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List Mgmt. Hard decisions

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Bunk Moreland said:
Which is exactly what I said in the part you didn't bold.

Draft sanctions bring future pain. We brought that pain forward by losing Crameri and Ryder in order to restore our draft picks. Their loss hurts us now, certainly.

But it allowed us to bring in Merrett, Langford and Laverde, plus get another pick which we traded for Cooney. So the long terms pain has been removed.

That's my point - Connolly and others warning of pain to come from draft sanctions are wrong. We got the draft picks back. The pain is here and now. We have no need to fear a Carlton-esque future.

It's probably another reason we should be paring back for a tilt on a couple of years.
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Nuh uh. Because rather than come through the system as part of a side that expects to make finals and aims to win them, our young blokes come into a club that struggles to make finals.

Our culture remains a club that strives toward mediocrity.
 
Demz said:
i just dont think we need another Defender when fletch leaves as i think Carlisle can do that while McKernan can play up forward an share the Ruck with Belly or a New Ruckman if the club goes after a new one which i think they will.
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We also need to see Ambrose not played in the ruck at 193. His hard running off half forward is important to us. I agree with McKernan forward and Carlisle back alongside Hurley and Hooker. However, I'd like to see us swing Carlisle or Hurley forward more often, and not just when we need a last quarter come back. Just as a change up. Perhaps load up on runners down back and marking targets up forward while we have our best midfield on. I could see a tactic where we do that. Start with Goddard and Watson forward and load up on the defence with more than one tagger and a guy or two behind the ball. Let the opposition think they need to throw everything at us and play rope a dope for 5 to 10 min. Then swing it all around with one of the KPDs going forward, a ruckman deep in the goals square, Goddard and Watson on the ball and attacking play off half back. As soon as opposition stem the tide we can then just fold back with a very defensive set up.

Get on the front foot and make opposition have to plan for more than one structure and game plan. Make the changes in the middle of the quarter to take advantage of AFL not having time outs.

As I discussed earlier Hird needs to drop his conservatism and be more creative. Perhaps Sheedy can have a chat with Harvey about it. Also while Hocking is out get Ambrose to play as tagger. Melk needs to make it as an atttacking mid and his best patch of AFL came at the end of 2013 doing just that. With Hocking and Myers out we need a lot more size around the ball and Ambrose can bring that. I also think that playing around the middle is important for Ambrose to develop his game sense. Without game sense his tank is going to waste.

I don't mind that Chappy and Fletch are still on the list considering the limitation placed upon us with the penalities. However they need to be slowly demoted where they play less than 50% in the firsts and some of their time out of firsts is in VFL side as match day coaches. Both seem to be footy fanatics, which is their motivation to keep playing, so they can go from that to being fulltime VFL playing coaches next year.

Gwilt and Giles need a game or two to justify their position on the list. Kavanagh, Browne, O'Brien, Fantasia and Edwards NEED senior games this year. It would be great if Laverde got some too and Langford continues to get games. So stop picking favourites. Stop playing the old coots so much. Stop playing anyone sore or struggling.

Next week Watson will probably miss, along with Zaka, Myers and Hocking all still absent. So lets put Kav in there. Let's play Melk in an attacking position Lets try Ambrose as a tagger and let Goddard and Stanton be their on field generals.

Lets get the most out of EVERYONE on our list. Lets put them out there, expose them. We'll know who's ready to go, who's worth persisting with and who needs to be let go. Everyone will know that they'll be given a chance to show themselves. No one will be ground into the ground by playing through injuries.

If we keep letting it slide there will be this cloud of depression over us as we play with the second oldest list, persisting with old timers while not even making the finals. Hird needs to be flexible and courageous here. He needs to combine it with the passion that saw him get the most out of everyone in early 2013.
 
why play Ambrose in the rucck? thats beyond me, we should know that Carlisle can do that job since last year when Bomber played him there
 
Bunk Moreland said:
I can't cop the draft sanctions thing as a future excuse.

We were stripped of three 1st and 2nd round picks.

What did the Ryder and Crameri picks net us? Three 1st and 2nd round picks.

Our draft profile was returned to the position it would have been.

Trading one of them for Cooney was daft, but that's a seperate issue.

The net loss was Ryder and Crameri - that hurts, but it's hurting now, just look at our forward line. It's not going to hurt into the future.

Despite the draft sanctions we drafted in Merret, Langford and Laverde, and traded another pick for Cooney. There's kids there. We future proofed ourselves against Carlton style pain. The pain is now.
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I agree, it's not that sanctions that hurt us.

It's the way we approached managing the list, which is probably where you and I differ.

There was virtually no reason not to go into the draft with 4 or 5 picks inside 60 last year.

That we have nailed the shit out of the 4 live picks we had in 2013 and 2014 and have landed 200 game players will mask the poor decisions made.
 
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Bunk Moreland said:
He's a contested beast. As a 21yo his season ends as an AA mid and B&F, leading us in average possessions and contested possessions.

You can compare him to freaks like Dangerfield all you want, Heppell is just about the best young inside mid around. He's a star who wins us a mountain of footy and stepped up and took all the load when Jobe was out, far more than some of his older teammates and despite a hard tag.

I seriously can't believe anybody thinks Heppell is an issue at all.
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I just don't see the 'beast' descriptor. He wins a lot of contested possessions but I still don't see how he set us up from within congestion the way Pendlebury, Watson, Mitchell, Kennedy and the other quality slower inside mids do. That's the trait I would want from a player who I'd label 'the best young inside mid in the game'.

He's not a problem, I just said his overrated and until he starts to break games open I'll stand by it.
 
Hard decision number 1 - Telling Fletch and Chappy its all over. Should be done this week. Winderlich another possibility but may get a chance for a few games till the end of season.

Hard decision number 2 - Telling Stants he won't be getting many games next year.
 
yodellinhank said:
Playing the kids without any support would be daft. You don't ever go full rebuild. Cooney addresses a desperate need on the list and is in our better players every time he steps onto the park.

Having said that, I want Fantasia to get some games. He looks like his skill level is pretty high and that he could provide some run. Dalgleish is another, however it seems to look more and more like his body isn't up to it.
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Not sure how we get to the stage that we are playing the kids without support.

No one is suggesting that the best 22 is gutted. Just select the team on form and the bottom 6 with attributes which are suited to playing footy in 2015 and they're was always going to be 15 or so guys in any one team with 100+ game or who are experienced enough that it doesn't matter (e.g. Myers, Heppell Baguley and Hibberd).
 
fodzilla said:
It is no coincidence that the team struggles through the middle when the two most team-oriented midfielders are out injured. That this is then used as evidence that they should be traded though is mildly amusing.
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Myers can stand up in tackles and dispose of the ball.

Hocking blocks and tags the oppositions best mid

Watch our clearance work rate rise when those 2 come back.
 

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fodzilla said:
It is no coincidence that the team struggles through the middle when the two most team-oriented midfielders are out injured. That this is then used as evidence that they should be traded though is mildly amusing.
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I agree

But

why are we requiring only a select few to do the team things?
 
kelvin_sheedy said:
Hard decision number 1 - Telling Fletch and Chappy its all over. Should be done this week. Winderlich another possibility but may get a chance for a few games till the end of season.

Hard decision number 2 - Telling Stants he won't be getting many games next year.
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Chappy goes before Fletch. I still think Fletch is playing good footy but as you can expect from a 40 yr old meat suit there's going to be some niggles which hinder his performance. Chappy on the other can be made to look really pedestrian and lazy at times. His accuracy for goal isn't what it used to be either.
 
Yoda_ said:
I agree

But

why are we requiring only a select few to do the team things?
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Spot on again.

Do you believe the old midfield (Goddard, Stanton, Watson) dogs can learn new tricks or time to give them the Old Yeller treatment?
 
Nasty Penguin said:
Chappy goes before Fletch. I still think Fletch is playing good footy but as you can expect from a 40 yr old meat suit there's going to be some niggles which hinder his performance. Chappy on the other can be made to look really pedestrian and lazy at times. His accuracy for goal isn't what it used to be either.
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Agreed, only way I'd take Fletch out is if they make the permanent switch with Carlisle.

Bring McKernan in to play FF and play Watson majority forward as a third tall.
 
Have we have all been sucker in by a sprinkling of really quality wins each year into thinking this team was actually good?
Or are players falling short of potential.

The thing is, I respect a lot of the coaching talent (Bomber included) and recourses the club has thrown at this list, and it just hasn't happened.

Time to clean house IMO. Put the last 10 yrs behind us and reload.
Everyone's going to be watching GWS dominate the comp for a while anyway.
 

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BrunoV said:
So that is what Heppell does well on field? Puts himself in contention to win subjectively judged honours that most on these boards scoff at when it involves a player from a a supported club being overlooked.

Watch Dangerfield v Fyfe and ask yourself when Heppell has been within a bulls roar of playing at that sort of level.
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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.
 
Demz said:
why play Ambrose in the rucck? thats beyond me, we should know that Carlisle can do that job since last year when Bomber played him there
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Actually this is a week when we can be creative at selection. Having Ambrose ruck and shadow Blicavs is a possibility - We could drop T-bell and bring in Mckernan and support Ambrose in the ruck.
 
kelvin_sheedy said:
Hard decision number 1 - Telling Fletch and Chappy its all over. Should be done this week. Winderlich another possibility but may get a chance for a few games till the end of season.

Hard decision number 2 - Telling Stants he won't be getting many games next year.
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The hard decision will be not offering Stanton a contract.
 

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List Mgmt. Hard decisions

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