"Young side" - enough!

[freocuz]

I assume you're joking there?

Deja vu?

No he hasn't, other coaches don't whinge about a young side every 2 minutes.

I haven't heard the press conference in full, or read a transcript of it, but it's hardly whinging when you say the words once. And if you want him to come out and say "Gilmore and Head are rubbish, and we should never have retained Browne and Thornton on our list", then don't hold your breath.

Maybe read it another way. He could be saying "We want the young guys to take the game on more than just for 10 minutes here and there, because we know they can", rather than "We want the young guys to take the game on, something which they haven't done". Glass half full stuff. Just maybe.

 

[ImperialPurple]

If you must "make excuses", point the finger at the real culprits - the dumb-arses who are taking this club nowhere... Don't use the "young side" excuse - it is only partly right, and will soon start to sound pathetic.

What you say is correct IP, but I'd rather Harvey use the young excuse than come out in the media and publically blast some players for being useless. Do it in house otherwise we'll seem like an even bigger rabble.

I agree - that's why I said "If you must make excuses".... Best bet is to not make excuses... or to not keep making the same excuse - which is exactly accurate anyway - because it starts to sound pathetic...

The members and supporters will back you in, and back the team in, if you give the lemon and sarse to the dumb-arses and you, yourself, back the kids in. We might lose, but at least we will have had a go with players who are not proven dumb-arses. I'm not saying that there should be wholesale changes and we go into a game with half the team with 30 games or less, and the other half with 150+. That would be suicide...

However, if we are in rebuilding mode, which clearly we are; then drop the dumb-arses if they screw up, and bring in a kid who has been working hard and doing well at WAFL level. Maybe the kid might just get a couple of games, but it gives them a taste, and it makes them hungry. It also lets the dumb-arses know that if they do not perform, they will make way for a youngster - who might just turn out to be better than they are, and then it's bye-bye AFL career.

How about "We are at the start of a rebuild of the player list. It will be an exciting 5 year journey"?

While I agree with you IP, the after-match press conference is a place to say stuff without saying anything. Harvey was probably too honest last year at these things and got crucified in the media. He has simply learnt how to play the game now, and is doing nothing other than what every other coach does.

The probelm we have is obvious. We have to play guys like Head/Dodd/Murphy/Browne/Duffield/Thornton/Gilmore because we can't play guys like Ballantyne/Headland/Mayne/Bucovaz/Hall/Ruffles/Walters. When you are a young squad and you get injuries to guys you want to pick, it means blokes who you don't want to pick get selected. Having youth now will be fantastic for us in years to come, right now it's not helping our results.

It's very frustrating to see the 50-100 gamers making the same mistakes game after game, but the fact is that we can't throw 10 skinny kids to the lions each week.

That's pretty much what I said.

 

[Bradesmaen]

Fair call Jenny.


People forget that the Crows had anumber of youngsters out there yesterday too. Harvey cant keep using the 'kids' line @ Freo as an excuse. Its our middle tier players that needed to be reminded that what they are doing is just not good enough!

The one area the crows didn't have youth was midfield though (where we got smashed). Reilly, Van Berlo, Goodwin, Edwards, Doughty and McLeod (when he moves there on the odd occassion). Very experienced midfield.

 

[freocuz]

That's pretty much what I said.

Yep. If we only had 1 or 2 dumb-arses, we could select around them. Unfortunately, we have about 10 dumb-arses and it's actually quite difficult to NOT select at least a couple of them each week.

One or two more delisting periods will (hopefully) change this, though.

 

[Rabbitoh]

Great post IP well said.
however, I do think Peakey deserves no criticism this year. Harvey has obviously worked to get the best out him and it's starting to pay off.
The young side excuse does need to be replaced with the "we have too many muppets who coast along after playing 50 games..." excuse.