lol at naming hawthorns worst players
they are a good side with the likes of hodge and mitchell etc in the middle, we have foley but he needs help and tuck and johnson dont cut it as quality mids
Hodge and Mitchell are very good.
But Foley was the best inside mid in the league last season (stat wise in terms of contested 'hard ball gets' from memory). And he is fast, unlike any of the Hawthorn mids. Tuck at his 2006 near AA form is a pretty handy footballer also - hard as nails and a mature body, bit like Martin Pike. If Cogs gets back to somewhere near his best that stacks up pretty well against Hodge/Mitchel/Lewis I reckon. Johnson (underrated and a decent footballer) might well not be up to it, but hopfully one or more or Jackson/Raines/Polo etc. types are.
Hawthorns worst player or not - they were some of their most important and the backbone of the side that came 5th.
- Rank Name Games Average
- 2 Jordan Lewis 24 24.79
- 5 Brad Sewell 24 21.33
- 7 Rick Ladson 22 20.68
- 8 Brent Guerra 24 20.04
- 10 Ben McGlynn 21 16.71
- 12 Danny Jacobs 9 16.11
That's 6 of Hawthorns 12 players that averaged 16+ touches last season. Frankly Im not sure if I rate Jacobs as any better than Paddy Bowden, and the like of Guerra, McGlynn, Ladson etc. are good honest players but at the end of the day are plodders and not that crash hot.. I wouldnt have thought.
North, Hawthorn, Port and Collingwood are not that far infront of us IMO.
But my point is its not that hard to do well in the comp - because of the very nature of the AFL (draft/salary caps) its all very even. A good run with injuries and your better players hitting form makes a massive difference. For example - if Hunter and Cox both do their knee round 1 were will WCE finsh?
There is not reason Browny can't go wacked again and or rip the league apart.. or Deledio takes a giant steps and becomes A-Grade, or Cogs and Simmo can get back to their best form.
That's true given half the teams of the comp make the finals. Mediorce sides do make it but we would need no injuries, all our senior players in top form and our younger players having burst out years, for us to make the finals. Highly unlikely to be that lucky and then it hurts you in the long run anyway as RROFO suggested as you've overachieved and scored poor draft picks before going thud back to Earth the following season. 2001 all over again.
I was kinda hoping 2005-6 was out 2001.
Sometimes people forget we finshed about Hawthorn 2 out of the last 3 seasons.
True but the Hawks have a solid mid-age core now because Schwab didn't decimate their list like Spud did to ours. Clarkson inherited Hodge, Mitchell, Bateman and about a dozen others who are now in the mid 20s. Only 5 players were under 23 in their finals sides IIRC and one of them is Franklin. It would be great if we had the luxury of only needing to play the best 5 of our youngsters - Foley, Thursty, Lids + two others.
It's not that unrealistic. Our 5 young blokes can be,say; Deledio, Foley, Thursty, Tambling, Cotchin. We could line up something along the lines of -
Moore Silvester* King
Newman Bowden McMahon
Tivendale Coughlan Johnson
Pettifer Polak Howatt*
Brown Richo Hyde
Simmonds Tuck Foley
Deledio Thursty Tambling Cotchin.
There's way too many holes in that side:
Only one genuine ruckman who will be coming off an injury-riddled season and a interrupted preseason.
Silvester is unknown at AFL level even if he wasn't ineligible to play yet as a rookie.
Cotchin is unknown as it'll only be his first year.
If Howat and Hyde are getting games then we haven't improved from 2007. Moore showed signs late late late in the season but he's hardly done anything else at AFL level.
Just looking at the midfield and follower lines, only Foley had a season up to the level we need our mids to be at. Cogs is unknown after missing 18 months of footy and coming back from 2 knees.
Hawthorn still has its deficiencies especially in defence which makes their choice of Rioli over Rance odd but you can't compare those two lines of ours to Hodge, Mitchell, Lewis, Crawford, Bateman plus ruckman Campbell. Sewell, Osbourne, Ladson plus ruckman Taylor may be their second tier of midfielders but at least they have a second tier and notably one with experience.
I hate Hawthorn and hope their dumb 2007 drafting is a sign of them getting ahead of themselves but their best 22 for 2008 is stronger and far more experienced than ours.
Only one ruckman but you could have easily included a Polak as the 2nd ruck, or squeezed in Pattison. I did leave Cartledge out of the side.
There is your 2nd ruckman... As much as Silvester is unproven, he is 2 years older than McGaune. It isnt unreasonable to expect something from Cotchin. He will be no worse than Birchill or Ellis in 2008. He is Deledio, Cooney, Gibbs etc. class.
Hyde and Howat are both rubbish in their own right, but still (sadly) on the list. It's going to be intersting if Hyde (25) gets a gig in round 1 over the like of Edwards/Connors (still only 2nd year players) or Raines (average 2007). Moore has alot of tools to be a decent backline AFL player - speed/hight/decent skill.
Don't get me wrong, if it were up to me I'd like to see a side Round 1 something similar to:
King Thursfeild McGaune
Bowden Rance Connors
Deledio Cogs Cotchin
Richo Polak Morton
Edwards Reiwoldt Brown
Simmonds Tuck Foley
Pattison Pettifer McMahon Tambling
I just feel Wallace will look to the older players on the list early in the season.
That said.. do you really rate the like of Boyle, Guerra and Ladson that far ahead of Schultz, Newman and Hyde?
