List Mgmt. Hard decisions

[Mercurial89]

Another Hard decision the club needs to make is to tell players who are clearly injured that they are not playing.

Zaka was injured, and played out 2-3 more games with zero influence before the club finally folded and blamed an ankle injury. They said 2 weeks its been 4, plus maybe another two.
Bellchambers coming off an injury ravaged year goes and cracks his knee in the first round of the season. Is becoming a liability around the ground, and his best game has been when he had backup in the form of Mckernan. Still continues to play.
Jobe has been carrying something for weeks, yet has played and only finally we have been told he will be missing. Apparently its groin, only 1 week, I don't believe that for a second.

Hocking, Myers have been missing all season, have we brought in any of the VFL players to provide cover? to start seeing our depth at AFL level? No, we have relied on players (some who are carrying injuries) to just ramp up how much time they spend in the middle.

We are getting hurt in the short term through our inability to cover these missing players but we are also screwing ourselves long term by not allowing what little depth we have to gain AFL exposure.

This team has been shocking at running out a season for the past 4 years. The one year we didn't fade entirely was last year and what did we do? we played kids, we shuffled the team. While we seem to be running out games fine, its fairly easy to run out a game when not a single player bar Travis Colyer can break out of a jog.
Throw in the fact that we are carrying a key forward that whilst incredibly young and with a lot of talent, cant run out a game of AFL.

Everything we hear out of the club will be oh after the bye we will have a full team, right now we are limping to the bye and are every chance to have our finals chances over by the time we make it there.

 

[Childish Gambino]

Actually, Heppell matched up on Fyfe, and kept him to his poorest game in 2015 - In saying that, Heppell hasn't played at his 2014 standard.

I think he is still struggling a little bit with his knee that he injured in the preseason. I think it still swells up after games and he spends a lot of recovery bringing the swelling down. Would be having an effect on his training early in the week.

 

[fishardansin]

Another Hard decision the club needs to make is to tell players who are clearly injured that they are not playing.

Zaka was injured, and played out 2-3 more games with zero influence before the club finally folded and blamed an ankle injury. They said 2 weeks its been 4, plus maybe another two.
Bellchambers coming off an injury ravaged year goes and cracks his knee in the first round of the season. Is becoming a liability around the ground, and his best game has been when he had backup in the form of Mckernan. Still continues to play.
Jobe has been carrying something for weeks, yet has played and only finally we have been told he will be missing. Apparently its groin, only 1 week, I don't believe that for a second.

Hocking, Myers have been missing all season, have we brought in any of the VFL players to provide cover? to start seeing our depth at AFL level? No, we have relied on players (some who are carrying injuries) to just ramp up how much time they spend in the middle.

We are getting hurt in the short term through our inability to cover these missing players but we are also screwing ourselves long term by not allowing what little depth we have to gain AFL exposure.

This team has been shocking at running out a season for the past 4 years. The one year we didn't fade entirely was last year and what did we do? we played kids, we shuffled the team. While we seem to be running out games fine, its fairly easy to run out a game when not a single player bar Travis Colyer can break out of a jog.
Throw in the fact that we are carrying a key forward that whilst incredibly young and with a lot of talent, cant run out a game of AFL.

Everything we hear out of the club will be oh after the bye we will have a full team, right now we are limping to the bye and are every chance to have our finals chances over by the time we make it there.

100% agree with this. The club needs a culture of putting your hand up and being honest about injury. Turn injury into a chance to see kids get games. Also if blokes are 90% fit and need a bit of a run to keep fit then let them play VFL in a restricted role.

For example if Jobe is sore over the last month let him play 5 or 10 min on the ball and similarly up forward each quarter.

 

[yodellinhank]

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2015-06-01/rivals-showing-a-lot-of-interest-in-bomber-jake-carlisle

How concerned should we be about this? What do you all think the chances on Jake bailing are?

Jake is goorne and it is time for us to move on. You never hear of players/managers trying to weasle more money out of the successful sides. We need a group that is committed to the group not themselves.

 

[DapperDon]

Not a hard decision to say goodbye to Jake.

You'd kill for his talent, but you can't buy heart. The bloke has none, see you later Jake.

I've had enough of his poor attitude.

 

[BrunoV]

I'm now getting really pissed off with the club, talking about the list management being compromised by the supplements saga. The AFL did not make Essendon go into the draft last year with 2 picks. The decisions which the club have made have made exacerbated the effect of the draft sanctions.

 

[hurlygurdy]

Not a hard decision to say goodbye to Jake.

You'd kill for his talent, but you can't buy heart. The bloke has none, see you later Jake.

I've had enough of his poor attitude.

When exactly has he shown no heart? The guy has always got upset when things aren't going right, its just that it is seen as more acceptable to do that as a defender.
Is poor goal kicking showing no heart?
I've been frustrated by how he gets down on himself, but i don't see how that is a lack of heart. I'd say it is more a lack of ego.
The only issue i have is why he has delayed contract talks if it is not to apply pressure to get back into the defense? If that is the game he is playing then it shows he lacks commitment to be a forward. If so then it does show a lack of heart and i'd be happy to trade him.

 

[DapperDon]

Sooking it up isn't heart. Putting in effort no matter where you play is. The bloke doesn't want to be a forward, we want him to be.

Now threatens leaving via his manager.

You're either fully in or not at all. No time for the non committed. If it's about a big paycheck then earn it. Don't think it's just deserved because he's tall and might do something 4 games a year.

 

[BOMBERS 4 LIFE!!!!]

Sooking it up isn't heart. Putting in effort no matter where you play is. The bloke doesn't want to be a forward, we want him to be.

Now threatens leaving via his manager.

You're either fully in or not at all. No time for the non committed. If it's about a big paycheck then earn it. Don't think it's just deserved because he's tall and might do something 4 games a year.

And if he dominates as a full back in another team then what.

 

[wmat4]

With Winders coming back to the VFL this week, we will need to place McKernan on the Rookie List again won't we??

 

[BOMBERS 4 LIFE!!!!]

According to Bruce Reid we could get Hocking back after the bye

Will he need a few games in the VFL or can slot straight back in?

 

[whitelinefeva]

To all of you writing us off, congratulations on taking the 17 from 18 chance that the Dons will fail.

I hope our team doesn't take the safe option like you naysayers.

 

[Doss]

Well that's convinced me!

 

[I Remember Bluey]

Well that's convinced me!

Not me, I first feel the need to google something before I'm convinced, but for the life of me I can't work out what part of what he said to google

 

[eth-dog]

I'm going to do a big chunk of list analysis for the blokes under 27 at this club, so around where our list will be in a few years.

Defence:

Key/3rd tall defenders: Cale Hooker, Michael Hurley, Ariel Steinberg

This area is extremely light on and will need to be fixed relatively soon, especially considering Steinberg is a candidate to be delisted at the end of the season.

Small defenders: Shaun Edwards (fwd), Jason Ashby, Michael Hibberd, Martin Gleeson (mid), Lauchlan Dalgleish (mid)

Strong area, although I expect Gleeson and Dalgleish to transition into the midfield sooner rather than later.

Overall it needs a couple of key defenders for depth but the small contingent is pretty good.

Midfield:

Predominantly inside midfielders: Ben Howlett (fwd), David Myers, Dyson Heppell (def), Nick Kommer (fwd), Kurt Aylett (def), Elliott Kavanagh, Nicholas O'Brien, Will Hams.

Actually think this area is pretty strong, if developed correctly. Don't see much future in Howlett, Kommer or O'Brien though.

Predominantly outside midfielders: David Zaharakis (fwd), Travis Colyer (fwd), Jake Melksham, Alex Browne (def), Jackson Merrett (fwd), Orazio Fantasia (fwd), Zachary Merrett (fwd), Jayden Laverde (fwd).

This is probably the strongest group of the lot. I see a lot of potential here and can't wait to tap into it. Best thing of all is the flexibility of all these players, especially since Melksham is the likely tagger.

Ruck: Tom Bellchambers (fwd)

Obviously need some more rucks, very light on here.

I really like the future midfield group and I really hope we can keep them together. We'll need to find the right balance between the inside and the outside however.

Forward:

Key/3rd tall forwards: Joe Daniher (ruc), Shaun McKernan (ruc), Jake Carlisle (def), Kyle Langford, Patrick Ambrose

I like the area but unsure if Carlisle will stay, or move back into defence. Not sure if Ambrose is the answer either, but could move into a midfield spot to some effect IMO.

Small forwards: Jake Long, Conor McKenna

A little light on but with so many outside midfielders with good goal sense I think it's not too worrying.

Probably the weakest area of the three so far but I think with a little tweaking we can fix that.

Overall, I think it lends to a 25 man squad of:

Ashby - Carlisle - Hibberd
Hurley - Hooker - Dalgleish
Gleeson - Heppell - Zaharakis
Colyer - Langford - Z Merrett
Fantasia - Daniher - McKernan
Bellchambers - Melksham - Myers
J Merrett - Laverde - Kavanagh - Aylett - Edwards - Browne - McKenna

 

[Bunk Moreland]

I'm going to do a big chunk of list analysis for the blokes under 27 at this club, so around where our list will be in a few years.

Defence:

Key/3rd tall defenders: Cale Hooker, Michael Hurley, Ariel Steinberg

This area is extremely light on and will need to be fixed relatively soon, especially considering Steinberg is a candidate to be delisted at the end of the season.

Small defenders: Shaun Edwards (fwd), Jason Ashby, Michael Hibberd, Martin Gleeson (mid), Lauchlan Dalgleish (mid)

Strong area, although I expect Gleeson and Dalgleish to transition into the midfield sooner rather than later.

Overall it needs a couple of key defenders for depth but the small contingent is pretty good.

Midfield:

Predominantly inside midfielders: Ben Howlett (fwd), David Myers, Dyson Heppell (def), Nick Kommer (fwd), Kurt Aylett (def), Elliott Kavanagh, Nicholas O'Brien, Will Hams.

Actually think this area is pretty strong, if developed correctly. Don't see much future in Howlett, Kommer or O'Brien though.

Predominantly outside midfielders: David Zaharakis (fwd), Travis Colyer (fwd), Jake Melksham, Alex Browne (def), Jackson Merrett (fwd), Orazio Fantasia (fwd), Zachary Merrett (fwd), Jayden Laverde (fwd).

This is probably the strongest group of the lot. I see a lot of potential here and can't wait to tap into it. Best thing of all is the flexibility of all these players, especially since Melksham is the likely tagger.

Ruck: Tom Bellchambers (fwd)

Obviously need some more rucks, very light on here.

I really like the future midfield group and I really hope we can keep them together. We'll need to find the right balance between the inside and the outside however.

Forward:

Key/3rd tall forwards: Joe Daniher (ruc), Shaun McKernan (ruc), Jake Carlisle (def), Kyle Langford, Patrick Ambrose

I like the area but unsure if Carlisle will stay, or move back into defence. Not sure if Ambrose is the answer either, but could move into a midfield spot to some effect IMO.

Small forwards: Jake Long, Conor McKenna

A little light on but with so many outside midfielders with good goal sense I think it's not too worrying.

Probably the weakest area of the three so far but I think with a little tweaking we can fix that.

Overall, I think it lends to a 25 man squad of:

Ashby - Carlisle - Hibberd
Hurley - Carlisle - Dalgleish
Gleeson - Heppell - Zaharakis
Colyer - Langford - Z Merrett
Fantasia - Daniher - McKernan
Bellchambers - Melksham - Myers
J Merrett - Laverde - Kavanagh - Aylett - Edwards - Browne - McKenna

Wow, not only are we not losing Carlisle, you've cloned him!

Hire this man.

 

[rawm]

somewhat related to this thread - one of our better list management decisions: http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/crai...adley-bombers-draft-signature-card/1080369833

 

[Sockeye]

Another Hard decision the club needs to make is to tell players who are clearly injured that they are not playing.

Zaka was injured, and played out 2-3 more games with zero influence before the club finally folded and blamed an ankle injury. They said 2 weeks its been 4, plus maybe another two.
Bellchambers coming off an injury ravaged year goes and cracks his knee in the first round of the season. Is becoming a liability around the ground, and his best game has been when he had backup in the form of Mckernan. Still continues to play.
Jobe has been carrying something for weeks, yet has played and only finally we have been told he will be missing. Apparently its groin, only 1 week, I don't believe that for a second.

Hocking, Myers have been missing all season, have we brought in any of the VFL players to provide cover? to start seeing our depth at AFL level? No, we have relied on players (some who are carrying injuries) to just ramp up how much time they spend in the middle.

We are getting hurt in the short term through our inability to cover these missing players but we are also screwing ourselves long term by not allowing what little depth we have to gain AFL exposure.

This team has been shocking at running out a season for the past 4 years. The one year we didn't fade entirely was last year and what did we do? we played kids, we shuffled the team. While we seem to be running out games fine, its fairly easy to run out a game when not a single player bar Travis Colyer can break out of a jog.
Throw in the fact that we are carrying a key forward that whilst incredibly young and with a lot of talent, cant run out a game of AFL.

Everything we hear out of the club will be oh after the bye we will have a full team, right now we are limping to the bye and are every chance to have our finals chances over by the time we make it there.

Yep.

 

[Demz]

Another Hard decision the club needs to make is to tell players who are clearly injured that they are not playing.

Zaka was injured, and played out 2-3 more games with zero influence before the club finally folded and blamed an ankle injury. They said 2 weeks its been 4, plus maybe another two.
Bellchambers coming off an injury ravaged year goes and cracks his knee in the first round of the season. Is becoming a liability around the ground, and his best game has been when he had backup in the form of Mckernan. Still continues to play.
Jobe has been carrying something for weeks, yet has played and only finally we have been told he will be missing. Apparently its groin, only 1 week, I don't believe that for a second.

Hocking, Myers have been missing all season, have we brought in any of the VFL players to provide cover? to start seeing our depth at AFL level? No, we have relied on players (some who are carrying injuries) to just ramp up how much time they spend in the middle.

We are getting hurt in the short term through our inability to cover these missing players but we are also screwing ourselves long term by not allowing what little depth we have to gain AFL exposure.

This team has been shocking at running out a season for the past 4 years. The one year we didn't fade entirely was last year and what did we do? we played kids, we shuffled the team. While we seem to be running out games fine, its fairly easy to run out a game when not a single player bar Travis Colyer can break out of a jog.
Throw in the fact that we are carrying a key forward that whilst incredibly young and with a lot of talent, cant run out a game of AFL.

Everything we hear out of the club will be oh after the bye we will have a full team, right now we are limping to the bye and are every chance to have our finals chances over by the time we make it there.

totally agree, i just hope when Kommer comes back he plays all season without a problem. they should give Carlisle a rest for a bit an bring in McKernan that way him an Belly can share the ruck duties.

 

[Zephyr Effekt]

The initial decisions that needed to be made by the club at the selection table were not even hard, they were obvious, and they failed at that.

With the clubs current list profile, and with the starting '22' selected over the first 9 rounds being closer to bottom 8 rather than top 4, calculated decisions need to start being made immediately.

The following decisions, if not obvious, are at minimum required for a more structured & balanced team over the next 2 weeks.

vs Geelong.
Kav in for Watson (inj). McKernan in for Fletcher (inj). Edwards in for Ambrose (omt). SUB: Chapman

vs West Coast.
Watson in for Howlett (omt). Fantasia in for Chapman (omt). Browne in for Melksham (omt). Dalgleish in for Stanton (omt). SUB: Cooney
Run & spread will be more important than the ability to accumulate over at Subi.

 

[hurlygurdy]

The initial decisions that needed to be made by the club at the selection table were not even hard, they were obvious, and they failed at that.

With the clubs current list profile, and with the starting '22' selected over the first 9 rounds being closer to bottom 8 rather than top 4, calculated decisions need to start being made immediately.

The following decisions, if not obvious, are at minimum required for a more structured & balanced team over the next 2 weeks.

vs Geelong.
Kav in for Watson (inj). McKernan in for Fletcher (inj). Edwards in for Ambrose (omt). SUB: Chapman

vs West Coast.
Watson in for Howlett (omt). Fantasia in for Chapman (omt). Browne in for Melksham (omt). Dalgleish in for Stanton (omt). SUB: Cooney
Run & spread will be more important than the ability to accumulate over at Subi.

The difference between our good games this year and our bad games this year has been down to the form of senior untouchables such as Watson, Pig and Heppell. These guys haven't been stinking it up, but they are supposed to be the elite players to match the oppositions elite players. When they fall off, we drop from being a top team like what beat Hawthorn, to a middling team like what lost narrowly to North and Richmond. Add in inaccuracy in front of goal and you get what we've got.
Howlett must play until Myers or Hocking is back. I'd hate to see how bad we would be without him.
Stanton has been one of our best all year.
Bringing Dal in for a full game and making Cooney sub is madness. The other way around would be okay...

Playing Jackson as a forward pocket instead of bringing in Kav to assist in the middle has been the biggest mistake for mine... With the oppositions focus on Heppell and Watson i think we could have seen Kav really do some damage.
I think they should have tried Mckernan instead of TBC by now. Just for the assistance he would give Watson and Heppell by throwing his weight around. TBC has been okay but his weakness correlates with the teams weakness right now, which is the physicality in the contest.
The team has the pace in Colyer and Cooney, but lacks confidence in the contest and as such plays defensively to hold onto the ball. As soon as we felt confident against Brisbane in the contest, we took the game on with our ball movement.

 

[fishardansin]

OK guys. Time for a bump.

So I was hoping that Zaka, Myers, Hocking, Winderlich and Bellchambers may all find fitness after the bye. Then Cooney, Carlisle, Watson, Heppell, Hibberd and Dempsey may all improve their form. Those things could turn things around. As it turns out only two of the injured players have played a senior game and we've lost Colyer, Carlisle and Watson instead.

So while on many levels it is now a disaster. On the other it's an opportunity. Instead of drifting along to hang around the middle of the ladder we can get everyone into surgery and play the kids.

I want to see Daniher, McKernan, Laverde, Langford, Pears and McKenna all playing in our forward line.

I would like to see Ambrose test out his tank in the midfield and see if opposition guns can take him to the ball. I like'd O'Brien's contested work against the Saints. I'd like to see if O'Brien, Ambrose, Heppell, Zaka, Goddard, Merrett*2, Hibberd and Kavanagh can get the job done in the middle. Play Giles as number 1 ruck and let McKernan do what he does best, be 2nd ruck.

Let Steinberg play as third tall alongside Hurley and Hooker. Play Gleeson, Baguely and Browne in the rest of the roles.