Review 2012 Season review: VFL team

[76woodenspooners]

The season ended around a week ago for our VFL team.

We finished second bottom on 4 wins, but our club is always at pains to emphasize that the objective of our VFL team is to prepare players for the senior team.

And that has been as important as ever this season with 37 players used.

We have had a bunch of young debutants who have been expected to hit that MCG turf running: Paine, Yagmoor, Mooney, Elliott, Sinclair, Williams and Young - has the VFL team prepared them adequately for their senior roles?

We have a bunch of second tier players who have been bouncing between the VFL and AFL teams: Wood, Clarke, and Buckley are names that come to mind. Has the VFL side kept them competitive and ready to step up?

And there is the development of others: Witts, Ceglar and Hartley. Has our 2012 VFL side given them the best opportunity to learn their trade?

Has our VFL met its stated objectives? Does anything need to change, and of so, what?

If the rumoured reserves competition gets up in 2013, will that be good or bad for us? What do you think the Club's opinion should/could be?

 

[blaze036]

I think our young players would develop better if our VFL team was competitive. I hope next year we can recruit/change enough things to be middle of the table and play 1-2 finals.

Its hard to develop young forwards when some quarters the ball isnt even kicked to them

 

[standingroomonly]

The VFL serves it's purpose. But it could do it a lot better.

The club has got the funds so a second development level VFL team is needed so we can structure our team better to deliver results. I don't think we'd go down the affiliation road at that level so the cost would be a few hundred grand a year, i hope they look at it as it has been ridiculous at times with up to 6 players 200cm+ or close to it running around in the same team. If they want to be serious about emulating the AFL gameplan then the developing talls need to be rotated through two teams rather than overloaded or missing football. With the ridiculous VFL draw there is times where they can miss 2 weeks for no reason with the bye schedule.

If they do go down the road of the development squad i hope they chase some strong bodies to carry the younger mids through the season. We get chopped towards the end of quarters as the young players simply haven't developed the tank yet. With less injuries to the senior team that wouldn't be such a factor but we have to prepare for it nonetheless.

Playing at Vic Park is fantastic and i hope they keep it that way even once the Olympic Park redevelopment is finished. I know i'd be less inclined to watch the VFL there, it's a sentimental thing but with how sterile AFL football clubs are these days it's nice to see we're sticking with a part of our history that has some character.

I don't think Tarkyn is the best option as coach, i know he was a loyal servent of the club and we have looked after him but just from watching him in the breaks he doesn't seem to give a great deal, with the development coaches (Rocca, Hahn, McCrae, Tapping) seeming more effective at getting the boys attention. When Tarkyn speaks it seems like they are bored and just can't wait for him to bugger off so they can get back to their sections or back to the game. Whether we go down the track of hiring a senior VFL coach and give Tarks a development role or hire another assistant to help him out, i don't know. But i think there needs to be some more authoritative leadership.

It's also great to see so many listed players watching the games, especially when they are scheduled the day after the AFL. Really adds to the club feeling and i'm sure it's great for morale. Same can be said for the senior assistant coaches and support staff. Had a few great chats to Lappin and Buttifant during games this year.

It's a pleasure to watch the VFL team go around, even when they are getting a flogging. I can honestly say the win versus Port is my best Collingwood highlight since the 2010 flag, the 2011 AFL prelim a close second. I hope we can get a better run with injuries and see some of our 2011 draftee's really come on next year so we can see some September action in the VFL, watching Willi win the 2003 flag was nice with our listed players but it would be great to see our standalone team give it a shake.

 

[the mighty T]

There's something about the vfl that I really enjoy and some if the time I have more fun at Vic park watching the younger blokes running around. I just get that community footy feel at Vic park. If they decide to move it to Olympic park I'll be pretty disappointed.

In terms of how the teams gone, it obviously could've been better. However, the struggles of the vfl side are magnified by our injuries. Take away some of those and you'd have the likes of Elliot, Williams, keefe/brown, Sinclair, seedsman etc playing in the reserves each week, probably leading to more wins on the board. But the team is serving its purpose, getting the younger guys as ready as possible for afl action

Im not really sure if tarks is the right man for the job though.

 

[DaVe86]

I definitely like having a stand alone VFL team, but I do have concerns.

My major worry is that we are not making finals. This means that our reserves players get rusty and aren't match fit if called upon due to injury.

It happened to us last year. We had a number of guys struggling to get up, but no one match fit to come back in. It has happened again with Dawes not able to earn a recall. If Dawes is named this week, it is based on pure hope, with no form whatsoever to justify his selection. If he had played last week and kicked a few then the coaching panel would at least have something to base their opinion on.

Same goes now for guys like Buckley, Sinclair, Wood, Young, Ceglar etc who may be required if one or two players get injured...but they won't have any match fitness.

At least when we had a strong VFL team, we had guys who were playing right through finals and were cherry ripe.


So I think our VFL side needs to stay focussed on developing players...but also needs to be winning as well. Perhaps that means playing a few more mature VFL listed players, and dropping a few younger guys or experimental players to develop in the VFL reserves.

 

[jonbe54]

I definitely like having a stand alone VFL team, but I do have concerns.

My major worry is that we are not making finals. This means that our reserves players get rusty and aren't match fit if called upon due to injury.

It happened to us last year. We had a number of guys struggling to get up, but no one match fit to come back in. It has happened again with Dawes not able to earn a recall. If Dawes is named this week, it is based on pure hope, with no form whatsoever to justify his selection. If he had played last week and kicked a few then the coaching panel would at least have something to base their opinion on.

Same goes now for guys like Buckley, Sinclair, Wood, Young, Ceglar etc who may be required if one or two players get injured...but they won't have any match fitness.

At least when we had a strong VFL team, we had guys who were playing right through finals and were cherry ripe.


So I think our VFL side needs to stay focussed on developing players...but also needs to be winning as well. Perhaps that means playing a few more mature VFL listed players, and dropping a few younger guys or experimental players to develop in the VFL reserves.

M8 our AFL injuries impact on the VFL team ya know. Where the hell do you think Young, Ceglar, Sinclair and Buckley came from? The tooth fairy???

We had a large number of players out for very significant periods which meant we had to strip our VFL team to the bone to keep the AFL team up there, robbing Peter to pay Paul always has consequences, in our case missing out on the VFL finals.

 

[Snoop Dog]

jury a bit out for me. I agree with the winning games is good development but they know best and clearly been very good at developing players and given guys like Fasolo, Elliott, Keefe, Williams have come on so quickly suggests the coaching programme works well so I think there is a tick for Tarks.

Where I think they have gone wrong is in the top up players they bring in. If it were me I would be running a sort of 'bar bell' approach. That is, I would have the young kids we draft but I would top the team up with fellas that are older and couldnt get drafted or blokes from interstate who are keen to make the AFL grade and would value our facilities and the opportunity to be in an AFL club environment. So you sell it is a better step to AFL opportunity than playing for a Box Hill whose players dont go anywhere near the AFL environment.

I think the other thing is those blokes need big sized bodies. Watching some of those top up players this year I thought they were younger than our draftees.

Guys like Myke Cook, Myles Sewell, Nathan Batsanis, Tom Lee, Sam Dwyer, Trent Shinners, Khan Haretuku surely all could have been sold on our club being a better spot than where they were at the end of last year. Also a bit of the GWS model where guys who are retiring stay on for a bit of superannuation money wouldnt be the worst strategy.

 

[blaze036]

M8 our AFL injuries impact on the VFL team ya know. Where the hell do you think Young, Ceglar, Sinclair and Buckley came from? The tooth fairy???

We had a large number of players out for very significant periods which meant we had to strip our VFL team to the bone to keep the AFL team up there, robbing Peter to pay Paul always has consequences, in our case missing out on the VFL finals.

Im sure the majority of other VFL teams have had a similair or worse injury list (albeit with less ACL's), so lets not pretend were the only team whos had players injured and had to use VFL players... all the teams have done that, however they have still smashed us

 

[DaVe86]

Exactly. jonbe54 has totally misread my post.

I am not saying our player development has not been good. I also opened my post by saying I like a stand alone VFL team.

The point of my post is that I still think the team needs to be successful and aim to play finals. I think its important that our reserve players are kept match fit during an AFL finals campaign. Already it has cost us with Dawes not been able to play last week.

I still think our VFL team needs a strong list of VFL quality players and less of the experimental types or 18 year olds who are no where near ready.

I think our VFL team has done wonders for the kids coming through. However, I am concerned that they are finishing their season a week before the home and away season is finished. It would be at least good if they were playing off first week of the finals. If we make the Grand Final and a key player is injured...we will have to select someone who hasn't played any form of football for 5 weeks.

That is my only criticism of the current set up.

Apart from that, it is fantastic that we have full control and we can play similar structures.