This is just a personal view and attempts to sum up what I feel about the season. And I don't claim to be particularly insightful or right or wrong. But as a foundation member it's where I find myself for this season. So, for what it's worth:
It feels to me like we did a review and said we need more older, prime age players and more depth. We went out and got prime age players and depth.
Nobody seems to have said we needed some quality, import level players in key positions who we can rely on to really make a difference. Instead, someone said we can shop on a budget and hope someone - or two - turns out to be good enough to make a difference.
So, we've got a lot of prime age players who may or may not make a difference (slanted to the may not) to complement our young may or may not have a breakout year youngsters and our worthy stalwart starters (Rufer, Payne). And a couple of guys who are not slam dunks, but we are hoping are good enough to make a difference (James, Eze).
Olu may have a more reliable year and continue with the good stuff he does. James may do the bizz at the back and sounds like he could be a handful at attacking corners. And then the whole bunch of guys it seems to me ticked the prime age and depth boxes (or we are stuck with them box), along with some kids, out of whom we hope some will do something that they haven't really done before or recently, to make a difference. Mileusnic, Supyk, Ishige, Nagasawa, Retre, Najjarine, Armiento. And the magically and suddenly hopefully game changing kids .... LBS, GSR, etc. And Eze as the terrific buy or the terrific flop.
I mean, there are some decent or useful players there. But who's going to make the difference?
With our first sighting of Eze in the Aus Cup looking ordinary, and subsequent training reports not sounding better, plus our rather hopeful stance to the playmaking assist role (Ishige, Mileusnic ...) and what I see as a hopeful but not rivetingly impressive standard of recruiting, I'd say if we get out of bottom four we have done a sum of the parts solid effort. And if we get into top six then miracles have happened, and some players have had break-out or best ever seasons, the squad have really gelled and are pumped, and the coach has found a way to get the best out of them.
I'm hopeful we can get mid table-ish. I'm bracing for worse. I am blindly hopeful but less confident that a few guys really surprise and prove they can make a difference and that allows us to do better. But we are really hoping Eze and others start banging them in. And that's what it's all about. COYN.
It feels to me like we did a review and said we need more older, prime age players and more depth. We went out and got prime age players and depth.
Nobody seems to have said we needed some quality, import level players in key positions who we can rely on to really make a difference. Instead, someone said we can shop on a budget and hope someone - or two - turns out to be good enough to make a difference.
So, we've got a lot of prime age players who may or may not make a difference (slanted to the may not) to complement our young may or may not have a breakout year youngsters and our worthy stalwart starters (Rufer, Payne). And a couple of guys who are not slam dunks, but we are hoping are good enough to make a difference (James, Eze).
Olu may have a more reliable year and continue with the good stuff he does. James may do the bizz at the back and sounds like he could be a handful at attacking corners. And then the whole bunch of guys it seems to me ticked the prime age and depth boxes (or we are stuck with them box), along with some kids, out of whom we hope some will do something that they haven't really done before or recently, to make a difference. Mileusnic, Supyk, Ishige, Nagasawa, Retre, Najjarine, Armiento. And the magically and suddenly hopefully game changing kids .... LBS, GSR, etc. And Eze as the terrific buy or the terrific flop.
I mean, there are some decent or useful players there. But who's going to make the difference?
With our first sighting of Eze in the Aus Cup looking ordinary, and subsequent training reports not sounding better, plus our rather hopeful stance to the playmaking assist role (Ishige, Mileusnic ...) and what I see as a hopeful but not rivetingly impressive standard of recruiting, I'd say if we get out of bottom four we have done a sum of the parts solid effort. And if we get into top six then miracles have happened, and some players have had break-out or best ever seasons, the squad have really gelled and are pumped, and the coach has found a way to get the best out of them.
I'm hopeful we can get mid table-ish. I'm bracing for worse. I am blindly hopeful but less confident that a few guys really surprise and prove they can make a difference and that allows us to do better. But we are really hoping Eze and others start banging them in. And that's what it's all about. COYN.