Draper and McGrath are too old to be there for when we next challenge.
I don’t expect at this stage, I said that we can. As in the talent on our list is there but is the hunger from our players there?
This thread feels unnatural!
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herbatron.
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I guess we see the list differently then. I think how you use the ball is probably one of the most important things in a game. ridley is a good kick, so are langford and tippa. honestly, that’s about it for me on our list. its a fucken embarrassment that dodoro has brought in SO many terrible kicks of the ball
we have one good ball user through the middle, which is Langford. its not enough. it’s a big part of the reason we are no good
we cannot carry a midfield that consists of heppell, shiel, merrett, mcgrath, smith, parish. they are all poor kicks. merrett is the best one, if his confidence is up. the midfield mix is completely wrong though. all are one paced, poor ball users
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McGrath, Ridley, Draper, Saad (and Stringer, only if he commits to getting serious physically)
Everyone else should be considered tradeable for the right price. Delist heavily after that (min. 10).
Turf board, X, coaches (bar Caracella) and Dodo.
Full rebuild.
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Imagine having Merrett at 180cm.
Then drafting in Parish at 181cm, with poor disposal.
Then drafting in McGrath at 178cm, with poor disposal.
Then trading Smith in at 174cm, with poor disposal.
Then blowing your load on Shiel at 182cm, with horrible disposal.
And only now realising your midfield is full of vanilla midgets.
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Haven’t finished top 4 since 2001. Is this list capable of it? Absolutely not.
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I don’t think Blitz is in the mood for glass half full nonsense right now.
Blitz wants savage change Bruh
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So my next door neighbor Doreen, who’s in her late 80’s told me that the old girls in her knitting group were getting bored and were looking to start up a football side but didn’t know who they should test themselves against without getting the elderly and frail injured.
Thoughts.
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List positives
McGrath
Langford
Draper
Parish
Ridley
I think Redman
Probably Zerk
Merrett
Brian
Jones
Maybe Francis
These guys have what we need and of the right age demographic
We need to build around them as our best chance for success asap.
We have some nice players like Saad, a fit Daniher etc, but I doubt they’ll be around for our next serious tilt.
We need to start clearing the decks and building for the future.
And we need to start doing it now.
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It’s the trio of Draper, McGrath and Parish that’s the positive at ages 21,22 and 23 respectively. Reality is it’s going to take 4 years to peak but that’s 4 years of good list management to fill out the other pieces.
Ridley, Langford and Merret would be part of that tilt.
Half a dozen who should/could be
But a lot of holes.
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Positives
- Ridley
- Draper
- Langford
- Joe might be fit
- Stewart might be fit and shows improvement in areas which has been weaknesses
- McGrath played on ball for the first time, more than held his own and improved as the year went on
- Parish, ditto in the second half of the year
- We got some decent game time into zerk
- Phillips is a vast improvement on luey zlarke and tbell as ruck depth
- Tbell will retire
- Woosha is leaving
- Moz, would have been further up the list before yesterday
- Hurley and zaka are one year closer to the end
- the natives are getting restless
- Stringer briefly showed some of his best form with us
I think I’ve scraped the bottom of the barrel there
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We 23 players who should either be delisted, have never played a game, should retire or are seriously out of form.
Thats far too many for an AFL club and Dorodo should hang his head in shame.
Zaka (retire)
TBC (retire)
Fantasia (out of form)
Redman (out of form)
Francis (out of form)
Guelfi (battler)
Snelling (battler)
Gown (unknown)
Johnson (unknown)
McQuillan (unknown)
McBride (unknown)
Hird (unknown)
Crauford (unknown)
Jones (unknown)
Cutler (delist)
Hibberd (delist)
Gleeson (delist)
Clarke (delist)
Ham (delist)
Mutch (delist)
Townsend (delist)
Mckernan (delist)
Cahill (unknown)
Now do a similar review for other clubs.
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Finishing bottom 4 next year would be the best possible outcome - because winning a final isn’t gonna happen.
The positive is that by targetting one good draft class, a la Port//GCS in 2018, and a lot of personnel/coaching changes, we can rejuvenate our talented but low morale experienced core.
2021 is the year to target, I doubt the club will realise any of this until we’re in this same position next year.
You can sky rocket up the ladder very quickly (more so now than ever). You just got to find that one thing (or things) that clicks.
Richmond basket case in 2016 to premiers in 2017
West Coast spoon favourites in pre-season of 2018 to premiers in 2018.
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And then not investing $$ in a kicking coach
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At the risk of repeating what many have already said, our list has many fine players who would get a game at most clubs, (well, perhaps not at the moment).
As a collective our list is poor. As @Saucy just posted our midfield are all short. We have too many players of similar size and playing attributes. How many small forwards does your list need?
As the thread title clearly states, turning half back flankers into mids is a poor strategy.
Unfortunately some good footballers are going to be delisted or languish in the ressies as the list lacks variety.
Snelling, Cahill, Walla, Mossie, Fanta, Begley, Towna, Smith, and Ham all bring much the same. Some better than others.
Replace four of those with Nino’s big bodied mids who can take a contested mark and we are back in town.
And the only half back flankers we need to draft are those who are absolute gun half back flankers.
I think that’s about right, but I’d keep Stringer &Saad too. Maybe as the old men to add some gravitas and experience.