No didn't need to throw away 2 seasons of draft picks for both of them, basically the same player type, age, contract. That was a desperate ploy by Hardwick & co to 'buy' ourselves another premiership that was never going to happen. And then he jumped ship when it was clear it didn't work.
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Our senior players are the issue
- Thread starter tigertough
- Start date
There was certainly plenty of stat padding. McKercher probably the biggest one. Kicks out from a behind, to a player maybe 20m away, runs behind them to take the easy handball and then kicks down the line. 2 disposals, every single time. The commentators were circle jerking about it in the 1st quarter in particular, but they were cheap stat padders.
Young players sitting behind topliners.
That's the way to find the trade bargains starved for opportunity.
Makes more sense with rucks especially as they are largely useless until 25 years old.
That's the way to find the trade bargains starved for opportunity.
Makes more sense with rucks especially as they are largely useless until 25 years old.
Why wouldn't we try and Buy another flag?Geelong did.
We still had 17 premiership players on our list.
Losing Lynch after rnd 4 had a telling impact.Cotch & Jack hit the wall soon after.
Was a gamble worth taking.
Because it was never going to happen. We only won 2 of our last 10 games in 2021. Our guns were aging and starting to get injured. We had lost a few already. Surely feeling the need to recruit 2 high-cost midfielders to keep the dream alive was a good hint that it was over.
In 2021, prior to premiership in 2022, Geelong didn't give away all their draft picks, in fact they recruited 5 18yo's. They brought in as trades Ceglar for a future 3rd & 4th and Stengle as a delisted free agent. I don't see the similarity.
They were horrendous on the weekend couldn't even do the basics right.
And yet in 22 we were on the wrong side of a NoN decision that cost us a place in the GF that year.So i'm not sure what 21 has to do with it.
Clearly the 22 result had us buying another flag.
been loosely looking at this angle for a few weeks , disposals and Fantasy points
I know there's things like roles , game time etc to be considered
but most weeks the senior guys tend to top these tables , with some young guys polling ok before half time
but by the end of the game the top half is almost exclusively the senior players
this week Seth Campbell was prominent before half time but seemed less so after half time
I know this doesn't address how invested the senior guys are , or the quality of their work etc
the senior guys are quality players and do know how to get the job done
2017-2020 I was telling people our bottom 6 players are better than our oppositions bottom 6 most weeks
now those tables have turned
are the young guys being pushed off the ball too easily , straight out dispossessed or just running to the wrong spots ?
and if their output was greater would that energise/embarass our senior guys to go harder ?
I know there's things like roles , game time etc to be considered
but most weeks the senior guys tend to top these tables , with some young guys polling ok before half time
but by the end of the game the top half is almost exclusively the senior players
this week Seth Campbell was prominent before half time but seemed less so after half time
I know this doesn't address how invested the senior guys are , or the quality of their work etc
the senior guys are quality players and do know how to get the job done
2017-2020 I was telling people our bottom 6 players are better than our oppositions bottom 6 most weeks
now those tables have turned
are the young guys being pushed off the ball too easily , straight out dispossessed or just running to the wrong spots ?
and if their output was greater would that energise/embarass our senior guys to go harder ?
I think you're rewriting history. We finished 7th on the ladder with 13 wins, 1.5 wins from 6th and lost first elimination final. How does that equate to cost us a place in the grand final? We were just making up the numbers. 2021 has alot to do with it. It was a sign that the premiership window was over and to think more carefully about building for the future. If we had
it would have been likely we didn't need a full rebuild. Now we're destined for it.
We can debate this until we are all blue in the face, in fact we do debate this a lot of this site.
The fact is that all that discussion and debate achieves absolutely nothing because it changes nothing. Taranto and Hopper are Richmond players and will be until the end of 2029 so what we should be debating is what do we need around them.
What is glaringly obvious is that since one or both have returned we are much better around the contest, our clearance numbers are up especially around the ground. We need speed, movement and the ability to burst from congestion we do not need to recruit clearance players like Taranto and Hopper, we have them.
We had a % of 121. After starting 2-4 we went 11.5-5.5.- those 5 losses were all 1 goal or less. And the Dees were the only top 8 team to beat us by more than 6 points. And we did it all with Dusty playing less than half the season.
We still had Lynch and Jack in form up forward, and a tight backline full of premiership guns and a bright young star in Gibcus.
But Prestia had just done another hammie, and Lambert and Edwards were finished. We needed more midfield.
To say we werent in the mix to win again in 2023 is just wrong.
I reckon what a lot of people do is use 2024 knowledge to look at 2022.
I don’t know if we would have won a flag in 2022 but I think we would have been a good bet to beat the demons and play in a prelim against the cats and the cats would have been spooked by that. Not sure we were good enough to beat them that year however.
We all have 20/20 hindsight.
I agreee, many do use hindsight and flip on their original beliefs but not me on this topic, I raised my concerns at the time which was against the consensus, most were ecstatic to give up all our draft picks for Taranto & Hopper. Personally I think history has proven me right but psychologically I understand why the majority were excited about the fairytale prospect. In the end that's the way the club went, just need to acknowledge that it's cost us alot in lack of further development and introduction & turnover of younger players over a 2 year period which unfortunately extrapolates to alot more lean years.
In my opinion, there was never a realistic chance of us winning another premiership soon after 2021. 4-5 years is the limit in that window where you ignore draft recruiting for ultimate success. By 2022 too many players were too old with failing bodies and youngsters had no experience and many just not good enough to take up the slack of the champs that had already left or declining in performance. Plus our game plan had been worked out and decimated by AFL's rule changes. We still had enough quality to be competitive but not consistent to win a premiership.
Once we lost that final to the Lions even before that, the writing was on the wall to rejuvenate simple as that club went about it the wrong way. There was too much power Dimma had he was pushing for the Hooper trade to and then when things got tough did a runner. Yze has been left to pick up the pieces host of retirements, players past it, blooding the kids and few senior players not on the same page.
Just as well we had some cubs we had on the park who put the effort in and they showed up some of the seasoned players
The only positives I see right now that through injury, suspension and form we have had to play our cubs, some who were not quite ready, but many stepped up and have shown us we have something positive coming through. Offhand, I can count 7 or 8 positives but it also showed us that a couple or so of cubs are not up to the standards we require
