My plan for now and the future

[nolsey77]

I have come to the conclusion in the past few weeks that the rebuilding has to continue and although we have a young list, the senior players have to perform but the signs are not positive in fact there are quite negative signs from the senior group of players.

The problem with Geelong lies with the senior players - but our senior players such as Sholl, Graham, Riccardi, Burns, Mensch, McGrath cannot seem to get it together and they appear to be near 30.

In my opinion the problem at Geelong is that we have hardly any Middle Generation players on our list.

Only King, Milburn and Snell remain on the list, which is where our problem lies. Over the past 5 years we have let some players go that were part of that group, such as Bizzell, Houlihan, McKay, Brockman, Bennett, Biddiscome, H.Simpson, Steinford, Lindsay, Lowther, Roberts, Corrigan, Robbins, (Lord) and Colbert left.

Mistakes have been made but 15 players are almost one third of an AFL Senior List is too many. I would say that of those players, Steinford, Bizzell and Houlihan are the ones that might hurt us.

The youngsters have to be given time, the pleasing thing against the bulldogs was seeing James Kelly's attack on the ball and Chapman playing a full game and seeing Matty Scarlett kick a few goals. Just Seeing Wolly play was great.

The sad part was just seeing Ronnie Burns just not focusing on getting the ball he was focusing on wrestling Libba. Brent Grgic has to be given time to prove himself, he cannot be judged on 3 senior games.

What does Geelong need?
A big strong forward

Who was the last forward to put the fear of God in defenders?
Gary Ablett

Where can we find a footballer that is ready to be given a crack?
Port Melbourne

Ryan Ablett give this boy in a Geelong jumper.

The focus of the recruiting should be on forwards; unfortunately Mooney and White are not the answer. Hopefully Gardiner and McCarthy will get a game soon.

Football is a great game, Geelong is a great Club but at the moment the club is genuinely rebuilding not refurbishing or filling in the cracks REBUILDING the foundations. Geelong are heading in the right direction, before the season started we were widely tipped to finish bottom. Geelong are 3-6 (should be 4-5), there are 13 games left, I estimate an 8-14 finish some more low picks and hopefully 2003 we will 10-12 games and finish (7-10) then let the fun begin.

Go Cats and all be at these Melbourne Away Games
v Richmond round 13 - Sat 29 June
v Collingwood round 15- Sat 13 July
v Essendon round 16-Sat (N) 20 July at Colonial
v St.Kilda round 19 - Sun 11 Aug at Colonial

AND ROUND 22 At HOME to the HAWKS at Colonial.

Go CATS 2002 and Beyond

 

[Baldy#9]

Nolsey I was actually watching the tape I have of the Round 22 game we played against Essendon in 98 and there was only King, Ronnie, Sholl, Ricco, Sando, Menschy, Rahilly, Dasher, and a tiny little Matty Scarlett playing his first game....now that would be what I call a clean out in the last 4 years....

 

[JUBJUB]

Originally posted by nolsey77

Over the past 5 years we have let some players go that were part of that group, such as Bizzell, Houlihan, McKay, Brockman, Bennett, Biddiscome, H.Simpson, Steinford, Lindsay, Lowther, Roberts, Corrigan, Robbins, (Lord) and Colbert left.

How many of them have been great losses ? NONE.
Biz,Biddiscombe & Houla had more chances than any of the others.
McKay.Lowther & Simpson were injury prone.
Steinfort was slow.
Lindsay,Bennett & Brockman struggled at VFL level.
Corrigan,Roberts & Robbins were hard done by the selectors.
Lord want to go because of Uni commitments in Melb.
and the other one took the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

 

[Baldy#9]

Gary Ayres has a lot to answer for with some of these kids. I was always a big wrap for Cameron Roberts and the amount of times I saw him best on ground in the ressies in 99, anyway, how he wasn't given a single game this year is beyond me especially with that loosing streak we had. I'm not saying Cam was ever gonna be a star but he was never given the opportunity. Couldn't blame Bomber for giving him the chop, you look at what he did that year and it would show that he had not played a senior game in a year where almost everyone else had.

Ayres was good at playing favourites and playing his favourites.

Corra, well don't get me started on Ayres there

Best thing Ayres ever did was leave

 

[Mattster]

its a tough call.

houlihan didn't want to play for cats anymore
bizzell wasn't consistent.
corrigan was very hard done by.

every club makes trading mistakes. it happens.

remember Brett Spinks. he was a champion!

 

[nolsey77]

Thanks for your replies
Jub I was just pointing that those young players that SHOULD be the Middle generation at Geelong are not there and DONT exist; I was not saying that these were champions or even good players. I probably didn't emphasize my point, but the current players under 23's will be the Missing generation we currently missing they will be a great nucleus of players, and the youth that will come through to future drafts have something to look forward to. Another great thing about the Younger players is that there is 5 second generation players and hopefully in 3 years time it will be 9 son’s of Geelong players.

Baldy I remember that game, the umpiring was S HIT, but somehow against the odds we beat the Bombers, It was Colbert's last game and Ron Hovey was chaired off by the players because he was retiring as president. That game was the one that lead to Leigh Colbert being made Captain.

Mattster its just what I think, but hopefully Geelong got Kelly and Playfair and Grgic for Bizzell, not sure why Corrigan isnt playing any more.

 

[dogboy23]

Robbins was always going to take longer to develop as he came from an athletics background.Would you agree that it is reflective of the 2 clubs slight difference in recruiting policies?We have generally gone for the underdeveloped but extremely gifted youngsters and tried to bulk them up and slowly nurse them into the team.IMO you differ slightly in that alot of your players are more developed upon drafting them (eg:Bartel,Kelly and the like) and they all seem to be sticklers for hard work.You could perhaps even form a link between the way each coach has said they want to develop the sides.I am pretty sure Thompson or even Cook said they will operate on the belief that the team with the best defence will always win the grand final hence the drafting of players with better all round games.Wallace has said he wants a quick skillful side that will suit colonial which is obviously the reason behind our runts and quick outside players like Murphy,Mcmahon,Guido and Gilbee.It will be interesting to see how the two sides youngsters develop.