Season Review plans for long term success

At the end of the season the club undertook the most comprehensive review of all areas of performance similar to Geelong 's process last year. In completing the review input has been taken from players, coaches, supporters and other clubs incorporating a searching analysis of 2007 results, a appraisal of the entire playing list, coaching staff and recruiting before being presented to the board in September.

“The devastation at being relegated forced a very blunt review of everything and everyone, including the senior coach” … given our situation the easy thing to do was simply blame the coach like many clubs do but like Geelong we recognised that this would have simply papered over a range of issues that had to be faced professionally and importantly for clubs at this level unemotionally”

A summary of some of the key issues within the review included:

Results

This season the senior side was once again very competitive when it had close to strength on the paddock but struggled to cover injuries to key players. This has been the case for some time … we have not been able to recruit well since the mass exodus of players in Peter Nicholson's last year when we made the Grand Final. Indeed we lost a staggering twelve players from that side and probably did well to avoid relegation. Last year we won a creditable nine games with an even weaker list but held ground rather than added to our depth.

In the first half of 2007 we struggled with injury but managed to stay in contention with 5 wins, 4 losses at the half way mark. After a loss to Xavs and a good win over Uni Blues we went to the break at (6 - 5) before injuries began to devastate the side and turn the season into a horror year (losing the last seven games straight and being relegated) In those last seven games we had 8+ of our first 22 players unavailable every week including best players Josh Madden, Wilkinson, Ballarin, Schroder, McMeekin, and McIntyre, on top of Iannazzo, and McVilly lost earlier in the year and a number of players (Liberatore, Roach, McIntyre, Kavanagh, O'Sullivan and Janides) struggling to find form after coming back from injury.

While there were a number of areas we recognised we could have done better it was obvious that even a Geelong could not overcome the loss of so many key payers. Perhaps the clearest indicator was the fact that we lost to the three bottom sides in the last four weeks after we had smashed the same sides earlier in the season when those players were available.

When we benchmarked ourselves against 07 premiers Xavs we found that their best 25 players were available for almost all games whereas our best 25 were only available 61% of games, easily the lowest in the competition. Most Senior clubs played one or two under 19 players for about six games where we played ten U19s for sixty six games with a league high of 46 players used during the season. While this may have reflected the impact of injuries the number of young players blooded can also be seen as a positive for the future.

Improvement areas

While the review acknowledged the impact of the extraordinary degree of injuries on results, coaching, support, player performance and recruiting all came under the microscope. “The key to the review was not simply to allocate blame for our poor finish to the year but to be crystal clear about how everyone (both individually and as a group) can get better and develop plans that ensure the best possible results for the club.

The review included some frank discussion about the playing list with recommendations on each player and specific improvement plans. Feedback from players and coaches also recognised that over the past three years we have generally lacked on field leadership. While captain D Mac has developed his leadership the side has lacked strong leadership that players like Danny Byrne and Ben Jordan provided both on the ground and on the track and this is one of a number of areas we will be focussing on over summer.

We also recognise that St Bernards will have to rely heavily on developing our own core group as we find it difficult to counter the cash available to players in other leagues. We have also suffered a little from the success of our junior program with eleven players now playing at a higher level.

While the review focused on the unsatisfactory senior performance, it should be noted, that from an overall club perspective 2007 has been a significant step forward in terms of record numbers of players representing teams at Junior and Senior level. Record numbers of Under 19 players with eleven boys playing senior football, the reintroduction of the Club 18 side last year has grown and thrived, and our best result in regard to membership are all positives that underpin a strong and sustainable structure.

Those positives and the enormous working contribution of the many people involved in supporting all sides augurs well for the underlying strength of the club.

“One of the ironies of our disappointing season is that at the same time the club has never been better placed in regard to its off field performance and player participation base” … The board led by Mick Overman and John Hughes have worked tirelessly to turn around a dismal position three years ago where we not only had a mass exodus of top players (many to VFL & WAFL) but we were in a terrible state financially and administratively. The turn around has been enormous but of course we must turn that performance into senior on-field success.

Planning for 2008 and beyond has already commenced. The plans include improving individual players, coaching, training and support capability and will be presented to all players shortly.