For his height he does a great job. But he gets found out, for sheer height, if the ball comes in high to a Tom Lynch type.
If we were super strong in the midfield we could probably get away with Ambrose in that role - but we’re not, so the opposition gets too many I50s to give undersized key position players, like Ambrose, a chance.
If Mitch Brown isn’t AFL standard, then half of every team’s list isn’t up to AFL standard.
They said hooker only had key hole surgery so I highly highly doubt he will not be ready by season start next year.
Id be surprised if he isnt running again before feb
Would you wanna give Jake Stringer 3 months off??
The confidence I have comes from the changes made to the fitness staff, coaching staff, playing list and personally observed just how good a shape the players are in; even those not in full training that I saw.
You misquote me - I said he wasn’t a AFL standard as a KP forward but quite good as a (very) outside tall small.
We don’t have need of such a player, nor do most teams.
Pre christmas is more about team bonding, integrating new players, changes to culture, game plan and baseline fitness.
After Christmas is about putting the pieces together on grass.
Out of interest, had you seen many training sessions in previous seasons? I’m just curious if you’ve got a baseline to compare to
Confusing statement. Players have already gone in for surgery for this pre-season. Or are you talking about mid 2020 season? If you are talking about what could happen in 6 months time, that is anyone’s guess.
The senior guys that are coming back from injury are all declining as players though. You’ve got Hooker and Hurley who have shown clear signs of regression from their peak. Zaharakis who was never a top 50 player and has struggled for two years. Heppell who can still do it in individual games but hasn’t put together a big season in 2-3 years. The elephant in the room is their quality not necessarily their injury status.
Then two of our best five or six guys with huge upside have both mental and physical question marks - Joe and Raz.
The team has also demonstrated its consistent ability to lose the plot and drop consecutive games against teams we should be competitive against - and by huge margins nearly every year for the last decade.
It’s that sort of combination that makes us a prime candidate for a big drop.
Happy for people who are optimistic, but I’m not feeling anywhere near as good as I was going into last year and we saw how that turned out.
Call it culture, whatever. How does the necessary desire to win stack up against some of the exhortations of players and coaches, like learnings and enjoying football, accepting defeat and moving on.?
Old school was that the entire playing group must downgrade everything else to the main goal. Its close to obsession, it must be dominant on the field of play, but also dominant during preparation.
But the personal costs of that could be high especially in the event of failure, so its probably not sustainable . This is what makes the exact nature of the Hawthorn and more particularly Richmond very interesting. Hawthorn had very talented players and were very well drilled. But the Richmond team had a lot more “average players”, buy in and an effective game plan, uncompromisingly executed.
Since we now have key people from Richmond running the club, will we be able to instil the required culture into our fairly average group ? How long will it take? How strong will their influence be?
I have moderate expectations, but for me the first sign will be which coach fronts the first post game presser. Please. Let it be Truck.
Such a great idea @jonovdp
-Ben Rutten: Senior Assistant;
-Blake Caracella: Midfield;
-Sean Murphy: Head of Strength and Conditioning;
-Mark Harvey: Poor Performance (incl Post-Game Pentient Gaze and Player Re-education)
Not a lot but I am going again this morning.
For whatever reason, just how lean the players look is what stands out to me.
Seriously, you wouldn’t need to skinfold test any of them.
Huge question marks over our kids development also.
They have shown promise but are hugely inconsistent.
Merrett, Saad and McKenna are the only three players 25 or younger that are consistent and you could safely say are proven. Stringer would be close.
Next season Langford, Parish, Francis, McGrath and Redman need to take the next step to be among the competitions best for position and a host of others step up also.
I question the additions of Townsend, Hibberd and Cutler also. To me that’s an admission that our core group of players hasn’t developed as much as we would like and we bringing in players to bolster that area. On face value it seems like a sound strategy to increase depth, but it can also have a detrimental affect on the development of the kids we have. Woosha has already held back their development by not playing them enough or in their best position, now there is potential they will be held back further.
what about Mosquito?
Great report above Bakerwasastar.
I thought in terms of “which senior coach gets sacked when we start slowly to act as the impetus to turn our season around” that the answer was very obvious.
We haven’t finished higher than 7th since 2002.
Yep. We have not hosted a home final, in 17 years. Let that sink in
17 fucken years we have treated water and been either mediocre/average at best, or sh*t. No wonder people are miserable and negative this pre season.
parish and McGrath…come on
Francis was pretty good in last years final too. And Redman has been consistent
Fantasia…a star when fit
Daniher star when fit
Stringer still only 25 too
Then you still have
Gleeson
Langford
Guelfi
who all seem to be in the best 22 when fit.
Essendon Best 22 (25 and under)
B: Saad Zerk-Thatcher Gleeson
Hb: Ridley Francis Redman
C: Cutler McGrath© Hibberd
Hf: Stringer Stewart Laverde
F: Fantasia Daniher Mosquito
R: Draper Merrett(vc) Parish
int: Snelling, Guelfi, Ham, Clarke,
Emg: Bryan, Jones, Cahill
others: Begley, Gown, Mcquillam, McBride, Johnson
Or maybe it’s a necessary correction for having had draft sanctions and having a small gap of mid 20s role players due to the way we were forced to approach the saga draft years.
Of course.
Also next year is a not last year.
I’m just hoping that having Caracella back at the club cures the curse that took hold after we moved him on.