We’re in an interesting list quandary at the end of the year if Andrew Phillips, at 32 and on bugger all coin, is still ahead of Nick Bryan as the second ruck.
It possibly will mean that Nick Bryan looks for opportunities elsewhere while Phillips could contemplate retirement.
Mind you, I’m not sure what other club would have Bryan any further up the pecking order in their ruck stocks if he can’t at least be displacing Phillips this year. But you know, sometimes people just search for a change of scenery to trigger something sometimes.
You raise a good point but a club with an older ruckman like Goldstein at North, Stanley at Geelong etc may look at Bryan and say “You’re our Ruckman in 2025”. At Essendon, he will always be stuck behind Draper.
I hope the kid either looks for a better opportunity or one of Draper or Bryan develop a better forward craft.
Great podcast, really enjoyed it. I said previously cjohns opinions i always agree with, which is refreshing having ran into a lot of fellow bombers fans that i wonder wtf they are going on about.
Bryan has no intensity about him at all, he strikes me as your tall guy that knows he has years to ‘develop’, so gets complacent. He almost needs an injury to Draper to be thrown into the deep end, to get him out of his malaise.
The way we solve the key forward, key backs and rucks riddle over the next 1-2 years as we look to exit rebuild mode and enter contending mode will be quite fascinating.
I’m sure ideally we’d be hoping that most of the stocks are already on the list developing rather than us having to dish out draft picks in a trade (unless FA) but I’m not sure we’re going to have that luxury.
We’re really still none the wiser about whether Reid, Jones, Bryan and Cox are long term key position players who you can confidently plug in as pieces of the puzzle towards a premiership. Will 2023 provide much more data on this front to go off for this group? It’s fair to say that it hasn’t got off to the greatest start with 3 out of 4 in the rehab group and the one who is out there not going amazing. Jones is at least very close to re-joining fully and fingers crossed those ankles/feet hold up.
Hayes looks good but it’s early and he’s a few years behind the others. Then you’ve got a couple of undersized (in terms of height) prospects like Baldwin and Voss who were a bit more of a punt.
I think we would have a list of guys like Tom De Koning and Ben King on our whiteboard (which we’ll probably inadvertently feature in a video) to target over the next year or two.
But you might have to chose carefully because if you get one one year you mightn’t get the other the next etc. For instance, De Koning is out of contract this year whereas Ben King is the following year. I mean theoretically you could get both but it’d be a hell of an investment and could they all function well in the one team? Probably?
King, 2MP and resting ruck (De Koning/Draper) up forward. You’d want to have a fleet of very good and very quick small forwards by then to ensure enough defensive pressure.
Still doesn’t make our key back situation much clearer though. Man, Reid getting fit and actually being good is so important for our list build to get that modern day size key defender solidified back there. Hayes could be the man but the timing of his development probably isn’t ideal as far as syncing with where we want to be in 1-2 years from now. We’re still not 100% sure if Zerk is better than a super honest trier. Which there’s obviously a place for on any list but perhaps not the long term high level key defender.
I like the debate, they both make valid points and it makes for interesting conversation.
Grant’s point has merit, but IMO it doesn’t apply to us. Grant wants a system where players have to earn their spot; the issue we have is that all roles are available for the picking after how ■■■■ we’ve been (particularly last year). If we ever become a competitive, consistent and reliable team again, then Grant’s philosophy applies more to us.
but grants talking like caldwell was part of a midfield that challenged a flag. theres is zero merit to his argument with regards to essendon. its totally deluded and wasted 10 minutes of listening time
caldwell
setterfield
WiLl HaS nEvEr PlAyEd A gAmE oF fOoTbAlL.
like fmd we’re a club that hit the reset button a program, runs on the board doesn’t matter for anyone except merrett, parish, martin, redman and 2mp. the rest were sub par AFL footballers in 2022
and for ■■■■■ sake mute the ■■■■■■■ mic when you cough, 3 years of WFH hasn’t taught him that?
Sigh. Its all cool to debate our shows content but enough with the personal insults mate. He was pressing the mute button on his mic by the way (everytime). It was my mic picking it up. Shame Barnz… some of your thoughts are fine but you have to keep insulting and its getting tiresome mate. I don’t get why you get so angry and attack consistently… but i cant worry about it either. We will just be us. He meant Setterfield no previous games with our list by the way… not AFL games in general. He knows he played many games for the Blues.
Thanks for being a couple of people who put their personal time on the line to watch training and put themselves out there on a podcast. Better than the rest of us who hide behind fake names on the internet.
Last year I would have always have selected Caldwell, he needs to get game time, has heaps of talent.
In defence of Grant’s opinion, it could also be viewed as Setterfield is only 24, and yet is now at his third club, given away for nothing to us, and so has to earn his spot…but I believe preseason is where this would happen.
I agree with Grant. As a whole, Caldwell’s 2022 was better than Setterfield’s and he has more scope for improvement.
As @CJohns entioned, probably the better discussion is Hobbs v Setterfield. And I would pick Setterfield over Hobbs. Hobbs can work on his kicking in the vfl for the first few weeks and put pressure on Setterfield’s spot after that
I think @barnz was making the point that it’s pretty frustrating to hear Grant go off on a whole rant about a player needing to “get leather poisoning in the VFL” when he’s never seen him play. He thought Setterfield played on a HBF which proved the point that he’s never watched him at all at any level.
To bang on about Caldwell being a lock starter and that pre season form means nothing is pretty silly.
I always really enjoy listening to the podcasts and agree that feedback should be given respectfully
