Preview Round 4, 2024: Richmond v St.Kilda - Norwood Oval, Sunday 7th April, 3:20PM AEST *GATHER ROUND*

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idk, I think collard will be a star and we should pump games into him ala wilson, also means he's both more likely to stay and will demand more on the trade table

Have a look at North, or GWS when they started, to see what happens when you play too much youth at the one time. We had 7 last game.
 

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Not with our current midfield.

Then with Dow and Crouch with both missing quite a few games, it only became even more of a reach for us to make Top 4 this year.
Even with out best 22 Available we were never in contention, we are in the midst of significant rebuild and well off top 4 pace until at least 2026...and that prediction assumes the list rebuild is successful in the mean time.
 
Port tonight are reinforcing what a shocking result it was for us to have lost to the Dons last week.

Injuries and suspensions have helped to cruel us this season.

Injuries and suspensions didn't make us miss every shot on goal.
 
Geez it’s hard work listening to the commentators on seven talk about how good the dons were last week. They literally stumbled over the line again a team missed 8 starting players. Spare me
That’s whywatch with the sound off.
 
The surprise about Hastie playing is surprising. It’s not hard to see what Ross and the coaching group are trying to put into place. Leg speed and great kicking, and Hastie has both. He reminds me of D Mac but with a much better kick. I posted pre season that this season (like last) is about getting games into youngsters that are our future. Finals last year were a bonus, the same this year if it happens. We think 2025 we can really push and from 2026 we want to be contending.
Games into Windhager, Collard, Nas, Owens, Dow, Wilson, Hastie, King etc is vital to our plan.
 

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Injuries and suspensions didn't make us miss every shot on goal.
Still plenty of time to turn things around , I feel the teams are so even this year except for a few teams the premiership could be won by any team that makes the 8.

Whatever team gets on a roll with few injuries will clean up.

Even we could do it if the cards fall right - the loss against the Bombers was to me all down to missing key pieces in our structure , I rate Wood highly due to his work in defense , King for his contested marking in our forward line and not having a fit functioning Crouch hurts when he is not racking up his 27 touches a game hurts the midfield.
Throw in the highly skilled Henry and they are to me 4 big outs , on top of that no having Howard is a loss imo , I know people don't rate him here but to me he is far better than Cordy.
Also not having Clark , Dow , Hayes , Webster , Paton just doesn't give us the depth needed too.

We get a lineup that can stay healthy and gel together we could seriously get on a roll in the later part of the season.
 
Well rtb is clearly seeing something in Angush that the track watchers haven’t. Barely got a mention in the training reports.
I wasn't posting until a couple of weeks ago but there are reasons behind the lack of attention that he got. He even had family watch him at training who were talking about how hard it will be for him with our half backline.

From day one it was obvious he (like all of our recruits) was great by foot, smart, quick and reliable on the training track, works the angles well and can find space to break the lines with little effort. Like Wilson, he's also surprisingly good overhead for his size.

BUT, he's a skinny kid and was behind even Angus McLennan for a half back spot from my view. Reason's are as follows:

  • Bonner was killing it in preseason
  • Arie was the shiny new thing off half back with a huge bullet of a left boot
  • Sincs got injured well after Xmas, Nas and Jimmy automatic selections
  • Stocker an absolute leader at training, I love the bloke and can't wait for him to kick a 75m torp through the big sticks one day
  • McLennan looked likely to take a big step forward this year. Its not just that speccy over Hammer, he looks so solid overhead and by foot on the training track.

ALSO:

  • Then Wilson was the absolute superstar on the track, so the attention for the draftees automatically went to him.
  • Arie, well the kid is an enigma, and he took his fair share of everyones attention for differing reasons
  • Hugo started gaining cult status as the big surprise packet, focused, clean - almost ruthless attack on the ball - he started getting love.
  • Collard was always going to get a lot of attention based on his demeanour. Head down, last in the lines, go home factor, but equally as important there are plenty of positives to focus on. As soon as match sim started, he came into his own, suddenly we have a genuine x factor fwd pocket gun who I haven't been as excited about since Milney.

So moving back to Hastie, it's easy to see how he flew under everyone's radar. He's still a skinny kid, who suddenly finds himself on a wing due to injuries. I don't think anyone expected him to be playing, but it isn't to say he isn't rated or noticed at all. It was more just due to his size and the other aforementioned factors.
 
Everyone piling on the Bonner lynching either clearly have little grasp of AFL at any level and/or haven't watched the replay intently whilst sober and also doesn't have a clear understanding of how echo chamber work.

No one echos your opinions because they are wrong. Watched the game live at the ground and the replay. Bonner was abhorrent.
But the decision to keep letting him take kick outs was worse.
32 disposals doesn’t mean much when the majority are kick outs.
 
No one echos your opinions because they are wrong. Watched the game live at the ground and the replay. Bonner was abhorrent.
But the decision to keep letting him take kick outs was worse.
32 disposals doesn’t mean much when the majority are kick outs.

How many were kick outs?

And of those kick outs how many were “abhorrent” ?
 
No one echos your opinions because they are wrong. Watched the game live at the ground and the replay. Bonner was abhorrent.
But the decision to keep letting him take kick outs was worse.
32 disposals doesn’t mean much when the majority are kick outs.
Also watching the game again many of mistakes came in the second half when we needed some composure.
 
The surprise about Hastie playing is surprising. It’s not hard to see what Ross and the coaching group are trying to put into place. Leg speed and great kicking, and Hastie has both. He reminds me of D Mac but with a much better kick. I posted pre season that this season (like last) is about getting games into youngsters that are our future. Finals last year were a bonus, the same this year if it happens. We think 2025 we can really push and from 2026 we want to be contending.
Games into Windhager, Collard, Nas, Owens, Dow, Wilson, Hastie, King etc is vital to our plan.
Fully expect to be playing finals and going way further than last year - our core group are at the age to produce there best - how long they can keep going who knows but there is no reason we can't be in the top 4.

Guys like Marshall , Sinclair , Wilkie , Steele , Hill , Crouch , Wood , Butler , Membery , Jones , Howard , Ross should all be at there peak of the powers with guys like King , Battle , Higgins , Clark , Stocker , Dow , Byrnes , Sharman are at the age to set things alight and with the kids who have a couple or more seasons in them now like Nas , Windhager , Henry , Owens , Phillipou

If we can keep most of these guys on the pitch and they get hot who knows and I 'm not even looking at guys like Hammer , Hayes , Webster , Cordy , Bonner , Paton or any of the first year rookies - to me that's our depth to fall back on when the above 25 have injury problems - Wilson could well be in that 25

But to me the Barometer will be Marshall , Steele , Crouch and that key 3rd mid if they have a good season we will go far.
Will Dow , Clark , Windhager , Owens , Phillipou give us that lift - who knows.
 
Injuries and suspensions didn't make us miss every shot on goal.

As many as we have had can negatively impact team performance, and yes individual performance too. Last week we reached a tipping point when we played 7 young players that we have drafted over thar the last three years. Great for the future, but it hurts you now. Given our suspension and injuries we had no other choice .

Look at North at present. Oodles of quality young players, but with the right balance in age and experience they are struggling. Young teams struggle to play well enough for long enough in games. We saw that against the Dons.

This is made worse as we have players like Sincs and Butler also playing who are not match-fit and match practiced yet. They are underdone.


That all results in mistakes and extra pressure. Team performance drops.

Players like Wilson who might thrive in a good team, then struggle when everyone is under the pump. Players like Owens now cop use attention, and likewise struggle to have the same impact.

No idea what happened to Wilkie last week, but his sound marking disappeared. We can only hope that it was a one game aberration.



Now this week against the Tigers it will be interesting, as the Tigers like us are missing key players, and are playing a lot of kids and underdone players.
 
Don't get the wraps on Hastie...looks a few years behind bing afl standard atm. Sharman is streets ahead at the moment.
He played 1 quarter of footy in where none of our players could get a hand on the ball.

In that quarter he had the ball in his hands more than 14 of our other players too.
 
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