I quite like Terry Wallace, but I believe his most serious flaw is his eagerness to make excuses for poor performance. We have heard him many times fall back on 'injuries', 'youth policy', 'unfair draw' and so on to explain why the Tigers haven't done as well as others. I believe that if the person at the top is making excuses, then his foot soldiers will (even if subconsciously) allow themselves to underperform as they have a readymade 'out-clause' for why they aren't the best.
Anyway, it seems to me the Tigers had one of the best injury runs in 2008 of all clubs. Given injuries always occur, I can't imagine we could have had a better injury year than we did. Polak obviously was tough (but relatively late in the season and not exactly a superstar), Pettifer (but wasn't in the side anyway), Coughlan as usual (but hasn't been in the side for yonks)... others in and out. But basically we had a very clear run, especially in comparison to other teams. And it's only the comparison that matters.
So this is something that concerns me. I believe that any team that has a clear injury run should make the finals, irrespective of development stage. At least come 7th or 8th. We had everyone on the park and still couldn't get into the top half of the ladder. What will happen next year if - and it's probably odds on - we have a much tougher injury trot? It's one reason I think March was spot-on to award the team only a 5 out of 10.
In this game you have to expect to get through a season without 3 or 4 KEY players - NOT use the absence of those players as an excuse for doing poorly.
I have not heard Terry once acknowledge that we had an easy run with injuries this year. I wish he wouldn't bring up the topic when it can be used as an excuse for poor results, but bury it when it should be used as a critique of poor results.
Am I being too harsh?
Anyway, it seems to me the Tigers had one of the best injury runs in 2008 of all clubs. Given injuries always occur, I can't imagine we could have had a better injury year than we did. Polak obviously was tough (but relatively late in the season and not exactly a superstar), Pettifer (but wasn't in the side anyway), Coughlan as usual (but hasn't been in the side for yonks)... others in and out. But basically we had a very clear run, especially in comparison to other teams. And it's only the comparison that matters.
So this is something that concerns me. I believe that any team that has a clear injury run should make the finals, irrespective of development stage. At least come 7th or 8th. We had everyone on the park and still couldn't get into the top half of the ladder. What will happen next year if - and it's probably odds on - we have a much tougher injury trot? It's one reason I think March was spot-on to award the team only a 5 out of 10.
In this game you have to expect to get through a season without 3 or 4 KEY players - NOT use the absence of those players as an excuse for doing poorly.
I have not heard Terry once acknowledge that we had an easy run with injuries this year. I wish he wouldn't bring up the topic when it can be used as an excuse for poor results, but bury it when it should be used as a critique of poor results.
Am I being too harsh?
