Depth analysis - best 22 & reserves 22

[rgauci]

Best 22 / round 1 team (arguable - more a demonstration of depth, and you know the coach is gonna go for experience in round 1).

Spurr Hamling Hughes
Blakeley Johnson Wilson
B.Hill Fyfe S.Hill
Bennell McCarthy Walters
Ballantyne Taberner Matera
R: Sandilands Neale Mundy

Int: Logue Ryan Tucker Kersten

Reserves:
Duman A.Pearce Nyhuis
D.Pearce Cox Sutcliffe
Brayshaw Cerra Sheridan
Crowden Dixon Langdon
Switkowski Darcy Grey
R: Jones North Banfield
Int: Giro Apeness Meek Strnadica

Look at that interchange for the reserves. We are clearly unbalanced. You could shuffle Darcy into the 22, and it looks slightly better. But we’ll still have talls playing reserves. I’m assuming the club has stamped a few papers looking towards 2018.

They won’t just retire Sandilands. If he plays 20 games and has a good year, he’ll go around again. The guy can’t earn the money he’s earning now via the media or business deals. He’ll play as long as he’s physically able. And so he should.

 

[meima]

I doubt reserves will had best 22 , few of them will definitely play for Peel reserves and those that come back from injuries will also play for peel reserve before promoted to senior Peel .

 

[Scham]

I can see Sandi playing very few games this year and may even retire before seasons end.

Even so Peel will still be too tall. As has been mentioned a number of times in other threads, unless we have a number of injuries to our talls or we play 2 genuine rucks at Freo with 2 tall forwards, then a couple will need to play Peel ressies.

 

[theGav56]

I can see Sandi playing very few games this year and may even retire before seasons end.

Even so Peel will still be too tall. As has been mentioned a number of times in other threads, unless we have a number of injuries to our talls or we play 2 genuine rucks at Freo with 2 tall forwards, then a couple will need to play Peel ressies.

It is going to be interesting to see how he is handled. Surely we are going to want to see Jones debut at some stage. I would be happy to see him and Darcy pairing up in some games, not from an ideal structure point of view, but just to get the maximum development into the pair of them. That is where the priority needs to be. Perhaps if the team is some silly chance of playing finals the situation for Sandilands may change.

 

[blue shark]

With that many ruck, ruck/forwards, is Darcy certain to stay in WA? Honestly thought we would of taken more
forward pocket or medium forwards.
If we really want to build for success in a few years, all the older players should be on limited game time, or
just depth.

 

[Scham]

It is going to be interesting to see how he is handled. Surely we are going to want to see Jones debut at some stage. I would be happy to see him and Darcy pairing up in some games, not from an ideal structure point of view, but just to get the maximum development into the pair of them. That is where the priority needs to be. Perhaps if the team is some silly chance of playing finals the situation for Sandilands may change.

Good point. I guess as Ross says, we're 2 years into a 4 year rebuild so it doesn't matter too much about wins and is more about developing the next side to contend, so we can play 2 rucks and 2 tall forwards even if it makes us less competitive.

 

[theGav56]

With that many ruck, ruck/forwards, is Darcy certain to stay in WA? Honestly thought we would of taken more
forward pocket or medium forwards.
If we really want to build for success in a few years, all the older players should be on limited game time, or
just depth.

Nobody is certain to stay, but Darcy looks like he has a very nice career in front of him with us.

I think we have plenty of small/medium forwards, including that Cerra and Brayshaw can both play forward and would possibly begin their careers there. Switkowski and Crowden have terrific small forward potential. Will be difficult to get a run anyway with Ballantyne, Matera, Walters and Bennell, plus Grey and Langdon on the fringes.

 

[theGav56]

Good point. I guess as Ross says, we're 2 years into a 4 year rebuild so it doesn't matter too much about wins and is more about developing the next side to contend, so we can play 2 rucks and 2 tall forwards because it makes us less competitive.

A small edit with a nod to next years "superdraft".

 

[Lach72]

I would say Sandilands, Johnson, Spurr, Ballantyne and Apeness are this years retirements, with a question over Mundy.

Unless something dramatic changes, Apeness and Strndanica will be playing reserves.

You've also got to remember the few decent players Peel have Ugle, Jetta etc) who also will be playing and injuries.
I don't see an issue with this many talls. They don;t work out so you need a few more to try and snag one.

I also think we will more than likely go tall this year too in the early rounds. We have Carter in the locker already, and we just drafted 6 midfielders

 

[poshman]

I think Sandi is a maybe on retirement. If he can play he isn’t going to lose much through age. He is a dominant force on the ground and creates exceptional value for Darcy to learn from.

It would be the best thing for Darcy long term if he gets another 2-3 seasons playing with Sandi. Less physical toll early and he gets to learn from the best.

 

[Rion]

Sandi should have retired/been moved on elsewhere this year imo. We aren't challenging and his replacement (who've with currently got sitting in front of us on the list already) is only going to get less opportunity at FF/Peel if Sandi plays.

 

[theGav56]

Sandi should have retired/been moved on elsewhere this year imo. We aren't challenging and his replacement (who've with currently got sitting in front of us on the list already) is only going to get less opportunity at FF/Peel if Sandi plays.

Cannot agree, but given how few games he has played in the past 2 years it certainly would have been considered.

 

[Tundrawolf]

Cannot agree, but given how few games he has played in the past 2 years it certainly would have been considered.

IMO Sandi will not go around again next year and really with where the clubs focus is probably shouldn't have been signed for that extra year. Much better to see who can help Darcy out to replace him.
You can add Danyle to that list of retirees. Apeness if he stays fit and can actually play some footy will stay.

 

[meima]

IMO Sandi will not go around again next year and really with where the clubs focus is probably shouldn't have been signed for that extra year. Much better to see who can help Darcy out to replace him.
You can add Danyle to that list of retirees. Apeness if he stays fit and can actually play some footy will stay.

Agree to all except Apeness.

 

[Tundrawolf]

Agree to all except Apeness.

Yeah he's a tricky one, at the end of next year he'll still only be 23 yrs old.

 

[Belnakor]

Sandi should have retired/been moved on elsewhere this year imo. We aren't challenging and his replacement (who've with currently got sitting in front of us on the list already) is only going to get less opportunity at FF/Peel if Sandi plays.

Darcy wouldn't be physically able to play a full year as the no.1 ruckman.

I would expect there will be quite a few games with both of them playing. Darcy actually looks far more menacing in attack compared to alot of our past ruckman, so i would expect him to spend significant time forward this year when he isn't rucking.

 

[meima]

Yeah he's a tricky one, at the end of next year he'll still only be 23 yrs old.

I think Meek ,Jones and Stranadica will be ahead of him in term of ability to play forward and ruck . With Collins gone I don't mind stranadica been trial at KPd/ ruck for Peel also. Stranadica is a footballer without Apeness agility.

 

[yakamoto]

Is Apeness agile?

 

[meima]

Is Apeness agile?

Compare to stranadica he is, but with Dixon he is not.

 

[Docker82]

Key Defenders: Michael Johnson, Joel Hamling, Alex Pearce, Griffin Logue, Brennan Cox (5)

General Defenders: Lee Spurr, Cameron Sutcliffe, Nathan Wilson, Tommy Sheridan, Ethan Hughes, Luke Ryan, Ryan Nyhuis, Taylin Duman (8)

Midfielders: David Mundy, Danyle Pearce, Stephen Hill, Nat Fyfe, Harley Bennell, Lachie Neale, Bradley Hill, Ed Langdon, Connor Blakely, Darcy Tucker, Bailey Banfield, Tom North, Mitch Crowden, Adam Cerra, Andrew Brayshaw (15)

Rucks: Aaron Sandilands, Scott Jones, Luke Strnadica, Lloyd Meek, Sean Darcy (5)

Key Forwards: Shane Kersten, Matt Taberner, Michael Apeness, Cam McCarthy, Hugh Dixon (5)

General Forwards: Hayden Ballantyne, Michael Walters, Brandon Matera, Brady Grey, Sam Switkowski, Stefan Giro (6)

 

[Ysaye]

Is Apeness agile?

Agility

Sandi < Tabs < Strnad < Apeness < Dixon < Pearce

 

[sherrif]

I think Sandi is a maybe on retirement. If he can play he isn’t going to lose much through age. He is a dominant force on the ground and creates exceptional value for Darcy to learn from.

It would be the best thing for Darcy long term if he gets another 2-3 seasons playing with Sandi. Less physical toll early and he gets to learn from the best.

I completely agree that the best thing for Darcy is actually Sandy playing on at least two more years. If Sean plays as a sole ruckman for an extended stretch from next year the chances of his development being effected by injury increase dramatically. I remember Zac Smith rucking for Gold Cast from the age of about 20 and then in his early twenties he was injured an absolute ton. Im actually really confident Sean will be a massive surprise playing forward next year while not in the ruck and that him and Sandy will share the ruck role 60/40ish (with sandy rucking 60%) most weeks.

For what it is worth one thing I think that needs to be considered when assessing our depth is the potential for a significant improvement in how many players we could available for selection each week compared to 2017. Last year Uebergang, Clarke, Yarran, A.Pearce and Apeness combined to play about one half of reserve grade WAFL football. Considering Bennell, Sandy and Balic also missed a ton of footy there is definiitely massive potential for us to have more players available for selection each week in 2018 compared to 2017. It is only early days, but having all but one player on the list in full training at this time of year is a good start to having more players pressing for selection in 2018.

 

[greatgatsby]

I completely agree that the best thing for Darcy is actually Sandy playing on at least two more years. If Sean plays as a sole ruckman for an extended stretch from next year the chances of his development being effected by injury increase dramatically. I remember Zac Smith rucking for Gold Cast from the age of about 20 and then in his early twenties he was injured an absolute ton. Im actually really confident Sean will be a massive surprise playing forward next year while not in the ruck and that him and Sandy will share the ruck role 60/40ish (with sandy rucking 60%) most weeks.

For what it is worth one thing I think that needs to be considered when assessing our depth is the potential for a significant improvement in how many players we could available for selection each week compared to 2017. Last year Uebergang, Clarke, Yarran, A.Pearce and Apeness combined to play about one half of reserve grade WAFL football. Considering Bennell, Sandy and Balic also missed a ton of footy there is definiiitely massive potential for us to have more players available for selection each week in 2018. It is only early days, but having all but one player on the list in full training at this time of year is a good start to having more players pressing for selection in 2018.

Absolutely. I can't recall us being this healthy pre-Christmas. On Darcy, he's best 22 and I reckon while Sandi's fit and available we play Darcy forward and ask him to bring it to ground and kick 2 a game. We only need one other tall forward in this scenario.

 

[DaveLister]

Absolutely. I can't recall us being this healthy pre-Christmas. On Darcy, he's best 22 and I reckon while Sandi's fit and available we play Darcy forward and ask him to bring it to ground and kick 2 a game. We only need one other tall forward in this scenario.

he'd be our best forward if he could kick 2 a game

 

[greatgatsby]

he'd be our best forward if he could kick 2 a game

That's the ask, based on playing most of the game forward.