I have heard a bit of commentary over what lead to the decision by Brad to leave and it appears that one of the drivers was not wanting to be in a position to rebuild the club for an extended time, something that Brad suggested we do. Not enough draft picks or talent was his assessment.
So here are my two cents:
LDU is playing like a third rounder right now, Ahern not even playing. These two are low first round selections. Another strong pre-season and I would expect big improvement. We have Cunners and Anderson on the inside, Higgins and Simpkin as inside/outside players with Polec and Dumont rated as above average to elite wingman. All bar Dumont are first round selections (Jed was a pre-selection and trade value was late 1st round). Not enough good draft picks?
We have Brown and Larkey as KP forward, they both play differently but are hard match-ups. Wood and Ziebell offer strong marking third talls while Zurhaar and Garner are stronger than average mid sized marking forwards. Then there is TT Small forward, lacking one for sure.
In defence we are getting old but McKay, Durdin, Daw and Watson are handy at worst. With Taz still at least two years away from moving on, we have a good selection of talls. Again three 1st round selections. Our running defenders are an issue, but Williams is an above average lock down defender while Pittard is a good mid sized defensive defender. Murphy and Crocker loom as the next gen but no doubt one of our holes is talented HB players with good disposal. Atley is there though and well worth the confidence a the moment.
And wouldn't mind Jacobs either, another 1st round pick.
The reality is that we have plenty of options and highly rated junior talents, but for some reason they rarely elevate themselves to A grade status. I am not saying they are all wins, but surely the sheer number of 1st round picks we do have means that there is talent there we have not been able to fully develop.
I see us as having the potential of the 2017 Tigers. After 2016 they looked like a bunch of misses scattered with some great talent. Now they have several elite players with a bunch of A graders and support players that most clubs would love to get their hands on.
Can we set in place a football department that will start this team from scratch, evaluate each player on their merits then develop them to be a cohesive team?
This list has a lot more potential in it than it has shown in years, and I am certainly of the belief the coach has had something to do with not getting the best out of this group.
So no, I don't believe Brad's assessment and I implore the board to reject this shitty thought bubble and tell the club that we are just one game away from our next dominant era.
Or we are just shite ...
So here are my two cents:
LDU is playing like a third rounder right now, Ahern not even playing. These two are low first round selections. Another strong pre-season and I would expect big improvement. We have Cunners and Anderson on the inside, Higgins and Simpkin as inside/outside players with Polec and Dumont rated as above average to elite wingman. All bar Dumont are first round selections (Jed was a pre-selection and trade value was late 1st round). Not enough good draft picks?
We have Brown and Larkey as KP forward, they both play differently but are hard match-ups. Wood and Ziebell offer strong marking third talls while Zurhaar and Garner are stronger than average mid sized marking forwards. Then there is TT Small forward, lacking one for sure.
In defence we are getting old but McKay, Durdin, Daw and Watson are handy at worst. With Taz still at least two years away from moving on, we have a good selection of talls. Again three 1st round selections. Our running defenders are an issue, but Williams is an above average lock down defender while Pittard is a good mid sized defensive defender. Murphy and Crocker loom as the next gen but no doubt one of our holes is talented HB players with good disposal. Atley is there though and well worth the confidence a the moment.
And wouldn't mind Jacobs either, another 1st round pick.
The reality is that we have plenty of options and highly rated junior talents, but for some reason they rarely elevate themselves to A grade status. I am not saying they are all wins, but surely the sheer number of 1st round picks we do have means that there is talent there we have not been able to fully develop.
I see us as having the potential of the 2017 Tigers. After 2016 they looked like a bunch of misses scattered with some great talent. Now they have several elite players with a bunch of A graders and support players that most clubs would love to get their hands on.
Can we set in place a football department that will start this team from scratch, evaluate each player on their merits then develop them to be a cohesive team?
This list has a lot more potential in it than it has shown in years, and I am certainly of the belief the coach has had something to do with not getting the best out of this group.
So no, I don't believe Brad's assessment and I implore the board to reject this shitty thought bubble and tell the club that we are just one game away from our next dominant era.
Or we are just shite ...