Sure pal, happy to see different opinions and you make a lot of good points.
I'm not saying that the team shouldn't be fit. Absolutely not... But jeez we really should be offering more in possession. The point I'm making is... 'OK the guys got flogged at the start of the year, and they're making all their 400m times consistently.... but what good does that do you when your starting spine can't punish an opponent that completes 9 out of 14 sets'. I don't know what it is, but damn, something isn't right.
Agreed we definitely should be having a lot more in attack but even if you had Katoa or Cleary out there, unless you consistently have numbers behind the ball and multiple options to fool the defender, what can they do?
Your markers like Bronco, yo yo tests, 60m sprint etc are just screening tests, to make sure you are safe to step on to the field, not a marker of performance.
It all comes down to science and I doubt any of us here on the forum are smart enough to analyse that. I have no doubt that the players got flogged pre-seaaon and that has to continue. Each team gets flogged, they all say "toughest pre season". We aren't the only ones.
The difference though imo is diet supplements, emotional resilience, recovery equipment, advanced injury rehab... Stuff that we spend absolutely no money on so how are the athletes going to compete with clubs that do?
Why does the US win the most gold medals? Why does Aus kill it in cricket? Genetics and environmental factors play a big part but funding of high caliber facilities to as much of the population (grades within our club) is the second biggest factor too.
I don't think the Club has money to hire elite performance staff but I hope they at least spend money to upskill the ones that are here. Invest in university students doing sports science, physio etc to do placements and help us with stats. Get current staff to go to NFL teams to see how AI is used in recovery...
I just feel that as fans we should be pushing the club to do that because that's whats going to deliver success 10 years down the track.
Sorry for the rant, I feel strongly about this.