Given what has happened this morning, here is a best 22 thread.
B: Baguley, Hooker, Fletcher
HB: Dempsey, Hurley, Hibberd
C: Colyer, Hocking, Cooney
HF: Zaharakis, Carlisle, Goddard
F: Chapman, Daniher, Ambrose
R: Bellchambers, Watson, Heppell
Int: Z. Merrett, Stanton, Myers, Giles
Emerg: Gwilt, Winderlich, Howlett, Gleeson
Left-overs: O'Brien, Ashby, Pears, Melksham, Edwards, J. Merrett, Browne, Steinberg, Kavanagh, Dell'Olio, Gleeson, Dalgleish, Gregory, Kommer, Hams, Aylett, Thurlow, Rayner, Fantasia plus draft picks and Long.
Not bad.. I bolded the changes, mostly positional..but the main one, Gwilt out, Demps back to half back flank as Colyer must play. His pace and incredible improvement must be utilised this year.
I like how Goddard is going to have a much better year in front of the sticks too. Aside from our depth issues the retirements are going to be tricky over the next couple of years. Need a third tall defender, a few mids who are good at the feet of the key forwards and another developing key forward to come in or develop fast.
What is really striking me is the age of the best 22, midfield particularly. Even assuming Gwilt doesn't play unless we have injuries, we've got Goddard, Watson, Winderlich, Stanton, Chapman, Baguley, Cooney, Dempsey all north of 27, and with our 22 so stuffed to bursting with old guys we've got basically no room at all to give kids a sustained run. Zerrett Heppell and Daniher get a go, sure, simply cos they've earned it, but how are guys like Browne, Kav, Gleeson, Jerrett, Hams, Orazio, Ashby, Edwards etc (plus this year's draftees, of course) supposed to get senior experience and earn their spot when every year we bring in another supperannuant to crowd the kids out of the 22? BJ and Watson aren't really as problem cos they're still in top form, and there's no big rush on Baguley or Dempsey either, but we could lose any or all of the others at any time and the guys we'll be wanting to replace them in the guts of the midfield rotation will be 10-20 gamers rather than 50 gamers.
And my god the tall depth looks awful. The first-choice spine is great, but after that there is quite literally nothing. Injuries to any two talls at any given time - you know, like we failed to cover during the elimination final and lost because of it - and we're in deep trouble.
W're gambling absolutely everything on having a massive year and going almost completely injury-free in 2015 or, at the most generous, 2016. After that we've got all sorts of problems.
What is really striking me is the age of the best 22, midfield particularly. Even assuming Gwilt doesn't play unless we have injuries, we've got Goddard, Watson, Winderlich, Stanton, Chapman, Baguley, Cooney, Dempsey all north of 27, and with our 22 so stuffed to bursting with old guys we've got basically no room at all to give kids a sustained run. Zerrett Heppell and Daniher get a go, sure, simply cos they've earned it, but how are guys like Browne, Kav, Gleeson, Jerrett, Hams, Orazio (plus this year's draftees, of course) supposed to get senior experience and earn their spot when every year we bring in another supperannuant to crowd the kids out of the 22? BJ and Watson aren't really as problem cos they're still in top form, and there's no big rush on Baguley or Dempsey either, but we could lose any or all of the others at any time and the guys we'll be wanting to replace them in the guts of the midfield rotation will be 10-20 gamers rather than 50 gamers.
And my god the tall depth looks awful. The first-choice spine is great, but after that there is quite literally nothing. Injuries to any two talls at any given time - you know, like we failed to cover during the elimination final and lost because of it - and we're in deep trouble.
W're gambling absolutely everything on having a massive year and going almost completely injury-free in 2015 or, at the most generous, 2016. After that we've got all sorts of problems.
You are making a massive assumption that all the old guys are on the park at once.
I'm desperate for Edwards & Gleeson to make massive steps next year. I'm usually one for optimism, but right now, I'm incredibly disappointed at our prospects. The list looks very very old. I seriously hope we see some new guys in next year...I'm running on empty at the moment, my passion is dwindling. I will always support the club, but where I see us now, is very disappointing.
What is really striking me is the age of the best 22, midfield particularly. Even assuming Gwilt doesn't play unless we have injuries, we've got Goddard, Watson, Winderlich, Stanton, Chapman, Baguley, Cooney, Dempsey all north of 27, and with our 22 so stuffed to bursting with old guys we've got basically no room at all to give kids a sustained run. Zerrett Heppell and Daniher get a go, sure, simply cos they've earned it, but how are guys like Browne, Kav, Gleeson, Jerrett, Hams, Orazio (plus this year's draftees, of course) supposed to get senior experience and earn their spot when every year we bring in another supperannuant to crowd the kids out of the 22? BJ and Watson aren't really as problem cos they're still in top form, and there's no big rush on Baguley or Dempsey either, but we could lose any or all of the others at any time and the guys we'll be wanting to replace them in the guts of the midfield rotation will be 10-20 gamers rather than 50 gamers.
And my god the tall depth looks awful. The first-choice spine is great, but after that there is quite literally nothing. Injuries to any two talls at any given time - you know, like we failed to cover during the elimination final and lost because of it - and we're in deep trouble.
W're gambling absolutely everything on having a massive year and going almost completely injury-free in 2015 or, at the most generous, 2016. After that we've got all sorts of problems.
You are making a massive assumption that all the old guys are on the park at once.
I'm sure they will be rotated.
I so thought that the first part was going to have a dig at HM!
I am starting to feel we are gaining real depth with the likes of Ambrose, Howlett, Winderlich and Gleeson perhaps missing the best 22. Kommer will push on his return and Hams, Browne, Dalgleish, Edwards and O'Brien are all likely to break in at some point.and a couple are likely to hold their place. Exciting things to come in 2015.
What is really striking me is the age of the best 22, midfield particularly. Even assuming Gwilt doesn't play unless we have injuries, we've got Goddard, Watson, Winderlich, Stanton, Chapman, Baguley, Cooney, Dempsey all north of 27, and with our 22 so stuffed to bursting with old guys we've got basically no room at all to give kids a sustained run. Zerrett Heppell and Daniher get a go, sure, simply cos they've earned it, but how are guys like Browne, Kav, Gleeson, Jerrett, Hams, Orazio (plus this year's draftees, of course) supposed to get senior experience and earn their spot when every year we bring in another supperannuant to crowd the kids out of the 22? BJ and Watson aren't really as problem cos they're still in top form, and there's no big rush on Baguley or Dempsey either, but we could lose any or all of the others at any time and the guys we'll be wanting to replace them in the guts of the midfield rotation will be 10-20 gamers rather than 50 gamers.
And my god the tall depth looks awful. The first-choice spine is great, but after that there is quite literally nothing. Injuries to any two talls at any given time - you know, like we failed to cover during the elimination final and lost because of it - and we're in deep trouble.
W're gambling absolutely everything on having a massive year and going almost completely injury-free in 2015 or, at the most generous, 2016. After that we've got all sorts of problems.
You are making a massive assumption that all the old guys are on the park at once.
I'm sure they will be rotated.
Even if they are - so what? We rotate one of them out every single week it only means we get to squeeze one kid (or more likely, Melksham) in to the 22 per game. We have probably a dozen guys in need of senior experience, and they aren't going to get it. Some of them will probably look to leave the club because of it, under the new 'contracts mean nothing' AFL paradigm.
The club is betting everything on a pair of 5s. We're stocking up heavily on ageing recycled guys while our own midfield core is ageing too, and trying to cobble a flag together by topping up even though we have no tall depth and the whole push could be utterly miserably derailed by a couple of injuries to the wrong blokes (where would we be if Hooker did a knee, for instance? We have absolutely no cover for him worth the name). And while we shoot for this particular rainbow, we've got a generation of younger guys running around in the 2s not getting the senior experience they'll need if we're going to be a serious flag threat during the NEXT window, while Zaka/Hooker/Hurley/Belly are in their primes.
The structure of our list at the moment scares the crap out of me. House of cards.
And outside of the 22 and emergencies listed by you Pazza, there is SFA in the way of depth, and in particular taller players.
There are no developing key position forwards or defenders of any size. Pears is a list-clogger, Steinberg may not even be there and in any case moves like a glacier, and Gregory from what I've heard is years away.
A couple of injuries in key areas next year and Essendon will be in for a hard season.