As much as I hated watching the Crows put on their annual etihad clinic, I’m very excited about what the future holds.
We are being moulded in the same fashion as the Crows were and while we don’t have the midfield at the moment it was the last piece of their puzzle and it has come along in leaps and bounds since Danger left.
We are in good hands - there are some warriors who will need to be phased out of our mid rotation but once we start to break even or win in the middle we are going to be a dominant outfit
It’s the fkn knights era all over again. A heap of quick exciting players mixed with a group of old, cooked mids who can’t run the other way. This year has been a step backwards.
In our forward line we have JoeDan, Stewart, Hooker and Raz. Very exciting and well structured forward line and something we have not had for many years.
Our backline is okay but needs a little work (Lever would be awesome) however, it is stilla good backline that has struggled a lot due to a poor midfield.
Our midfield needs some work but there are some we can build around: Zerrett, Parish, Hepps, a bit of Walla, and some possible is MCG, Lav, Langford. There maybe Mutch and Begley as well. We do need some more developed midfielders though who are good defensively.
I actually don’t mind the positivity. I think our forward line is very very solid, and our backline is also not bad going forward. Hurley has 5 more good years, Hartley I still think will be a player, Gleeson is improving, McKenna is a good rebounder, Dea is reliable.
The midfield is where the problem lies. Going forward, it is Zerrett (gun), and then it trails off. Heppell is a good player but slow, and hasn’t demonstrated a lot of strings to the bow this year. Parish looks like he’ll get there, but how good he will be remains to be seen. Zaha will always be a bit player on the outside. McGrath will move into the rotations next year but is still green. That’s an OK base, but we honestly need 6 more mids. Maybe Mutch is one, I don’t know. But we’re still a long way short.
There were probably at least 6 guys playing tonight who simply will not take us forward over the next 3 years (about as much time as hooker has left):
Jobe, kelly, Myers, Howlett, bj, DEA.
Colyer gets a reprieve for being a bit younger, Luey as solid but unspectacular ruckman is replaceable.
So who replaces these guys.
Langford had been criminally underutilised this year. Ditto bird though he had his own age issues, still he’d be offering more over the next fortnight.
Mutch shows promise. Francis will figure at some point. We have hopes for Begley. Obviously Fanta and Zerret come back into the side but we desperately need to add midfield pace and defensive work rate and we don’t have enough on the list right now.
I think we need to pull off a trade mirical to win one within the next 5 years or draft incredibly well too win one within the decade.
It’s tough to be positive after a loss but Andy McGrath is damn fine medicine.
Not much went our way tonight and in reality we needed pretty much everything to. Beating the Crows without Zac and Raz was always going to be a huge ask.
The Howlett decision was heartbreaking, a couple of others as dodgy as all ■■■■ and we’re left wondering what could have been.
A tweak here and there for 2018 and things change massively.
But if you can’t see we are miles off it I feel sorry for you.
Seriously this club is middle of the road, and will be for many more years to come.
I’d love to share your optimism I really would, but where is the improvement coming from in next 2 years??
Experience will go out, not enough talented youth coming through.
I don’t think we are a long way short. Take a look at the Cats, they had Selwood and barely anyone else decent. They brought in Danger and suddenly their side looked pretty decent.
We have Parish., Zerrett, Hepps and Zaka. One or two high quality in there and suddenly it can look very different.
it’d help if we stopped playing blokes through the middle who are slower than my nan like Goddard, Myers, howlett, Jobe. It’s such a obvious problem. It’s glaring, it’s where we lose it EVERY week. But the coaching staffs arrogance to choose the same failed midfielders every week is complete arrogance. We’d recruit danger and probably play him at half back