Exciting Times

[jtd]

I guess it all depends on what the coaches are thinking but for the sake of my optimism I’m pretty excited about 2018

While it will be sad to see the likes of Watson, Hocking, Stanton, Kelly and potentially Goddard and Howlett go it opens up spots in our best 22 (as well as depth spots) for the likes of Francis, Mutch, Redman, Begley, LAV, Ridley and Langford and whoever else we get with our 2017 draft picks.

Our forward line is one of the best in comp. JOEDAN, Stewart, Orazioooo and Walla will only get better, the sky is the limit for Joe
Hooker has kicked 50 in his first year playing as a forward so no reason why he can’t improve or at least give a similar output and Green plays his role (most of the time).

Our backline although exposed in the last month has been generally good this year
Ambrose while offering nothing offensively just sits on his opponent all game and generally limits their impact
Hurley will do well with another pre season. Lacking the body strength which was saw dominate and get AA honours in 2015 im sure he will hit the gym hard over the new year
Hartley ditto. Not sure he is best 22 (especially if Francis cements his spot in the backline) but like pointed out to me in another thread is our only defender over 195cm. Still relatively young in terms of hitting his peak so fingers crossed he builds up the strength to match his body size
McGrath has been awesome and it’s only his first year. You would expect him to move into the midfield at some stage however
McKenna is another who you would expect more improvement from. Came on in leaps and bounds this year while Gleeson has been fairly good for most part.
Hopefully the hole left by Kelly and an aging Baggers can be filled by Redman and McNeice and we still have Dea and Brown as very handy back up.

Our midfield however needs a complete transformation. Hopefully the coaches realize you cant carry Watson, Heppell, Goddard, Myers and Howlett all in the same team. While Watson will be gone and maybe Howlett and Goddard, it still needs a lot of work
IMO though, Heppell, Parish, Merrett, Zaharakis with cameos from Orazio, Walla, McGrath and McKenna isn’t a bad start.
Id seriously look at Rockliff (Martin will stay IMO) and try and trade in Kelly or another gun with our picks this year. If that isn’t possible just use our first pick on the best available mid. I’m sure there will be a quality player there when our selection is up.

All in all, I dont expect everything I’ve written to just fall into place next year (be great if it did) and i have probably left some stuff out but anytime you introduce new talent it is exciting.
Look at Fark Carlton… their supporters are optimistic and they are heading for yet another spoon

So in finishing
Fark Carlton

[Paul_Peos]

I don’t know about exciting times, although our forward line is farkin exciting, but these are important times. Every pre season gets described as ‘The most important one this decade’ but I think this one might be it.

How Woosha and the list management team handle this off season will give a very good indication as to where they think we are, and what the approach is gonna be next season.

Now sure, it’s common belief that the returning players where given some implied ‘One last crack’ this year, and when next year comes around, the team will look like a bunch of kids running around at recess. I’m not 100% confident that’s gonna be the case, and weirdly enough it’s based on 2016. Yes, 2016 was the best year of development we’ve had possibly ever, but the large majority of it was out of pure necessity. Woosha still regularly packed sides with the likes of Simpkin, Polkinghorne and Crowley thinking that this made us better. So for me, that’s two years in a row that he has shown a belief that playing ordinary or cooked footballers with ‘experienced and mature bodies’ actually helps a modern football team.

But of course, there was a belief that many of the top ups where gifted games because ‘we owed them,’ so hopefully we hit 2018 free from feeling like we owe a heavy debt of gratitude to guys we pay hundreds and thousands of dollars per year to, to live out their dreams as elite footballers.

But back to the topic. As it stands right now, I see a team with some insane potential but plenty of holes, and a game plan that seems pretty damn slick but not suited to many of the players currently carrying it out. We aren’t miles off it, but going to the next level is the hardest bit, and next year will give a better indication of how likely that is to happen.

Excitement isn’t unwarranted, but I’m personally not quite there yet.

[dingus]

I’d prefer to be at the type of party where the house burns down and nobody says anything…

l nearly did that once.

That’s not the kind of story you can just “leave there” CJ…

[werewolf]

Agree he’s not the answer. However in his 1 game he got more possessions than Howlett has managed in any of his 7.
If we are going to play a mostly ineffective player, it might as well be a younger one that is still improving which means neither Bird or Howlett.

[rossoneri]

Seems that quite a few posters on here don’t understand what the word “exciting” means. Why does every thread turn into a whinge fest? You lot must be soooo much fun to party with.

If you can’t see that we are building a good team and have played some great footy this year whilst dealing with the end of the farking saga and the return of the 12 then why do you even bother watching or supporting?

Please, one of you whinging ■■■■■■ needs to come at me with that old chestnut, “It is that sort of attitude that is the reason why we have been so ■■■■ for so long…”.

As Woosha said, “toughen up”.

Well the OP posted it on a public forum and surprisingly not everyone agrees with it. I know it’s hard to believe for some of you but not everyone agrees with everyone else.

I would hate to be at your parties where every statement made by someone is greeted with “yep, I 100% agree”

[Sugar_Winton]

On the whole I have really enjoyed the year. I have enjoyed going to the football with my mates and having a few too many beers and just discussing football, just being ■■■■■■ off because we lost, or there was a selection I disagreed with. Forgive me but I’ve really enjoyed being normal this year. In terms of expectations I though we were capable of making the finals if a lot of things went right, and we may still make it. I agree with some that we have missed a trick not playing more Langford and less Howlett and I would have hoped to have seen Begley, but I’m also comfortable in the view that the coaches are privy to stuff we aren’t and this shapes their decisions. I think we have some very exciting players, if some of the maybe types really come on Langford, Laverde, Begley, Francis, Mutch, Redman, Ridley then we could be looking at something pretty special. The big decision for mine is whether we look to renovate the midfield by attracting mature players and look to challenge now or whether we build for four years time and hit the draft.

[Dons-All-The-Way]

How are we going to get 2-3 quality mids in the offseason, has a club ever done that?

We all want mids but without trading out all our players with trade value I can’t see us trading in 3 quality mids in one go.

Two clubs did it in the last trade period, Hawthorn and Richmond. Prestia and Caddy were great additions to Richmonds midfield. Why we were not trying to get Caddy last year is strange given our massive interest previously.

It is not possible to add two superatar midfielders without severely comprising your draft picks for two years. However, there are plenty of players that would not cost the earth we could target that would instantly improve our midfield.

[TWatson32]

I’m excited about 2017 and 2018.

2017 could have been an unmitigated disaster but it hasn’t. We’ve seen a forward line become dangerous and a backline takes steps forward. The midfield is just ok, but there’s something to work with there.

As for 2018…
The backline is missing an intercepting marking player to kill the contest. I think a lt of opposition repeat entries happen because we lack a pressure relief from the intercept mark and our backs end up overwhelmed. That said, we have Francis developing nicely in the 2nds and hopefully he assumes this role. I also expect Redman to play a lot more BP/HB and possibly Ridley to pressure for a HB role also.

The midfield has plenty of class in Merrett, Heppell, and Parish. I expect McGrath to go onto a wing and have some centre bounces. Raz may also find more time on the wing/hf. I expect Begley to play some inside mid and HF games, if not a lot games. I’m also a Langford believer. I think he’ll show major progression in 2018. We’ll hopefully add a tall midfielder through the draft. A Constable & Worpel combo would be a dream outcome. If we can use our 2018 first rounder to trade for an inside midfielder like this year then we’ve done well thisnoff-season.

I’ve said before that I see a lot of 1992 similarities with this side, but acknowledge there’s no EFC premiership experience in it. I think 2018 will see some maturing young talent in Redman Francis Langford Begley and Mutch that I think will replace the likes of Watson Kelly Howlett Myers next year.

[jamie0491]

Nah-yeah.

[dingus]

aw nah, yeah. Nah.

*drinks blackberry Cruiser

[Davo]

aw nah, yeah. Nah.

*drinks blackberry Cruiser

Pineapple was the way to go.

[dingus]

aw nah, yeah. Nah.

*drinks blackberry Cruiser

Pineapple was the way to go.

Now they were exciting times…

[Riolio]

Oh man…

[wimmera1]

I got up for this?

[ivan]

As for 2018…

The backline is missing an intercepting marking player to kill the contest. I think a lt of opposition repeat entries happen because we lack a pressure relief from the intercept mark and our backs end up overwhelmed. That said, we have Francis developing nicely in the 2nds and hopefully he assumes this role. I also expect Redman to play a lot more BP/HB and possibly Ridley to pressure for a HB role also.

I really hope Hurley rediscovers he best one on one Form and positioning so that he can be relied on the blanket the 2nd tall while we play a really clean marker as third tall. Francis Ridley or brown perhaps.

Whatever happens though have to improve the defensive cover the midfield provides and improve our zone and structure behind the ball. I don’t think we look anywhere near as well organised as other teams.

[mdso]

We were shown time and time again by Adelaide on the weekend what a really well drilled team looks like. We received a good footy lesson. Will our players and the coaches learn anything from this defeat? We are a long way off the pace and probably need five more players really good players - midfield and a ruckman.

Our best is very good but the difference, between our best and our worst, is a gap a mile wide. When we are able to bridge that gap we might have a better crack at the silverware. We are at least a couple of years away.

[Davo]

Exciting times ahead? Sure.

Ambrose…Hartley…Bags
McG…Hurley…Gleeson
Langford…Heppell…Zaka
LAV…Stewart…Walla
RAZ…Joe…Begley

Bellchambers…Zerrett…Parish

Hooker…Colyer…McKenna…Mutch

Then I’ll be excited.

Positionally (is that even a word) that team could look better but those are the players I want. I know Goddard would probably be in there instead of Mutch but I saw enough on the weekend to think that Mutch might be good.

[mdso]

Don’t know about Tommy Bell???