Lots of people playing the man and not the ball (which is totally understandable as he was smarmy and various other not nice things). His regime didn't do enough to re-invigorate coaching and the club scene, and HPCs whilst on a paper a good idea, completely failed to deliver what they were set out to do due to poor management at lower levels which was not corrected by more senior figures, and also the approach to how these places got funding which meant that the players best interests were never at the forefront. Far too many coaches chasing LTA £££ and not advising their players properly, other good local coaches losing their players to HPCs which weren't supporting them properly.

One thing his regime got spot on was continuing to support (the deserving) senior pro's who were propping up the professional game, instead of (as previous regimes did) chucking all the money at juniors who were winning incredibly weak junior tournaments in exotic places which no other players could afford to go (trips paid for by the LTA) which meant we had completely inflated rankings for young kids (to an extent we still do - I can't take your ranking seriously if it's made up of trips to Bahrain, Kenya, Malta and Tunisia). And then of course when they go full time they realise that winning a couple of tournaments in Gabon or whatever means absoutely nothing when you try to qualify for a $10k in Spain, they go nowhere and all funding is automatically removed by the time they turn 19 and casting them adrift completly clueless about what to do as the LTA had, up to that point, arranged everything for them.

Funding was overhauled and it was a step in the right direction (I know some players don't think highly of the bonus system but I actually think its a good idea and is nice and fair and transparent across the board).

The management of the women's side also improved greatly under his regime (not necessarily any of this stuff comes from him of course, but he did enable some good people to start making their mark) in that it was recognised it needed a complete overhaul and was given its own proper programme and set-up instead of being a complete afterthought. A lot of people who had been working on the womens side were shipped out (I believe Anne may have had something to do with this as she felt she was surrounded by unprofessional people who could not take her forward once she had broken the top 100) and generally that side of things got a refresh and a kick up the butt.

I still believe the NTC had (and has) the potential to be a truly fantastic resource (it was way too expensive of course and we could have achieved something similar for much less expense!). We just need to find a way to utilise it better.

For me, Draper's regime is a story of PR ****-ups on superficial issues and missed opportunities on those that really matter. The desperation to have a good public face should never have been a consideration and is distracted time, effort and money from where it was really needed.

I'm feeling good about our new glorious leader. I like what he has done in Canada, and I hope he follows through on what he starts (another of Drapers failings was to not see things through, meaning potentially good initiatives ended up a half-baked mess).