For me the take-aways of the season were this:
1. Griffin can get a reasonable amount out of a team. The Broncos started like world-beaters at the opening of the season; the problem was that they did not improve from that platform, and so were surpassed after a few weeks when the fitness, combinations, and tactics of other teams improved.
2. In spite of the preceeding, whatever Griffin's merits as an Under-20s/Under-21s coach, he was largely unable to develop, properly select or motivate first-grade players. From the Hoffman Experiment to the continuing misuse of Parker while never dropping players unless forced to by the judiciary or injury no matter how dire their performances were, he seemed to lack the will to make the big calls when they mattered. Shifting Hoffman was too little too late. Then there's the matter of Ben Hannant, where acting as a union rep and player advocate should put him on the outer with the coach, crippled his chances of renegotiating his own contract, and will probably see him leave the club. Granted his efforts of late haven't been that spectacular, but when things like that emerge you begin to suspect there is a much larger rift behind closed doors. We should not have lost him to the Bulldogs after initially recruiting him, and we shouldn't be loosing him again now. He could and should have been groomed as the successor to Webcke and Petero.
3. The team never seemed to be building towards anything. Even in '06 when there was the loosing streak and that loss to the Storm, you could still sense there was something special there and that a big win was just around the corner. This year, after those first few weeks, they have just been also-rans.
