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.

 

[winty]

 

[winty]

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

Well of course, as we won't have the same group of players next year. Hell, 9 of them have already been taken off the list.

 

[Romeoh1]

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.

Sure- there is no telling, but this is a pretty half -empty take. Crikey- what is following football, if it isn’t about hope and belief and fun?
Wells and Mackie are very smart cookies and they are choosing decent lads. All the younger players have made improvements, or are showing good signs. Sdk has been a different player after his injury but he still may well get back to where he was.
The retirements and deterioration won’t impact that much because the input from most of the players you mention has been steadily declining anyway and we are covering that. Dangerfield will be a loss but he can be managed sensibly whilst we develop/pick up a couple of quality mids.
And player development can always surprise-just as much as someone expected to become really good, doesn’t. The reverse can happen and I’d have thought we’ve had quite a bit of ‘luck’ with that.
Besides- it’s never that simple anyway- teams with more talented lists than ours, didn’t do as well as us this year. Plenty of factors go in to it.

 

[PzBlinky]

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.

I agree...but the realistic outcome next year is probably neither as grim as some see it, nor as rosy as others would like.

If nothing else, a harder draw may slide us out of the top 4. Add a couple of key injuries and we could be teetering on the brink of finals (especially since we've cleaned out depth). But a streak like the 7-0 this year or a bit of luck injury-wise and there's no reason we could snatch a top 4 spot again.

 

[Seeds]

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.

Yeah progression aint linear. Some we expect to improve will go backwards. But others you wont expect to improve because they have been flat for 1-2 years will break out. Sdk being an obvious candidate. As is bruhn.

 

[Klink]

Apparently Josh wasn't keen on heading to Sydney, opting to remain in Victoria? Haven't got a source but seen it been thrown around a bit.

Nah, he nominated Swans as his preferred club under father-son, and when the Dogs bid on him at P25, Swans refused to match. Obviously didn't value him highly enough.

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[Klink]

That's from an article on the AFL website in 2016.

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[stevothedevo]

Like others have said, it feels like an opportunity lost. But if I truly believe that, then I'm a hypocrite. I've continually belittled Collingwood supporters for their 2007 remarks of "Oh we only lost that premiership by 5 points"
No, you did not and no we did not.

 

[Farmer2Goggin]

time for some calfs blood in the off season

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Hope the Holmes injury was from the fresh air kick when he missed the ball on the ground and not from fatigue.

 

[Max Rooke]

time for some calfs blood in the off season

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Amen.

 

[Frank Bunn]

Better, GAJ was a very good small forward, with his breakout year in 07.

Didn't GAJ's form take off after they had the group honesty sessions and he was told he needed to work harder? It seems Ashcroft already has a great attitude.

 

[Cataholic]

Like others have said, it feels like an opportunity lost. But if I truly believe that, then I'm a hypocrite. I've continually belittled Collingwood supporters for their 2007 remarks of "Oh we only lost that premiership by 5 points"
No, you did not and no we did not.

Yeah, on reflection we had significant struggles through the year, fell into the top 4, played a poor side between weeks off, hit the PF with less than peak fitness and conditioning, then lost Holmes and Bruhn to injury and had the likes of Stengle play very poorly indeed.

We gave it our best shot, and just fell short. We had no more to give.

 

[Commando]

Finally caught the replay.

We like to make football a complicated game when it really isn't

At the business end of the season players need to go harder for longer and beat their direct opponent in the contest

Brisbane did this and really broke the game open in half a quarter

Kicked 6 straight and took their opportunities making the moments count!

Scoreboard actually flattered Sydney

 

[Zouz Kitty]

Wonder if Sydney regrets this draft decision

Dunkley rejected Swans