Antares
Club Legend
- Jun 19, 2017
- 1,313
- 1,545
- AFL Club
- Western Bulldogs
- Banned
- #1
If you look at where our list was at then end of 2018, the following players are capable of playing or developing into that small/medium rebounding defender role:
Matt Suckling
Hayden Crozier
Lukas Webb
Ed Richards
Bailey Williams
Caleb Daniel
Brad Lynch
Jason Johannisen
Roarke Smith
and that's not including Easton Wood, who at his best, was pretty good at rebounding.
That's 9 AFL standard rebounding defenders (some cases only potentially), which most teams would already deem more than required, after all, this is a role where quality is far more important than quantity. We have 10 list spots open for the trade/draft period, plenty of problems that need fixing, and what do we do? Give four of those spots to more rebounding defenders: Taylor Duryea, Laitham Vandermeer, Buku Khamis and Lachie Young. Four more of those spots on the midfield/ruck: Bailey Smith, Rhylee West, Will Hayes and Jordon Sweet. Only TWO(2) new forwards: Sam Lloyd and Ben Cavarra. What the hell is going on?
It's kind of hard to argue this point at times because a lot of these players we've picked up have been really good for us. Crozier is a gun, Duryea has been very solid so far, Suckling is always reliable, but at what point does team balance come into consideration for our list management? I mean, our top goalscorer last year was Billy Gowers with 26, followed by Bontempelli who played a lot of midfield and had his appendix out furing the year. And the year before that, our joint top goalscorers were Stringer and Picken, who aren't even at the club anymore. Does it not occur to these guys that our forward line is the worst in the competition by a mile?
I don't want to hear dribble like "we tried to get Wingard" or "there weren't any good enough players available". We live in an era where it's possible to get a player like Ben Brown with pick 47 in the draft, or a Tim Membrey/Josh Jenkins for a bag of chips in a trade. I know they're not the A-grade superstars everyone wants, but would they improve our crappy forward line? Absolutely. We're desperate for anyone who can consistently create any kind of contest.
I know we picked up Sam Lloyd and Ben Cavarra, but they're second/third banana type forwards at best, not key pivots you build your entire forward line around. Last year, Gowers was our main man, and it showed we have some serious issues.
Why are we so obsessed with picking up rebounding defenders? Why are we so ill-inclined to pick up forwards? Do we really think it's a better idea to put a natural gun defender like Naughton into the forward line, where he'll probably never get the best out of himself? Does Beveridge still believe guys like Johannisen and Richards can become high quality forwards based on a few good games? Sorry, but for me, our list management in the last few years has been terrible, and demonstrates a complete lack of understanding when it comes to team balance and addressing glaring weaknesses.
Matt Suckling
Hayden Crozier
Lukas Webb
Ed Richards
Bailey Williams
Caleb Daniel
Brad Lynch
Jason Johannisen
Roarke Smith
and that's not including Easton Wood, who at his best, was pretty good at rebounding.
That's 9 AFL standard rebounding defenders (some cases only potentially), which most teams would already deem more than required, after all, this is a role where quality is far more important than quantity. We have 10 list spots open for the trade/draft period, plenty of problems that need fixing, and what do we do? Give four of those spots to more rebounding defenders: Taylor Duryea, Laitham Vandermeer, Buku Khamis and Lachie Young. Four more of those spots on the midfield/ruck: Bailey Smith, Rhylee West, Will Hayes and Jordon Sweet. Only TWO(2) new forwards: Sam Lloyd and Ben Cavarra. What the hell is going on?
It's kind of hard to argue this point at times because a lot of these players we've picked up have been really good for us. Crozier is a gun, Duryea has been very solid so far, Suckling is always reliable, but at what point does team balance come into consideration for our list management? I mean, our top goalscorer last year was Billy Gowers with 26, followed by Bontempelli who played a lot of midfield and had his appendix out furing the year. And the year before that, our joint top goalscorers were Stringer and Picken, who aren't even at the club anymore. Does it not occur to these guys that our forward line is the worst in the competition by a mile?
I don't want to hear dribble like "we tried to get Wingard" or "there weren't any good enough players available". We live in an era where it's possible to get a player like Ben Brown with pick 47 in the draft, or a Tim Membrey/Josh Jenkins for a bag of chips in a trade. I know they're not the A-grade superstars everyone wants, but would they improve our crappy forward line? Absolutely. We're desperate for anyone who can consistently create any kind of contest.
I know we picked up Sam Lloyd and Ben Cavarra, but they're second/third banana type forwards at best, not key pivots you build your entire forward line around. Last year, Gowers was our main man, and it showed we have some serious issues.
Why are we so obsessed with picking up rebounding defenders? Why are we so ill-inclined to pick up forwards? Do we really think it's a better idea to put a natural gun defender like Naughton into the forward line, where he'll probably never get the best out of himself? Does Beveridge still believe guys like Johannisen and Richards can become high quality forwards based on a few good games? Sorry, but for me, our list management in the last few years has been terrible, and demonstrates a complete lack of understanding when it comes to team balance and addressing glaring weaknesses.
