their reason for not coming to Central is our location. Wnen players were earning larger coin, an hour's drive to training or to matches wasn't quite a big deal. However, in the current climate, it is a major consideration for players.
I thought the Eagles would stuggle badly this year in the absence of being able to attract any marquee recruit that every other club seemed to be getting. Whether that was Douglas and Bastinac to North, Menzel to Centrals or Hartung and Moore to North Adelaide. The eagles did not have a single player in the SANFL's top 10 recruits for season 2020 that was published pre-season. A large reason for this would no doubt have come down to the inability of the club to afford them. Given this, Sheedy was forced to look inwards and to give some of its talented juniors at U18 and Reserves level every opportunity. Also to unheralded players from the amateur league. As a result we now have players like Jones, Wehr, Commitogiani, McNeill, Seymour etc all playing great footy for us and giving us great value as much of any of these high priced recruits from opposing clubs. The point is that it certainly helps being able to afford to buy top recruits but investing in the club's youth is also another strategy that can work and might need to be the strategy for the bulldogs going forward given the talen you have in your juniors.
