Cheers. Honestly I’ll pick on anything to create conversation this off-season.
For me, all 3 of those blokes were going to be playing in the backline in 2018. The club were already trying to fit the new lads Saad, Stringer and Smith into the side.
It’s interesting to look at who started out in the backline in 2018. It was experimental at best. McKenna, Hurley, Hartley, Saad, Brown, Goddard, Dea. Few would have 4 of those guys in their preferred round 1 side for 2019. Probably not the best time for kids to be playing. Baguley got a short-lived run in the back pocket in round 3. by the time we got to round 4, I don’t think we had any idea what we were doing, but we won. By round 5 we’d decided to give Jackson Merrett a run. We were a mess.
Having said all of that.
Ridley was playing by round 9, through to 11 before injury hit.
Redman took his spot and played round 12, 14 before injury hit.
Francis, who everyone was screaming to get a run, finally played round 19-23.
I think they all got their chance once things settled down.
I don’t want to see players elevated for the sake of it.
I want them to learn their trade, take what they are learning to the VFL, and display it fully and consistently.
I want to see them remove the weaknesses from their game.
Then I want to see them really stand out and give a serious reason for pushing someone out of the senior side.
Once they have done that, they have earned their shot.
I think there’s a little too much emphasis put on the younger guys ruling out weaknesses completely. And we know guys like Dea, McNeice, Merrett have their faults, but IMO that they’re probably not going to drastically improve on.
I’d argue the worst example might’ve been McGrath not playing any midfield in 2017 - when we were crying out for pace and defensive pressure.
As you say, they all got their chances eventually. I don’t think they’re miles off track, just a bit too cautious. Not the end of the world.
I also dont think anyone is talking of Draper replacing Belly at this stage, its really just a discussion about who is the next cab off the rank if Belly is unavailable
If Belchambers gets injured, we play whoever is in better form out of Draper and Clarke…
If Belchambers stays injury free, we rest him against Gold Coast and other lower teams to keep him fresh, and get some experience into Draper, ahead of playing Clarke.
It’s got nothing to do with what the club thinks for me. More about who’s place are they going to take, are you willing to trade wins for game time, etc? I get as eager as the next bloke to see them step up, I’m just not willing to sacrifice other goals to see it early.
I also feel like the club is at a point where we aren’t as desperate to play younger kids like we were in the past. Young guys do their time in the VFL and we kind of have a development system and the fact is the younger guys are quite a long way behind the older guys(even the players that don’t get rated as highly).
Also our game plan requires the whole team to be in sync so if you want to just drop in a talented player it would want to be worth it.