Window of opportunity

[Quant]

I expect next season Ross will be aggressive with playing the youth.

I have no doubt this year he played it safe and honestly thought we would be playing a prelim at the very least. The club had ample opportunities to try youth players but left it far too late at the end of the season as we saw.

 

[Patty_Moz]

Have to say IMO think we've missed our opportunity already. We've finished 6th and again struggled with injuries at the business end of the year and now need to improve a fair bit in 2015.

9 players out of our best 22- Pav, Sandi, Johnson, Duff, Danyle, Mzungu, Dawson, Crowley and Mundy are all 30 or older next year and our experience (Pav, Mcpharlin, Sandi) shows it gets harder just to keep these guys on the park. We will need improvement from all of them in 2015 and I can't see that happening more likely they will stagnate, decline or be injured.

 

[Ausbenito]

Our bottom ten are already performing at a high level. That's what Ross Lyon has brought to this club. I don't think our bottom 10 will be an issue, while Ross is our coach. He is very good at getting players to play a role effectively.

I actually think what's most important in terms of winning a flag are your A graders. The sort of players who can lift to another level when the going gets tough and drag your team over the line. And to be honest, I'd prefer that elite talent was in the midfield, but I don't think it really matters where they play. I think Pav, Sandi and Luke will be replaced by Fyfe, Walters and ... whichever of our youngsters are capable of becoming elite. The ones that excite me the most are Apeness, Crozier, Morabito and Simpson.

I think if Smith, A Pearce, Apeness and Taberner can be come adequate, then we will have no problem in Key positions.

Spot on summary makes alot of sense Quant not sure what you are on about what youth are you talking about? all the blokes who earnt it got a game. Especially with KPP they are better off playing WAFL than getting flogged in the AFL looked at Tabs he was looking a bit shell shocked at half time of his second final.

 

[Nestay]

I think if we can pick up James Frawley and a key tall forward we have a really good shot at winning a flag over the next 1-5 years.

Neale is looking great already, we still have lots of young talent it's just Pavlish/Sandi/Mcpharlin are getting old. I'd say Pav has 1 year in him, Mcpharlin might retire and Sandi probably had 2 years left.

It's not so much if we will improve, but look at other teams that might drop off. I can see Hawks dropping off next year, our main threats will be Port and Sydney. Geelong have already dropped off (bringing in youth players).

 

[ilikepotatoes]

Spot on summary makes alot of sense Quant not sure what you are on about what youth are you talking about? all the blokes who earnt it got a game. Especially with KPP they are better off playing WAFL than getting flogged in the AFL looked at Tabs he was looking a bit shell shocked at half time of his second final.

Might have something to do with being injured and subsequently subbed off.

 

[pavsbootlace]

I expect next season Ross will be aggressive with playing the youth.

I have no doubt this year he played it safe and honestly thought we would be playing a prelim at the very least. The club had ample opportunities to try youth players but left it far too late at the end of the season as we saw.

Ross was very aggressive in playing youth this year. I can't see how he could get any more aggressive next year.

Clancee, Sylvia, Ibbo, Suban, Deboer, Kepler and Griffin all missed games in favour of younger players when they were fit to play.

As for leaving it too late, Neale, Sutcliffe and Sheridan played in round 1, Crozier's first game was in round 3 and Josh Simpson and Taberner kicked off their seasons in round 4. The only bloke who played his first game late in the season was Duffy, and he was injured for the first half of the year.

 

[Nothing]

Players under 22 (an arbitrary age) who have played games at Freo
Neale - 46
Taberner, Sheridan, Crozier - 13 to 23
5 others 1 to 2 games
5 players 0 games

By comparison
Geelong
Caddy - 58 games
Horlin Smith - 32 games
Thurlow and Walker - 10 and 17 games
13 players under 10 games including 7 with 0

Hawthorn
Hill - 49 games
Litherland 13
12 players under 10 games including 8 with 0

Sydney
Parker - 81 games (so good and so young!)
Mitchell, Lloyd, Cunningham, B Jack - 30-17 games
11 players under 10 games including 8 with 0 games

Port
Wingard - 66 games
Wines - 48 games
Impey, Hombsch, Young, Neade, Polec - 18-39 games
9 players under 10 games including 7 with 0 games

So we have similar numbers of players with over 10 games experience to all but Port and all teams have similar number of undeveloped players. Maybe we should start the push that Clarko doesn't develop youf.