I wrote this out for somewhere else, but I might as well put it in here too given the the discussion being had.
My opinion.
Let’s have a look at our midfield and player development.
We’re basically having a look at Langford and Parish, the two young blokes we recruited to be the future of our midfield. I largely leave McGrath out of this discussion, bar as a quick example because he is a number one draft pick, and they will shovel the time into him. If his development is held up too much that will make the club look incompetent, and that won’t be allowed to happen.
We’ll start by looking at us and the bears, who were in a similar position to us but have gone past us like we’re standing still. In McGrath’s draft they took McAntler, who they put straight in as a half forward transitioning to midfield. We sent McGrath to the back pocket. Today, McAntler is one of the best wingman in the comp, and a bees ■■■■ away from AA selection. McGrath is just starting to learn to be a mid, and is still a couple of years away from being a consistently good one. His development is way behind McAntler. In Parish’s draft they took Hipwood. A talented tall forward but built like a toothpick. They threw him into the forward line, often as a key target, and said just go play and learn. We back your talent, we know you’ll get smashed a lot, but we won’t punish you for that. Just keep putting in and improving. We have, and still are, dicking Parish around with limited midfield minutes, and stuffing him into a small forward role. Result, Hipwood is a key player in their forward line whilst Parish is still fighting for any available scraps of midfield time. Parish’s development is years behind Hipwoods. In Langford’s draft they took Harris Andrews. They treated Andrews the same way they did Hipwood, we treated Langford even worse than we treated Parish. Result, Andrews is one of the best defenders in the comp, and Langford, like Parish, is still fighting for scrap leftover minutes. Andrews’ development is years ahead of Langfords.
We’ll leave the bears comparison behind now and look at another aspect, recruiting. Recently we brought in Saad, Stringer, and Smith. Saad was an excellent choice and really addressed a need in our list. Stringer was a gun forward in the uncontainable freak show mould, and Smith was a dangerous, aggressive half forward who piled on the pressure. Trouble is that we recruited Stringer and Smith with the promise of midfield time. Stringer has never been, and never will be a decent midfielder. He is an explosive rather than endurance athlete, and as a midfielder just slams the ball on his boot and hopes for the best. Too often those clearances of his come sailing back again because they were misdirected, or there was no one of his ability in the forward line to make something out of the half chance that came in. He is absolutely wasted as a midfielder, and also takes development minutes away from Langford and Parish.
Smith started out at GWS as a midfielder, but as the quality of their stocks increased there was no longer a place for him there, so they used him as a half forward. And he was a bloody good one. But unfortunately for Dev, Toby Green was a slightly better version of the same thing, so once again his place was lost. Smith should be our Toby Green, but instead he’s another small mid with iffy disposal. He also takes time from Langford and Parish. Then next up we blew the farm on Dylan Sheil. A fine midfielder from GWS. But not what we needed. With the GWS midfield Dylan was the icing on the cake. His shoddy disposal didn’t matter so much when surrounded by the rest of their mids, and he had the breakaway pace the others didn’t. But in our midfield he is just another medium sized mid with dodgy disposal and sometimes questionable decision making. Not only did we add another player with the same deficiencies as our other mids, but we made him our most highly paid player, and gave away two first round draft picks for him. He also takes a lot of midfield minutes for minimal improvement.
So not only have we been very slow and slipshod with the development of Langford and Parish, we have actively recruited to put roadblocks in their path.
Then, not only do we put roadblocks in front of them, but we out and out insult them by trawling the VFL for midfielders. While these guys are still struggling for scraps, we bring in Jacob “48 games in eight years of AFL listed football “ Townsend, Mitch “hi I’m a decent VFL mid” Hibberd, and a guy the bears consigned to the NEAFL for not being up to it when the action got physical, and replaced with Mitch Robinson.
It must be very difficult for either Langford or Parish to feel valued, or even part of the future with the way we have treated them. And from my point of view it’s actually counterproductive and makes zero sense. We are shooting our selves in the foot, over and over again for bugger all return.
end rant