Don't recognise it half our old players are depth players that wont't be playing, RFC has one of the youngest lists going around, don't worry about that
Brett Deledio and Ivan Maric are only a "depth players" and "won't be playing"
Lids will be 28 in April and Ivan will be 29 in January, they are 2 of our older players. Ditto Foley & Chaplin, reckon it's fair to say they will indeed be playing .... A lot
Oh yeah, pick out the 2 oldest players that will actually be on the field, and call the list old,,, great logic there WP
Firstly, I never said the list was old. I actually don't think it is.
But...
I was only applying your logic not mine. You are the one who made the sweeping statement half our older players are "depth players that won't be playing". Clearly when 2 of them are 2 of our most important players it is obvious that your statement is not correct
But to take it further and to make the point clearer for you
Of the so called "older players" if you take
Lids
Maric
Newman
Chaplin
Houli
Grigg
Foley
Petterd
They are going to play more games than they miss
Not saying I agree as I would argue the only "locks" should be Lids & Maric.
but of the players I've listed they are going to get games. They got them this year when they weren't deserved not sure it's going to change in a hurry
So I think the argument can be made that your statement of "half our old players are depth players that wont't be playing" is not accurate
to take it further the rest of the regulars are hardly juniors either. in fact we have few juniors who have shown enough to bring into the team. the following players we will be looking at them playing about half the games at the least next yr and not one of em will be under 23.
astbury 24 , batchelor 23 , dea 24, edwards 26, gordon 25, griffiths 23, grimes 23, knights 28, lloyd 25, hunt 24, martin 24, miles 23, cotchin 24, morris 26, rance 25, riewoldt 26, thomas 28.vickery 24,
then theres conca 22, a development player
and then the regular juniors
ellis 21, vlastuin 20.
we have just 3 regular players aged 22 or under. and the problem is theres few juniors who have done enough to date.
it only leaves. mcbean 20 mcdonough 21, mcintosh 20, lennon 19, elton 21, arnot 21.
surely a bit of common sense says the above 20 players combined with the 8 named by wp will play the majority of games. its not young and its also played a lot of games. at least 14 100 gamers if i have counted right with plenty more who have played between 50 and 99 games. and a lot of those who have played less than 50 games are mature types older than 22.
the fact is we have an inordinate number of players in the right age bracket 23 plus. and over all the list is helped by the fact we have so few players aged 30 plus,in fact just the one.
we also have many in the right games brackets as well.
we look at age to determine maturity and development. we look at games played to determine experience.we look at both because playing a 25 yr old gordon who has the maturity and physical development but played few games is very different to playing the immature and under developed 19 yo lennon who also has played few games..
the overall age of most team lists is not that far apart. probably 1 yr in it or close to 1yr give or take across the board.
its when you do best 22 or best 25 that you see the real difference between building teams and established teams.
look at haw and us at the start of the yr with full lists.
hawthorn ave 23yrs 349 days.
richmond ave 24yrs 54 days.
hawks had a fair few 30 yr olds compared to us so to achieve a younger list they needed younger players in other areas. or more juniors.
come finals
the 22s
haw g/f 26/294 gms ave 136
rich e/f 25/67 gms ave 105 it is exactly where it needs to be to challnge for top 4 both in experience and maturity. our problem is not age and experience it is overall quality.
we played p/a in the elim look at how close the two teams were age experience wise
p/a e/f 24/258 ave gms 102.
rich e/f 25/67 ave gms 105.
you have to go back to 2002 and 2003 to find a side that even played in a gf that ave less than 100 gms a player or whose ave age was less than 24 plus yrs old. that was malthouses collingwood.
if we look at history or recent history the last 10 or so seasons there is some very good guides that say your best 25 at the very least have to get to 100gms and be 24 yrs and oilder to even make a g/f.