Like a broken record
Pretty disappointed we resigned Menzie without ever debuting Jayden.
2 Likes
We should not have given Menzie a new contract.
But J Davey didn’t deserve a an AFL game either.
6 Likes
Fixed
I think the problem is we re-signed Menzie, people would be very happy if we forced Menzie to resign.
Frankly the Menzie thing is neither here nor there. If he’s first 22 there is a real problem, if he’s temporary list filler to be used as injury replacement there are worse guys to have available. He works hard, is always ready to compete, and in fairness he’s played some reasonable games for the club.
The delisting of Davey does make the Menzie re-signing more reasonable
1 Like
I personally don’t think either Davey or Menzie has shown enough to warrant being on the list. Can’t lay the Menzie re-signing at Rosa’s feet.
If he (Jayden Davey) wasn’t already on the list, would you look at his injury history and what he showed in games in 2024 and suggest he should be picked up? Will any other AFL club consider him now he’s been delisted? Or are there likely to be guys of similar age who are much more likely to be close to AFL level available to us?
Best 22 you generally don’t give them the sars but some yes more than happy to be depth players. If a guy is one of said depth players - in an area of the field we desperately need someone to stand up - and he’s not even being considered, well then the answer is obvious. Don’t care if he’s already on the list or what his surname is, I have no issue with the club making decisions on guys after 2 seasons on the list.
Atleast they gave Weideman a “prove it” game once our finals hopes were over. Would it have hurt to do the same with Jayden?
Stringer is one of the best examples of an anomaly where talent alone actually succeeded.
Just goes to show how bloody talented he actually was/is.
1 Like
I disagreed with the club doing it but Weidmans vfl form was miles in front of Daveys.
I seriously do question if 99% of the people in this thread complaining actually watched any Vfl footy this year.
6 Likes
Look, I was disappointed with his 2024 like everyone else, but this is plain wrong. In 2022 Redman finished first in the Nobby Clarke voting and fourth in the b&f. He had a really good season that year, I think you’ll find many supporters thought he was our best player.
He’s a good player with a lot of attributes, let’s hope he can get back to his best next year…
2 Likes
I did. Davey is hard to measure. Some people have no idea what most players look like playing their first season after an ACL. Some guys look like a million bucks and get back to their best form quickly, others struggle mightily as they rebuild shattered confidence. I got the impression Davey was in the second bracket. However, if he was also struggling because he hadn’t put the work in then that might explain why he was chopped.
Kids from remote areas really struggle to make it - the shift to elite standards plus having to move away from home would be incredibly hard for them to overcome. Yes there have been a few but they’ve mostly been father-sons who were already living down here and in an elite environment at a private school or under 18 comp.
Problem is, clubs have no incentive (nor the ready $) to implement the elite environments in remote areas that are needed. If Munkara or Mosquito had been excellent junior players we wouldn’t have had access to draft them - but without the opportunity to be developed at junior level, they simply didn’t have the fitness, attitude, skill base etc to be able to make it.
I seem to recall that Paddy Ryder came from the Clontarf (?) academy, which I think Gerard Neesham set up - like a private school for indigenous / remote kids. AFL maybe with the AIS would need to implement similar academies, but geez it would likely pay off in the longer term
1 Like
Remote areas? We went to Xavier didn’t he?
Yeah I thought the Davey kids are local Melbourne boys. They would have had suburban lives
I don’t really see how he’s a project player, other than that he’s indigenous, as if that makes a difference? Or that all draftees have a fair bit to learn and are thus project players?
Unless you mean being drafted injured, but we gave him an entire season of lenience in recovering in that.
I’m not expecting 30 senior goals year 1, either, but geez…
It’s also not at all clear that this is Rosa making a “new list manager tough call.”
The decision whether or not to keep the last 2-3 fringe players on the list cut them would be an 80% Scott decision, informed by Rosa telling Scott what he thinks he can get him via late ND pick, rookie pick, SSP, or DFA routes.
Rosa is not cutting Davey (or Weid, Baldwin, Hind etc.) if Scott rates him, thinks he can get something out of him, and thinks he can/will play him next year and make a career of it. Similarly, Rosa is not re-signing Davey (or the others) if Scott is adamant they are done. Someone in another thread suggested Dodoro had made re-signings that Scott wasn’t on board with which was total insanity.
The fact that Jayden is gone says that Scott is pretty convinced he doesn’t have what it takes, physically or mentally. Based on what I saw from Jayden, despite loving the romance of having an a) indigenous excitement machine b) father son c) twin d) small forward who “makes it”, I’m pretty OK with the decision.
Even the biggest Davey fans can see that there were always big hurdles that had to be overcome to get both boys to where they need to go, and it’s not enough to say “they are project players, give them 5 years to find out”, because then you end up with people laughing at the club for retaining them, just like they did Jackson Merrett, Jake Long etc.
7 Likes
I bet Jayden will sign for Port Melbourne soon.
1 Like
D’Ambrosio was a player with many AFL standard attributes, with elite fitness, who had been drafted on the back of performances against men, who demonstrated he could play at AFL level and hold his own, who was disenchanted by the senior coach who due to his conservatism (and frankly, lack of cojones) wanted to ease Massimo into the side in very slowly (if at all) and rely on senior players to get the job done.
There is zero comparison between he and Jayden Davey.
3 Likes
It’s not going to win you a flag in and of itself, but it’s an important part of the recipe. Whilst I’m not expecting it to happen every year (or much at all), Martin was an SSP, Draper was a rookie, it goes on and on. We need to keep turning the list over at all levels.
1 Like