List management

[vinum coupe]

This is a pretty general footy topic and could have been posted on the main board I guess but I thought putting it here just allowed for tighter discussion.

I’ve been thinking about how footy has / is changing over the past few years.

Back say 15 years ago if you were sent to the bench it was demeaning. You were being beaten, playing unaccountable, and were punished.

15 years ago if couch, hocking and ablett were given 5 minutes every quarter to ‘have a rest’ there would have been calls of flirting with form, arrogance, lack of respect for the opposition etc.

Now it is just taken for granted and you are actually silly not to do it. Who’d have thought?
And therefore there is significant emphasis on the guys from 16-22 to be able to play at a competitive level to ensure there is no momentum / quality lost during those 5 minutes.

As they say ‘it’s not about how good your top 5 are but how good your bottom 5 are’.

It’s match day list management really.



The next change. Club list management.

Through the quality of Geelong’s list and their on field strength I had actually thought Geelong would have taken it a further step this year. And Prismall is where my thought originated.

Why aren’t players rested from games more often / if at all?

In baseball the main pitchers only play 1 in 5 games. In Cricket the bowlers generally get a rest every series. There’s plenty of others, why not AFL?

I’ll give you a general example. (not looking a fixtures etc)

Week 9 – Ablett out, prismall in
Week 10 – Bartel out, Ablett in
Week 11 – Ling out, Bartel in
Week 12 – Selwood out, Ling in
Week 13 - prismall out, Selwood in

Etc. etc.

Now you could really fold that out with forward line resting and backline resting as well. So there could be 3 changes every week say.

Obviously the immediate benefit is the player gets a rest, but also it could assist in lengthening careers.

But more importantly it gives game time to those young bodies that need it.
Also the players that are getting some game time are becoming more valuable as trade options. The club becomes stronger on the ground, in the VFL, and at the trade table.

So instead of it being about ‘how good your last 5 are’, it becomes ‘how good 17-26 are’

I thought the cats would go this way at the start of the year, but then when we had so many players in the all star game I thought they would definitely do it to give them time off.


But would this be seen as flirting with form, arrogance, lack of respect for the opposition?

Will it become the norm in the future?

 

[Sttew]

Some interesting food for thought. This concept would keep fringe players like a Prismall happy, and hungry. But you wouldn't want to elevate an out of form player just for the sake of the rotation, nor would it be ideal "dropping" an inform player for the sake of rotation, so it may fall apart.

I say expand the interchange bench.

 

[thehoff]

too long, did'nt read!

 

[a.f.k.a.y.o.p.]

too long, did'nt read!

Must be school holidays..........

 

[DanA]

I wouldn't discount Geelong doing this after the Hawks game (rd17).

Hopefully by then we have 15 wins on the board which pretty much guarantees a top 4 spot with 5 games to go.

 

[TheBigT]

Some interesting food for thought. This concept would keep fringe players like a Prismall happy, and hungry. But you wouldn't want to elevate an out of form player just for the sake of the rotation, nor would it be ideal "dropping" an inform player for the sake of rotation, so it may fall apart.

I say expand the interchange bench.

The problem with that is you're back to where you started. Instead of prismall not getting a game its Ranga next year who can't crack the team. It develops fringe players who weren't quite fringe players and then they feel like they are unlcuky not to be in the team and look elsewhere. Say if we never expanded the bench then it would be Rooke, Blake, Varcoe, Wojack looking for places at other clubs.

 

[Budda 230]

In a way, AFL players are rested.

With sports like cricket, you can sometimes be playing 10 days out of 12 or 13, 7-8 hours a day and thats not including pre match training and warm ups.

In AFL they play a 2 hour match a week. Yes, those 2 hours are very intense, but you always hear of players having light weeks on the training track after pulling up sore. This is pretty much the equivalent of missing an ODI in cricket I guess. Only difference is that they miss an offical match. In reality, it's the same type of recovery process.

 

[vinum coupe]

The problem with that is you're back to where you started. Instead of prismall not getting a game its Ranga next year who can't crack the team. It develops fringe players who weren't quite fringe players and then they feel like they are unlcuky not to be in the team and look elsewhere. Say if we never expanded the bench then it would be Rooke, Blake, Varcoe, Wojack looking for places at other clubs.

good point. we'll see, I think it will happen one day (probably already does in a way but not publicised as a program) just not sure how far off it is.

 

[NEMINI]

I wonder though, if a player is rotated out of the side often enough, how will they go about finding form? Will a player on a hot streak be exempt? What about a player recently returned from injury who has already missed several games and is trying to find form? For example Brad Ottens this year; would he be exempt from rotating out of the side because he's already missed time, or would he still rotate out and take even longer to find form?

 

[bingle]

its an interesting topic for discussion.

i agree with DanA in that it may happen after the R17 clash (provided we win the next three) although having said that i brings me back to what one of the commentators said on the coverage of the Under 18's championships on Wednesday.

The kids have been conditioned so well these days and a lot of them are actually backing up to play after just a three day break (national carnival), and doing it successfully. They have been for years and years now so most of the players running around in the AFL today could manage. Admittingly the carnival isnt as long as an AFL season but they are so much more professional nowadays and it is full time football where it wasnt in the past.

Also past results have suggested the most stable teams (as in minimal injuries and omitions) win premierships i.e. Cats last year..

unfortunately the only way i see guys like Pris getting a regular game is when god forbid Bartel, Ablett, Corey go down with a really bad injury.

 

[catsfan16]

I love Tommy Harley and think hes a great leader but with Egan, Taylor, Hunt, Rooke et al do we need him playing each week. Is it possible we could see him next year as a non playing captain? It would be shame to see him not in some sort of leadership role. If he were to be a non playing captain would he take up a position on the list? Or would it be more an assistant coach type role?

 

[NEMINI]

YES! We absolutely needs Harls on the field. He takes more marks from opposition kicks than anyone else in the competition. Instead of just punching the ball away and hoping we gain possession, Harls marks the ball and begins our thrust forward, many times before the other team has gotten a chance to recover from loss of possession.