We Sank as One [2018 in Review]

It is the second round of Finals, but it is hard to enjoy footy after Port's end of season. I'm new not only to the club, but to the game. I have been spending the entire season trying to connect the dots and understand what we were doing. Like a good philosopher, I am wrong... 
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The 2018 Port Adelaide's season was so disappointing that I cannot stop thinking about it. It keeps intriguing me what has happened. The 2017 season, the off-season moves, and the Members' convention, they all made sense as a whole. We have seen our issues, and we went for solutions.

We were ruthless on all those players who have choked against Sturt in the SANFL GF. Watts was the perfect man to become the link whenever we got stuck up the field, distributing the ball, so we could move fast forward - using Polec, RGray, Wingard, and Motlop as counter-attacking weapons. Motlop doesn't crack under pressure, giving us option in close games. Rockliff is a leader and a competitor, full of hunger for success. Thomas and Trengove brought talent, experience, and leadership into our depth. Even McKenzie made sense from an offensive perspective - our forward pressure would lead to turnovers, and McKenzie long kicking range would spread the ground, either for him to score from outside or for opening space into our F50.

Moneyball is risky, but it might work. For that, though, one can't be daring in list management and cautious on the field. The moneyball mentality must permeate the club as a whole. However, we have never saw that strategy applied on the field. The season has come and gone, but we were never able to use properly the tools we had got. The newcomers were supposed to lift that 2017 team up. But, for that, we would need to build from the ground we had in 2017. The great question is "why have we abandoned our 2017 gameplan?"

All that boldness we had seen in the offseason stayed in the offseason. We were beyond cautious during the season and, as the season went by, we became more and more cautious. The team was leaking, we were aware of the issues, but we had no clue on how to fix them with the tools at our disposal. In the end, sincerely, we looked like a bunch of lost cowards. We accepted defeat.

I have no idea how to fix our club, but the responsibility for our failure must fall on both the coaches and the leadership group. Everybody screw up, and no one stepped up to shake things up. In the 2018 Ports, we sank as one...

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