I understand a few of Freo's best players were missing against Adelaide, however we have a few pretty handy senior players out of the side as well. Freo managed the lowest score since the 1950s and there have been only 3 games in VFL/AFL history where a team has kicked such a low score and also lost by over 100 points (ie taking out rain affected low scores)
The reason I mention this is, despite the reasonably comprehensive loss to Adelaide last week, we remained reasonably competitive and certainly kept the scoreline respectable. We did this despite our starting 22 average age being MORE THAN 1 YOUNGER than the team Freo put up against Adelaide this week. Our average age this week was 22 years 298 days, to Freo 23 years 327 days. We had a few changes this week with Foley, Collins & Sylvestor out, however in regards to age there were fairly similar ins to replace them in King, White & Rance.
Not only that but of our best 6 players (stats wise) with the exception of Cousins, it was our kids who were our biggest contributors for the match, where as Freo had predominantly it's senior players as it's major contributors
Richmond
Cousins 31 years 11 days
Jackson 23 years 77 days
Tambling 22 days 302 days
Deledio 22 years 84 days
Cotchin 19 years 95 days
Riewoldt 20 years 253 days
Fremantle
Broughton 22 years 285 days
Duffield 24 years 157 days
Grover 29 years 122 days
Dodd 26 years 21 days
McPharlin 27 years 222 days
Haselby 28 years 29 days
Now I know we don't want to be using Freo as our benchmark for success. However it's pretty nice to know that with a much younger side, we are far more competitive than they are. Tanking is one thing, however being uncompetitive is very different.
So I'm not completely convinced that our list is in as bad a shape as some of the "chicken little" supporters may say. There is plenty to suggest otherwise.
