Season 2014 positives and negatives.

[Blue and Gold Blood]

Positives:

• McGovern
• Yeo
• Lycett
• Bennell

Negatives:

• dont deserve to make the 8 when you cant beat a top 8 side.
• Mcginnity, Priddis and Selwood keep getting picked when their turnovers outweight anything good they do
• finishing in the worst position on the ladder.

 

[Smeg Head]

Hold of on the last points, Adeliade are skiing down hill really hard and fast and could still pip us.

 

[Jarlcorbz]

+
Individuals that have really come to shine. McGovern, Bennell, Yeo Lycett. And then later on in the year Shuey and Gaff turned it on nicely. Our leaders had a good year too, Hurn, Emac and Lecras had solid season's. Sheed was given quite a few regular games and showed improvement. Sheppard had his best year until injury. Ellis has been a great get for our club.

Got some mojo going and played good footy towards the end of the year which is encouraging.

Coaches have got much needed experience and it has shown towards the end of the year.

-
Other individuals have been shocking. Wellingham has been very underwhelming. Is worth keeping but he needs to do something different. Smith didn't show much which doesn't bode well for his future. Priddis is only good half the time. Masten has had a mixed year, needs to be more consistent. Hill also needs to give more if he stays. NN had obviously been hampered by lack of fitness this year, but that's a negative in itself.

Injuries as per every year have been bad:
Rosa, Slewood, Sheppard, Wellingham, Yeo, Waters, Barrass, Powell and Karpany have either not played at all or have at least missed large chunks of the year.

Losing tight games. They unfortunately shaped our season in the end. At least one more in would have put us in 8th. This has been synonymous with long periods of inaccuracy in-front of goal this year. Something that has plagued us before, not quite sure how to deal with it.

I'm sure there's more negatives to talk about, but I'm confident we can over come them and continue to improve through out the off season and next year.

 

[Smotie]

Positives:

• McGovern
• Yeo
• Lycett
• Bennell

Negatives:

• dont deserve to make the 8 when you cant beat a top 8 side.
• Mcginnity, Priddis and Selwood keep getting picked when their turnovers outweight anything good they do
• finishing in the worst position on the ladder.

Pretty much sums it up.

 

[dajesmac]

I think a bonus is that our midfield has definitely improved. We looked far more potent in the second half of the year, which probably had a lot to do with Naitanui finding some fitness and consistency.

We don't want to form a reliance on Naitanui and so acquiring some strong clearance players would be a good start. Thankfully this is a strength of Waterman's.

 

[timmy22]

Positives:

• McGovern
• Yeo
• Lycett
• Bennell

Add Ellis to this list, Sheed may still prove to be a find

 

[Bacon Warrior]

Re. the close losses; should we put it down to a lack of mental toughness or lack of fitness? Think fitness would be easier to address.

inb4 masto training down the house again.

 

[John Dawh]

Positives

1. Forward line only lacks a gun crumber to be A-grade. Kennedy, Darling, Le Cras. Will Karpany or Newman develop? or do we do a Stenglein?
2. Back line is good enough to be elite.
3. Simmo's style of play is starting to take effect. In the middle of the season it felt we were still playing Woosha's way
4. Cox is gone. A club great but now we focus with NicNat and Lycett and really nail down their roles

Negatives

The midfield. If we get this right we'll be in flag contention. At the moment it's not right and if we think we can improve on top of organic improvement of the younger players, then we won't get far.

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

I think this year has shown that our last couple of years of list management have been decent, despite the detractors.

For a start, from the 2010/11 off-season drafts we played Gaff, Darling, Lycett, Wilson, and McGovern today.

2011/12 a bit of a write-off, but we only added two to the list from the main draft and one is in prison.

2012/13, we played Carter and Bennell today, with Hutchings only out due to injury. Colledge and Sinclair also looking like good pick-up.

Fair to say most of this seasons pick-ups are project players, yet I think we've seen enough from Sheed and Yeo to say that was a good trade, and getting Ellis for free has been successful.

Overall that's a fairly good hit-rate and probably shows just how much we have turned the list over even in the few years since we rocketed from 16th to 4th. If we can develop a few more out of these latest drafts, get Newman back, and grab a good player or two this off-season, we're probably fairing better than most.

I think the issue we're still dealing with is the superstar void. We're finding good players, just not champion players.

 

[D-N-R]

Positives;
- I agree that Yeo, Bennell, Lycett and McGovern have been really good pick-ups. I would add Ellis to that list - he hasn't been exceptional, but towards the middle of the year he started to be a good reliable player before his injury. He hasn't played a lot in the last few years so he may well develop into a very good acquisition.
- The last few games, the team has really clicked, and if we can play like that more consistently, we can do some damage in September.
- We haven't been that far off being a very good team. Many of the losses we can put down to awful kicking - Carlton game where we kicked 17 points we dominated a lot of the play. Against Freo we were in it for a lot of the game, Collingwood game. Win a couple of these and we are in the finals. So I think this has been a positive.
- I think Nic Nat will play better with Cox gone. If he has the number one ruck spot, he will have a defined role. He has looked better in the games that Cox missed this year, and has appeared to be a bit of a third wheel when Cox has played, like he is unsure what to do. Giving him the No 1 spot will at least put him in the centre of the action rather than hanging about on the periphery.

Negatives;
- The midfield is the obvious negative. It has looked better in the last few weeks, but we need to get a classy mid as a free agent or as a trade. Our current players may well step up, but if they don't, then we will spend another year really struggling in this area.
- Darling and Kennedy really need to impose themselves a lot more in games. Kicking goals is one thing, but if the ball isn't coming into the 50 as they like, then they have to make more of it when it hits the ground. It seemed to me that they were worked off the ball a bit too easily and need to use their bulk and ability at ground level a bit more effectively.
- Goal kicking looked good in the easier games, but went to shit when under pressure. Scoreboard pressure would have helped us win a few more games.
- Hand and foot skills still need improvement, especially around the packs to get the ball clear.

Whilst it has been a disappointing year, especially since we were on the cusp of playing finals, there has been some real positives which we can build on next year. If we can pick up a mature, classy midfielder in the trading period and continue the form we have shown at the end of this year, we can look forward to a good 2015.

 

[BITW]

I think the issue we're still dealing with is the superstar void. We're finding good players, just not champion players.

Hopefully Yeo, McGovern, Bennell can get there in a few years.

We do need a Pendlebury, Watson, GAJ soon though.

 

[Biggie]

Positive: McGovern - good to see a quality footballer rather than athlete make his mark.

 

[getgaff]

Negative - Now i know how a Richmond fan feels. Why can't the ban Essendon from the finals again.

I'm looking at 2 games as big negatives. Both at Etihad, yep it's the Carlton and Essendon games. If we held one or both of these leads we play finals more likely than not so that's frustrating but hopefully it burns in the boys to make a good fist of season 2015

 

[Quinz]

I think a bonus is that our midfield has definitely improved. We looked far more potent in the second half of the year, which probably had a lot to do with Naitanui finding some fitness and consistency.

We don't want to form a reliance on Naitanui and so acquiring some strong clearance players would be a good start. Thankfully this is a strength of Waterman's.

Shuey and Gaff definitely stepped up in the second half of the year too. Hopefully it's the making of them as players.

There were a lot of positives fork individual player points this year- Gov burst onto the scene, so did Bennell, Ellis and Yeo slotted in really nicely from the start too. Lycett is about to break out big time you feel (and he's ours for four years ), while NN finally started to get over a spate of injuries. Sheppard was a big improver, Butler showed some unexpected good form and we got glimpses from Colledge, Tunbridge and Sheed.

The gameplan took a while to pin down, we steamrolled some poor sides early and then had a really bad patch up until mid season. Three rucks deal was awkward most of the time, but when we did get the run and overlap working, and lowering the eyes to hit the key forwards we looked a heap better.

Not sure if positive or negative, but Kennedy had a poor season generally and still kicked 61 goals??

 

[gurncentral]

Shuey and Gaff definitely stepped up in the second half of the year too. Hopefully it's the making of them as players.

There were a lot of positives fork individual player points this year- Gov burst onto the scene, so did Bennell, Ellis and Yeo slotted in really nicely from the start too. Lycett is about to break out big time you feel (and he's ours for four years ), while NN finally started to get over a spate of injuries. Sheppard was a big improver, Butler showed some unexpected good form and we got glimpses from Colledge, Tunbridge and Sheed.

The gameplan took a while to pin down, we steamrolled some poor sides early and then had a really bad patch up until mid season. Three rucks deal was awkward most of the time, but when we did get the run and overlap working, and lowering the eyes to hit the key forwards we looked a heap better.

Not sure if positive or negative, but Kennedy had a poor season generally and still kicked 61 goals??

A LOT of those goals came from demolishing the expansion/crap teams

 

[Chris_6678]

Positives:

- 11 wins for a first year coach inst to bad. Could have been 15 with the blues,bombers,Tigers & Derbies all winnable.
- Backline transitioning well with Glass gone.
- Ditto with the ruck situation.
- Lycett looked terrible early last year but the more games he got the better he has looked. Kicked 12 goals for the year too and would be on track for 20ish if he has played every game. I like it how he uses his big frame to knock around the opposition ruckmen at the center bounce and this is something Cox could never do.
- Nic Nat looked at his best for 3/4's of the year even though he started the year slow with no fitness base. Looks set for a big year next year.
- Bennell was a good find from the Demons and love his attack and run from the backline.
- Before injury i thought Rosa and Shep where having their best seasons and i hope they come back in good nick for next year. Sheps form down back was solid and it helps Hurn out.
- Mcgovern is a gun and looks good anywhere he plays. If he has a huge pre-seaon look out!
- Hutchings finding his role as a solid tagger and if Scooter comes back fit next year i can see a role for both players. Need to get Hutchings to play more HHF more so he rest there in patches and impact on the score board.
- Shuey and Gaff have improved quite abit this year and it was great to see Shuey breaking the tag quite often. Gaff looks to be stronger this year and it shows. These 2 need to go up a gear next year and we will look way better in the guts.
- Cripps has been very good this year and his the pace and aggression has been used well and it is good to see he can go in the midfield if needed. Kicked a handy 27 goals.
- Yeo being played in the midfield earlier than i expected and he looked a gem in there. It is a ashame he got injured as he was building some good form.
- The addition of Ellis was good as he has been a great help in helping Simmo bring his game plan. He can play in a variety of roles which bodes well for him next year if we have a fit squad to chose come round 1.
- Emac backing last year up and improving even more. Should be AA. Brown also getting a solid run and showing some improvement.

Negative:

- Cox for forcing Simmo to play 3 ruckman. I know he is a legend but there were a few games we lost because of the 3 ruckman situation and i feel this cost us 2-3 games. Word is he is sticking around as an assistant as ruck and mid stoppages coach and that will be handy for us in the long term.
- The team got way to complacent after the first 3 wins and we looked lazy at times.
- Darling in the midfield not quite working as well as i hoped but i think he can play a 3rd tall with stints in the midfield going forward.
- Colledge and Tunbridge not quite getting more games to see if they are the answer to our big mid problem.
- Fade-outs late in the game which i think has to go with fitness.

 

[greatwhiteshark]

Positives

New coach and new game plan
Bennell has been very very good
Lycett in my view will be our number 1 ruckman within 2 years.
Hutchings has improved, how much more upside I am not sure?
Gaff and Shuey second half of the year.
Mcgovern looks quality.

Negatives

The club still believes a midfield with Priddis and Selwood in it will become an A Grade midfield.
We play at only one level and cannot rise when required. That may change next year hopefully.
We have tradable players but again are going to just go through the draft banking on hope. We have to give up something sometimes to get what we want, the Eagles refuse to do this.
We are a club full of excuses. We never used to be like this. We once just got on with the job but now we offer up so many excuses. Culture needs to change.
Tri Panel home gurnsey is a disgrace to the club.
Can't win at home enough.

Overall was happy with the year, we simply are not good enough through the midfield even at full strength. See lots of upside though that will push us into the 8. But until we have major changes to the midfield that is all we will do, just push into the 8.

 

[the harry]

The way Lycett played around the ground yesterday makes me think the time in the ruck may well be closer to 50/50 with NicNat than originally planned.

 

[Godfather32]

The way Lycett played around the ground yesterday makes me think the time in the ruck may well be closer to 50/50 with NicNat than originally planned.

Nicnat also played quite well in the forward line, could be a return to 2012 for our rucks next year.

 

[Hap Hapablap]

positives
yeo, ellis, sheed, bennell, lycett. all impressed when they had their chances

gaff and shuey near the end of the season. in particularly gaff hes been unbelievably good

kennedy kicking 61 goals although not consistent he has a good 4-5 years of being a monster. darling in the forward line also showed thats his best position.

lecras, rosa and shepperds form prior to injury. real good.

new game plan.

re-signing of gaff, rosa,, lycett mcgovern and darling. awesome news.

and how could i forget the guvnooooor!

negatives:

cox prolonging his career. i understand hes a club champion and loved him to bits but the 3 ruck play ****ed us so many times this season.

the midfield. one of our real weaknesses but did slightly improve over the year.

wellingham. very disappointing.

simpson re-signing some questionable players for another year.

choking. we choked a good 4 games this season. had we won them wed have a home final.

persistence in allowing priddis to take the lead in the midfield. excellent extractor shit kicker. shouldve got to handball more often from get go.

nats early start. if he had no fitness base he shouldnt have been playing


our fitness and conditioning squad. ****en horrendous again for another year.

 

[SpaceClef]

Pos
Lycett and McGovern have been the biggest positives personnel-wise. Lycett will be a very very good player for us. Excited to see how the dynamic between he and Naitanui evolves.

Yeo has the kind of tools we need, and Hutchings has performed better than I expected. He's never going to be an A-grader, but is cleaner than Selwood and better equipped on the inside than Masten. We just can't afford to have too many B graders in our side.

Shuey's apparent improvement in dealing with a tag hasn't been discussed much here but it's a massive positive. If he can consistently overcome attention from the opposition then he suddenly becomes an elite player. What he can do to a match when he's let off the leash is undeniable - if he can do it consistently, then we are a much stronger side. Also really need Gaff and Hurn to be able to do the same.

Neg
A negative has been our reversion to bombing it into the 50 as soon as our midfield is placed under pressure. This, combined with a complete inability to crumb in the forward line, makes us very easy to defend against - case in point the Richmond game. We need a genuine crumber, though our recent drafting history indicates that the club disagrees.

Selwood and Wellingham are both average footballers, and this season highlighted that more than ever, and their inability to improve under Simpson is another negative. Injuries are not an excuse. They should be our depth, not the guys we rely on.

Our list management is a huge negative. Our list is the wrong way around - our talls are at 12 o'clock but our smalls are a quarter to six. You rebuild by recruiting as many players with midfield potential as possible, and then weeding those who won't make it. Then once the rest have had a few pre-seasons under their belts you can pick up ready made talls from other clubs. We have gone about it ass-about and we will waste our KPP stocks because it's much harder to acquire midfielders that are ready to come in and make an impact than it is to pick up effective talls (despite what seems to be popular belief). Hawthorn is a prime example of this, as is Sydney, though their method of acquiring Tippett/Franklin is controversial. We need another couple of A grade mids and we are very unlikely to find these via trades. We had the right idea in the '07-'09 drafts but picked far, far too many duds, and gave up on the idea altogether after our mini-revival in '11. Can only hope that Simpson isn't actually as bullish about our current midfield as he makes out to be.

Other
Naitanui worked through some poor form and fitness to remind us of how he is the only player in the comp who will both jump over the heads of other ruckmen, and then follow up by diving under packs and shovelling out creative handpasses. If he stays injury free from now until next September he will be AA again.

Notice a lot of Bennells in the positives - not sold on him to be honest. Hasn't impressed me much at all since he came back from the WAFL. Needs to tighten up far more when he's in defense. Is a bit too soft still for mine, though is still young and worth persisting with.

Hill, Wilson, Brennan, Carter, Butler and Smith are all delist-worthy in my opinion. None of them are at the required standard moving forward. Tunbridge hasn't developed this year as well as I'd hoped though should be given one more year, and McGinnity (I pray) was only given one more year.