A question or 2 concerning rookies.

[the claw]

Seeing as we dont have any players on the veteran list how many rookies can we play without them being on the LTI list.?

My understanding is two.  if this is correct who will those two be?

imo one will be polak but if not polak gourdis. the other would have to be the 23 yr old roberts although we need inside mids perhaps contin will get a gig.

my reasoning is we have just two tall players with 100 games experience one is polak. hes a kp forward and we lack for an established ff.
 if polak is not to play it will be gourdis. a genuine ff with great athletic attributes whos entering his 3rd yr. imo we have just two genuine ff in our system one is gourdis and the other new boy griffiths.

on roberts well his age speaks for itself. surely we took this 23 yr old with every intention of playing him. all reports thus far of him are good.  only needs to work on his motor but playing out of a fp it wont be to much of  a problem.if hes half as good as some think and his skills are elite  robbie nahas had better watch out.because as good as nahas was defensively his skills are tough around the edges.

[mightytiges]

Yep it's two Claw. The reason being is each veteran is effectively an extra senior listed player so it gives sides with veterans an advantage. So to make it fairer sides with just one veteran are allowed to nominate one rookie to play straight away without anyone needing to be on the LTIL and sides with no veterans are allowed to nominate two rookies.

Going by training reports of the intra-club scratch matches we have had Polly will be played at FF this year so it seems he'll be one of the nominated rookies. The other will probably be determined right before round 1. O'Reilly and even young Contin could be show for the other spot. Roberts is mature but not sure if his fitness is up to scratch yet and I don't just think Gourdis will make it due to his kicking deficiencies.

[the claw]

cheers mt  that makes sense.

and them useing polak does also. i still have hope for gourdis it aint over till its over but your right his kicking sheesh.

if roberts cant get his fitness up to scratch i would like to see contin get a go.

[mightytiges]

Yep the wraps on Contin so far seem positive.

I guess the one positive from all of this is we have a full bill of 8 rookies to choose from. Even if only two of them end up solid-to-good AFL players in long-term then last December's rookie draft will be a success for us.

[WA Tiger]

Could Contin start in the centre?? We may need to replace Foley in round 1?

[mightytiges]

Could Contin start in the centre?? We may need to replace Foley in round 1?

We'd be expecting too much of a first year 18 year old like Contin to walk off the rookie list and start in the centre but if he is good enough to start on the bench and play a role within our midfield rotation then yeah he could play round 1 as a replacement for Foley. Tucky and Jacko would still need to do most of the bullocking work though inside.

[WA Tiger]

Could Contin start in the centre?? We may need to replace Foley in round 1?

We'd be expecting too much of a first year 18 year old like Contin to walk off the rookie list and start in the centre but if he is good enough to start on the bench and play a role within our midfield rotation then yeah he could play round 1 as a replacement for Foley. Tucky and Jacko would still need to do most of the bullocking work though inside.

Well that would be good enough, you never know he might surprise us all.

[WilliamPowell]

Could Contin start in the centre?? We may need to replace Foley in round 1?

Disagree here that we need to replace Foley

We have: Deledio, Cotchin and Martin as senior listed players that can play that position.

You could even throw Collins, Jackson or (hand onto your hats folks) Newman in there.

I would think Polak is a show in to be promoted to start the season. The other spot? I'd be waiting until after the pre-season and even a few games into the season proper before making a decision. I don't believe in promoting for the sake of it

[Stripes]

Could Contin start in the centre?? We may need to replace Foley in round 1?

Disagree here that we need to replace Foley

We have: Deledio, Cotchin and Martin as senior listed players that can play that position.

You could even throw Collins, Jackson or (hand onto your hats folks) Newman in there.

I would think Polak is a show in to be promoted to start the season. The other spot? I'd be waiting until after the pre-season and even a few games into the season proper before making a decision. I don't believe in promoting for the sake of it

Throw Thompson into the buffering role too WP. Lids could play the role given his size as could Martin but I suspect they would prefer to play Lids as an outside mid due to his disposal skills and play Martin/Cotchin/Cousins off the HF or wing due to their stage of development/injury concerns. This could change quite dramatically but I would suspect Thompson is proving he can fill the role.

Stripes

[WA Tiger]

Could Contin start in the centre?? We may need to replace Foley in round 1?

Disagree here that we need to replace Foley

We have: Deledio, Cotchin and Martin as senior listed players that can play that position.

You could even throw Collins, Jackson or (hand onto your hats folks) Newman in there.

I would think Polak is a show in to be promoted to start the season. The other spot? I'd be waiting until after the pre-season and even a few games into the season proper before making a decision. I don't believe in promoting for the sake of it

You will notice WP that I had question marks after both my sentences, so not sure who you are disagreeing with....