Opinion Fremantle's terrible development of youth.

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MrDanggazz

Norm Smith Medallist
Jun 11, 2016
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In recent years the development of youth has been terrible. I might be the only one who thinks this way but it has to be said, the young talent that other teams seem to have is nowhere to be seen at Fremantle. Brayshaw maybe the only exception to being promising, but most of our players cant execute the basics and are getting played out of position and having their flair taken from them. From Cerra and Blakely being played in the back pockets costing us goals to Banfield earning his way back into the side only to sit in a forward pocket, we are setting our younger players up to fail.

edit: fully expecting to get ridiculed by people here so let me have it if you think I am wrong.
 
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Sep 22, 2011
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Went to avoid the trade period to get midfielders and drafted them instead. What do we do? Play them in half back and half forward roles.
Disgraceful tbh. There’s players that are second year and still playing midfield. LDU has been used there. Carlton back their top picks and put them in the middle.
This TOG% stuff is really unnecessary and that’s what is killing the development. Who’s in charge of that? If we’re going to play youth, just play them. No need for limitations. If not going to play more minutes, play them full time for Peel in their positions. Either way, don’t train or coach them out of the instinct/potential.
Banfield at HF whilst he’s a ball winning tagger then to be replaced by smaller Crowden in the same role. Dumb.
Now the season is lost, just throw players to the coal face and into the middle. Build confidence and minutes. North, Blakely, Banfield, Cerra, Banfield all in the middle.
 

Scham

Brownlow Medallist
Sep 19, 2004
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I think we are about average for the league. Not judging anybody who hasn't been here for at least 3 pre-seasons and 50 games.

That only leaves a handful of players to judge and most of them are going ok.

I think the mob up the road are right up there with the best so that’s not helping our perspective. We as supporters obviously look over the neighbours fence too much.
 

Scham

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Sep 19, 2004
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Prior to the draft Darren Bewick who has a long experience of coaching youth said that Cerra was the best talent that he’d seen come through the Vic under 18 system in his time. I’d love to get his views on Cerra now and why he’s not looking anything like the player he was in juniors.
 
Aug 16, 2009
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Prior to the draft Darren Bewick who has a long experience of coaching youth said that Cerra was the best talent that he’d seen come through the Vic under 18 system in his time. I’d love to get his views on Cerra now and why he’s not looking anything like the player he was in juniors.
He is not looking anything like the player he was last year. He has shown none of last year's elegance.

Cox has also had an awful 3rd year. I am a fan, but it is hard to be based on this year's showing.

Blakely is a far lesser player now than I would have expected 2 or 3 years ago.

This question is something that is really hard to judge. Is it limited talent or poor development? Something unanswerable, really.
 
I agree that is why they recruit ready made players from other teams and pay way overs for them.
Tell me a player we payed overs for.

The only possible argument is Bennell where we took a risk (and got a massive discount on his talent due to the risk).
 

TheMcManusNose

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Apr 21, 2014
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I think we are about average for the league. Not judging anybody who hasn't been here for at least 3 pre-seasons and 50 games.

That only leaves a handful of players to judge and most of them are going ok.

I agree. We are about average, which is a bit of a problem when we've shunted through so much youth at once. It's a bit concerning though that Peel seems to be so wildly inconsistent and s**t.

It's very easy for young players to come in and look good when a team is settled and doing well. Less so when they have to carry more load like they do for us.
 

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Undertaker

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Jul 21, 2003
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Tell me a player we payed overs for.

The only possible argument is Bennell where we took a risk (and got a massive discount on his talent due to the risk).
McCarthy, Hogan & Bennell cost us plenty could easily have equated to Naughton, English & Kelly. Lobb, Wilson, B Hill are ticks Conca & Matera ???.
Colyer & Kersten are not best 22 and not even good depth players. My point is that recruiting recyled players very seldom works for us, I would much prefer to try our luck with home grown local talent like Kelly, Stack, Naughton, English, Rioli, Ryan, etc who were all available to us.
 

Cobbler

Norm Smith Medallist
Jul 7, 2014
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McCarthy, Hogan & Bennell cost us plenty could easily have equated to Naughton, English & Kelly. Lobb, Wilson, B Hill are ticks Conca & Matera ???.
Colyer & Kersten are not best 22 and not even good depth players. My point is that recruiting recyled players very seldom works for us, I would much prefer to try our luck with home grown local talent like Kelly, Stack, Naughton, English, Rioli, Ryan, etc who were all available to us.

Damned if you do damned if you don’t. Always easy in hindsight.

There was a time when Rotham was on par with Logue. We went the homegrown talent there.

Many wanted Ian Hill. Where’s he?

You can’t just pick out the ones that have done well and ignore all the others.

Brayshaw, Cerra, Cox and Darcy are 2-3 years away from giving us what we want.

Who knows.

I was disappointed we picked Sturt but again you can’t make calls this early.

If Cerra can’t contest in the forward line or half back I’m unsure how he’s going to compete in the middle.
 
McCarthy, Hogan & Bennell cost us plenty could easily have equated to Naughton, English & Kelly. Lobb, Wilson, B Hill are ticks Conca & Matera ???.
Colyer & Kersten are not best 22 and not even good depth players. My point is that recruiting recyled players very seldom works for us, I would much prefer to try our luck with home grown local talent like Kelly, Stack, Naughton, English, Rioli, Ryan, etc who were all available to us.
McCarthy trade was terrific for us and I'd do again every day of the week, Hogan was cheap considering his talent. So long as he gets on the park that will be a massive win. Bennell was a risk that didnt pay off, we had a massive discount on his talent for this reason.

Conca cost nothing but capspace that we have in spades and he's living up to the price we paid. Matera was a round 3 pick, easily worth what he's done this year. Colyer and Kersten cost 4th and 3rd round picks and are playing as such.

There is not a player we have overpaid on bar Bennell as it stands, and that was due to injury. Our trading has been sensational the last few years, there are lots of things you can be annoyed at with the club. This is not one of them.

Draft picks miss more than they hit, people completely over-rate them and there are plenty of WA kids that have been picked up and been duds but on one mentions them since its easy to forget
 
Feb 11, 2011
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Johnny Dalmas

Getting Old and Grumpy
Oct 16, 2015
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McCarthy, Hogan & Bennell cost us plenty could easily have equated to Naughton, English & Kelly. Lobb, Wilson, B Hill are ticks Conca & Matera ???.
Colyer & Kersten are not best 22 and not even good depth players. My point is that recruiting recyled players very seldom works for us, I would much prefer to try our luck with home grown local talent like Kelly, Stack, Naughton, English, Rioli, Ryan, etc who were all available to us.

Just like you I would love to see us have more faith in local talent too. But I think it is more if a drafting problem than a trading problem

McCarthy cost us the equivalent of something like #81 when you factor in the package of picks we got in the deal. He didn't cost us English because we picked Logue ahead of English -- and if you believe Brad Lloyd we would have still picked Logue at #3 anyhow.

Hogan cost us #5 and a 2nd. That is a lot but I don't think anyone would argue that we paid massive overs -- that us simply the price for a good young forward like Hogan. (Who was a #2 who actually had runs on the board)

Bennell was a reasonable trade of a very late first and a downgrade of a 2nd(?). The Bennell trade was very similiar to what the Hawks gave up for Jono Rourke who was a #2 from GWS. (Both have been busts.)

Guys like Colyer and Kersten were questionable trades. Not because we paid a lot (we didn't) but because it's really hard to see how they improved our list in the 1st place.

For me the expensive trade last year was Lobb. We gave up a 1st and downgraded another 1st. That could have got us both Jordy Clark and Port's Duursma. Sure Lobb has been good in the short term, but in the long term that was a lot to give up.

We didn't get Naughton because we picked Cerra.
We didn't get English because of Logue.

We could have got Kelly, Stack, Ryan, and both the McGoverns for absolute peanuts : rookie picks would have picked them all up because they were all overlooked in main drafts.

Especially since it seems that we were twice keen on Kelly and both times didn't pick him up with a late pick/rookie pick.

We have made some clangers with locals at draft :
- Sheridan & Crozier ahead of both B.Hill and Yeo
- Pitt ahead of Jack Darling
- Apeness ahead of Lobb

One of the few times we did back in a local kid with a 1st rounder we picked Josh Simpson ... ahead of Brodie Grundy (not a local, but a v.questionable choice)

To miss out on some of these picks, sure OK. Nobody expects perfection. But too miss all of the above? It beggars belief.

Long winded I know, but I suppose I'm saying that our drafting has been more questionable than our trading when it comes to local talent.
 

trentjac

Club Legend
Jan 30, 2015
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Prior to the draft Darren Bewick who has a long experience of coaching youth said that Cerra was the best talent that he’d seen come through the Vic under 18 system in his time. I’d love to get his views on Cerra now and why he’s not looking anything like the player he was in juniors.
If you want into be an AFL player, pull your finger out and play as hard as you can in whichever position/role you are given. Cerra doesn’t deserve to be in the team at the moment, let alone being gifted a midfield role when he hasn’t put serious effort in
 

jedi mind tricks

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Mar 13, 2011
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In recent years the development of youth has been terrible. I might be the only one who thinks this way but it has to be said, the young talent that other teams seem to have is nowhere to be seen at Fremantle. Brayshaw maybe the only exception to being promising, but most of our players cant execute the basics and are getting played out of position and having their flair taken from them. From Cerra and Blakely being played in the back pockets costing us goals to Banfield earning his way back into the side only to sit in a forward pocket, we are setting our younger players up to fail.

edit: fully expecting to get ridiculed by people here so let me have it if you think I am wrong.

Yep I've been saying this for a number of years. Our skills coaching is terrible thus resulting in depleated development in youth.

I've been told by some on here that you can't teach skills.

I call B S. They have no idea
 

Freeeoo

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May 7, 2006
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I think we are about average for the league. Not judging anybody who hasn't been here for at least 3 pre-seasons and 50 games.

That only leaves a handful of players to judge and most of them are going ok.
Exactly, you need to get 50 games into them first before you really know what you've got.
 

Johnny Dalmas

Getting Old and Grumpy
Oct 16, 2015
4,181
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Albany
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Yep I've been saying this for a number of years. Our skills coaching is terrible thus resulting in depleated development in youth.

I've been told by some on here that you can't teach skills.

I call B S. They have no idea
We have all sorts of quantitative measures when it comes to physical fitness:
- skinfolds
- running time trials

I'm sure the club knows what, say, the bench press PB is for every players.

If your are behind expectations physically you get put on a remedial program to sort that out. In the past "fat" players like Walters and Sylvia were given strong feedback about their physical preparation.

Hmm ... do we do the same for ball skills? The answer is obviously no.

I would like to see a coach bring in some quantitative measures for ball skills.

Alongside the 2km time trial first day of preseason, I'd like to see some kind of goal kicking and field kicking test.

Don't pass the test? You are in the kicking program until you do.

Ball skills should be just as much a priority as physical fitness.
 

fnerd

Norm Smith Medallist
Aug 23, 2009
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Just like you I would love to see us have more faith in local talent too. But I think it is more if a drafting problem than a trading problem

McCarthy cost us the equivalent of something like #81 when you factor in the package of picks we got in the deal. He didn't cost us English because we picked Logue ahead of English -- and if you believe Brad Lloyd we would have still picked Logue at #3 anyhow.

Hogan cost us #5 and a 2nd. That is a lot but I don't think anyone would argue that we paid massive overs -- that us simply the price for a good young forward like Hogan. (Who was a #2 who actually had runs on the board)

Bennell was a reasonable trade of a very late first and a downgrade of a 2nd(?). The Bennell trade was very similiar to what the Hawks gave up for Jono Rourke who was a #2 from GWS. (Both have been busts.)

Guys like Colyer and Kersten were questionable trades. Not because we paid a lot (we didn't) but because it's really hard to see how they improved our list in the 1st place.

For me the expensive trade last year was Lobb. We gave up a 1st and downgraded another 1st. That could have got us both Jordy Clark and Port's Duursma. Sure Lobb has been good in the short term, but in the long term that was a lot to give up.

We didn't get Naughton because we picked Cerra.
We didn't get English because of Logue.

We could have got Kelly, Stack, Ryan, and both the McGoverns for absolute peanuts : rookie picks would have picked them all up because they were all overlooked in main drafts.

Especially since it seems that we were twice keen on Kelly and both times didn't pick him up with a late pick/rookie pick.

We have made some clangers with locals at draft :
- Sheridan & Crozier ahead of both B.Hill and Yeo
- Pitt ahead of Jack Darling
- Apeness ahead of Lobb

One of the few times we did back in a local kid with a 1st rounder we picked Josh Simpson ... ahead of Brodie Grundy (not a local, but a v.questionable choice)

To miss out on some of these picks, sure OK. Nobody expects perfection. But too miss all of the above? It beggars belief.

Long winded I know, but I suppose I'm saying that our drafting has been more questionable than our trading when it comes to local talent.
Spot on
 

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