The Royal Sampler
Floreat Pica, Bitch!
There are many ways to analyse a list of players, be it on the basis of stats, age profile, or position. However stats can be accumulated cheaply, players can be young and crap or old and still elite, and roles can change week to week or quarter to quarter. So I present you instead with a breakdown of which of our players are "good" and "not very good", shunning any suggestion of objectivity or, frankly, logic.
Here's how we're going to do it. As we have to name 22 players before a game, I'm going to break our players down into where they ought to fit in a numbered rank in the 22 of a competitive AFL team, in the tiered format of 4-7-7-4. Not necessarily our 4-7-7-4, but where our players would fall in a hypothetically competitive team's 4-7-7-4. There is no particular reason for doing so except that I find it illustrative... and this is my thread so suck it up. I will label the tiers thusly;
1-4 "Elite players": These are the players who are playing at the height of their powers, and provide matchup headaches for opposition coaches and fans. You can go to a game, watch this player play, and think happily to yourself "they don't have one of him on their team", "he could prove the difference". These players are comparable to the best four players in any other finals-bound team.
5-11 "Core players": These players are automatic selections every week, are dependable and we hope to have them playing for us for as long as they maintain this standard. They may provide a matchup advantage against their direct opponent, but are unlikely to be a weak link. On any given day, with a good outing they could be our BOG. They would be begrudgingly considered a "good" player by opposition fans who have a clue.
12-18 "Role players": These players can generally be counted upon to fill a necessary role on the field to an AFL standard, but are unlikely to regularly provide a matchup advantage. They may be able to nullify an opponent. They are virtually auto selections, but if opposition matchups or conditions dictate, they could very occasionally be overlooked for selection. These players are dependable and should not be considered a "weak link" in the chain.
19-22 "Interchange players": Players who are more likely to be subject to opposition matchups for selection week-to-week, and in terms of talent they aren't going to scare anybody or cause sleepless nights. However supporters should feel comfortable having them in the team knowing they can serve their purpose. In fact, we should feel comfortable having four of these players on the list each week, as opposed to these guys being the last one picked each week. Alternatively, these players could be talented young players who need to have games poured into them, without being flat-out gifted (because again, this is a competitive team, got it?).
Everyone else: Potentially talented youngsters who have yet to demand a game in the sense of knocking down the door or warranting "blooding", players who should only get a game in the case of an injury to someone with their specific role, players who are past it, players who were never "it" and are unlikely to become "it" any time soon.
Ok, so here's our list as I see it. Players within tiers are numbered but not in any order.
Elite 1-4
1. Jamie Elliott
2. Jeremy Howe
Core 5-11
5. Adam Treloar
6. Taylor Adams
7. Brodie Grundy
8. Darcy Moore
9. Steele Sidebottom
10. Scott Pendlebury
11. Jordan De Goey
11. (b) Daniel Wells
Role Players 12-18
12. Ben Reid
13. Brayden Maynard
14. Alex Fasolo
15. Sam Murray
Interchange 19-22
19. Lynden Dunn
20. Tim Broomhead
21. Travis Varcoe
22. Tom Phillips
22. (b) Jack Crisp
22. (c) Will Hoskin-Elliott
22. (d) Tyson Goldsack
22. (e) Jaidyn Stephenson
22. (f) Josh Thomas
22. (g) Tom Langdon
22. (h) Levi Greenwood
So looking at this list, we have obvious problems with top-end talent. We have fewer elite players than we require, and Elliott is regularly injured. Of our core players, Pendlebury appears to be on the decline, anything we get from Daniel Wells is a bonus, but this group is solid without having a glut of potential game-changers in the making. Ben Reid may warrant elevating back to this group if played in defence.
Our role players are sadly lacking. This probably speaks to the amount of turnover our list has had, and the high number of players we seem to be utilising over the course of a season relative to other clubs. I've been quite generous even adding Murray to this group based on one game, for that matter, but he looked solid and should clearly be given a number of games to establish himself.
Our interchange is pretty deep, but of course these players aren't playing as interchange options in our team in the real world. I wouldn't feel great about having four of these guys listed on our bench going into a game, but then again that's the point.
Essentially, we can muster a maximum of 18 AFL-quality players each week, and that needs to change. We have reason to be hopeful about several of our younger brigade; the likes of McLarty, Callum Brown, Daicos, Murphy, Kirby etc. but every team has these... and then we have players like Scharenberg and Aish who have shown glimpses at times but who are really at the crossroads and will need to step up to continue an AFL career. Our player development needs to be improved out of sight to rectify the deficiencies in our list, and then we need to get (largely) the same 22 guys playing as many games together as possible, particularly as we also seem to lack leadership and understanding between our forward, mid and defensive units... but that's a story for another day.
Here's how we're going to do it. As we have to name 22 players before a game, I'm going to break our players down into where they ought to fit in a numbered rank in the 22 of a competitive AFL team, in the tiered format of 4-7-7-4. Not necessarily our 4-7-7-4, but where our players would fall in a hypothetically competitive team's 4-7-7-4. There is no particular reason for doing so except that I find it illustrative... and this is my thread so suck it up. I will label the tiers thusly;
1-4 "Elite players": These are the players who are playing at the height of their powers, and provide matchup headaches for opposition coaches and fans. You can go to a game, watch this player play, and think happily to yourself "they don't have one of him on their team", "he could prove the difference". These players are comparable to the best four players in any other finals-bound team.
5-11 "Core players": These players are automatic selections every week, are dependable and we hope to have them playing for us for as long as they maintain this standard. They may provide a matchup advantage against their direct opponent, but are unlikely to be a weak link. On any given day, with a good outing they could be our BOG. They would be begrudgingly considered a "good" player by opposition fans who have a clue.
12-18 "Role players": These players can generally be counted upon to fill a necessary role on the field to an AFL standard, but are unlikely to regularly provide a matchup advantage. They may be able to nullify an opponent. They are virtually auto selections, but if opposition matchups or conditions dictate, they could very occasionally be overlooked for selection. These players are dependable and should not be considered a "weak link" in the chain.
19-22 "Interchange players": Players who are more likely to be subject to opposition matchups for selection week-to-week, and in terms of talent they aren't going to scare anybody or cause sleepless nights. However supporters should feel comfortable having them in the team knowing they can serve their purpose. In fact, we should feel comfortable having four of these players on the list each week, as opposed to these guys being the last one picked each week. Alternatively, these players could be talented young players who need to have games poured into them, without being flat-out gifted (because again, this is a competitive team, got it?).
Everyone else: Potentially talented youngsters who have yet to demand a game in the sense of knocking down the door or warranting "blooding", players who should only get a game in the case of an injury to someone with their specific role, players who are past it, players who were never "it" and are unlikely to become "it" any time soon.
Ok, so here's our list as I see it. Players within tiers are numbered but not in any order.
Elite 1-4
1. Jamie Elliott
2. Jeremy Howe
Core 5-11
5. Adam Treloar
6. Taylor Adams
7. Brodie Grundy
8. Darcy Moore
9. Steele Sidebottom
10. Scott Pendlebury
11. Jordan De Goey
11. (b) Daniel Wells
Role Players 12-18
12. Ben Reid
13. Brayden Maynard
14. Alex Fasolo
15. Sam Murray
Interchange 19-22
19. Lynden Dunn
20. Tim Broomhead
21. Travis Varcoe
22. Tom Phillips
22. (b) Jack Crisp
22. (c) Will Hoskin-Elliott
22. (d) Tyson Goldsack
22. (e) Jaidyn Stephenson
22. (f) Josh Thomas
22. (g) Tom Langdon
22. (h) Levi Greenwood
So looking at this list, we have obvious problems with top-end talent. We have fewer elite players than we require, and Elliott is regularly injured. Of our core players, Pendlebury appears to be on the decline, anything we get from Daniel Wells is a bonus, but this group is solid without having a glut of potential game-changers in the making. Ben Reid may warrant elevating back to this group if played in defence.
Our role players are sadly lacking. This probably speaks to the amount of turnover our list has had, and the high number of players we seem to be utilising over the course of a season relative to other clubs. I've been quite generous even adding Murray to this group based on one game, for that matter, but he looked solid and should clearly be given a number of games to establish himself.
Our interchange is pretty deep, but of course these players aren't playing as interchange options in our team in the real world. I wouldn't feel great about having four of these guys listed on our bench going into a game, but then again that's the point.
Essentially, we can muster a maximum of 18 AFL-quality players each week, and that needs to change. We have reason to be hopeful about several of our younger brigade; the likes of McLarty, Callum Brown, Daicos, Murphy, Kirby etc. but every team has these... and then we have players like Scharenberg and Aish who have shown glimpses at times but who are really at the crossroads and will need to step up to continue an AFL career. Our player development needs to be improved out of sight to rectify the deficiencies in our list, and then we need to get (largely) the same 22 guys playing as many games together as possible, particularly as we also seem to lack leadership and understanding between our forward, mid and defensive units... but that's a story for another day.
