Quote ="Conroy"In 2006 we were almost relegated.
In 2007 we snuck into the playoffs and reached the semi finals of both comps
In 2008 we reached the playoff semi final
In 2009 we reached both semi finals
I'd say that is progress of some sort. He took us as far as he could, but to say we made no progress at all is a joke.'"
Some people have short memories Conroy.
It seems to me that some people seem to have a magnanimous (sp) view on things whilst others have a view somewhere on the lines of :-
We didn't win something, so everything was Bad.
We win something, So everything is Brilliant.
IMO, To try and Tar the memory of what someone did to try and Prove a Point (Which is partly valid there is no doubt) speak more IMO about the poster than it does about the Person were talking about.
Quote ="Geoff"Quote ="Rogues Gallery"Geoff,
Do you remember 2003 - 2006 when we went with youth. I like many believed it would be the renaissance of the team. However it turned out to be just the opposite.
The likes of Brown, Aspinwall, Tickle, O'Loughlin, Wild, Robinson, Briscoe and Hodgson were not poor players, but putting them all in together almost ruined the club.
Noble HAD to go with experience.
Sadly the experienced players at the club were the likes of Higham, Moran and Vaealiki who were not good enough to help bring the youngsters through.
As you said "we'll probably have to agree to disagree" and there's nothing wrong in that, even if you are wrong.
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Bringing them in all together is wrong, of course - but some could have been brought in earlier, to give them game time before it was forced on us. It's not even as if the "senior" players were any better than the youngsters - indeed many of them were eventually (though belatedly) shown the door.
It's still beyond me why he stuck with the likes of Mathers, Colbon, Vaialiki & Smith for so long. They wouldn't have lasted one game with Madge.'"
What we were talking about the other night Geoff was that in some peoples opinion BN did not have the Infrastructure at hand (The mature enough players etc) to chop and change as much as some people would have liked, Noble did not have as much options behind him in 2007 as He left Madge end of 2009.
With regards to the players Madge used in 2010, They obviously weren't ready in 2007 (Due to age/Maturity) but the ones that were maturing Hansen/Prescott/Ashton/Goulding and then J Tomkins a touch later than that All got their chances.
Now I'm not daft enough to suggest that we weren't the Best coached team in the league etc but I do know that it is a fallicy (sp) that Noble didn't use his Youth, He may not have done it exactly right, but he did use them.
He was also there & Presided over the Youth at the club from mid 2006 till 2009, If he was that bad in that time at monitoring/providing process for these players to come through, then how come suddenly, Mid 2009, we had a group of Youngsters, Pretty much who all wanted to stay at the club, that were just about to thrust their way into contention for 1st team places?
And then to suggest that BN had Nothing to Do with this is unbelievable! He may not have been the Whole answer, but he was certainl "Part" of it.
I suppose the Accelarator squad was nothing to do with BN?
I suppose that 90% of the Juniors (Players say 18/20) that were of that age were they wanted a chance between 2007/2009 staying at the club as opposed to probably 40/50% under Maurice and previous coaches (And administration) has Nothing to do with BN?
I suppose that the Training facilities put in place by the club were designed by the Tea Lady etc?
Top line for Me
We were a shambles of a club mid 2005/2006, We had been going backwards for 2/3 years as a club. We had a very average Youth system that hadn't produced a Great deal of 1st team material or won much for a couple of years and what it did, we had wasted/lost for various many reasons.
Suddenly, end of 2009, we're IMO the 3rd placed club in the League in many ways, probably best in many ways (Youth) and maybe lower in others (I'll let you guys decide which).
But most importantly we were suddnely a place that Other clubs were starting to take notice of, other players were tempted to join and a place were the youth being developed suddenly wanted to stay at.
Could he have done it Better? IMO of course he could!
Could he have done it a whole lot worse? Again undoubtably!
As for the Mathers/Vaeliki etc argument, You have heard of "Contracts" haven't you?
Some people will say "Maurice would have just got rid" and IMO that's part of the Quick natured solutions thinking that we had that got us in this mess in the 1st place!
PS
I'm guessing 5 for this post!
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