Making Way

[cmndstab]

Well, all our B&F vote collecting superstars of course

Where Thompson came second?

I can see why they didn't tag Douglas initially. For the first half of the season he collected a whole bunch of difficult ball only to spray it all over the place. Once he got that tidied up he was very good.

 

[NTRabbit]

Where Thompson came second?

I can see why they didn't tag Douglas initially. For the first half of the season he collected a whole bunch of difficult ball only to spray it all over the place. Once he got that tidied up he was very good.

We were also losing - why shift the tags from Thompson and Vince when it might be the reason why?

 

[AFC979810]

You know that two of our coaches are gone don't you? And that's without me being in charge.

Hardly because they, as you so eloquently put, "completely lost the plot".

Viney went across to Melbourne for family reasons, Noble took another position within the club and Clarke went from part time to full time.

Not exactly panic stations for a coaching staff which apparently 'values things that aren't valuable'.

Tough year for the Crows, but think the B&F count is a pretty accurate assessment of our where our club is at.

Just don't understand how everyone doesn't have Doughty, Reilly and Stevens in the starting 22 for us next year, especially considering they were in the top 10 of our B&F. I prefer to wait to see the likes of McKernan, Martin, etc actually demand selection week in, week out rather than be gifted games because they are future 'stars' who have been seen 'tearing up the training track' by bigfooty know it alls.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

Hardly because they, as you so eloquently put, "completely lost the plot".

Viney went across to Melbourne for family reasons,

Yeah whatever. Is anyone outside the club really buying that BS?

The "family reasons" for Viney to stay in Melbourne because Jack is likely to play there could have equally applied two years ago. No reason to create the upheavel by zig zagging back and forth from Melbourne to Adelaide and back again inside three years.

Noble took another position within the club

Yep. Clearly decided that coaching wasn't his area of expertise.

and Clarke went from part time to full time.

Not exactly panic stations for a coaching staff which apparently 'values things that aren't valuable'.

Oh, no doubt that the club management and the coaching staff who are left think they are going along just fine. That has never been in any doubt whatsoever.

Tough year for the Crows, but think the B&F count is a pretty accurate assessment of our where our club is at.

Absolutely. Still over valuing mid range performers.

Just don't understand how everyone doesn't have Doughty, Reilly and Stevens in the starting 22 for us next year, especially considering they were in the top 10 of our B&F. I prefer to wait to see the likes of McKernan, Martin, etc actually demand selection week in, week out rather than be gifted games because they are future 'stars' who have been seen 'tearing up the training track' by bigfooty know it alls.

Everyone thinks they will be in our team. What people are arguing is - in a season where we are unlikely to push for top four or even a finals position - whether they should be walk up starts.

 

[srv23]

I think there clearly needs to be a balance between playing kids week in week out just for the sake of playing kids, and playing any senior player on the list week in week out just because they are senior players and provide "experience" and "Hardened bodies" around the kids.

I don't necesarily just want to see Talia or Smack taking Stevens spot or Armstrong taking Doughty's spot from round 1 just for the hell of it. I just want all players whether they be first year on the list or senior 150+ game players to be held accountable for their form and held to the same standards as best the selection committee can.

If we look at Collingwood as the recent premiership side as a blueprint - the easy thing would have been to play experienced but fairly mid range senior players in Lockyer, O'Bree, Medhurst ahead of talented youngsters like Beams, Sidebottom, Blair, Macaffer. They even left out a very good full back in Presti to play guys like Brown / Reid.
Yes they had more experienced players around them but the difference was the experienced guys they kept in the side were the ones with genuine talent - Didak, Swan, Jolly, Ball, as well as a group of younger talented players who have gotten to around the 100+ game mark because they were thrown into the side in their first year (Thomas, Pendles, Cloke) Collingwood have been outstanding with player development because they have identified early the youngsters with serious talent and played them as much as they could manage from their first year on (Thomas, Pendles, Sidebottom, Beams) They have traded shrewdly to fill needs (Jolly, Ball) and this year they have cut the dead wood from the side (the experienced mid range players) and instead continued to play talented youngsters. With this model of development they have become one of the youngest sides ever to win a flag and have many years of success ahead of them.

Ask yourselves a hypothetical question - Leon Davis has traditionally been one of Malthouse's favourite players, a so called "gold pass" holder despite a history of failing in big games time after time. Davis had a shocker in GF 1 apart from a handy 4th quarter goal. If we were in a similar position to Collingwood - had drawn GF 1 with many of our best players having down days. What if a so called Craig "favourite" like Stevens or Doughty had an absolute shocker like Davis - would Craig have made the tough call to drop one of them like Mick did? I don't think so.