Andrew Welsh, Adam McPhee may roll dice in draft

[WA Tiger]

Still reckon McPhee could offer something for a couple of years, he was flying before his injury and he has played great footy since crossing from the Bombers. His second half or part of the season was also very good after the same injury mentioned above.

What the ???

Did you watch one of his games in 04 and bought the album for the single ??

No, just been watching most of his footy actually, 04, rubbish, he has been very good since crossing from Freo (excluding his injury carrying games). Anyway thats my opinion and we won't take him so don't get too bent out of shape..

[Darth Tiger]

Still reckon McPhee could offer something for a couple of years, he was flying before his injury and he has played great footy since crossing from the Bombers. His second half or part of the season was also very good after the same injury mentioned above.

What the ???

Did you watch one of his games in 04 and bought the album for the single ??

No, just been watching most of his footy actually, 04, rubbish, he has been very good since crossing from Freo (excluding his injury carrying games). Anyway thats my opinion and we won't take him so don't get too bent out of shape..

Yes sage

[WA Tiger]

Still reckon McPhee could offer something for a couple of years, he was flying before his injury and he has played great footy since crossing from the Bombers. His second half or part of the season was also very good after the same injury mentioned above.

What the ???

Did you watch one of his games in 04 and bought the album for the single ??

No, just been watching most of his footy actually, 04, rubbish, he has been very good since crossing from Freo (excluding his injury carrying games). Anyway thats my opinion and we won't take him so don't get too bent out of shape..

Yes sage

What the??????

[mightytiges]

McPhee is 27 and Welsh turns 27 in Feb. Not the age we'd be looking at to add to our list you would think.

[WA Tiger]

McPhee is 27 and Welsh turns 27 in Feb. Not the age we'd be looking at to add to our list you would think.

I don't think anyone on this site wants any player under the age 22 or under the age of 18 by the sounds of it, very hard to find ready made champions at that age with all the skills to take us to finals ... , but thats fine a few 150+ point whoopings and hindsight may come into play. Can't wait for the youth to come to the club dont worry about that but.......... we need the mix and I will keep saying it.

I will use one example for my reasoning, in all honesty Thursfield, Moore and McGuanne and even Rance have been bagged by many for underperforming. Now I ask you who was the onfield backline expert there to coach these guys when they were coming through... on the field (please dont be hypocrites and say Bowden) ?? Gasper, Graham and both Kellaways were either in the side while the previous mentioned players were in the Coburg side or they were all gone when our current backline started together. Give or take a bit of time but not much, yet most of the year our backline has failed...... gee wonder why!!

Around the ground other than the centre this has also occured, half back, half forward. Just my thoughts.

[Ramps]

If there is no one better in the PSD who do we take, we may as well take 1 of the 2. They may not be stars, but they are better than the 38th player on our list. Infact both would be in best 18 players if truth be told.

[Smokey]

McPhee is 27 and Welsh turns 27 in Feb. Not the age we'd be looking at to add to our list you would think.

I don't think anyone on this site wants any player under the age 22 or under the age of 18 by the sounds of it, very hard to find ready made champions at that age with all the skills to take us to finals ... , but thats fine a few 150+ point whoopings and hindsight may come into play. Can't wait for the youth to come to the club dont worry about that but.......... we need the mix and I will keep saying it.

I will use one example for my reasoning, in all honesty Thursfield, Moore and McGuanne and even Rance have been bagged by many for underperforming. Now I ask you who was the onfield backline expert there to coach these guys when they were coming through... on the field (please dont be hypocrites and say Bowden) ?? Gasper, Graham and both Kellaways were either in the side while the previous mentioned players were in the Coburg side or they were all gone when our current backline started together. Give or take a bit of time but not much, yet most of the year our backline has failed...... gee wonder why!!

Around the ground other than the centre this has also occured, half back, half forward. Just my thoughts.

We haven't had a +100 point whooping in over 2 years WAT - R6 2007 vs Geelong - and we aren't going to have any this year.  And our backline is not a good example of your point - they have actually done a fair job in very trying circumstances - the blame should be fairly pointed at our midfield that have had zero defensive accountability up until now.  If he lives up to his rhetoric then I expect that to change considerably under Hardwick.

[mightytiges]

I don't think anyone on this site wants any player under the age 22 or under the age of 18 by the sounds of it, very hard to find ready made champions at that age with all the skills to take us to finals ... , but thats fine a few 150+ point whoopings and hindsight may come into play. Can't wait for the youth to come to the club dont worry about that but.......... we need the mix and I will keep saying it.

The cut-off maximum age would be 24. No one is saying they have to be kids but given we are 3-4 years at least away from playing finals we would want to pick up players who will still be in their prime by then. No use picking up a 27 year old now and find he's slowed down and near retirement in 3 years time.

I will use one example for my reasoning, in all honesty Thursfield, Moore and McGuanne and even Rance have been bagged by many for underperforming. Now I ask you who was the onfield backline expert there to coach these guys when they were coming through... on the field (please dont be hypocrites and say Bowden) ?? Gasper, Graham and both Kellaways were either in the side while the previous mentioned players were in the Coburg side or they were all gone when our current backline started together. Give or take a bit of time but not much, yet most of the year our backline has failed...... gee wonder why!!

Around the ground other than the centre this has also occured, half back, half forward. Just my thoughts.

The first 3 did okay in 2008 together as a young backline. We failed defensively this year mostly because there's little defensive pressure through the midfield and out of our forward line and our skill level is so atrocious that 3/4ers of opposition goals come directly from our turnovers  . [Edit. beat me to it smokey]

We're a young side and even if Hardwick turns out to be a brilliant coach and teacher it's going to be a tough couple of years until our list rebuilds and matures. No point bringing in some temporary older players who are only good enough to carry us up to ninth and a late poor first pick which hinders our rebuild.

[Mr Magic]

I'd take Welsh in the PSD. Even if we only get 3/4 years he is a perfect support player alongside our plethora of kids until they come on. We have just had a massive exodus of experience and he will easily get a game in our 22 over the next few seasons until others are ready to surpass him.

[WA Tiger]

McPhee is 27 and Welsh turns 27 in Feb. Not the age we'd be looking at to add to our list you would think.

I don't think anyone on this site wants any player under the age 22 or under the age of 18 by the sounds of it, very hard to find ready made champions at that age with all the skills to take us to finals ... , but thats fine a few 150+ point whoopings and hindsight may come into play. Can't wait for the youth to come to the club dont worry about that but.......... we need the mix and I will keep saying it.

I will use one example for my reasoning, in all honesty Thursfield, Moore and McGuanne and even Rance have been bagged by many for underperforming. Now I ask you who was the onfield backline expert there to coach these guys when they were coming through... on the field (please dont be hypocrites and say Bowden) ?? Gasper, Graham and both Kellaways were either in the side while the previous mentioned players were in the Coburg side or they were all gone when our current backline started together. Give or take a bit of time but not much, yet most of the year our backline has failed...... gee wonder why!!

Around the ground other than the centre this has also occured, half back, half forward. Just my thoughts.

We haven't had a +100 point whooping in over 2 years WAT - R6 2007 vs Geelong - and we aren't going to have any this year.  And our backline is not a good example of your point - they have actually done a fair job in very trying circumstances - the blame should be fairly pointed at our midfield that have had zero defensive accountability up until now.  If he lives up to his rhetoric then I expect that to change considerably under Hardwick.

Yeah we havent had 100+ point whooping for over 2 years have we and I agree we wont have any this year either because the season is over... , so what I am saying is get ready for it... and the 87 point crushing we got in round one wasn't too far behing either was it. I don't agree that our backline did a fair job either, quite often they seemed all over the place, overwhelmed and with no room to move, please see round 1 and round 22. I didn't see any experience around them (onfield) coaching them through it either.

[WA Tiger]

No point bringing in some temporary older players who are only good enough to carry us up to ninth and a late poor first pick which hinders our rebuild.
[/quote]

It's the experience to teach the youngsters, it's not about carrying us up the ladder, we have tried that for too long. Two more players would not have hurt or will not hurt, pick 70 whatever and the other late one could be used. Lets face it our rebuild is shot to pieces somewhat after this years draft as we all know the G17 and Syd West teams are going to pilfer every youngster available.

[mightytiges]

No point bringing in some temporary older players who are only good enough to carry us up to ninth and a late poor first pick which hinders our rebuild.

It's the experience to teach the youngsters, it's not about carrying us up the ladder, we have tried that for too long. Two more players would not have hurt or will not hurt, pick 70 whatever and the other late one could be used. Lets face it our rebuild is shot to pieces somewhat after this years draft as we all know the G17 and Syd West teams are going to pilfer every youngster available.
[/quote]
The rebuild will be shot if we finish 9th-11th on the back of older players who will be gone in 3 to 4 years time and we end up with a first pick in the mid-teens next year. Compare that to the bottom 2 sides who will still end up with top 6 pick. As painful as it sounds we need to bottom out and go with youth.

[WA Tiger]

No point bringing in some temporary older players who are only good enough to carry us up to ninth and a late poor first pick which hinders our rebuild.

It's the experience to teach the youngsters, it's not about carrying us up the ladder, we have tried that for too long. Two more players would not have hurt or will not hurt, pick 70 whatever and the other late one could be used. Lets face it our rebuild is shot to pieces somewhat after this years draft as we all know the G17 and Syd West teams are going to pilfer every youngster available.

The rebuild will be shot if we finish 9th-11th on the back of older players who will be gone in 3 to 4 years time and we end up with a first pick in the mid-teens next year. Compare that to the bottom 2 sides who will still end up with top 6 pick. As painful as it sounds we need to bottom out and go with youth.
[/quote]

Are you going to tell me that two experienced players amongst all that youth is going to matter to our final selections in the draft?? If you brought a few hundred games of experience to the club with known players to teach our youth it would save us time in the long run and the youth will come out better equiped. At least with two experienced players we know what we have and who to put them with to teach or we could end up with another Putt, Patto, JON, the list just goes on. Remember you can't buy experience no matter what picks you have, but you can gain experience through experience!!

Look at the finalists, their teams werea mixture, NOT all youth, this fantasy of building some super team from youth is not realistic, at some stage we NEED experience, be it this PSD/trade week or next years PSD/ trade week WE NEED some experience.

[Smokey]

Yeah we havent had 100+ point whooping for over 2 years have we and I agree we wont have any this year either because the season is over... , so what I am saying is get ready for it... and the 87 point crushing we got in round one wasn't too far behing either was it. I don't agree that our backline did a fair job either, quite often they seemed all over the place, overwhelmed and with no room to move, please see round 1 and round 22. I didn't see any experience around them (onfield) coaching them through it either.

For the record, over the past 2 seasons this is each club's losses by 10 goals or more (games by 90 points or more in brackets):

West Coast - 10 (4)
Melbourne - 9 (3)
Fremantle - 7 (1)
Richmond - 7 (1)
Essendon - 6 (3)
Port Adel - 5 (1)
Brisbane - 4 (1)
Carlton - 3
Collingwood - 2
Nth Melb - 2
Sydney - 1
Geelong - 1
Adelaide - 1
W Bulldogs - 1
Hawthorn - 1
St Kilda - 0

So we certainly don't stand out as having a particularly poor backline.  And our backline is made up entirely of kids that have managed to get a lot of match experience into them at a young age without having bled standout numbers of opposition goals - all with a dysfunctional coaching regime that had a game-plan the team was incapable of following.

Moore - 25 years old, 65 games.
Thursfield - 23 years old, 53 games.
McGuane - 22 years old, 54 games.
Polo - 23 years old, 53 games.
Rance - 20 years old, 15 games.

That's a fair bit of experience for a core of youngsters who are all capable players.  Watch what happens when they actually get some support from team mates upfield.

Keep an open mind about the role of all the players in the team, especially the midfielders.  They are the ones most responsible for the pressure that is placed on the backline and if you acknowledge the fact they appeared "overwhelmed" then look at who was doing the 'overwhelming' and how it was being done.

Turnovers through the midfield freeing up loose opposition players ring any bells?

Or players running the ball out of defence, looking up and seeing no-one making space or leading so turning back into trouble?

[tiga]

I can see Cameron & Co rubbing their hands together while they queue for the Bain Maire that is the 2009 PSD...Hmmm what to choose...The rubbery sausage or the soggy chips??
Obviously the Dee's will not resist the allure of the Pie that looks good on the outside but is ever so disappointingly tired and overcooked on the inside...Hmmm who could that be??