Ben Dixon was on SEN this afternoon with Mark Doran, happened to catch a bit of the discussion on drafting/tanking etc...Anyway Ben said very emphatically, and I am paraphrasing, that younger players develop far better in a winning culture than a losing one which, he said, is actually pretty poor for younger blokes' development. The benefits, he said, for younger players' development were "tenfold" playing in a winning environment as opposed to a culture of loss after loss which does little for young players.

Not really ground-breaking stuff and not saying that Ben Dixon is a leading authority on what is beneficial/detrimental to player development but he played for both good and poor Hawthorn sides littered with youngsters and is experienced enough to have an opinion on the matter. I also know that we don't exactly have a winning culture at Carlton at the moment having won about 1 in every 4 games since the start of 2002 and that some wins in the last 4 rounds of 2006 won't suddenly change the culture of the place. But the point was that losing games week after week saps players' confidence and belief and hence stunts their progress. So maybe those that advocate the 'tanking' idea or hoping that we lose until they decide we are good enough to start winning again should take this into account.

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Formerly Blues-Back2003.

Has it occurred to anyone else that doing this is also of major benefit to a coach under the pump (think Malthouse last year, Laidley this year) who's worried about his tenure and might want an additional excuse for why his club's poor win/loss ratio?

Laidley should be seriously in the gun right now and yet everyone appears to be assuming he'll coach on indefinitely. After selling off his club's draft picks for experienced hacks his club has racked up 7 wins out of 18 games and is now going to rest its players. And yet there doesn't seem to be even a whiff that he'll be gone at the end of the year.

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“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb

He just might have a contract for next year. It sort of makes you bullett proof at cash strapped clubs.