Lid On 2019: The Lid remains on, until a final is won

What I want to know is how we lack so much leadership on field when all we’ve drafted for 10 years are “good leaders”???

The team is soft. Bottom line. It’s time to stop drafting leaders and start drafting ■■■■■■ who football good.

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That seems a bit too lid off for me.

You need to factor in our famous inability to develop players (at best). And too many players arrive here with good skills but go backwards.

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Disagree. I can think of 20 better without raising a sweat:

Danger
Fyfe
Grundy
Gawn
Selwood
Kennedy (WC)
Neale
J Kelly
Cripps
Coniglio
D Martin
Cotchin
Reiwoldt
Pendlebury
Cameron
Whitfield
Bont
Oliver
Franklin
T Kelly

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Plenty more off that list I could question…

Joe and Fanta certainly have the potential to to be top 20 players. The issue though is that they can’t get fit, but also that they don’t have that natural improvement arc that we would have expected which would definitely make them superstars of the comp.

Maybe this is as a result of injury (certainly for Fanta), but also, it’s a symptom of our inability to take players to the next level development wise. We draft kids that are talented (sometimes), they show in their first few years that they have super talent and huge potential to be a superstar if they develop - aaaaand that’s where it stops.

And we’ve got a bunch of them on the list - players who at one point early in their careers threatened to be absolute megastars but never got there (or haven’t got there yet). Think Hurley, Heppell, Merrett, hell maybe even McGrath…

Then you should put aside your bias and analyse it correctly.

How you could question Pendlebury as a top 20 player is astounding. Selwood to a lesser extent but still top 20 without a doubt.

If we were to make a comparison of Reiwoldt to both Raz and Joe then Reiwoldt has had 9 years in a row where he has kicked between 48 - 78 goals.
Franklin has done it for 12 years in a row.

Imo the only valid queries would be Oliver, Kennedy and to a lesser extent Cotchin.

The reason many are so upset with Worsfold is they over rate our players, think they are a top 4 team on talent so it must be the coaches fault.

There have been promising players for decades that for whatever reason never reach their potential. These lists and the ladder are based on reality, not potential.

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When fit and healthy Raz IS the best small forward in the game imo.

He needs to be compared to other small forwards not mids and tall forwards

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What they have achieved in the past is irrelevant.
It’s a question of who is in the Top 20 right now !
No way is Selwood Top 20 in the league in 2019…NO WAY, still a good player though.

Heppell is the same level as Cotchin.

Oliver is a fkn good player, and will get better (perhaps a lot better), but I wouldn’t swap him for Zac Merrett right now.
About the same level as Sheil, but with more upside.

Different players, but Fanta is better than Kennedy.
They have both missed significant chunks of footy in the past 12 months.

Buddy is a great of the game, but is passed his best now, and is struggling to get on the park.

Pendlebury is in a slow decline, but has been very good of late (including ANZAC DAY).
Incidentally, Sidebottom and Beams are showing signs.
They’d wanna win it this year I’d reckon.

Neale is having a great year, still not sure I would definitively say he is better than Zac.

I’d say the best small forward in the game right now is Ablett. Less long term potential though, obviously.

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He very well could be. Problem is he’s not ‘fit and healthy’ enough. Will he be a player we have to manage through seasons with limited games? Is that acceptable?

If nothing else it will be interesting how this unfolds.

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#HWAFFI15Y

This is something that i think might end up being the next step in professionalism.

Actually scheduling x amount of games a player misses because he has proven over several seasons his body can’t handle it.

So say at the start of the season they map out a program for Raz to play 14 games or something along those lines.

Maybe bigger lists would be required but also maybe if the PA have their way one day they will set a cap on how many games a player can play for the year.

You really need to go watch some ORAZIO highlights.

You’ve forgotten.

ability to be on the park goes a long way to being a top 20 player.

raz is made of overcooked tinned spaghetti, like winderlich.

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Well I didn’t say ‘if fit’ for nothing.

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yeah but its like saying ‘when winning essendon is one of the winningest teams’

It’s not really like saying that.

nah its not, but its the lid on thread.

I didn’t really hear the full conversation on SEN but to hear our squad being spoken about in the same grouping as Carlton, north, St Kilda and Fremantle is embarrassing.
What other club would be getting less output if they had the list we have?

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Ah, you’re right, I lost my bearings a little.

Carry on.