I recall very early Dusty kicking diagonally from HBF corner of centre square to HFF to a running player who did not break stride despite a close checking opponent on his hammer. Our player was the only one who was ever going to mark it. Was my first wow moment. Never thought there would so many many more.
I’d love to go back and watch more old games.
Off memory, I can still picture some of those early moments with several of our young players, and remember wondering why less impressive kids at other clubs would often be rated higher in the media.
I suspect they came to the wrong conclusion because the were blinded by stats, particularly by the total possessions stat.
They’d always go to “Dusty averages 21 possessions a game, but Bryce Gibbs, yeah this guy is averaging 24 possessions a game, so I think he’s ahead of Dusty”.
But off memory, I feel like the other major cause of mistakenly undervaluing eventual premiership stars (even by our own supporters for this one) was overreacting to mistakes. Not just any mistake, as not as mistakes are equal - but a type of mistake that could be classified as an “ambitious mistake”.
Dusty, Rance, Houli, and Edwards come to mind when thinking of who made plenty of ambitious mistakes early days.
Dimma was firm about encouraging mistakes as long as they were trying to do the right thing.
Excellent coaching allowed them to get the most out of their natural creativity.
Some players, like Trent and Jack, seemingly never made mistakes, so they were obviously always premiership material, but GWS has proven you can never ever find enough of that kind of talent to be truly successful.