Even people like David King calling on Nicks to change up the midfield mix on First Crack last night. Showed vision of how well Soligo played and said to get some others in there to help him and Dawson. Also mentioned trying Laird off half back. Said there is nothing to lose given the season is likely done anyway.
Preview Changes vs Carlton
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Drugs Are Bad Mackay?
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This I guess is why we might see Dowling get BOG or Newchurch bob up with a few goals and we are baffled when they don't come in.
SANFL performances are likely a fair way down the pecking order in terms of the coaches' considerations for selection.
Also why we're so very willing for a kid to miss SANFL playing time to be non-playing AFL emergency or back up sub option, just in case.
They're missing an SANFL game which to us means little.
Would be a depressing place to play once you've cottoned on.
Kane McGoodwin
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Apparently King met with Nicks over a coffee & told him personally.
Probably also why the Crows and Port are trying to get into the VFL, they clearly just don't rate the quality of the SANFL. It seems you are more likely to get a game in the AFL the following week when the SANFL team has a bye versus coming off a dominant SANFL performance. Therefore, IN Dowling this week.
Kane McGoodwin
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This whole "big gap between SANFL and AFL" thing is interesting. Has there ever been a player who has played really good SANFL footy for us who has been unable to make the step up to AFL? Myles Poholke got to a point where he was a cut above SANFL but couldn't adjust at the next level. Anyone else?
In the last 12 months, I have heard three apparently independent people with ears inside the club - one is Nicks in the media, two in private conversations - say those very same words about players who have been impressing in the SANFL.
This mythical gap - of which I have never really seen any evidence at all - is starting to sound like an internal AFC echo chamber to me.
Edit: add to that, the constant probables v possibles match sim runs the risk of artificially widening this "gap". Of course Lachie Murphy looks better when surrounded by Dawson, Rankine and Tex than Billy Dowling does when surrounded by Dragon, Karl Gallagher and some bloke plucked from PAC old scholars. It might even look like there's a big gap.
In the last 12 months, I have heard three apparently independent people with ears inside the club - one is Nicks in the media, two in private conversations - say those very same words about players who have been impressing in the SANFL.
This mythical gap - of which I have never really seen any evidence at all - is starting to sound like an internal AFC echo chamber to me.
Edit: add to that, the constant probables v possibles match sim runs the risk of artificially widening this "gap". Of course Lachie Murphy looks better when surrounded by Dawson, Rankine and Tex than Billy Dowling does when surrounded by Dragon, Karl Gallagher and some bloke plucked from PAC old scholars. It might even look like there's a big gap.
Let's hope he doesn't pull a Milton if that happens
I just don't this is a coincidence given how hard both SA clubs are pushing to get out of the SANFL and into the VFL. I don't think either club rate the quality of the SANFL and put very little weight on performances there.
That's my point. They might not rate it, but what evidence is there to support the assertion that there is a "big gap" between the two such that outstanding performance at the lower level does not justify an opportunity at the higher?
Which players have been unable to bridge that gap?
Scorpus
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We've had a few players over the years rack up big stats in the SANFL. Mitch Grigg and Patrick Wilson come to mind. Cam Ellis-Yolmen. I think Rory Atkins was picked off the back of some big SANFL games (I guess you could claim he actually could adjust to AFL level)
Grigg fair enough.
Wilson: we will never know whether he might have been able to translate his game to AFL level.
CEY played some serviceable AFL footy.
Rat reached double figures in the Brownlow in a year we made the GF. Whatever might be said about him now, he was an AFL level footballer.
Let's take that evidence (and Poholke) and draw the highest possible adverse conclusion. Hulking inside mids might not be able to bridge the gap between SANFL and AFL.
Now, what's the excuse for not picking Dowling? Or at least giving him a go?
Wilson: we will never know whether he might have been able to translate his game to AFL level.
CEY played some serviceable AFL footy.
Rat reached double figures in the Brownlow in a year we made the GF. Whatever might be said about him now, he was an AFL level footballer.
Let's take that evidence (and Poholke) and draw the highest possible adverse conclusion. Hulking inside mids might not be able to bridge the gap between SANFL and AFL.
Now, what's the excuse for not picking Dowling? Or at least giving him a go?
And, I suppose, the more important question which is the one I was getting at when I first waded in here.
Is "there is a big gap between SANFL and AFL" just an accepted thing that people say inside the club? Is it actually true? Is anybody challenging that way of thinking?
Is "there is a big gap between SANFL and AFL" just an accepted thing that people say inside the club? Is it actually true? Is anybody challenging that way of thinking?
Scorpus
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I think it's true the gap between AFL and SANFL is large, but that it's also not relevant to a developing team
Players do take time to adjust to the higher level typically, especially those with limited experience on a list. That doesn't mean they will never adjust, it's just usually not immediate. I think coaches use this transition time to justify not selecting a player because they think the adjustment period will hurt the team.
They are, of course, ignoring the long term goal of improving the overall team and focusing on short term issues.
Beyond the adjustment period I think most players that are capable of dominating SANFL matches could play to a reasonable level in the AFL. But the coaches will downrank that massively if it'll take 5 or 10 games to get to that point. They're not willing to carry the player and so blame it on the gap between the levels.
But if we're talking the standard of games, the quality of typical AFL player versus typical SANFL player, I mean it's clear watching our SANFL side the quality is much lower. Dominating SANFL only means you might be okay at AFL, not that you'll be a dominant AFL player. Conversely there are players that struggle in the SANFL due to the low standard (usually outside players or forwards) that can thrive at AFL level when there's better quality around them. This isn't helped by how we are forced to surround our developing players with top ups that are below SANFL standard
I think Nicks problem is he isn't looking beyond the very next game. His only goal is winning on a week to week basis. No eye for development.
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Of course there is a gap between the two but reckon most times players adjust after a few games.
This is the same sort of thing when people go for jobs, you need experience however but how do you get experience if no-one is prepared to take a chance/risk. You take the risk to find out if someone is up to it.
This is the same sort of thing when people go for jobs, you need experience however but how do you get experience if no-one is prepared to take a chance/risk. You take the risk to find out if someone is up to it.
And yet the SANFL is consistently better than the VFL.
I genuinely think the club is run by morons.
I think that they think they are really smart, but in reality they are too dumb to know that they are dumb.
That press conference had a lot in it. I didn't take away that they'll ring the changes this week though.
The bit about Rachele having a good game but not that the public would see it was one point.
Regarding why we are going bad, he said trying too hard. What I think that means is that everyone tried to play all the other clubs gameplans, go possession winning, go attacking and our game isn't built around those things and we are only just getting back to it.
He said we have corrected the thing we weren't doing that we needed to do and now its just lapse periods.
He did comment about the movement but I think that's mostly slow switching. Some slow movement through the mid field.
There was a couple of other things as well. Worth a watch.
I did wonder, if there were to be changes, whether we might go with more experience, try and get a Sloane or a Himmelberg in, people that have played the gameplan successfully before. I know this board would love that.
Frothiewalker
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Which then leads into our issue of being willing to finally give a kid a chance, only to drop him within a week or two if he isn't immediately contributing at some unrealistic, mythical level. And the opposite being true of non-performing senior players.
We're stuck in this perpetual non-development hell-scape and I seriously have to wonder how much young people dread being picked up by us who've spent any amount of time studying our development habits.
Having this Neil Craig clone in the coaches box isn't helping.
