Some like Rylandoz reckon we should be lined up aganst a wall and shot for suggesting Clarke/Mutch might get a game in the AFL next year.
Rather than heading into the draft hoping to pick up a gun bull mid with a pick 48 starting point, its a good idea to put a watch on the kids who were already drafted as mids in November 2016.
As it happens Guelfi, being older, might leap frog both Clarke and Mutch. But those 2 kids finished high in the VFL BNF and by 2018 will have done 2 preseasons. Its reasonable to watch how they go in 2018 and hope they might improve enough to get an AFL game.
Please don’t take it out of context of what i’m trying to say. I did not even mention Mutch in my previous post.
Mutch had a fantastic first year in the VFL and he would be a much higher chance of seeing a few games in the AFL this year.
You can hope and wish all you want but Clarke is a long way off playing AFL football this year (not to say he won’t be a good player in the future), but with our current list I don’t think there will be opportunities for him unless we have a terrible run of injuries.
We should be having a real crack at winning finals this year and gifting games to players who are not performing should not be something we are prioritising.
I would be happy if both get a game but if it doesn’t happen then that means we are travelling well.
I also expect we will be going deep next year and can even challenge for the flag. But I also know that injuries can occur and good teams give players opportunity if they are meeting certain KPI’s.
OK, the game seems to be to pick who is most likely to be the next inside mid bull, and to put the players in some kind of order of probability based on their progress so far… I think that Clarke has been written off by many.
Some wrote off Kav and they were right.
Some wrote off Jobe , they were wrong.
It is going to be pretty damn hard for unblooded guys to crack the team next year. There’s max 13 spots in the midfield up for grabs, 5 mids, 4 flankers, 4 on the bench.
I have 11 automatic starters in those spots: Heppel, Parish, Zaka, Goddard, Smith, Stringer, Mckenna, Saad, McG, Merret, Fantasia.
So 2 free spots and thats before you consider, Myers, Colyer, langford, laverde or Tippa moving up etc.