For everyone and im gunna keep asking it. Will we win the flag this year ? If no then there is only one course of action we should be taking, especially with the age demographic of the list.
It’s not as black and white as that. Otherwise by that logic you’d have 10+ teams playing youth ahead of experienced players for the sake of it.
Hardly playing kids just two the rest have been around a bit wouldn't you agree.The logic in our case says the experienced players are poor and the younger blokes deserve a crack.
Either way theres hardly a lack of experienced players Gibcus is the only one at 19 in defence Miller and Mansell are 22.
Only RCD at age 22 in the midfield among a pile of 25yo to 32yo.
Just Ralphsmith in the fwd half with 22yo thru 33yo. plenty of experience there
Would like to see a team along these lines give or take a player.
FB Mansell - Tarrant - Gibcus
HB Vlastuin - Miller - Broad
C Pickett - RC-D - Rioli
R Nankervis - Cotchin - Prestia
HF Bolton - Balta - Ralphsmith
FF Lynch - Riewoldt - Stack
Int from. Lambert, Dow, Sonsie, Ross, Graham, Baker, Short, McIntosh.
It aint gunna happen but one can only hope.
Miller lol. Are u wanting to see Fritsch kick 10?
LOL last time i looked there were 6 defenders named why you would pluck a big kpd to play on Fritsch is quite frankly bemusing.
Reckon as third tall and being so good in the air Gibcus would get the gig or failing that Broad.Tarrant will probably get McDonald and Miller will get Weiderman. If they Play Ben Brown then we may have to change.
The bottom line is no one is asking for a whole pile of kids get thrown in. And no one is asking for a team devoid of age experience.
Just on Baker Claw he has been down , but the question has to asked why have we moved him up forward when he was at home as a half back flank and playing great footy I can't understand it ?.We got this obsession playing players out of position again same as Ross. Doesn't make sense to me.
Yeah we're playing 3 key forwards yet we hardly look dangerous the delivery is poor we know , but there not leading not taking pack marks or creating havoc seems like a waste.My personal opinion Balta and Lynch work the best together.
I tend to agree with nearly all that.
Baker first. My biggest gripe with him playing back is his size 173cm and its very exploitable.As an example useing him he can play else where which affords a defender like Mansell an opportunity. Can say the same for Rioli and others it seems we play any one who didnt start as a defender in defence and then draft defenders and make em play else where when they do get a fleeting senior game.
Why have we moved Baker well we can ask that about so many.. Mansell who really does deserve another crack at it. Rioli, Short, Vlastuin, Broad Grimes who can play small very well, Pickett was an outstanding hb before we drafted him, Stack who imo has played his best footy in defense, We just recruited Brown and Banks, we have played edwards there, Fair dinkum sml/med defender is the last of our problems, sorting out who should play there really does seem to be an issue though.
On the bigger fwds for me the problem is with smaller players whose disposal makes it way too hard for the bigger blokes. Go look at it the problem is not getting it in there but the way we get there and the quality of the sml/med players in there and bringing it in.
All i know is if we continue down the current path we will spend another long period in the wilderness.
The club with the biggest gap between its experienced players that is games played and its 24 and unders is us.
That was fine when were still in the window OR WINNIG FLAGS, but we have not been in the window for two years now and we continue to basically only play 18 to 24 yo when injury hits. The mind set needs to change or we are going to keep on wasting what should be development seasons prolonging the pain.
Every one talks about phasing the older blokes out but thats is just talk. Im not sure there are too many supporters who really accept that we have to go backwards to go forwards. That entails getting a new bunch of mostly young blokes to 50 80 100 games and that takes time. A slow drip feed will not cut it anymore. Next year we will have 12 vets all a year older and we continue to place reliance on them rather than easing that reliance out.