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Opinion
We are in pain, Pies fans, and it’s going to get worse before it gets better. For the rest of the AFL, this is your time to revel in our misery.
The Pies have a serious disconnect issue – we have spoken about this on almost a weekly basis for most of Nathan Buckley’s career as head coach.
In my despondent state, it’s hard to think about this from an analytical point of view.
I’m more at the stage of throwing my hands up and saying we are just bad at moving the ball (using far more colourful language).
Here we are, though, and unless you’re just reading to either wallow with me in misery or revel in it, I best offer up some thoughts.
Buckley and his coaching staff are unable to coach an effective ball movement system. That is an absolute blight on the coaching staff.
We can defend well and win the ball in the midfield, but once those fundamental football actions are complete, we seem to resort back to under-9s footy.
Kick the ball as soon as you have it in the general direction of offence. Surely they have a plan. Surely it’s not so redundant and out-dated.
Unfortunately, this gives us more questions, because a reasonable person would have to believe that the game plan is not still long down the line. That a reasonable person would believe that a club would hire coaches that have studied the modern game and seen the rewards of dare in attack. T
his leads us to another question: is it the players?
(Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
I tend to think we have quite a bit of talent. Some of it is missing, but it does cross the mind when we continuously bomb the ball out of stoppage or miss targets that other teams seam to regularly hit.
This is down to the game plan and the lack of trust the players now have in the coaching staff.
The rebuild should now be officially on.
We have a long list of ageing stars and middle-of-the-rung players.
Scott Pendlebury is entering his twilight and is still our best player (let’s hope to god he can continue to be so timeless).
Steele Sidebottom, Jeremy Howe, Jordan Roughead, Chris Mayne, Levi Greenwood and Mason Cox are now in their 30s, with Josh Thomas not far away.
We need to find out which of our kids can develop into good AFL players. This will mean some of those players namely Mayne, Greenwood, Cox, and Thomas should be giving way to the kids.
You can add Jack Madgen, Will Hosking-Elliot, And Brayden Sier to that list.
Let’s hope to god we can get some trade value out of those boys and maybe a few of our A-listers.
Where can we find first round draft picks? It might hurt to hear but maybe a Taylor Adams goes?
Maybe a Jordan de Goey or a Jaime Elliot.
We need to hit rock bottom and nail the inbuilt draft spring that lays there. And maybe we could trade our coaching staff for a can of Coke and a pack of Shapes.
The pain will continue, so it might as well be worth something at the end.
It’s time to accept that and look at the age of some of our most loved players and truly ask ourselves: are they going to be there when we hit our next window?
If they aren’t, are they the select few who should be there for guidance while the kids go through the baptism of fire?
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