Those disappointed by the performances of the Boomers at Brijing must realise that the Boomer's future is bright.
Lets be honest, we were spoilt in the Gaze Era. We were blessed with an international superstar who was Australia's go to man when things got tough. He was also well supported by good role players who knew their roles well and understood how to be a very good team. There were also only three recognised powerhouse countries at the time, the USA, U.S.S.R (later Russia and Lithuania) and Yugoslavia (later Croatia and Serbia).
The departures of Gaze, Vlahov, Bradtke, Longley and Heal within a small period of time saw our national team lose five starters with an average of 12 years of international experience between them. More importantly we lost our star player and had no-one with the skills and leadership qualities to replace him. There was no succession planning for when Gaze and Co ended their careers and bench players and juniors were burdened with the challenge of filling some big shoes with no-one to show them how. Not surprisingly we tumbled in the world rankings.
At the moment Anstey, Bruton and Neilson are our most experienced players with an average of 6 years of senior international experience and this will be their last campaign. These players, along with Smith, McKinnon and lesser degree Saville, have filled the breach since the Gaze era however these players are role players on the international scene, not superstars.
Our current 'superstars' are a 19 year old point guard and a 23 year old centre. These guys are still young and will become accustom to the pressures of expectation. Just as important is the fact they are surrounded by a good group of solid young players (Newley, Jawai, Barlow, Ogilvy, Ingles and even Worthington) that could develop into a very good nucleus over the next 10 years if given the opportunities.
Unlike other teams competing in Beijing, our superstars are still a few years away from being household names across the world. This group of young players are getting a great learning experience and more importantly are developing into a team which will play together for the next 10+ years.
Finally perhaps we should try not to be too critical of Brian Goorjian. While it appears he is limited at international level we should acknowledge that he (and Phil) were placed in a very difficult positions. This too will probably be his last campaign, but at least he is giving our future stars an opportunity to prepare themselves for future glories.
I'm not a fan of Goorjian, however I do wish to pose this question. Were Robert Shaw's two years as Crows coach a waste of time or did he help deliver a premiership?
