Is youth still an excuse??

[graystar1]

All the pundits and even snowy on the tram all make excuses for our huge losses on youth. Is this still valid?

If so how come North are doing so well?? They had 10 of their players yesterday with less than 25 games under their belts still had another good gutsy win.

Can't help wondering if Harwicke is starting to think he has inherited a poison chalice. I hate to sound negative, but I found it hard to take one positive from today's game. Really and truly I could not name one player who I thought was a champion of the future. If anyone else can, then please enlighten this little black duck!

 

[Phar Ace]

NO! We are just legitimately the worst team in the competition.

 

[U2Tigers]

plenty will use it as an excuse - I just question how much of an excuse it is.

we've gone down this path now - theres no going back.

 

[Mr Richmond]

the differnce between north and us IMO is the experience players that support the youth, our experienced players as a whole are shizenhousen!

 

[cagedtiger]

After 6 rounds of footy all of of our new 17/18 year old recruits should be seasoned 100 games footballers by now - no excuses.

 

[Tigers2011]

No it's not an excuse. Many other teams have young players that are making an impact. We need to play young players provided that they have bodies that are able to cope with AFL and have the VFL form that demands that they be given a chance.

 

[TigerForce]

We play as 2 teams: Young/inexperienced is one, and duds/hacks is the other.

 

[U2Tigers]

the differnce between north and us IMO is the experience players that support the youth, our experienced players as a whole are shizenhousen!

agree with that. we all knew this would happen though.

 

[Phar Ace]

We play as 2 teams: Young/inexperienced is one, and duds/hacks is the other.

That's the old Richmond / Coburg argument again! ;D

 

[Tigers2011]

the differnce between north and us IMO is the experience players that support the youth, our experienced players as a whole are shizenhousen!

That's true. With a couple of exceptions, it's been our more experienced players that have let us down this season. Makes it a harder environment for the younger players to play in.

Surely time must be up for Simmonds and positional changes or axings for some others.

 

[bowden4president]

The problem is, our steam is so young, that even a lot of experienced players are only 22-23 themselves.

 

[thejinx]

Youth is an excuse to a degree.

Youth and inexperience is an excuse for a lack of skills and sustained fitness.

Youth and inexperience is NOT an excuse for a lack of pressure, run, effort, tackling, communication, 1ers, support, shepparding and regular stupidity.

Last week I was looking at the age differences between Freo and Richmond, and the amount of players in each age bracket. There were extremely similar (I believe they had 2 more players in the 26-30 group which was the biggest discrepancy), so youth certainly couldn't have been used as an excuse last week.

 

[velo]

I agree about effort.

However it's not just age brackets. It's the quality within those ranges too.

 

[LandyJessKeane]

If we could develop players like other clubs then Youth might mean something.

Youth at Richmond =Tomorrows Duds presented in a cute and likeable way.

 

[graystar1]

Seems most agree, so what of the future then? Who are going to be our shining future lights?? We can guess, but after 6 rounds, who stands out?? One or two have done the odd good thing and we tend to hang our hat on those few moments.

 

[TigerForce]

Seems most agree, so what of the future then? Who are going to be our shining future lights?? We can guess, but after 6 rounds, who stands out?? One or two have done the odd good thing and we tend to hang our hat on those few moments.

Nason and Martin seem to be definites so far. I'm liking the way Nason roves and passes.

 

[thejinx]

Nason and Martin seem to be definites so far. I'm liking the way Nason roves and passes.

Agree- they're the only two youngsters so far that have gotten a tick from me.

Nason obviously needs to beef up, but he has a good head on his shoulders and generally disposes of the ball very well.

Not surprisingly, they both share one key attribute - CONTINUAL EFFORT. They never shirk a contest and are always running into space, and chasing on the defensive end.

There are no other youngsters, even from last years draft, that look like they'll be quality players for us. Most still have huge question marks over their heads.

 

[Mappa]

I'm not sure how you can legitimatey compare one side with another on the issue of youth. Surely there are a hundred other things to add into the equation.

There is no doubt we are way behind the pack, but it doesn't mean we won't get it right. Just like it doesn't mean our new young players will fail. However they will certainly fail if they spend anytime reading some of the crap on this thread and others.

 

[TigerForce]

Agree- they're the only two youngsters so far that have gotten a tick from me.

Nason obviously needs to beef up, but he has a good head on his shoulders and generally disposes of the ball very well.

Not surprisingly, they both share one key attribute - CONTINUAL EFFORT. They never shirk a contest and are always running into space, and chasing on the defensive end.

There are no other youngsters, even from last years draft, that look like they'll be quality players for us. Most still have huge question marks over their heads.

Not everyone's the same. It takes longer with other players until they get the idea on how to play properly. It all depends on how these coaches develop them. At least we can see why Dimma's given a pick #71 games every week. They've noticed that Nason's better than they thought he would be. Hopefully the others come good too.

 

[Djevv]

At the start of the game they mentioned there was a 3 year average age difference and 50 games. That is a huge gulf. Add to that we have 2 senior players that are >25 and any good: Newman and Cousins. I think this is a fair excuse for poor performance myself.