As background, my opinion on the lack of success this season is that we have given automatic best 22 status to our mature-aged recruits, which has risen the standard of the team in the short-term, but has also limited the potential. Picking up those recruits weren't bad decisions - we have gotten them all for next to nothing - but playing them over developing youth has been the issue. I feel like they get much more of a chance to prove themselves. This year has probably been the exception with Maric, Chaplin, Townsend, Moore and Marcon having to really work hard for games The exception to that exception is Hunt, and to a lesser extent Grigg and Houli.
Therefore, my opinion is that the problem to this point has laid mainly in development, rather than recruiting or coaching. That's not to say the other two are perfect.
For example, we have 4 players who have played between 20 and 50 games (Lambert, Townsend, Lloyd, McIntosh). We haven't developed Townsend ourselves, so that's three, and we've only had two or three of them available for most of the season.
In contrast, we have 5 players who have played between 10 and 20 games, 4 of whom were in single figures (or zero) last year (Lennon being the remainder).
Hardwick is right in a sense - we do have cattle - but we haven't been feeding them games to help them grow. With our current list, we have ourselves developed 3 players to the 20-50 game bracket. Having a quick look at the recruiting, this coincides with the compromised drafts bracket, still on our list from those years are:
2010: Conca, Batchelor (Pre-Season Houli)
2011: B.Ellis, Elton, (Traded in Morris, Maric)
2012: Vlastuin, McIntosh, McBean
2013: Lennon, Lloyd, Miles (Traded in Hampson)
You could say our recruiting sucked in those years, but they had a tough gig and injuries haven't helped (see Conca, Lennon, McIntosh). We appear to have five best 22 players drafted in those 4 years (Ellis, Vlastuin, Lloyd, Miles, McIntosh) with the verdict still out on Conca, Lennon, McBean, Elton and Batchelor (although personally I've passed judgment on Batch). One could argue that our strategy of recruiting mature-aged players bombed out, but they account for 2/5 of those best 22 players (Miles, Lloyd). Ultimately, you'd have to compare our haul in those years to every other team to see where we sit, too hard though.
The upside: Our 2014/15 drafts are the most promising raft of same-aged players in a while (list is just of those who have played ft. Yarran):
2014: C.Ellis, Menadue, Drummond, Short, Castagna, Lambert (Hunt)
2015: Rioli, Markov, Broad, Marcon (Townsend, Moore, Yarran)
It's a bit sad that Hunt has been given the most games out of that crew (I assume), but right now it appears that our 14/15 drafts have made up for the other four, just gotta pump games into them!
So the two biggest things that have hurt us: playing mature-aged players too much, and compromised drafts.
Therefore, my opinion is that the problem to this point has laid mainly in development, rather than recruiting or coaching. That's not to say the other two are perfect.
For example, we have 4 players who have played between 20 and 50 games (Lambert, Townsend, Lloyd, McIntosh). We haven't developed Townsend ourselves, so that's three, and we've only had two or three of them available for most of the season.
In contrast, we have 5 players who have played between 10 and 20 games, 4 of whom were in single figures (or zero) last year (Lennon being the remainder).
Hardwick is right in a sense - we do have cattle - but we haven't been feeding them games to help them grow. With our current list, we have ourselves developed 3 players to the 20-50 game bracket. Having a quick look at the recruiting, this coincides with the compromised drafts bracket, still on our list from those years are:
2010: Conca, Batchelor (Pre-Season Houli)
2011: B.Ellis, Elton, (Traded in Morris, Maric)
2012: Vlastuin, McIntosh, McBean
2013: Lennon, Lloyd, Miles (Traded in Hampson)
You could say our recruiting sucked in those years, but they had a tough gig and injuries haven't helped (see Conca, Lennon, McIntosh). We appear to have five best 22 players drafted in those 4 years (Ellis, Vlastuin, Lloyd, Miles, McIntosh) with the verdict still out on Conca, Lennon, McBean, Elton and Batchelor (although personally I've passed judgment on Batch). One could argue that our strategy of recruiting mature-aged players bombed out, but they account for 2/5 of those best 22 players (Miles, Lloyd). Ultimately, you'd have to compare our haul in those years to every other team to see where we sit, too hard though.
The upside: Our 2014/15 drafts are the most promising raft of same-aged players in a while (list is just of those who have played ft. Yarran):
2014: C.Ellis, Menadue, Drummond, Short, Castagna, Lambert (Hunt)
2015: Rioli, Markov, Broad, Marcon (Townsend, Moore, Yarran)
It's a bit sad that Hunt has been given the most games out of that crew (I assume), but right now it appears that our 14/15 drafts have made up for the other four, just gotta pump games into them!
So the two biggest things that have hurt us: playing mature-aged players too much, and compromised drafts.
