Roast Mature Age Recruits

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Bails2008

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Feb 7, 2008
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During or current malaise I have read with interest as every possible element of what is working and not working for us as a club has been dissected by all in sundry. Watching games over the weekend I was struck by how well opposition clubs at both ends of the ladder are being served by strong bodied, ready made mature recruits.

I am curious why as a club we have not been able to identify at least one player such as a Curnow (Carlton), Barlow, Richardson (Nth) etc. I know the young bloke from the ammos is going ok at Casey but I am puzzled in a side crying out for strong bodied players, with great intensity, that we have not gone down this path at all.

Are we putting all our eggs in to only one recruiting basket?
 

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Bails2008

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Feb 7, 2008
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Though he's not quite the strong bodied player you're calling for, Rohan Bail was drafted as a 20yr old from the QAFL and is going very well for us.

Yeah good example of recruiting outside the square, as we did with Jurrah. However I feel we have not used our rookie list well at times and have failed to identify players who are able to step in and play senior football straight away. I got annoyed last year watching Silvagni who played at Casey the year before. We seem to keep drafting skinny project players. I think we have drafted fairly well but this is the one area we seem to be lagging behind other clubs.
 
To be fair with Silvagni, I don't think we need another medium defender with average skills. He'd be no better than Joel Macdonald, who is currently playing in the ressies.
 
I think our outside the square recruiting is actually very good.

These are currently on our list. All played on the weekend except Warnock, Nicholson & McKenzie (who is best 22).

Mature:
Warnock (21)- VFL
Martin (21)- VFL
Jurrah (20) - NT
Davey (20) - VFL
Bail (20)- QAFL
Nicholson (20) - VAFA
Howe (20) - TAS

18y.o. rookies:
McKenzie
Wona
Jamar

That's 6 current best 22 players & an injured one who'd probably be there as well, so that's a 1/3 of the team either mature or rookie, or both.

I think you'll find we have done better than most from this & we'd be in the top 5 clubs for most success from this avenue.

I know it's not exactly what you're saying as you've specifically highlighted big bodied midfielders, but we have even tried that in the past with Valenti. Plenty have clubs have been less successful/failed at this, there has to be a reason why Miles Sewell is constantly ignored, maybe Nicholson giving him a bath a fortnight ago is the reason why he's on a list & Sewell isn't.

For every Curnow or Barlow, there are equally or more Valenti's or Ezra Poyas's.
 

Surkin

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Aug 17, 2009
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Stef Martin, Rohan Bail, Liam Jurrah, Aaron Davey, Matthew Warnock were all previous mature age recruits.

This year we selected Jeremy Howe as a mature age recruit.

Honestly not sure what this thread is on about. We have had good success with mature age recruits. Cam Bruce was another but has moved on now.
 
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I wouldn't roast us Bails, but I would flag this as of interest. Continuing to take 1 or 2 a year is probably fair representation of the value of these players.

The thing about mature age recruits is that they have to either be good or you have to be at the top end of the ladder for them to be worth it I think.

Barlow is obviously a gun, and i like watching Hardingham from Essendon as well as a couple of the other Freo guys.

But take Richardson (Nth) and Duigan (Carl) aren't those guys just fringe players who wouldn't serve us any great use right now?
 

rhaz

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Richardson has been dropped by North (who aren't exactly the best team at the moment) and Curnow was previously AFL-listed so thats not really a surpised/out of the box selection. StKilda recycling of mature players failed for them.

Barlow is one standout but apart from that, there has not been the widespread success with mature recruits that you're suggesting...
 

Bails2008

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Feb 7, 2008
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Stef Martin, Rohan Bail, Liam Jurrah, Aaron Davey, Matthew Warnock were all previous mature age recruits.

This year we selected Jeremy Howe as a mature age recruit.

Honestly not sure what this thread is on about. We have had good success with mature age recruits. Cam Bruce was another but has moved on now.

I think you are missing my point. I agree we have been excellent in the past with recruiting mature age recruits. My point is that we seem to have moved away from this in the past 3-4 years and our recruiters have seemed to primarily focus on youth (completely justified) perhaps at times at the expense of players performing consistently well at VFL/SANFL/WAFL level. This also can be extended to the trade period. We went after David Hale but who else. We kept players like Newton, McNamara etc on the list when I believe we missed an opportunity to perhaps bring in some ready made players to support our very young list. In hindsight I did not word my opening post as well as I intended but I believe it is a reasonable discussion point.

Agree Master, no need for the roast, wrote this at work in a rush and a simple blue on my behalf.
 

Demon 16

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With the benefit of hindsight there will always be a few specific players who we 'should have picked' along the way.

But why people are having a go at our recruiting I dont understand. We have done very well in this department I would have thought??
 

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THE STING2

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But why people are having a go at our recruiting I dont understand. We have done very well in this department I would have thought??
I'm not convinced. Only results will convince me, the last thing I want to see is us taking 10 years to realise that Prendergast was no good like we did with Cameron.
 

Demon 16

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I'm not convinced. Only results will convince me, the last thing I want to see is us taking 10 years to realise that Prendergast was no good like we did with Cameron.

We wont know for another 5 years to be honest.

But our first four picks last year in Scully, Trengove, Gysberts and Tapscott were spot on which is an amazing achievement.

Jurrah was a great late get the year before, and Bail is starting to look like a good late pick as well. Watts and Blease havnt failed yet, and any of Strauss, Jetta and Bennell can still make it.

Cant really even guess at last years draft yet but Cook and Nicholson are looking ok. Lets wait and see with those guys though.
 

Demon 16

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Amazing is a strong word for 09 draft- picking Scully and Trengove didn't require a degree in rocket surgery, but Giz and Tappy were def great picks.

Name me how many top 2 picks in previous drafts actually ended up the best 2 players?

Ok Martin is throwing his hand up at the moment, but otherwise we should be pretty damn happy.
 
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