Goldsack was drafted as a 19-year old. He turned 20 in May. Hardly a typical 17/18-year old draftee. Thomas and Pendlebury were top 5 draft picks. They are also playing in a team with a solid senior core. 17 of the Pies best 22 are 23 or over. Young talls like Ried, Brown, Dawes played at Willy all year.
Same with the Hawks. Their finals sides also had 17 of their 22 aged 23 or over. They've got one of the youngest lists but their best 22 isn't young. Renouf, Dowler, Hislop, etc hardly played a game and played at Box Hill. That's why they are rated as such a threat. Because these youngsters will only start to come into a already top 6 side next year and beyond. Losing Vandenberg, Smith and Dixon won't effect their solid senior 23-27 y.o. core to any great detail.
Most weeks we had half our side 21 or younger which was the 2nd youngest 22. Brisbane was the only side who played more Under 22 players than we did most weeks.
I'm not saying this to justify or excuse us coming last and we definitely need to generate and pump more money into recruiting (lowest spending club) and development that's for sure. However there's a lot of crap said about clubs by the media and their supporters about how young they are.
didnot take him 3 years to make a name for himself (Goldsack)
age has got nothing to do with it everyone goes back to age
l seen young sides smash hot premiership favorites
and all them sides you talk about went in as a fit sides
Richmond go in with paper sides get smashed cause there players cant give 100% & the coach is a total effwit
Disagree on age/experience. Geelong showed that against Port in the GF. It was men against boys. Geelong had 17 of their 22 premiership players by 2004 when they finally made the finals. Most of that core were recruited from 2001 or earlier. Same goes for the Eagles.
It's more than individual development too. It's also team development. Bringing a group of kids through together so they jell as a unit over time. Geelong's team skills were so far above anyone else this year it wasn't funny.
This is something our younger players need to learn. For instance a run and carry gameplan doesn't mean 18 blokes running and carrying the footy as far as they can go individually like it's NFL or NRL. How many times did Rainesy do this and stuff up
. It's run and carry as a team. Moving the ball forward quickly as a team, as a unit. Everyone understanding and knowing what each of their teammates will do. Offering options and supporting each other in numbers as a team. Doing the 1%ers - tackling, shepharding and blocking - as a team. No matter how quick a player is he can't outrun a kick or attacking handpass. You've got to work as a team to break down opposition defences and get the ball forward quickly to score.
Bartel, Corey, Ling, etc aren't superquick but they annihlated sides this year because they finally woke up how footy is meant to be played. Last year they were a slow chip-chip sideways rabble yet had the same 21 of the 22 who dominated 2007. In 2005 they choked against the Swans with the same 21. What was the difference? It certainly wasn't personnel. They finally all got superfit, matured at the same time and became the best team. Sam Newman is an idiot most of the time but he was right about Geelong all along.
When you have that strong team structure then young players find it easier to slot into the side. They can just focus on the job they need to do without needing to worry about carrying the side to victory. Without needing to worry about too much attention from the opposition trying to blunt their influence. Once again that comes down to the strength and quality of your senior core. Sure there are exceptions (Shane Edwards showed something this year btw) but generally most footballers and football teams take time to develop. In the AFL with the draft it can take even 7-8 years if the quality senior core structure isn't there and you need to build a new core basically from scratch. No guarantees either that the coach who starts and oversees this process will still be around to see the end of it. Mark Thompson is a rarity and even he only just survived last year.
