I’m a bit concerned that our coaches do not think he can cover smaller match ups.
Wouldn’t Rids be the replacement for BJ? I don’t remember being too concerned about matchups then.
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Lucky to be visible outside a quantum physics lab if he’s that one dimensional
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point made
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I’m not convinced he’s that great either but I think he might be ahead of hurls in this regard these days.
That said I’m convinced it’s all mind set with hurls. If his starting position is to focus on and best his man he’s more the capable (I suspect)
Not sure why this thread is now about Ambrose. I thought it was about Ridley, the tallish, quickish, ultra versatile player that somehow throws off team balance. How he can’t be used on a wing or across half forward this week has me stuffed.
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I don’t agree with him being scapegoated but I thought he looked fairly soft last weekend.
Ahm…can you keep this thread on track, please?
The first half against GWS we struggled to move the ball out of defensive 50, without bombing long to the Spareman.
It seems like the Selection Committee believe we were too tall, and want more run off half back.
The problem with this is…that they cut Ridley. Ridley has been our most consistent player over the last 3 matches. His ball use is elite.
So what sort of message does this send to our young players???
I doubt we will see a defense of Hurley, Hooker/Ambrose, Francis and Ridley again, because of their height. So I’d expect Ridley will spend the majority of the year in the VFL again. IMO he should have been playing ahead of Dea last season.
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Elite? Are we still talking about Ridley or is this someone else?
His ball use hasn’t reached elite level yet, not really even close.
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He is pretty good by foot.
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Yeah…I’m not worried about his foot skills they are good.
But the concern is that he won’t be able to get a game if the opposition play 3 quick small forwards (assuming Hooker, Hurley and Francis are also playing).
A number of the teams are trending towards smaller forward lines…so do we just sub him in and out depending on matchups each week?
Of course he is. But at no point did he cut through GWSs zone with his kicking on the weekend.
It’s not a knock on him, but he’s not a finished product yet. There’s a lot of hand wringing on here, but he was only OK last week, and was probably the last player selected. Fair chance that the coaching team actually did think they had the balance wrong last week. We certainly weren’t coming off half back with run and flare…
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I thinks it harsh on the kid, but honestly I’m more miffed by Laverdes absence, we had no forward structure and didn’t look like scoring from anything other than a counter attack.
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How is that his problem if nobody up the ground is presenting??
Ridley has played 5(?) games, and they are dropping him when he was one of the least worst players last week.
The expectations on young players to perform is much greater, than experienced players… that has been a constant issue with this coaching group.
Whether it was Travis Colyer coming in last year with no form or fitness… then staying in.
While the likes of Mutch, Ridley and Clark are dropped at first signs of an average game.
Remember last year, they dropped Ridley after having a good game and said ‘he’s being rested’. Then never came back in.
And we are complaining that these kids aren’t taking the next steps in their development… ffs.
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While I understand, I actually think being “one of the least worst last week” isn’t really of a great deal of importance to how they selected the side this week.
If we’d had 22 who played to Ridley’s standard last week we’d still have got smashed. I think there’s a bit of comparing his game to what we expect out of him that happens when we rate players, and as a young player expectations on Ridley are much lower, than on others. He was OK, and quite good in comparison to expectations, and if he played that game with others performing to their expected levels around him we’d have all been happy. But as a team we were rubbish and got completely smashed in the contest. Everyone was below par and the player who was 23rd or 24th in line was a young midfielder who is a little more advanced in development, whose speciality is going hard for the contested ball, and who had a standout game at a lower level on the weekend.
Realistically it was probably out of Ridley and Guelfi who was going to be dropped is my guess. (They were never going to drop a Myers or similar after Rd 1).
Both young developing players. Guelfi probably more flexible for what we perceive our needs this week.
I really don’t see this as a “stuffing up a players development” moment. Obviously you need to manage his disappointment and get him on board with continuing to develop as the year goes on. But 2019 is not a development year. It’s a win at all costs, we need to be in the window year. Might turn out that the best development for Ridley will be a finals series in September. At this point him missing this week is the way the coaches see us having the best chance of getting the win this week.
They may be wrong, but I don’t think it’s an absolutely glaring shocker of a decision that seems to be the consensus on here.
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If he doesent come back in round 3, its an absolute disgrace
He better be back in the team before his statue is inevitably unveiled at the avenue of legends at the MCG.
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There’s no way this kid should have been dropped. says a lot bout the coaching group actually.
They have a chance to send a fkg message to the playing group, yet they reward them by making just one fkg change. They may as well left the team unchanged!
We are going nowhere with this list whilst the coach continues to play his favourites like Myers, Brown, Ambrose. These spuds aren’t taking us to the next level, yet we have plenty of kids available who we dont know if they are any good or not.
I genuinely rate Ridley and cannot work out why he was dropped as he was far from our worst player last week.
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Could have used him today. Absolute joke that he was dropped
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Woosha was protecting him from that garbage