Truly Rate Our Future!

[Bentick's My Man.]

We all talk about our young potential on out list.

How highly do we rate our young players and how good do you think they will be?

Do you think we give them too much credit or are we going to be a super power again in the not too distant future?

I believe our young future stars will be

Name - Age - Games - Goals.Behinds

Marc Murphy 20 - 28 - 16.18
Andrew Walker 21 - 69 - 22.17
Bryce Gibbs 18 - 15 - 2.1
Jarrad Waite 24 - 78 - 93.73
Brad Fisher 23 - 64 - 81.42
Setanta O'hAilpin 24 - 27 - 9.1
Josh Kennedy 19 - 19 - 9.6
Andrew Carrazzo 23 - 56 - 14.15

I haven't seen enough of Bower, Hartlett, Young, Grigg, Anderson, Jackson to pass judgement yet. I think we need to give them 15 - 20 games first. Although I am big wraps for Joe Anderson & Paul Bower

Your thoughts?

[bLuEbOy1984]

i think we are 3 to 4 years away for contending for a top 4 position IMO

[btdg]

We are still 10 years away from contending for a premiership. I think we're only truly seeing right now just how badly our club was gutted by the late Elliot years.

To win a premiership, you need a mix of players. You need some veteran stars on their last legs, who know all the tricks and do all the right stuff in the locker room to get the others heading in the right direction. You need a whole stack of guys in their prime, in the 24-28yo age bracket. And then you fill up the gaps with young guys who have a point to prove.

We have quite simply missed on two generations of players. Our last premiership generation really only added 4 players with the qualities to be 10-12 year players; Kouta, Camporeale, Whitnall and Hamill (with the last 2 added just after, but still in the same generation). Of those, 2 are no longer at the club, and the other 2 are done. We just don't have anyone in that veteran category except Kouta.

Then we have our horrific drafting that stretches from 1996 through to 2002. Those players, picked at age 18, would be filling that 24-28 yo bracket now - except they aren't there, because we did such a poor job. The thing is, that we aren't just missing those guys now, but we'll be missing them in 5 years time when they should be the senior veterans inspiring the youngsters to go over the top. We have a new generation coming through, in the 18-22 age bracket. They'll hit their peak in 3-4 years, and we'll jump up the ladder. But they'll have no senior leaders, no Hirds or Archers or Voss types to push them over the top and do the things that only champions do. So they'll fall short, and drop away again. As I see it, only when Simpson, Murphy and Gibbs are in that senior group, aged 28-32, with 250 games under their belt, will we contend; with a completely different group of peaking players who haven't been drafted yet, and probably won't for 3-4 years! Its scary to think that the core of our next premiership team are currently trying to win the 9B premiership for their high school...

Best comparison for us is St Kilda in 2000. Completely bottomed out, not much leadership, put together a talented group. They rose up, but couldn't get over the peak cos even though they had Harvey and Thompson, they didn't quite have enough of those senior leaders. So they fell away again, and they're probably only going to win the premiership in 2010 - when Riewoldt, Kosi and Dal Santo are the senior guys, roughly 10 years after they started...

[blues76]

i think we are 3 to 4 years away for contending for a top 4 position IMO

5 years til finals come...wait til Kruezer:), Gibbs and co. are around 23-4ish...

[bolz]

grigg, bower and anderson will all become great players, im sure of it! I also think Jackson is showing great signs. IMO, Young is a lost cause... he will not get any better than what he is now; a big dud

[[ToTTi]]

grigg, bower and anderson will all become great players, im sure of it! I also think Jackson is showing great signs. IMO, Young is a lost cause... he will not get any better than what he is now; a big dud

Well as long as you're sure of it, we can sleep better at night!


:rolleyes:

[Tarkyn_24]

Bright.

[CFC_4LYF_TRUE BLUE]

the stevens injury really backtracked marc Murphy's Development because now he is getting the number 1 tag and not being able to get his 30-40 possies a game like he did for his high school whitefriars

[gadj1976]

I said about 2 years ago that the floggings have to stop if we want to rate ourselves as "moving forward". Currently I can't see on field how we have moved forward, we've been belted left right and centre. To have Sydney kick 25 goals against us is an insult. I think playing personnel wise we've gone forward but because of youth, the beltings have continued.

Our future is pretty dim short term. I'd reckon finals would at least be 5 - 7 years away - and even then if you finish 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th you're making up the numbers.

[Dramoth]

2-3 years before we are seriously contending for the finals.

Outside of that, probably be 4-5 years before we win a flag :D

Next year and 2k9, we should be up around 10-13th on the ladder...

After that, the skies the limit...

[strat]

I think we underestimate the loss of Stevo and Cloke....Stevo was the playmaker and that released Murphy a bit more....teams then had two stars to worry about and then Carrazo (definitley)and Bentick to some degree gave our middle and stoppage set up some teeth...Cloke was mobile hard hitting and not to bad on the tapping...so take that small part of our game out or severely diminish it with injury and I think it hurt us..bring it back abnd I think we would have won a few more....how this augers for our future...pretty damm good...

[mark73]

We all talk about our young potential on out list.

How highly do we rate our young players and how good do you think they will be?

Do you think we give them too much credit or are we going to be a super power again in the not too distant future?

I believe our young future stars will be

Name - Age - Games - Goals.Behinds

Marc Murphy 20 - 28 - 16.18
Andrew Walker 21 - 69 - 22.17
Bryce Gibbs 18 - 15 - 2.1
Jarrad Waite 24 - 78 - 93.73
Brad Fisher 23 - 64 - 81.42
Setanta O'hAilpin 24 - 27 - 9.1
Josh Kennedy 19 - 19 - 9.6
Andrew Carrazzo 23 - 56 - 14.15

I haven't seen enough of Bower, Hartlett, Young, Grigg, Anderson, Jackson to pass judgement yet. I think we need to give them 15 - 20 games first. Although I am big wraps for Joe Anderson & Paul Bower

Your thoughts?

Scrap Murphy from the list. He's coming to North Melbourne.

[smithos]

Scrap Murphy from the list. He's coming to North Melbourne.


He's already decided against a move interstate once

[mark73]

He's already decided against a move interstate once

I'll ignore that predictably ill informed codswallop and just say don't say you weren't informed.

[douls]

I'll ignore that predictably ill informed codswallop and just say don't say you weren't informed.

thanks for the heads up :thumbsu:

[Jeremias]

Scrap Murphy from the list. He's coming to North Melbourne.

You wish...

[bourbons]

i think we are 3 to 4 years away for contending for a top 4 position IMO

yep

We are still 10 years away from contending for a premiership.

nope

grigg, bower and anderson will all become great players, im sure of it!

Err, why? I'll admit we need to see a bit more of then before making a decision, but these guys have shown precisely 0 so far. Chuck Hartlett and Hampson on that pile too (everyone seems to wrap them - WHY?)

[Jeremias]

I'll ignore that predictably ill informed codswallop

Just like we're going to ignore the rubbish that's coming from your mouth.

:)

[blueskies]

Pretty hard to rate the future when the future is always uncertain. Weren't St.Kilda a lock for winning a Premiership with all those high draft picks and Gherig and Hamill etc?

I think you can try to predict the future though.

I predict both Irish will become great tall players for us, and this obviously is very significant. But I might be wrong.

I predict Gibbs will be the next James Hird. But I might be wrong.

I predict Stevens has another 5 years in him. But it could be 3 with the 3rd merely ok.

Look, we have some good kids, but I am not sure about the depth. Russell and Hartlett from 2004 look very shaky. And it's a bit worrying that none of our other picks since then (other than the no.1 picks) have positively surprised us. Why do they all take 5 years before they show something? This doesn't happen to all teams, just us it would appear. It's because of this I truly hope we get the priority pick this year (oh and we also need another ruck, ie: Kruezer).

But there's more to it than just the players.

Are we going to get a decent coach? One who connects with the players, has an understanding of modern footy and has a contemporary game plan that will work with the players we have?

And will we be able to do something about the poor mid-age leadership at the club? Or is too late to turn that around?? Will we have to wait for the Murphys and the Gibbs' and the Kruezers and the Simpsons to show the way?

Will Fevola stay and improve his attitude or will he continue to spit the dummy every now and then? And will Thornton get back to truly enjoying playing at the Blues?

All these things are part of the equation. We won't win a Flag if Fevola and Thornton are in the side but neither go at it 101% all the time. We won't win a Flag without two good rucks. We won't win a Flag without leadership. We won't win a Flag without a good coach.

It's very hard to predict the future, but one thing you can do is try to fix the problems as they currently stand.

[BLue_Bloys]

Pretty hard to rate the future when the future is always uncertain. Weren't St.Kilda a lock for winning a Premiership with all those high draft picks and Gherig and Hamill etc?

I think you can try to predict the future though.

I predict both Irish will become great tall players for us, and this obviously is very significant. But I might be wrong.

I predict Gibbs will be the next James Hird. But I might be wrong.

I predict Stevens has another 5 years in him. But it could be 3 with the 3rd merely ok.

Look, we have some good kids, but I am not sure about the depth. Russell and Hartlett from 2004 look very shaky. And it's a bit worrying that none of our other picks since then (other than the no.1 picks) have positively surprised us. Why do they all take 5 years before they show something? This doesn't happen to all teams, just us it would appear. It's because of this I truly hope we get the priority pick this year (oh and we also need another ruck, ie: Kruezer).

But there's more to it than just the players.

Are we going to get a decent coach? One who connects with the players, has an understanding of modern footy and has a contemporary game plan that will work with the players we have?

And will we be able to do something about the poor mid-age leadership at the club? Or is too late to turn that around?? Will we have to wait for the Murphys and the Gibbs' and the Kruezers and the Simpsons to show the way?

Will Fevola stay and improve his attitude or will he continue to spit the dummy every now and then? And will Thornton get back to truly enjoying playing at the Blues?

All these things are part of the equation. We won't win a Flag if Fevola and Thornton are in the side but neither go at it 101% all the time. We won't win a Flag without two good rucks. We won't win a Flag without leadership. We won't win a Flag without a good coach.

It's very hard to predict the future, but one thing you can do is try to fix the problems as they currently stand.

I agree on Fevola, but Thornton?? He busts his ass all game every game

[mark73]

Just like we're going to ignore the rubbish that's coming from your mouth.

:)

If you say so. :thumbsu:

[mark73]

thanks for the heads up :thumbsu:

Welcome. :thumbsu:

[blueskies]

I agree on Fevola, but Thornton?? He busts his ass all game every game

I'm not sure that's true, he tries but he looks like he is over the whole place.