Which 2 can step up in 2016 to make us a genuine contender?

[Rimmer]

The combination of an imperfect draft system, our own moderate success and not being a destination club has meant we pick up one later first round draft pick a year and maybe 3 dice rolls hoping to pick up a surprise like we did with Anthony Miles.

We are good enough to compete again for the lower half of the 8 but I figure to make the step up to becoming a contender for premiership honours in 2016 we need at least 2 'good ordinary' footballers to jump up to elite level. Our top 10 or 12 players are very good and can improve but are likely already playing near their best.

Do we have players in the 10 to 25 group on our list capable of making a big leap?

Yarran and Rioli occur to me as possibles who could make a big impact.

Who do you think can surprise this year? Seen anything at training which raises your eyebrows?

 

[Severe]

rioli

 

[TigerImposter]

CEllis and Lennon
McBean is lurking and KMac will get better
I don't rate Conca and Yarran in terms of improving us

 

[ReaperX]

CEllis and Lennon
McBean is lurking and KMac will get better
I don't rate Conca and Yarran in terms of improving us

Don't know about Conca, but you're wrong, wrong, WRONG about Yarran.

That's not even an opinion bro, that's a fact.

Yarran is going to be one of our best players in 2016, take that to the bank buddy!

 

[TigerImposter]

Don't know about Conca, but you're wrong, wrong, WRONG about Yarran.

That's not even an opinion bro, that's a fact.

Yarran is going to be one of our best players in 2016, take that to the bank buddy!

But will he improve us? That's what I said . Grigg is one of our better players according to some, but he will never improve us. Take that to Wall St buddy

 

[GoTigers2015]

Vickery and Yarran

 

[Elton Johns Wig]

Don't know about Conca, but you're wrong, wrong, WRONG about Yarran.

That's not even an opinion bro, that's a fact.

Yarran is going to be one of our best players in 2016, take that to the bank buddy!

Reap, not trying to start a fight here, but wrong, wrong, wrong???
From what I saw in Albury the other day Yarran is unfit, unprepared. Thunder thighs! If he has arrived with ANY of the campaigner attitude he displayed at Carlton, he will be a bust, and may improve the VFL side.

Hope not, but early signs are not promising. And yes, I have seen the photos of him smiling...

 

[Rodney Dangerfield]

For us to be a contender the very top end has to take the next step for others to follow.
So Cotchin for me is the number one.
Has to get better in big games,and has to get better at kicking clutch goals or we go nowhere.
Number two is a tough one could be Deledio when going gets hard but that would be helped by not having to carry the can due to Cotchins sudden invisibility.
So I'll say Vickery.
If Vickery can take off from where he left last year and then improve again then we will be very dangerous as it'll have an effect on our whole game.
I think he can.
He'd have a lot of confidence now I think.

 

[Tiger Claw]

Vickery and Yarran

This

 

[tugga]

Drummond is going to be a jet. Bookmark it.

 

[Hot tigers]

The combination of an imperfect draft system, our own moderate success and not being a destination club has meant we pick up one later first round draft pick a year and maybe 3 dice rolls hoping to pick up a surprise like we did with Anthony Miles.

We are good enough to compete again for the lower half of the 8 but I figure to make the step up to becoming a contender for premiership honours in 2016 we need at least 2 'good ordinary' footballers to jump up to elite level. Our top 10 or 12 players are very good and can improve but are likely already playing near their best.

Do we have players in the 10 to 25 group on our list capable of making a big leap?

Yarran and Rioli occur to me as possibles who could make a big impact.

Who do you think can surprise this year? Seen anything at training which raises your eyebrows?

I don't think its 2 players... McBean, Rioli, Menedue, Cellis, Yarren, Griff, Martin should all get better, the improvement i see is the depth and even the best like Cotchy can get better on his 2015, but its those listed and a few other such as Lambo, Lloyd etc that can all improve us... our top 15 a month or so back was ranked top 4 from memory, it was our bottom 5 that was ranked bottom 3 from memory, thats where we need to improve....

 

[ReaperX]

But will he improve us? That's what I said . Grigg is one of our better players according to some, but he will never improve us. Take that to Wall St buddy

Grigg DID improve us when he came into our team though, the addition of him, Houli, and then Maric (along with natural progression of the rest of the list of course), got us from consistently finishing 12th to consistently finishing in the Top 8!

Grigg may not take us any further than he already has, but his former Carlton pal Yarran certainly will, being that he's just now entering his prime career age (25-29), and is an absolute jet of a footballer that has the polish and talent to take us from consistently finishing in the Top 8, to consistently finishing in the Top 4 and contending for a premiership!

You can take that to the IRON BANK OF BRAAVOS!

 

[ReaperX]

Reap, not trying to start a fight here, but wrong, wrong, wrong???
From what I saw in Albury the other day Yarran is unfit, unprepared. Thunder thighs! If he has arrived with ANY of the campaigner attitude he displayed at Carlton, he will be a bust, and may improve the VFL side.

Hope not, but early signs are not promising. And yes, I have seen the photos of him smiling...

He's had a few niggling injuries throughout the pre-season, so he's probably below where he wants to be, but even an underdone Yarran adds a fair bit to our squad.

I expect him to do the reverse of what he's done at Carlton, he may have a slightly slower start to his RFC career in the early rounds, but come mid-to-late year and onwards to 2017, I think we'll be starting to get the best of Yarran.

I still think he'll have a significant impact in 2016 though, maybe not from Round 1, but certainly as the year goes on, he'll only get better and better imo.

 

[Elton Johns Wig]

He's had a few niggling injuries throughout the pre-season, so he's probably below where he wants to be, but even an underdone Yarran adds a fair bit to our squad.

I expect him to do the reverse of what he's done at Carlton, he may have a slightly slower start to his RFC career in the early rounds, but come mid-to-late year and onwards to 2017, I think we'll be starting to get the best of Yarran.

I still think he'll have a significant impact in 2016 though, maybe not from Round 1, but certainly as the year goes on, he'll only get better and better imo.

i hope you are right. Because if HE is right to go, I agree with everything. I just hope..

 

[TigerImposter]

Grigg DID improve us when he came into our team though, the addition of him, Houli, and then Maric (along with natural progression of the rest of the list of course), got us from consistently finishing 12th to consistently finishing in the Top 8!

Grigg may not take us any further than he already has, but his former Carlton pal Yarran certainly will, being that he's just now entering his prime career age (25-29), and is an absolute jet of a footballer that has the polish and talent to take us from consistently finishing in the Top 8, to consistently finishing in the Top 4 and contending for a premiership!

You can take that to the IRON BANK OF BRAAVOS!

haha Reaper ,you have a grim opinion of improvement.See it all depends which Yarran turns up the 2013 variety or the 2014-15 one.
Western Union is looking good for you ATM

 

[captain cotch 9]

If Vickery can play every game that would be a good start.
IMO Conca could be the other on-baller that we need. He also does kick goals.
He basically hasnt played for 2 years.

 

[prodigy1311]

Cotch & Dusty. If these 2 get up, the rest will follow and we win most games.......

 

[Hans McGregor]

I'd say the whole team needs to step up if we are to become a real contender, but if I had to pick 2 players that could help take us to the next level with their own individual performances I'd have to say Martin and Yarran.

Martin was the obvious one for me. He's painfully teased us with glimpses of how he can turn a game on its head. He's strong and explosive and this makes him capable of dominating games. Unfortunately all we've seen from him so far is a highlights package (a damn good one, but we need more). He needs to become more consistent. Since Cotchin is going to be getting tagged every week, Martin needs to be tearing it up and by that I mean getting a minimum of 20 touches per game. Playing more as a half forward should help. This all happens assuming we get the midfield dynamic right with miles, Townsend and a beefed up lambert all doing their part on the inside.

I actually tried really hard to avoid naming Yarran because I didn't want to feed anymore into the hype/expectation surrounding him as a new player. But, there's no doubting that his attributes, namely his pace and skill, fill our need for X factor, which we all know we haven't really had for a while. There's also no doubting that he's the only player on our list with the above qualities that is realistically capable of having the immediate impact we need to take us to the next level (Rioli and menadue, to a lesser extent, are too young). The question(s) are his attitude and fitness, which have been brought into light of late given his lacklustre preseason. I would have liked to see him start on the wing, because sending him to half back would have been too predictable imo. But I think we can all agree that this won't happen given his current fitness level. It's a disappointing start, but here's hoping he'll turn it around.

 

[Tiger_Of_Old]

Obviously a foccused and fit Yarran is a bonus to be added to the side.Something we need.If he plays off half back it takes the pressure off Houli who is more effective when not being the attention of the opposition as much.Thats where i think Yarran will be most effective and the benefit to both Houli and the side.
I think its time for Vickery to really stamp his authority on the game.No more excuses.

 

[Elton Johns Wig]

He's had a few niggling injuries throughout the pre-season, so he's probably below where he wants to be, but even an underdone Yarran adds a fair bit to our squad.

I expect him to do the reverse of what he's done at Carlton, he may have a slightly slower start to his RFC career in the early rounds, but come mid-to-late year and onwards to 2017, I think we'll be starting to get the best of Yarran.

I still think he'll have a significant impact in 2016 though, maybe not from Round 1, but certainly as the year goes on, he'll only get better and better imo.

Slightly slower is right......bloody hell. Not for the first third of the season!! unbelievable. Great news this morning

 

[CHIMP MAGNET]

jack will kick his 50+ goals, need another 3 goal kickers to kick over 30 each to be a genuine contender – Vickery, Deledio, Lennon

 

[Dr Tigris]

I'll disagree with the logic of the OP. If we started 2015 with the attitude we played after round 6 we would have won another 2-3 games. That would have put us top 4, maybe top2, possibly 1. It isn't a player or two that has to improve. It's the attitude of the squad and the smarts of the coaching staff. The thing that bothers me is that we got smacked by North in the way that I thought would be there best chance of doing so. If I can pick it then that is a low bar. We didn't have the players needed to stop what North did. Which was team selection + coaching + who was on the list.

If a few players in key roles can step up we will improve hugely. Conca/Townsend/Moore/Vlas to add depth and grunt inside will make a massive difference. Yarran to add run and carry will transform our forward line. After that it is improving our spine with TV/Griff adding forward line depth and Astbury/Elton adding KPD depth and quality.

But those individuals are not the key to our being a contender. Actually turning up every week and playing herd is the main thing. And then come finals it is actually going harder than the opposition and forcing them to play our game. If we can do that with no real change to the 2015 team we will go close to winning the Premiership. That is much harder to do than just getting a new player in to step it up.

Not saying the players we all speak of won't make a big difference. But we finished 8 points behind Freo and 5% ahead. If we had started the season well we would have got that 8 points and increased our % by 5+. easily number 1. That is a fact and the central issue is mental, not the 11-15 players on our list.

 

[nineteen eighty]

I don't think its 2 players... McBean, Rioli, Menedue, Cellis, Yarren, Griff, Martin should all get better, the improvement i see is the depth and even the best like Cotchy can get better on his 2015, but its those listed and a few other such as Lambo, Lloyd etc that can all improve us... our top 15 a month or so back was ranked top 4 from memory, it was our bottom 5 that was ranked bottom 3 from memory, thats where we need to improve....

Agree that it won't be just 2 players. However, I just cannot see what the fascination is with McBean. I have seen very little to date.

Agree with Menedue and Ellis. I have also placed my reputation on these boards on Conca being our most improved this year. He will be vital for us this year and the role he plays. Look forward to having him prove me right.

 

[JAKLAUGHING]

Dusty and Yarran...

 

[theflea]

I'd say the whole team needs to step up if we are to become a real contender, but if I had to pick 2 players that could help take us to the next level with their own individual performances I'd have to say Martin and Yarran.

Martin was the obvious one for me. He's painfully teased us with glimpses of how he can turn a game on its head. He's strong and explosive and this makes him capable of dominating games. Unfortunately all we've seen from him so far is a highlights package (a damn good one, but we need more). He needs to become more consistent. Since Cotchin is going to be getting tagged every week, Martin needs to be tearing it up and by that I mean getting a minimum of 20 touches per game. Playing more as a half forward should help. This all happens assuming we get the midfield dynamic right with miles, Townsend and a beefed up lambert all doing their part on the inside.

I actually tried really hard to avoid naming Yarran because I didn't want to feed anymore into the hype/expectation surrounding him as a new player. But, there's no doubting that his attributes, namely his pace and skill, fill our need for X factor, which we all know we haven't really had for a while. There's also no doubting that he's the only player on our list with the above qualities that is realistically capable of having the immediate impact we need to take us to the next level (Rioli and menadue, to a lesser extent, are too young). The question(s) are his attitude and fitness, which have been brought into light of late given his lacklustre preseason. I would have liked to see him start on the wing, because sending him to half back would have been too predictable imo. But I think we can all agree that this won't happen given his current fitness level. It's a disappointing start, but here's hoping he'll turn it around.

Dusty need to run and carry more instead of blindly just booting the ball.