Bort Cummings
Team Captain
- Apr 16, 2016
- 485
- 1,009
- AFL Club
- West Coast
I think our chickens have come home to roost because of a combination of tactical inflexibility, lack of accountability from senior players/weak selection committee and our terrible fitness and injury management. That all of these are self-inflicted makes this season even more infuriating, compared to 2001 or 2010, when we just didn’t have many good players - there’s still a lot of talent on this list.
Watching Melbourne last night, I thought that for all the wraps Kosi Pickett gets, imagine what Willie or Ryan could do in their set up, after a preseason with their S&C team? They’re both elite field kicks; Ryan can sit on ruckmen’s heads and dance around flankers, and Willie’s one-touch ability and goal sense is up there with the best in the league. Unfortunately, they’re not fit enough to apply sustained pressure or stay involved for a whole game.
Likewise, imagine if Nic was fit enough to play even 80% game time? Put him in that Melbourne side feeding Petracca, Oliver and Viney, and it’d be like the Grand Final center clearance goalfest, every single week. His body type means he’ll never run marathons, but there’s no reason even at his age that he couldn’t shed a few kilos and bump up his TOG - Beau Waters
started doing triathlons in his thirties if If I recall correctly. I accept injuries happen, and some are just bad luck, but it’s infuriating the amount of games we’ve missed from Shuey, Yeo, and now Allen.
All told, if we fixed these things, I think we’re a solid bottom half of the 8 team. The way the league works, we’re likely better off long term being garbage for a year. However, my fear is if we don’t start to make some hard calls to change things (game plan, strength and conditioning, back office stuff like not emailing NGAs and the Castore clusterf**k), we’ll embed a losing culture and end up as pre-Voss Carlton instead of pre-Woosha WCE.
Watching Melbourne last night, I thought that for all the wraps Kosi Pickett gets, imagine what Willie or Ryan could do in their set up, after a preseason with their S&C team? They’re both elite field kicks; Ryan can sit on ruckmen’s heads and dance around flankers, and Willie’s one-touch ability and goal sense is up there with the best in the league. Unfortunately, they’re not fit enough to apply sustained pressure or stay involved for a whole game.
Likewise, imagine if Nic was fit enough to play even 80% game time? Put him in that Melbourne side feeding Petracca, Oliver and Viney, and it’d be like the Grand Final center clearance goalfest, every single week. His body type means he’ll never run marathons, but there’s no reason even at his age that he couldn’t shed a few kilos and bump up his TOG - Beau Waters
PLAYERCARDSTART
Beau Waters
- Age
- 38
- Ht
- 188cm
- Wt
- 88kg
- Pos.
- Def
Career
Season
Last 5
- D
- 19.0
- 5star
- K
- 11.3
- 4star
- HB
- 7.6
- 5star
- M
- 6.1
- 5star
- T
- 2.7
- 4star
No current season stats available
- D
- 9.6
- 3star
- K
- 6.0
- 3star
- HB
- 3.6
- 3star
- M
- 2.6
- 3star
- T
- 1.6
- 4star
PLAYERCARDEND
All told, if we fixed these things, I think we’re a solid bottom half of the 8 team. The way the league works, we’re likely better off long term being garbage for a year. However, my fear is if we don’t start to make some hard calls to change things (game plan, strength and conditioning, back office stuff like not emailing NGAs and the Castore clusterf**k), we’ll embed a losing culture and end up as pre-Voss Carlton instead of pre-Woosha WCE.
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