- Jun 4, 2016
- 13,256
- 40,480
- AFL Club
- Carlton
Love the post. Don’t agree about the fitness conclusion though. Yes the zone is rubbish and it’s not working but we’re pverloading people like Ed who finish the game at walking pace because other players are simply not close to fit enough.I have had the advantage of a full nights sleep after the game, so I'm not as emotionally raw as I would have been if I posted straight after the game.
I'm not going to buy into whether clubs respect or disrespect us. Their mindset is not my immediate concern although it will play a part in luring senior players from other clubs during the trade period. I definitely think the players care as a whole. No one likes losing and no one is deliberately throwing away their football career. To keep perspective though, there are some players who aren't up to the grade. We can only play who we've got for now, unless they introduce mid-season trade windows like the EPL. We're getting games into the kids and that's a positive.
When we hold up to teams that run and gun, then we'll be on our way. For some time, we haven't been able to contain the teams that play a free flowing game-style. It's not so much about where they are on the ladder. It's about the game-style that we match up well against, or poorly against. Our zone currently provides easy goals on a platter for teams that have a strong outside game.
It looks like its all a fitness and effort problem but that's not it. Whenever I've looked at our GPS numbers, we've been equal to or higher than our opponents in distance travelled. So it looks bad because players are caught out of position in the zone, spend too much time chasing tail, and look slow while changing direction. Fisher did the same to them when he kicked that goal from just inside 50. Caught them wrong footed. We're probably working harder than the opposition because we are so often caught out of position as a result of turnovers.
I agree that the skill level is poor but I'm confident that it's more a confidence issue with the kids. When they get a little more experience, they won't get that mad adrenaline rush when they get the ball, or feel rushed and panic. They'll have been in those situations a few times and get it right more often than they do now. Obviously, our senior players are making skill errors because many of them are place holders who are skill capped. We know what we're going to get from players like Sammy Rowe week in week out. He's not going to make team of the week, but until someone can perform his role better, he'll try his guts out for the jumper. I don't want to create a list in this post but I'll put something together for the list management thread during the week.
We lost/traded players who had currency, and the senior players that remain are currently average at best. We spent those picks on youth. Our growth will come from getting games into those kids and playing them together. Cohesion isn't just a Bolton cliché. Some of those kids will work out, some won't. But we need to spend every spare cent/spare minute on developing them into the best footballers they can be.
Last thing I've got to get off my chest is the posters who blame SOS for getting in players like:
Lang - Pick 58
Lobbe - Pick 95
O'Shea - Preseason Draft (that no one has used since 2014)...FREE
Palmer - Pick 135
Shaw - Rookie
Mullet - DFA
Seriously, it's not a fail if none of these players are AFL standard. It's a dice roll that you're not expecting to win. But if even one of those players worked, its a win. They weren't picked instead of some AFL superstar who was begging to come to us. There are only so many players available, and there are only so many kids you can pick. If they don't work, you move them on and try other players. Some of these pick ups were salary dumps that facilitated other trades.
We have no choice but to take a deep breath, and battle through the last few games (like we expect our players to) with our scarfs high in the air. Show the media that we still love our club, and show prospective free agents that we don't snipe our club when times are tough. We are a part of our clubs culture.
At the end of the year, we'll move on some players that didn't work out, we'll bring in some exciting new players, and we'll get another pre-season into our talented youth. We'll probably take a different approach with the game plan and structure for 2019, and we'll jump really quickly.
GO BLUES