Game Day 2024 Grand Final - South Melbourne vs Fitzroy, Sat 28 Sept at MCG 2:30pm

[juzcat]

100 %. And I think it was our last chance to get a flag with this group.

I feel quite the opposite. Smith in. Clark develops. Bruhn, Dempsey, COS, Mannagh, Humpries, Neale develop. SDK back in form.
Jezza good for 2 more years.

cons are Danger and Stewart and Blitz slowing down.



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[Biggy_Boy]

I feel quite the opposite. Smith in. Clark develops. Bruhn, Dempsey, COS, Mannagh, Humpries, Neale develop. SDK back in form.
Jezza good for 2 more years.

cons are Danger and Stewart and Blitz slowing down.



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The thing about players developing is that there is no guarantee it happens or that it happens when or how you expect. Moreover, often with younger players, their progression is not linear. Take SDK himself as an example. Fantastic breakout year in 2022, but a couple of injury setbacks later and he has struggled. A poor 18 months as a KPD and then an attempt to re-establish him as a ruck which he didn't particularly excel at either.

Same for guys like Dempsey or Humphries. No guarantee they even have years as good as this let alone get better. For the others, we're hoping for just the same as every other supporter group is, and that is that our largely untried and untested youth realise their potential to become high-quality AFL players and propel us up the ladder. Issue is, for most clubs that does not happen, and we're no exception. We're in competition with every other club for the youth to come good, and some clubs have much better stocks in the area than us.

You cannot rely on youth coming through to ensure you will be good the following year. You can just look at the established talent. You are fortunate if you can get young players developing to complement it; but that has to be taken as a happy accident rather than an expectation. For us, the reason why most punters would have us on the downward trend is that we are losing more established talent than we are gaining, and much of the other established talent we have are getting another year into very long AFL careers. Lose Hawkins, Tuohy and Rohan, and the likes of Duncan, Bews, Danger, Blicavs, Stanley are regular players we rely on that are just deteriorating further and further.