Going on the footage it looked bad.
Fingers crossed it’s on the minor end of the scale.
It did look like a corkie to the upper hammy.
Fingers crossed it’s that and not a strain
Very bad luck. he was in ripper form and virtually on the point of a debut in the event of losing Hooker Ambrose or Hurls imo.
If you want to try and find a positive, both Redman and Lav have been injured when on the cusp of selection this year and they have come back hungry and ready to go when they finally got their chance.
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Another tall down. Fark me.
This should have been Zerks, Drapers and Stewart’s year to take the next step, and get some kms up in the ones. In a different way, the same goes for Joe Dan.
Not sure why it doesn’t come up much in here, but in a year or two, we’re likely to have Belly, Hurls, Mckernan, Brown and Hooker all drop off a cliff in terms of their ability to lead the line. And the guys set to replace them will have had little development time in the ones before they are expected to take over. Belly, Hurls and Mck already look like their ability to play against the gun talls of the comp is on the decline.
I can’t see how we are anywhere near our flag window if our replacement talls are still a year away from STARTING to gain experience playing against the best.
And that’s on Dodoro.
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No, it’s not. He can only draft/trade in the players, which he has done (all the names you mention).
He has no say on whether they get selected for senior football, how they get developed, or whether they get injured or not.
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Reckon he had a fair say on the draft/trade strategy - 4 midfield trades in the last two years (no KPPs) and no first rd picks for three years where we could have picked up another KPP or two. First rd picks before that were Mcgrath, Parish and Franga - no 195cms+ guys there either.
The draft/trade strategy clearly took a punt on the KPP stocks we already had, which are now depleted. Bad luck with injuries, granted - although there was known OP history with JoeDan - but nevertheless a bad punt that’s looking like its going to backfire.
Also on Dodoro’s recruitment. Stewart , Hartley, Brown and Mckernan were rejects and punts, Draper a Category B pick, Zerk Pick 66. Dodoro has a track record of not wanting to spend on talls, either in the draft or trade.
Dods is Gumby shy…
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Agreed
And in saying that the VFL is essentially the best development pathway
The notion that there has been a development failure as they haven’t played senior footy isn’t right to me
Most young players spend significant time in lower tier comp working on football craft and building bodies before they move up. Ablett/Bartel and co all won a VFL flag before establishing themselves in AFL
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Again, I don’t know about that. I’d imagine his recruitment strategy is largely dictated by the coaching staff (ie: We want to play this style of football, we need these types of players, go out and find the best ones).
I don’t think recruiters can be judged upon who they don’t take, only on who they do.
Our youngest KPPs on Thurs night were Hurls, Brown, Mckernan… all 28. I’m all for giving time in the 2s to young talls, but that situation points to some poor succession planning, (as well as some bad luck with injuries).
Dodoro has been the one constant in our football department over the time that we have not spent on KPPs. 2012 was last time we picked a genuine tall with our first pick… and that was a father/son in Daniher. Before that it was Hurley, in 2008.
We’ve had 6 coaches in that time, if you include Egan and Goodwin.
Why? Just because none in the senior team?
If talls invariably take time and play their best footy from 24 onwards why would it matter
You could argue our planning is actually well setup age wise to have the young talls take over from their senior counterparts once they done
Our list build has been about 24yr and under players so that a group all comes through together
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Mate, it’s a good conversation and I don’t disagree with much of what you’ve said. However…
I posted this previously elsewhere…
Currently playing 195cm+ players with senior exp, born after Oct 1990 (ie. will still be in their 20s all next season)
Ratagolea, Fort, Stanley - cats
Cox, Grundy, Moore - pies
Hickey, McGovern, Barass - WC
Soldo, coleman-jones, Lynch - rich
Hartley - ess
The best teams in the comp have good talls, 27yo and under, contributing in the ones… and we don’t.
Do we know something they don’t? It’s a genuine question - why do we have a different talls strategy?
I think our strategy will be to pick up a Frawley/Lake type CHB via free agency, when Hooker retires this would match our age profile.
I think Hooker would be more valve to us playing full forward. This would give the best performed VFL defenders a shot. Seems like we have some talented defenders in the VFL.
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I remember 3 or 4 years ago that the criticism of Dodoro was that he focused too much on talls and never drafted mids.
Of our talls, the only ones retiring over the next 2-3 years are potentially Bellchambers and Hooker. Maybe Hurley and McKernan at 3-4 years. Clarke out in 3 months. Brown should stick around for a while as depth.
In terms of youth we have Draper, Francis, Zerk Thatcher and Gown. Our middle 24-27 year old group is fairly strong, no massive cliff about to hit us.
By all means bring in a tall each year, but no need to panic yet. Get our injured guys on the park and we have the best spine in the competition.
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JD and Francis are 2 that we would have thought would be in the 18, and 2 of the most influential players at this stage.
For various reasons, that isn’t the case.
Not Dodoro’s fault though !
Our depth of talls has always been good
Other teams will have brought those players through as had holes in their list or injuries forcing them into it
Tigers for example only just got Lynch and those other two are scraping bottom of barrel on their ruck depth since Nank out.
Cats needed fwd support for Hawkins and rucks. And have brought players in accordingly. And even so their ruck situation would be having a big think as Stanley was belted by Lycett
But the reality is his draft/trade history over the last 8 years SHOWS he’s never spent big on a genuine tall… only late pick punts, and cheap free agents.
Yeah ,but more importantly, will they be able to compete against the best? Hurley looked slow on Thurs as a man on man defender, as good as he’s been as a free-roaming back. Belly doesn’t run/train now… what’s he going to be like in 2 years? McKernan has had a horrible year. Of the young talls you mentioned, Draper hasn’t proved himself in the ones, Francis is not KPP, and Gown is an unknown. Stewart wasn’t best 22 when he got injured.
but that’s the thing, this is the year that they all needed to get on the park for that to be true. My concern is for 2020, 2021 onwards.
Nankervis is 24 and had a great year 2018… at 23.
Lycett is 26, brought is as cover for Ryder, who’s 31 and past his best.
I’m looking at teams that have good talls who are 27 and younger. Where are ours?