Opinion Semi Final Results

[JimBob10]

Over this weekend we have witnessed two experienced sides who have tried to hang on for premiership glory, go out in straight sets. Interestingly, the two sides who have taken their place are talented, up and coming teams. Obviously injuries have played their part in both sides' performance but we shouldn't discount the fact that both sides' list decisions aimed toward winning a premiership have backfired.

Freo brought in Gumbleton and Sylvia this offseason and have made similar moves in previous offseasons.

Geelong have continued to bring in youth however have refused to trade any premiership players and have bought in Melbourne reject Rivers to strengthen their back line while they will bring in Frawley shortly as well.

Both sides have had minimal involvement in the first round of the last three national drafts and beginning now this will start to impact both lists. Collingwood made similar decisions between the offseasons of 2009 - 2011 and while it resulted in a flag in 2010, this I believe has been a significant factor in our fall down the ladder in the preceding seasons.

As of the 2012 offseason, I believe the club addressed this and there is no doubt long term this will help the club push back up to be a premiership threat.

I think if we need any reminding of whether or not we should have rebuilt, this weekend should serve as a reminder that the younger team with natural improvement will eventually run over the more experienced team hanging on to the premiership dream.

 

[nahnah]

Agree with you one Geelong, although they do have a lot of youth.. Their young players are just no good. It's quite funny actually, their young players that get games are actually really really bad.

Freo has every right to be trying to improve short term tho, they still have a pretty young core and will contend for at least 2 more years.

Regarding us it's hard to know what we are doing.. We bring in young players but have also topped up with duds and now we have been linked with Clark who may not be a dud but how is that different to Geelong bringing in frawley ?

 

[DinoSoar]

Freo is definitely a very good team at the moment but the parallels with St Kilda in the years 2008 - 2011 are becoming apparent, which was always going to be inevitable with Ross Lyon as coach. Looking at what has happened to the Saints in terms of recruiting and list management, life after Lyon may be quite painful for Freo from 2018 onwards.

 

[didaksrightfoot]

I wouldn't go so far as saying their list management "backfired"- because all you can do is make decisions based on the position you are in.

Both Geelong and Freo have a lot of very, very good experienced players - who are at, or heading into, the twilight of their careers. Geelong may have a few retirements... at Freo, I only see McPharlin retiring, and that depends entirely on how his body feels after retiring from this latest injury.
Because of Geelongs sustained period at the top - they have not had much ability to bring through star youngsters... so I would expect their drop to come soon. (But like us - wouldn't expect them to bottom out).
Freo on the other hand - have a really good spread of ages of their top level players - and I see no reason why they can't be in, or around, the top 4 again next year. They got over-ran tonight, but were missing 3 or their top 4 KPD's (including 2 AA-level guys) and one of the best Small Forwards in the comp... and they weren't far off Sydney last weekend.

And you need to compare them (and us) to Sydney and Hawthorn - two teams who had their lulls post-premierships, and managed to rebuild without having to completely... it can be done. (And I think it is what we are trying to do).
The balance is tough to get. And a big difference has been that the key free agents those two clubs have gotten, have been a-graders wanting to leave bottoming-out teams (Burgoyne, Gibson, Lake), young future stars leaving a better team for more playing time (Kennedy, Mumford), or massive signings because of an unfair cap system. (Tippet, Buddy).
Of our free agent signings - only really Jolly and Ball really fit into that calibre of player... the rest have generally been decent-quality players who are never going to star... and I think that is something Bucks has reflected a lot on this year.

Going forward we still need to find a balance - clearly we are looking at a lot of youth and rebuilding that way - but if the right player at the right cost because available, we should also be looking at ready made players.

 

[JimBob10]

Agree on Freo's good spread of ages however the older players like Pavlich, Sandilands, McPharlin and even Johnson/Dawson are in key positions. You can't replace these spots in the team overnight and most if not all premiership teams these players are in the 23-30yo bracket.

Eg.

Hawks 13 - roughy, buddy, gibson, lake
Swans 12 - reid, grundy, richards
Cats 11 - hawkins, pods, lonergan, taylor

 

[rose jam]

Geelong still have some good youth; Motlop and Christensen who really play pivotal roles in today's style of game. The rest are ho-hum and they're sliding because of it. They really get helped by having a suburban ground to get them out of trouble in what would be danger games at Etihad that really exaggerates their H&A finishing position. But they're getting found out in finals when that neutralises.

 

[DaicosianMarvels]

Harvey got a week.

Great start to the day and now hopefully they get smashed on Friday to the Swans.