Our defence:
I'm still not 100% convinced McGuane, Moore and Thursty will be our tall backs going forward. Sure we currently also have Gourdis, Rance, Post and even Astbury as tall defenders but there are severe question marks over Goo and Rance, Postie hasn't come on yet and has had 2nd year blues and Astbury is on in his first year although has shown promise. I still think we struggle breaking out of a full-press zone as the footskills in our backline aren't reliable enough and lack penetration across the board. It's the reason Lids has had to go back there to combine with Newy to give us quality footskills coming out of defence. We are also undersized down back.
Our midfield:
Probably the strongest part of our current list and we do have potential A-graders in Lids, Cotch, Martin. Add Foley, Tuck, Cuz, Jacko, Collo as our 2nd tier mids. We still need to add more quality. Firstly because IMO the best sides have a dozen quality mids (A and B-graders combined) they can rotate through there. Secondly because we'll need to replace Cuz and Tuck. Thirdly because an injury or two will expose our lack of depth.
Our midfield strength is our in-close contesting and clearance work. We get cut open though by the better sides on the spread once the ball clears the stoppage. Partially that will fix itself as our cubs' fitness improves and they physically mature but we need more class and size to add to Lids, Cotch and Martin.
Our rucks:
Gus and Vickery look okay now to take us forward although both are still learning especially Ty. We should have at least 4 rucks on our list to cover any injuries IMO. Look at Carlton and what has happened with Kreuzer. Browne is still very raw and not a decent possession gatherer. We don't know yet whether he'll become an AFL standard ruckman.
Our forwards:
Still our weakest aspect. Jack's form and bags of goals doesn't hide the fact he is our only reliable goal source each and every week. Jack is also our only confirmed forward going forward. Griffiths, Astbury, Nason, Taylor and co. are only in their first year. Way too early to judge whether they'll become A-graders or at least decent B-graders at AFL level.
To me the job is so far only half done. We have a young core now to build around which we didn't have 5 years ago but that core needs to be added to (what Ramps calls the second wave of recruiting) to build a quality list that has depth that can take us to a flag. We still are very thin in the 24-28 y.o. age bracket. When you look at our list we really won't mature until 2013 onwards. There's still too many on our list too young and inexperienced to say we have the players to take us up the ladder.
We have also had a dream run with injuries for once (excluding Foley). That won't always be the case. Good sides/lists can cover injuries. If god forbid Jack, Martin or even Gus did a knee or copped some long-term injury we'd be stuffed.
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Our Defence:
I'm not convinced McGuane Moore and Thursty will be our key defenders going forward either. But they're so hard to seperate, its difficult to tell which of the three (if any) is the keeper. I think the question mark over Goo was always his kicking, but I've seen a lot of him at Coburg now, and I believe it's no longer a problem. I don't believe he's far from senior action. Neither IMO is Post who is MASSIVE now, and the word was he was struggling for a while with the extra muscle.Rance is improving. I haven't given up on him yet.And from what I've seen of Grimes,(like Astbury) he will be a beauty when he fills out. He might play his first Coburg senior game tomorrow
Our Midfield:
You mention Lids,Cotch, Martin, Foley,Tuck,Cuz, Jacko and Collins, and say that the better teams have 12 mids in their rotations. Well throw in Edwards,Nason,Webberley and Contin (who there are big raps on) and there's your 12. And that's not even mentioning White and King who are now playing great footy.
Of those only Cuz is short-term, as I believe Tucky with his father's longevity genes could play well into his 30's. Sure, we need to keep unearthing them. Even Hardwick said we'll be looking for more outside runners next draft. But do we really need pick 4? There are lots of good players to be had even in the 20 to 40 range if you draft smartly. Nason at 71 is living proof of that.
Our Rucks:
Yes I agree, we need to add another. We need at least four on the list. And with Simmo retiring, if a hole in our list structure opens up we need to close it. But once again, ruckmen tend to be picked up a little later in the draft, unless they're exceptional talents like Kruezer and Natanui. Or big vacancies in our team structure that needed addressing like we did when we took Vickery early.
Our Forwards:
Yes, it's a worry that Jack is being left to shoulder so much of the scoring burden at the minute. But let's see how some of these key position names come up. As well as the likes of Nahas, Roberts,Hicks and Taylor at ground level.
You say the job is only half-finished. But there are still many players on our list we haven't even seen at senior level yet: Contin, Grimes, Gilligan,Gourdis, Hicks,O'Reilly and Westhoff. On top of that, we've only seen glimpses of Taylor, Roberts, Webberley, Griffiths and Dea so far.There is just so much scope for improvement with our current list. With Simmonds gone, McMahon's papers stamped and the likes of Hislop,Thompson,and probably Polo and Morton to go, that's plenty of room for new faces coming into 2011.
Finally,you say the lack of 24-28 yr olds on our list is a problem. Well there's only 2 ways to fix that. One is to wait for our list to start ageing, obviously. The other is to recruit some older, recycled players. And I'm sure we don't want to go down that path again. It never worked for us in the past. And look at the mess Brisbane are in now taking that approach.
