Shane Edwards has improved out of sight, what will become of him as a player?

mcuzzy

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Thread starter #26

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Tiger2709

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#27
Bottom line is neither Edwards nor Ward were better when the board was demanding 'finals or else.'

It annoys me that the same bloke who put the acid on a list full of pensioner veterans and green kids with not much in between is still our president and has come out of the whole era smelling like roses according to an overwheming number of supporters, while our coaching and recruiting staff from that era cop all the blame for his board's delusions and demands.

Lay the blame for these things at the feet of the man whose fault it was far more than any other - Gary March and his merry bunch of flip-flop stooges.
I don't know, isn't this the same man that gave the Tigers a quiet half a million when we were on the skids, although that's no reason to keep him as prez, but to be honest your stringing a long bow to blame him for our recruiting and coaching errors, wouldnt the coach be the mane decision maker in those areas, TW got his full 5 years of course his last was going to be finals or gone.

Your opening comments make no sense, what has the fact that the board were demanding finals or else got to do with how those boys played, finals or else is how it always is in your last year of an overly long contract.
 

Rayzorwire

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#28
I don't know, isn't this the same man that gave the Tigers a quiet half a million when we were on the skids, although that's no reason to keep him as prez...
Didn't make Casey a good president.

...but to be honest your stringing a long bow to blame him for our recruiting and coaching errors, wouldnt the coach be the mane decision maker in those areas, TW got his full 5 years of course his last was going to be finals or gone.
The coach, recruiting staff and the football department which oversees all of that obey the board's wishes when it comes to club direction. The direction they wanted was "finals or else" - March indicated that publicly on numerous occasions in Wallace's last two years. When the board want that, the recruiters and football department have to go and find players who can get us closer to that aim. McMahon, Hislop, Thomson - they're all March's babies, nobody else's.

On the other hand, Wallace is on record back in 2006 as stating that our list was way too unbalanced to be a serious finals threat until 2011, because we had too many glass half-full at best veterans and raw kids with nowhere near enough mid-age players to be serious challengers until the kids were old enough to be mid-age players themselves.

Clearly the board is to blame and Wallace and the football department - as employees have to - merely went along with their demands. It's pretty obvious that's why Wallace had totally got the shits with the place years before he left and was simply going through the motions of fulfilling his contract. He made a common sense evaluation of our list and the timeframe it required way back in pre-season '06, the board ignored him and stuffed up yet again by demanding sucess when we needed absolutely everything to go our way to be even moderately successful (i.e. finish 7th-8th), rather than continuing to rebuild with fresh juniors towards a realistic 2011 goal.

The fact that the board has eventually landed on their feet with Hardwick shoud not excuse the totally delusionary policies they oversaw over the last few years. They and nobody else are responsible.

...finals or else is how it always is in your last year of an overly long contract.
Yeah, and if it all goes to hell you can just flip-flop and give the next coach free reign to lose all year with basically the same list except a couple of pensioner veterans that had zero impact on our '09 'finals tilt.' Nobody will find that the height of hypocrisy. :eek:
 

richoatthedisco

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#29
Without turning this into yet another Wallace thread the fact is he should have been sacked after three years, when then team had just won a spoon. The five year contract he and Miller convinced that idiot Casey Wallace should get prevented the right decision being made. Can't believe we gave Cameron a five year deal after that, especially because he was far more the best bloke we could get at the time, rather than the best possible option.

Anyway. I've been an Edwards fan since his first game. He's a 200-gamer, a true footballer whose size has been the main thing holding him back. Line-breaker who's very good in traffic. Will keep improving for the next few years and end up a very good player.
 

cormick

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#30
March didn't coach the players like Connors & Edwards who came good after Wallace left. And what should have been our platform to success, the '04 draft, was ****ed up big time by the recruiters and Wallace. Followed by an even worse '05 draft. The first two Wallace years, which should have seen a youth path like Hardwick is bringing in, were the platform for his demise. Graham, Bowden, Knobel, Humm, Kingsley and the like were Wallace failures. Carlton's rebuild started in '05 after their draft penalties and they're on track for their second finals appearance. Ours was the year before and yet we're languishing on the bottom of the ladder.

On Titch, haven't seen enough games to make a reasonable judgement, but I still think he have to be a bloody good player at his size to make it in the AFL. Not many players make it these days without blistering pace at under 6'.
 

richoatthedisco

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#32
Corma, Edwards and Connors are just 21. I don't think you can blame Wallace for the inconsistency of skinny youth, or for leaving out a headcase who was his own worst enemy. He gave Edwards plenty of games but maturity takes time. As for your blistering speed theory, Edwards is quick enough and has the ability to jink and change direction that gives him an extra yard. He's certainly quicker than fellow shorties Cousins, Chapman and Mitchell.
 

cormick

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#33
Corma, Edwards and Connors are just 21. I don't think you can blame Wallace for the inconsistency of skinny youth, or for leaving out a headcase who was his own worst enemy. He gave Edwards plenty of games but maturity takes time. As for your blistering speed theory, Edwards is quick enough and has the ability to jink and change direction that gives him an extra yard. He's certainly quicker than fellow shorties Cousins, Chapman and Mitchell.
Granted they were due for a breakout year around now whether with Wallace or anyone, but Connors especially was given very few chances to prove the obvious talent he had at seniors.
As for Edwards, I think he's deceptively slow given that he's a crafty little bugger, but he'd have to have a lot of bulk to match it with the aforementioned trio or a lot of speed to match it with like-bodied players (Byrnes, Stokes - Geelong, Rioli etc.) Just my take on it.
 

Spluff

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#34
He's pretty quick without having blistering pace, similar to Nason. He has incredible agility though, which is just as good as pace, because it allows him to break the lines with ease, and he has an elite tank, once again similar to Nason.
 

Rayzorwire

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#35
I thought his endurance really shone through tonight, was still sprinting hard at the end and he covered a lot of territory. Fantastic effort. :thumbsu:
 

TOOs_Finest

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#36
I thought his endurance really shone through tonight, was still sprinting hard at the end and he covered a lot of territory. Fantastic effort. :thumbsu:
Agree.

Also, did he play on Rischiatelli tonight? Looked like they were matched up a couple of times. If so, did a great job. But feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
 

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Rayzorwire

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#37
Agree.

Also, did he play on Rischiatelli tonight? Looked like they were matched up a couple of times. If so, did a great job. But feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
Yeah, pretty sure he spent a bit of time on him DD, I didn't notice his matchup a lot on first viewing because he was so often in a pack situation and not in a 1-on-1 contest.
 
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