mjp
08-05-2024, 02:25 PM
Clearly we are in the media a lot lately with lots (and lots, and lots) of discussion about how we have either:
- An amazing list of players that is under-performing.
- An amazing list of players that the CEO said pre-season should make the top 4.
... (then yesterday...)
- An over-rated list of players with a high ceiling but a very low floor.
I guess I'm pretty frustrated - as I always am - when there is negative stuff about the Bulldogs in the media...it makes me not want to watch/listen. Honestly, I'm happiest when able to be an ostrich when it comes to supporting a footy team. BUT. Does no-one understand that a list isn't a team??
A great team is better than the sum of it's parts - and since I was a kid my Dad used to quote at me that a champion team will beat a team of champions every day. You can't line players up side by side and say one group should beat another - well - you SHOULDN'T be able to. I know the modern expectation is that because your team-sheet has some names that some journo with next to no idea (and yep, we all agree on that but then we listen to the other stuff they spout) said are 'A'-graders or 'B'-graders or list cloggers or whatever should either win or lose.
Footy isn't played that way.
Is the 'melding' of a group of players into a team down to the coach? Well...sorta. It's also down to the player leadership, the wives and girlfriends and families of the players, their ability to pay their mortgages, the health or otherwise of their parents and extended families...it's down to a lot of stuff. And this isn't about a no-dickheads policy or some kind of other simple-minded 'statement' used to define how new players are selected to come into the club. It's (sorta) I guess about the Esprit de Corps of the group to use a really naf phrase and you CANNOT FAKE IT.
A list is not a team. It isn't. And yep, some of this stuff is down to coaching and some of it isn't. And yep, Bevo DOES need to be held accountable but - as per today's article featuring Adam Treloar - so do the players. And the S+C team. And everyone else at the club. And us as supporters.
We're either in it or we're not. But writing the name Bontempelli on the team sheet and squiggling a "C" next to his name guarantees us absolutely nothing. And nor to the other names on that page despite what Kane Cornes and others of his ilk might be saying. What matters is that they wear the same jumper and that what is most important to each of them is what they can do on that playing field that will help make their team-mates job easier to perform...it might be by providing instructive voice from behind, laying a block, coming over the top to spoil or even kicking straight when having a shot on goal so that everyone gets to rest for another 20-seconds...
The list doesn't play so we need to shut-up about it. I don't support the 'list' or those who create it - and I honestly don't care whether Jamarra signs for 2 years or 10 and how much he gets paid. I care about the team that runs out on the weekend and the commitment they show to the contest - but more importantly, to one another.
Let's focus on that for a start.
- An amazing list of players that is under-performing.
- An amazing list of players that the CEO said pre-season should make the top 4.
... (then yesterday...)
- An over-rated list of players with a high ceiling but a very low floor.
I guess I'm pretty frustrated - as I always am - when there is negative stuff about the Bulldogs in the media...it makes me not want to watch/listen. Honestly, I'm happiest when able to be an ostrich when it comes to supporting a footy team. BUT. Does no-one understand that a list isn't a team??
A great team is better than the sum of it's parts - and since I was a kid my Dad used to quote at me that a champion team will beat a team of champions every day. You can't line players up side by side and say one group should beat another - well - you SHOULDN'T be able to. I know the modern expectation is that because your team-sheet has some names that some journo with next to no idea (and yep, we all agree on that but then we listen to the other stuff they spout) said are 'A'-graders or 'B'-graders or list cloggers or whatever should either win or lose.
Footy isn't played that way.
Is the 'melding' of a group of players into a team down to the coach? Well...sorta. It's also down to the player leadership, the wives and girlfriends and families of the players, their ability to pay their mortgages, the health or otherwise of their parents and extended families...it's down to a lot of stuff. And this isn't about a no-dickheads policy or some kind of other simple-minded 'statement' used to define how new players are selected to come into the club. It's (sorta) I guess about the Esprit de Corps of the group to use a really naf phrase and you CANNOT FAKE IT.
A list is not a team. It isn't. And yep, some of this stuff is down to coaching and some of it isn't. And yep, Bevo DOES need to be held accountable but - as per today's article featuring Adam Treloar - so do the players. And the S+C team. And everyone else at the club. And us as supporters.
We're either in it or we're not. But writing the name Bontempelli on the team sheet and squiggling a "C" next to his name guarantees us absolutely nothing. And nor to the other names on that page despite what Kane Cornes and others of his ilk might be saying. What matters is that they wear the same jumper and that what is most important to each of them is what they can do on that playing field that will help make their team-mates job easier to perform...it might be by providing instructive voice from behind, laying a block, coming over the top to spoil or even kicking straight when having a shot on goal so that everyone gets to rest for another 20-seconds...
The list doesn't play so we need to shut-up about it. I don't support the 'list' or those who create it - and I honestly don't care whether Jamarra signs for 2 years or 10 and how much he gets paid. I care about the team that runs out on the weekend and the commitment they show to the contest - but more importantly, to one another.
Let's focus on that for a start.