pc9999 wrote:lfc#19 wrote:If Cumby don't beat Olympic next week with Wallace out what was the point of bringing these players to the club.
To finish third?
Technically this would be an improvement of three positions on the ladder going by last year's results (you could argue it's four as there are now seven teams in the premier league). Any jump in the ladder is classified as an improvement so third would be an exceptional improvement for Cumberland and any other team that may have been in the same position.
When you start to break things down, yesterday's game against City was the first time all the new players have actually played together. It was Fimmano's first game in probably five months and Calder was returning from injury which she picked up against Fulham. You are all going on about how Olympic have lots of "star" players and judging by the line up, you believe Cumberland’s is superior to Olympics. Yes, this may be true however - they have had one game to play together. Olympic have now had seven plus all the games in preseason which could actually be an extra five or so. Not to mention the training sessions or team bonding that may have occurred during those weeks. When Olympic first started playing, they didn't play as a team. It's taken them this long to finally start playing as a team so isn't it a bit unfair to be expecting the same from Cumberland but within only a week of playing together?
Another example is Metro. They used to have the best team on paper for a number of years, but did they win the league? No. They are now starting to be a force after what, two, three, maybe four years?
In previous years Cumberland has been a team of talented but inexperienced youth. I am not saying that in a derogatory way either. But what they lacked was the two or three experienced players who have played W-League or in National teams; players that can assist in the development of the younger players. Despite this, some of the players that Cumberland have developed have been poached by other clubs i.e. Ellie Chapman, Amy and Lauren Chilvers, Greta French-Kennedy etc. You may debate that these players weren't 'poached' but instead were going to a place where the grass appeared to be greener - a more successful team, however therein lies the problem. For those players to stay, Cumberland needed to be successful. For Cumberland to be successful, they needed to have a few experienced players in the team. But now that they have these experienced players, other players’ positions are being lost and hence, they are unhappy and moving to other clubs.
Fact: No one likes losing.
Fact: No one likes losing their position to a renowned player for the price of being successful.
So where is the answer? Yes, Cumberland can develop as many players as they like but they will still be young. Who will be experienced enough to volunteer their leadership and mentor these young, upcoming players? Experience takes years to form and at the moment, the only place Cumberland could get this experience was from other clubs.
Funnily enough, when Adelaide United had all these imports at the beginning of last season, no one jumped on the 'hate wagon' until they gave them a chance to train and play together. Why not give Cumberland the same chance to prove themselves?