The rapid decline of Trent is the one factor that I did not count on - he's 2 years younger than Selwood, but plays like he's 2 years older. He should be our contested ball beast.
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Trent Cotchin (Merged)
- Thread starter Gordietiger
- Start date
How old is Kennedy? Longmire has moved him to half back.
I don't think Selwood is 99% midfielder anymore
Cotchin has been used as a Bull Bar for the last 5 years, he is spent.
It's not Cotchins fault Dow, Collier Dawkins, Ellis x2, Lennon and Higgins aren't any good.
It's not Cotchins fault Dow, Collier Dawkins, Ellis x2, Lennon and Higgins aren't any good.
One of your better posts Zipper. Our recruiting of midfielders who should be coming through now has been ordinary.
It’s a catch 22 - Dow, RCD and Ross etc should all now have around 50 AFL games under their belt and be in a position to step up, but they haven’t cause our first picked over the last 5 years - Cotch, Lambet, Prestia etc have been busy winning flags.
I think the cats re Selwood and Danger is rare (not the normal) to get such top line in and under players who are now ‘over the hill’ but are both still carving it up.
During 2019 Stack, Higgins and even Naish were given games, but poor form, Higgins wanting to go to stkilda hasn't helped.
They weren't good enough to stay in the best 22.
Footscary plays 10 midfielders. They all add something not every week but they take on turn from Bompmytelly, McCrae, Libba, Dunkley, Treloar, Hunter,
We have Prestia Martin Graham Edwards Cotchin and Bolton.
I think we are still underestimating the Covid impact. I reckon we purposely drafted some project mids because we had all those stars and there just wasn't going to be room for them in the seniors for a couple of years. They should be ready now with multiple seasons of VFL games and a few cameos in the ones under their belt-but the reality is they have hardly played for two years. I'd like to hold my judgement until the end of this season at the earliest.
This is more accurate than you realize .
For some years having half the team as midfielders has been the formula...we got away with semi midfield role players. .like George.
Now we dont have enough. We are now slow in transition from defence to forward ..have been for 2 years.
Demons and Dogs are full of running midfielders. .just that Dogs are weak at either end..Demons are not.
We need to move the ball faster so need Bolton in midfield and Baker at half back with Rioli.
We needs speed on the wings and less talls in the side.
We will need Brown and Sonsie in asap . Clarke too.
Ross is too slow .Aarts not up to it.
Martin forward with 2 talls and 3 smalls.
Speed kills. We need it.
We are critical of our drafting but we need to look at who was worthy of being taken ahead of who we chose.
Looking at the RCD draft no one of note stands out. You could only really mount an argument for O’Halloran and Berry.
Same with Dow. The only one of note after him who might have helped our midfield right now is Devon Robertson but the jury is still out for him as well.
I think the lack of games due to Covid has been a massive factor plus the fact they couldn’t break into such a strong midfield.
Now is the time to see what they have got. We need to get games into them and see what they can actually do.
The problem is picks in between 10-20 are innie Minnie selections.
We have proven that over the last 10 years
With Lennon Ellisx2 Higgins Dow etc.
But if you use a pick between 10-20 it's classified as a gold pick. That's what hawthorn wanted for Mitchell pick 17 or 19.
Unless the kid has outstanding junior form I would rather trade in from other clubs.
Picks 1-8 generally turn ok, Martin Cotchin Big V Jack etc
But how many more picks (quality) are we going to waste on kids that have Potential?
Should've used pick 17 or 19 to bring in a ready made mid.
Duds like Lipinski cost Collingwood pick 43
Cerra isn't worth pick 6 or 8.
But what dud WC give up for Yeo?
What did Brisbane give up for Neale?
What did we give up for Prestia?
We needed another ball winning mid.
Out list management were sleeping
Nah, its dross. We don't have a swag of young guns because we've been on top and we have triple flag winning superstars to pay. Its that simple.
So Snake you think those players Zips mentioned have been good enough but stifled of opportunity which has cost them their careers?
That wouldn't explain the success of Bolton & Graham in spite of those stars we've had to pay.
Nope bottom line is they were young midfielders who were not good enough to force others out.
I'm tending to think you're correct ToO. Despite some criticisms regarding this, Dimma has played players as soon as they're good enough and have a decent handle on their roles. If you're good enough, he'll play you. Butler, Castagna, Higgins, Short, Baker, Bolton, Balta, Graham, Soldo, Rioli, Gibcus. For whatever reason, the young midfielders (and some of the young forwards) haven't shown enough to warrant being picked consistently. And I think in terms of the fringe players that were let go, it doesn't look like many have set the world on fire. Which begs a different question around our talent identification, rather than our player development.
The Dow and RCD drafts….I’m not sure there was much better on offer in those drafts. Caught between a rock and a hard place in those years. Sparrow, Williams, Berry in 18 and Gould, Rivers, Warner in 19 off the top of my head. Could be one or two others. Bianco was a player I thought we should have drafted in 19. Think he’ll be ok.
Not at all. Broadly I don't disagree with the talent assessment, I disagree about the reason for that. (Zips post after that is a scattergun FWIW)
Zips, and many others, seem to think our drafting should be faultless, impeccable in strategy, execution and foresight. In this world we beat the statistical draft curve by 1000%. Its an impossible dream. The best you can hope for is to beat the curve, which without doing a comprehensive statistical analysis, I'd bet we've done.
We've had this debate forever on here, people pluck out player X and say 4 years later why didn't we take player Y? and heap criticism on the Club. In the vast majority of cases there is no context, no analysis, no reference points, no real understanding of stats, strike rates etc. Occasionally they have a point, mostly not.
Of course it's impossible. .... our recruiting army are mere foot soldiers when
General Dodoro starts plotting his moves!Don't take my word for it...... just ask him...... or Kingy!
