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Heaps of fun

Goatered on the sticks
Sep 13, 2013
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Oldest guys to play on the weekend were 26. Gives you an idea of how the demographics of our list is shifting. About to hit the cliff when Goldstein, Tarrant, Higgins, 3/5 of our best players all 30+, retire. The old fellas aren't getting replaced they're what is keeping us competitive. What happens in the next two years will be very interesting.
 

Passmore

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Oldest guys to play on the weekend were 26. Gives you an idea of how the demographics of our list is shifting. About to hit the cliff when Goldstein, Tarrant, Higgins, 3/5 of our best players all 30+, retire. The old fellas aren't getting replaced they're what is keeping us competitive. What happens in the next two years will be very interesting.
I reckon we have the best batch of kids coming through since the late 80's. Our vets are still outstanding footballers. Hopefully this can intersect over the next 3 years.

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Pykie

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Oldest guys to play on the weekend were 26. Gives you an idea of how the demographics of our list is shifting. About to hit the cliff when Goldstein, Tarrant, Higgins, 3/5 of our best players all 30+, retire. The old fellas aren't getting replaced they're what is keeping us competitive. What happens in the next two years will be very interesting.

The problem is, we clearly don't have an elite batch of 22-26 year olds to take over.

It was evident when we lost Swallow, Wells, Harvey, Petrie that Cunnington, Ziebell, Goldstein, Tarrant were well placed to take over.


Polec and Brown are obviously quality players around that bracket, however, I wouldn't be relying on Atley, Wood, Williams, Anderson, MacMillan, Garner, McDonald, Jacobs and Dumont.


The above lot will get turned over pretty quickly in the event of a rebuild imo.


Our current batch of u/22's are better much better than our 22-28 year olds imo.
 

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Apr 24, 2013
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I reckon we have the best batch of kids coming through since the late 80's. Our vets are still outstanding footballers. Hopefully this can intersect over the next 3 years.

Interesting that you raise that, as after watching GR's 1993 Pagan clip, I had the similiar thought that the emergence of Larkey, Zurhaar, Simpkin, Thomas, LDU, Scott, Taylor, Walker & Crocker was reminiscent of the era where Carey, Crocker, Rock, Stevens, Longmire, Allison, Schwass, Romero and Scholl all established spots in the side.
 

Heaps of fun

Goatered on the sticks
Sep 13, 2013
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I reckon we have the best batch of kids coming through since the late 80's. Our vets are still outstanding footballers. Hopefully this can intersect over the next 3 years.

Sent from my SM-A908B using Tapatalk
The problem as I see it is if our kids replace our ageing guns then we're still where we are. We need as many gun kids again to move up the ladder in that time frame. Good thing we have a strong draft hand this year, we need it to be one of our best ever.
 

Pykie

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Interesting that you raise that, as after watching GR's 1993 Pagan clip, I had the similiar thought that the emergence of Larkey, Zurhaar, Simpkin, Thomas, LDU, Scott, Taylor, Walker & Crocker was reminiscent of the era where Carey, Crocker, Rock, Stevens, Longmire, Allison, Schwass, Romero and Scholl all established spots in the side.

Thomas would have to become a genuine perennial AA mid, brownlow contender type and Larkey a Coleman medal contender to mix it with it imo.

If all Thomas, LDU and Scott become AA quality mids, then yep, it's in the conversation.
 
Apr 24, 2013
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Thomas would have to become a genuine perennial AA mid, brownlow contender type and Larkey a Coleman medal contender to mix it with it imo.

I don't think that's any great stretch, but of course, there's still development and luck involved.

If all Thomas, LDU and Scott become AA quality mids, then yep, it's in the conversation.

I'm referring to the period 1987-1991, and there was more that came after with the passing of the old guard from that respective era (Krakouers, Schimma, Larkin, Law, German, McCann, McDonald, Holt)

The takeaway point is that there's a comparative early platform in place.
 

Passmore

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The problem as I see it is if our kids replace our ageing guns then we're still where we are. We need as many gun kids again to move up the ladder in that time frame. Good thing we have a strong draft hand this year, we need it to be one of our best ever.
The hope is that there's enough quality footy left in the vets, and there's no reason they haven't got a good 3 years in them, and that the kids get to a point in that time that they can start impacting games on a consistent basis.

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Apr 24, 2013
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The hope is that there's enough quality footy left in the vets, and there's no reason they haven't got a good 3 years in them, and that the kids get to a point in that time that they can start impacting games on a consistent basis.

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Logic would tell you that there will be a lag in the changing of the guard, but premierships require a lot more luck these days, so the environment to facilitate ultimate victory is a lot more dynamic these days.

Richmond, the Bulldogs, and West Coast have not been great sides in any historical sense. Start playing consistent optimal footy and have a good run with injuries, and there's plenty of sides that could win the flag.
 

Pykie

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I don't think that's any great stretch, but of course, there's still development and luck involved.



I'm referring to the period 1987-1991, and there was more that came after with the passing of the old guard from that respective era.

The takeaway point is that there's a comparative early platform in place.

Look, I like the enthusiasm.

We obviously don't have U/19's anymore to directly compare, but that group took all before them at that level.

I'm confident we can replicate the like of Allison, Crocker etc with the current crop.

But that group turned out some elite talent:

Carey - 7 x AA, 4 x B&F, 2 x AFL MVP, 5 x leading goal kicker, TOTC.
Longmire - 1 x Coleman, 1 x B&F, 4 x leading goal kicker
Stevens - 1 x AA, 2 x B&F, TOTC
Schwass - 1 x AA, 2 x B&F


Like I said - Thomas, LDU, Larkey, Taylor/Zurhaar/Scott would have to become AA's to match them.
 
Apr 24, 2013
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Carey - 7 x AA, 4 x B&F, 2 x AFL MVP, 5 x leading goal kicker,

Take the goals out and Tarryn has that top end in him.

Longmire - 1 x Coleman, 1 x B&F, 4 x leading goal kicker

Larkey could easily end up a 500 goal/200+ game player (55 goals a year).

Stevens - 1 x AA, 2 x B&F,
Schwass - 1 x AA, 2 x B&F

This is where we need to see some more emergence.

Stevens accolades came at the 8-10 year mark of his career, and Shwass's came at the 7-8 year mark.
 

Pykie

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Take the goals out and Tarryn has that top end in him.



Larkey could easily end up a 500 goal/200+ game player (55 goals a year).



This is where we need to see some more emergence.

Stevens accolades came at the 8-10 year mark of his career, and Shwass's came at the 7-8 year mark.

I'm not disagreeing with you.

I'd like to see it in action first, as these guys are nowhere near that currently (Larkey the closest)

North doesn't have a great track record with producing absolute top end superstar midfielders ~ Larkin, Schwass, Stevens, Bell, Grant, Simpson, Harvey (to an extent), Swallow, Cunnington all sort of fall into the same bracket of being top 10 mids in the league at some point in their careers. Boomer the only one you could genuinely say got right up the point end and genuinely contended for Brownlows.


It won't have been since Greig/Cable we've had a midfielder of that caliber if Thomas manages to do it....
 
Apr 24, 2013
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Somewhat agree, but is that absolutely necessary to win flags these days?

Richmonds best midfielder last year was Prestia, and West Coast's in 2018 was Yeo, Shuey, Gaff.

I'd put Cunnington on a par with those blokes.
 

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Pykie

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Somewhat agree, but is that absolutely necessary to win flags these days?

Richmonds best midfielder last year was Prestia, and West Coast's in 2018 was Yeo, Shuey, Gaff.

I'd put Cunnington on a par with those blokes.

You're forgetting the 2 x Norm Smith, 1 x brownlow medal, 3 x AA midfielder that lines up for them.


Riewoldt is still a 3 x Coelman winner & 3 x AA.

Houli was the AA HBF'r.
Grimes named AA.
Edwards was AA in 2018.

A host of others in the AA squads, Rance etc.... As well as a forward like Lynch

As for Yeo, Shuey and Gaff - What's your point? They're all outstanding players and stack up with some of ours from the 90's. They also have two of the best book ends of the last 2 decades.
 

Johnny99

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The problem as I see it is if our kids replace our ageing guns then we're still where we are. We need as many gun kids again to move up the ladder in that time frame. Good thing we have a strong draft hand this year, we need it to be one of our best ever.

If Ben Brown was to leave the club and we did a trade, then we would end up with :

2 first rounders in 2020
1 first round in 2021
2 first rounders for Ben Brown.

5 First rounders in 2 years would be a great way to get more quality kids onto the list....
 

Kimbo

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We don't need the current crop to match the 90s crop pound for pound for talent. We need the group to play well under a game style that suits their strengths and mitigates their weaknesses.
Exatamente! That's the lesson of recent premierships.


edit: A sprinkling of awesome class wouldn't be unappreciated.
 
Our current batch of u/22's are better much better than our 22-28 year olds imo.

You'd think so, but we don't have too much evidence of that either, other than Simpkin, TT, LDU, Taylor (of couple of practice matches), Comben (of one practice match), Bonar (of couple of practice cameos) and ?
 

Heaps of fun

Goatered on the sticks
Sep 13, 2013
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You'd think so, but we don't have too much evidence of that either, other than Simpkin, TT, LDU, Taylor (of couple of practice matches), Comben (of one practice match), Bonar (of couple of practice cameos) and ?
Zurhaar the obvious omission. Scott, Xerri, Mahony and Will Walker have all shown good signs too .
 

Pykie

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You'd think so, but we don't have too much evidence of that either, other than Simpkin, TT, LDU, Taylor (of couple of practice matches), Comben (of one practice match), Bonar (of couple of practice cameos) and ?

Larkey, Zurhaar, Scott, Xerri?
 
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Hopefully not many of the above play vfl this year, as it means we are either winning with the kids or developing them
 

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