Exciting Times

We have built a forward line in eighteen months

We will build a midfield next

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We’re 5 first team midfielders away from contending.

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3,  you still need some grunt
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It is good to play a yard stick team.

I thought our defenders were pretty good and most of their goals came from good supply from their mids.

We really need 5 or so new mids. There is something to work with. Parish is in the mould of some of these Adelaide mids. I thought Hepp was great. Zac is a gun. But it really drops away.

its really the end of the saga once this year ends. We owed having a crack for Goddard, Watson and the fans. The wins have been fun.

I personally would not have wanted to suffer through a Carlton FC esq development year with Mutch and Begley getting slaughtered.

The forward line and backline benefitted in development from having some ok supply and some.bigger experienced bodies.

The midfield is the missing piece and it can be worked on through trade hopefully.

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Do you genuinely think that the loss of Jobe, Goddard, Howlett, Kelly, Hocking et al over the next year will be a negative?! It’s the younger cohort on the list which are winning games of football for us (plus Hurley/Hooker). I feel sorry that you think moving on these players will set us back- when clearly, the sooner we phase them out and build around our youth the the quicker we see JD and Walla running around the 'G with the cup in a few years.

Edit: and if you watched the VFL today and wern’t impressed by the performances of players like Mutch, Begley, Ridley and Redman…well I can’t help you. Future is bright, plenty of evidence to support it too.

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They’ve been hamstrung in playing So many of these plodders due to the Saga.

I said it in another thread. Hocking Howlett, Stanton, Watson, Myers, Bellchambers, Howlett, Hepp and Hooker are all super ■■■■■■ slow for the modern game and 8 of those 9 play in the guts (Hurley isn’t super quick but he reads the play well as does Hepp, whilst Hooker reads the flight of the ball in the air at A Grade level).

It’s not like they could just drop 6 or 7 of those returning players without giving them every opportunity to play out the bulk of 2017 after the club destroyed 4 years of their careers when the average career is 5 years.

The players were suing the club and thankfullly accepted settlements and came back with smiles on their faces and positivity.

All those players would have made it pretty clear with their managers that they wanted game time in 2017 and the club would have been willing to do penance as it deserves too.

Add Goddard who stuck by the club through hell and we’re turtles.

Next year we’ll owe them nothing and things will change dramatically.

Woosha may not be Clarkson, but of Clarko inherited what Woosha did, in certain he’d have had to have handled the messed up situation similarly.

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Are you serious? This year has been a huge step forward, the fact the problem is our older players is a good thing because they will be done this year or next. We have a fantastic young core of players.

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Saying we’ll get better doesn’t mean we’ll get better, and we certainly won’t if we continue to play underperforming plodders. I know people will sook that I’m being negative, and I’m not suggesting we have no hope, I just think we’re a fair way from anything amazing. We’ve been waiting to get better for 17 years. We’ve been waiting for a midfield for 17 years. This should have been the year where we blooded some kids to drive us to the future, instead we’ve been blooding the near 30 plodders who are completely toast.

Even with a Brownlow winner in 2013/14 and Heppell in better form than he is now, and with Myers in better form than he is now and Goddard in better form we were STILL at best probably a bottom 8 midfield. That goes to show just how dire our midfield is now, we’re playing those same players in the twilight of their careers hoping they can one day reach the mediocre heights of 3/4 years past.

We need a big, big clean out of all the plodders. I’m not saying there’s no hope, I’m just saying there’s no hope with the current group of plodders that we trot out regardless of form. I don’t want to go through them by name again but you know who they are. Our midfield is humiliatingly bad right now. Basically we need Parish to become the great midfielder we hoped, right now he’s young and just a 3rd-5th string midfielder, we need McGrath in the midfield asap, we need Mutch in there asap, we need to recruit some strong classy midfielders. If we ever get a great midfield then I could see us being a top few team. But right now with our list pre-cull we’re a 10-14th side.

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Everyone focuses on our lack of mids, but our defense isn’t great either. I know the two arent mutually exclusive, but we need a back that can take a key forward. Hurley or Hartley aren’t those players. shame we lost a couple of decent backs when we did in recent times.

Exactly 100% right and I’m staggered that more on here don’t see the situation exactly how you’ve described it.

There was an unwritten deal with the R12. We will play you, and we will give you one last crack at the flag, and in return you don’t sue us and bankrupt the whole farking club.

Is it an ideal scenario? Hell no. Was the club right to do it? Absolutely.

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Sounds like Stanton and Hocking had sh*tty lawyers.

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Next years forward lookingbest 22

Hurley Ambrose McGrath
Conor Hartley Gleeson

Mutch hepp Zaha
Tbell zerret parish

Fanta Stewart tippa
JD hooker green

Lav, Begley, Colyer, Langford

Really we need to move McGrath into the midfield but he’ll leave a massive hole in the defense. If Francis can’t play as a true kp and neither can hurley where did Francis fit. If he could transform himself into a dominant hulking fwd in one preseason to allow hooker back it would be amazing but I can’t see it.

That midfield still feels slow. Colyer is basically a plodder and needs to drastically improve his game. Seriously Kelly can name his price for all I care and the only players gws can’t have are JD, Fanta and tippa

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Looks like a team of midgets and stick figures!

Yep but a forward line that is good enough to win a few games in combination with Zerret.

Colyer must have Johnny Cochran.

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“If the man can’t kick, you must acquit”

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Colyer is one of the big negatives/positives.
He should have been dropped well before the middle of the year.
Two weeks, told work on his disposal. Come back.
I can’t imagine anyone arguing that shouldn’t have happened.
But it didn’t.

The positive is he’s 26 in a fortnight.
Happy birthday, Travis!

He should have at least four big years left in him, and after a proper preseason I don’t see any reason why he can’t friggin’ smash it next year.

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Colyer’s Kicking and fumbling desperately need to be sorted. He also needs to improve his running patterns to find the pill more if he’s going to play in the midfield. Is it a tank issue? He just isn’t finding enough of the ball.

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Defence struggles when the slow kids get burnt and the opposition kids are delivering lace out under no pressure.

This has been a massive problem for 15 years. You don’t need a brilliant defence if the midfield works both ways. And if the midfield doesn’t work both ways, then the best defence in the world will look rubbish.

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It’s all about his tiny hands!!

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