I said for weeks that we wonât make finals, but I also said that what I think shouldnât matter as I want our club to do everything in their power to try and make finals. Iâm not sure what is so hard to comprehend about that?
I also NEVER wanted Gus traded.
As for my Gus comment, let me clarify further for those hard of understanding.
Losing Gus in isolation is absolutely not why we are where we are. Losing him on the eve of the season however started a chain of events which really compromised our entire season.
Firstly it meant that we had to rush an underdone Clarry into the team, instead of giving him the time he needed to build his fitness after an interrupted off season. It also meant that once we lost Salem to injury we had no experienced player to cover the role.
We then lost Trac, which meant we pushed Rivers into the midfield, but we lost that drive off half back because you guessed it, no Gus. Same can be said for losing Bowey for 8 weeks in round 0.
Gus had the versatility to slot in a multitude of roles, roles that have been hit hard by injuries this season.
And finally, you speak to anyone in the inner sanctum and theyâll tell you that Gus was as much a leader as Gawn and Viney and Lever. Gawn and Gus spent a lot of time bouncing ideas off one another. Losing that spiritual leadership has really hurt the side. Losing a player and teammate they loved so much so suddenly, hurt equally as much.
So no, Gus alone is not the reason we are where we are. But his sudden loss not only left us an A grader short on the list, it started a chain of events which is very much part of why we are where we are.
I will challenge any club to go into a season losing a key player without cover, then losing their best midfielder to injury while their other best midfielder is battling with injury. Take Cripps and Walsh out of Carlton, Bont and Libba out of the Dogs etc etc and they would struggle.
The reality is that in a competition this close, everything matters. If instead of us losing Gus the Pies lost Hill 10 minutes into finals, and Brisbane donât lose Ashcroft to an ACL, well I reckon the premiership history book is written differently.