Opinion I believe the children are our future, teach them well and let them lead the way

[eDPS]

 

[Doss]

Very glad to see those three locked away for a bit, because I think all three have a real role to play in our future.

 

[Corleone]

Losses like yesterday are necessary because they highlight deficiencies and key areas of improvement, I think that what has become very clear, is that our list management and youth development is seriously behind several clubs and it's an area that cannot be instantly fixed with one or two changes. The ongoing future of this football club I believe the following needs to occur;

Caveat: I don't believe it's baby with bathwater time, but I believe the entire playing list needs to be broken down and assessed.

I think we have a good core of young players to build around, these players are all under 25 and have shown that they either are best 22 or can cement themselves a position; Andrew McGrath, Darcy Parish, Devon Smith, Joe Daniher, Zach Merrett, Martin Gleeson, Orazio Fantasia, Josh Begley, James Stewart, Jake Stringer, Adam Saad, Conor McKenna, Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti and Michael Hartley. We need to keep the following senior players; Tom Bellchambers, Michael Hurley, Dyson Heppell and Cale Hooker as all provide key roles in different areas of the ground.

I would like to see the following players playing senior football immediately (only subject to injury, if fit; they play) to determine whether they deserve to added to the aforementioned list of "keepers"; Jordan Ridley, Kobe Mutch, Mason Redman, Brandon Zerk-Thatcher and Dylan Clarke, and more of the following; Matt Guelfi, Kyle Langford and Jayden Laverde. Now lets say being positive 50% of these "maybes" become "keepers" thats a combined total of 22 players.

That would mean that we have close to 22 players who are on our list and are most likely surplus to requirements. Some may have trade value, most likely not though. I believe we need to aggressively move our list from having 22 "keepers" to a figure closer to 30 - 32. There are obviously players like Sam Draper and Ben McNiece who are long term projects and they are in rookie positions for this reason.

Over the next two to three years we should be really delving into the draft, I feel that people don't see that value can be found in all rounds of the draft.

We need to not only pump money into our recruiting department, but we need to start treating our reserves as a breeding ground for our younger talent. If a player is playing as an inside midfielder at VFL level, then that's what they should be coming in at AFL level for. It's all good and well to claim that players need to play the role that's required of them, but to train a player to do one role for weeks on end, reward their persistence with a promotion into a position that they haven't been trained for is doing both our club and that player a disservice.

In the last fourteen years we have had five senior coaches, we haven't won a final (or even been competitive in one) since 2004. Take a look at who, over this last fourteen year period, has played over 100 games for our football club, I would be comfortable in saying that over 80% of these players wouldn't have survived in anything but the apathetic environment that's been cultivated through the years of neglect at the EFC. If something doesn't change, we cannot expect anything different to happen.

*bump*

54 weeks later ...

 

[BrunoV]

*bump*

54 weeks later ...

Pretty funny to read through it.

The more things change the more they stay the same.

 

[citizen-erased]

We can't develop kids.

We will tread water, slowly sinking, until the likes of St Kilda, Carlton, Bulldogs and North go past us.
And in 5-10 years we will likely be in the same position as the teams up now drop below us then overtake us again.

 

[TheFrenchCut]

Good thing we have Zac Clarke though

 

[Corleone]

Losses like yesterday are necessary because they highlight deficiencies and key areas of improvement, I think that what has become very clear, is that our list management and youth development is seriously behind several clubs and it's an area that cannot be instantly fixed with one or two changes. The ongoing future of this football club I believe the following needs to occur;

Caveat: I don't believe it's baby with bathwater time, but I believe the entire playing list needs to be broken down and assessed.

I think we have a good core of young players to build around, these players are all under 25 and have shown that they either are best 22 or can cement themselves a position; Andrew McGrath, Darcy Parish, Devon Smith, Joe Daniher, Zach Merrett, Martin Gleeson, Orazio Fantasia, Josh Begley, James Stewart, Jake Stringer, Adam Saad, Conor McKenna, Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti and Michael Hartley. We need to keep the following senior players; Tom Bellchambers, Michael Hurley, Dyson Heppell and Cale Hooker as all provide key roles in different areas of the ground.

I would like to see the following players playing senior football immediately (only subject to injury, if fit; they play) to determine whether they deserve to added to the aforementioned list of "keepers"; Jordan Ridley, Kobe Mutch, Mason Redman, Brandon Zerk-Thatcher and Dylan Clarke, and more of the following; Matt Guelfi, Kyle Langford and Jayden Laverde. Now lets say being positive 50% of these "maybes" become "keepers" thats a combined total of 22 players.

That would mean that we have close to 22 players who are on our list and are most likely surplus to requirements. Some may have trade value, most likely not though. I believe we need to aggressively move our list from having 22 "keepers" to a figure closer to 30 - 32. There are obviously players like Sam Draper and Ben McNiece who are long term projects and they are in rookie positions for this reason.

Over the next two to three years we should be really delving into the draft, I feel that people don't see that value can be found in all rounds of the draft.

We need to not only pump money into our recruiting department, but we need to start treating our reserves as a breeding ground for our younger talent. If a player is playing as an inside midfielder at VFL level, then that's what they should be coming in at AFL level for. It's all good and well to claim that players need to play the role that's required of them, but to train a player to do one role for weeks on end, reward their persistence with a promotion into a position that they haven't been trained for is doing both our club and that player a disservice.

In the last fourteen years we have had five senior coaches, we haven't won a final (or even been competitive in one) since 2004. Take a look at who, over this last fourteen year period, has played over 100 games for our football club, I would be comfortable in saying that over 80% of these players wouldn't have survived in anything but the apathetic environment that's been cultivated through the years of neglect at the EFC. If something doesn't change, we cannot expect anything different to happen.

*Bump*

107 weeks and soon to be one senior coach later...

Where to from here?

How do we become the club that is going to emerge from this Covid-19 crisis as a leader of the competition rather than the straggling basket case we've been for over 15 years now?