History for martinb

wilbaker

imanixsupporter

Yep that's fair enough. I certainly wasn't hopeful before Chiefy's season 1. I hope I am wrong again. I rated Alex and Finn at that time but did not expect Old and Kosta to have the seasons they did. To be fair I probably didnt expect Paulsen to be as good as he was either, even though I knew he was good enough to be number 1.

But at this moment in time I cannot see any of the young players being as good as the 3 sold last year.  Maybe Retre and Nagasawa can have hugely improved seasons. We really need them to. 

anaveragestem

imanixsupporter

I wish Chiefy the best obviously but i just cannot see him turning this around. Our squad is so much poorer than the one he inherited and there isn't much scope for recruitment with how much of the squad is already signed for next season and his recruitment this season proved overall to be terrible as well. Would love some reasons for optimism. Hopefully the last two games provide some. 

This take only works when you can use hindsight. Most of this forum said exactly the same as this before we had that brilliant season in 23/24. The consensus was definitely that we'd lost a lot and hadn't added much. Remember that prior to 23/24 both Kosta & Old looked average at best and then they both had stellar seasons in 23/24.

Same could happen again but with currently underperforming/average members of the team. Maybe Nagasawa and Piper might be stand outs next season? Who knows, thats why sport is so much fun.

I think thats one of the problems we're gonna face now we're committing so hard to the academy is you'll have these cycles where the academy players will have a great season after having a couple seasons before to develop and then the next crop needing a couple years to have that great season. 

Sheridan, LKH and Hughes should be the ones next season having that breakout season but not sure if they have that potential of a Surman, Old, Libby etc.

And then the other boys like GSR, LBS, Walker, Supyk are all still probably needing another year before we see a meaningful impact from them.

The only team in the A-League that's regularly had academy players performing well each season is Adelaide and even then the continuous selling has caught up to them.

 
The other thing to think about is the Ridenton/Rufer factor.

Some players peak early. Ridenton was from Rufer’s generation. Ridenton did a lot of starting, specialized in man-marking roles, but could also shoot and hit diagonals. Even got taken to Newcastle as a visa player. Then he dropped off severely.

Rufer did a lot of pine sitting, and was even released. Now he’s the first name on the team sheet and an essential player. 

Knowing the talent is there is one thing. Knowing how and when to best use it is something entirely different! 

It’s also perhaps a Tataurangi/Campbell situation. I knew one of the coaches who said that Phil was always a consistently good player which would win tournaments, but Campbell…he had that spark. He might be up and down, but he had the mindset and the potential to produce something to challenge the best. 

One final analogy with longevity we’re seeing with the professionalism of Kosta and Woodsy. Players who were very good at 17, but also put the work in to remain that way into the twilight of their career and perhaps are even better now. Certainly true for the Woodsman’s goal tally.

I think it’s part of the fun of fandom. Looking at all the talent, but then being surprised when  Sotirio keeps your import striker on the bench because he’s in red hot form. As someone said, Piper is already doing better than most of us expected. Who knows next season? Supyk? Loke? GSR? Dyer? Patterson? 

Keeps it interesting. 
Edit: sorry got waay off topic.