How will our best side look when we are once again in the top bracket?

[Marlin01]

This thread has taken a bit of a tangent, which is possibly my fault.

I wasn't saying that Notte won't make playing weight or that he has to be huge to be a valuable player. I was merely saying that I wouldn't put him in my plans for 3 years time at this point. Believe me, nothing would make me happier than the Eagles getting a top-class forward and I'd certainly be prepared to give him another couple of years on the list.

 

[ROYAL EAGLE]

Sorry tesseract, wasn't picking on you, I did interpret what you were saying (I hope).
Was giving more an explanation of Notte for those that will read and want him to be a 100kg monster and wanted him delisted after 1 season on the list, or will want him delisted this year if he's not up to 90+kg.

Chrsco with Notte im not worried about his upper body as much as i am his legs.

His thighs and calfs are so skinny, and he gets pushed of his centre of gravity too easily.

I would love to know what programs he is on.

I would concerntrate on leg weights and dead lifts and lots of bike riding to develope his power like the crows do.

 

[bodazoka]

Davis (22) Glass (30) Schofield (23)
Jones (29) Mackenzie (23) Nicoski (28)
Staker (27) Butler (26) Ebert (21)
LeCras (25) Kennedy (24) Hurn (24)
McKinley (24) Brown (23) Waters (25)

Naitanui (21) Kerr (28) Swift (21)

Cox (30) Masten (22) McNamara (23) A Selwood (27)

Not to mention, Shuey, S.Selwood, Notte, Smith as well as 1-2 rookies.

 

[Eastern Rangers]

A lot of you are leaving out Ash Smith and Jordan Jones out of our future teams. Jordan Jones will develop into a Hunter style utility me thinks. Ash Smith looks a dead ringer to be like Hurn.

Somthing tells me Jordan Jones will never play forward but he will be a better backman than Hunter is. Strong, Classy and Calm, Jordan Jones will make it if all goes well and after a full preason wont be behind McNamara, S.Selwood or Davis.

 

[Gunnar Longshanks]

Somthing tells me Jordan Jones will never play forward but he will be a better backman than Hunter is.

Is it the voice that you hear in the shower?

The same one that tells you to keep scrubbing at the invisible dirt?

 

[Azdrubal]

Hard question. Depends on your draft success, so bit hard to know as it's likely not too many of your current list will be around then. Maybe some of your recent drafts, it they're successful, will be still there as senior players

 

[tesseract]

Somthing tells me Jordan Jones will never play forward but he will be a better backman than Hunter is. Strong, Classy and Calm, Jordan Jones will make it if all goes well and after a full preason wont be behind McNamara, S.Selwood or Davis.

You may be correct. I read on a draft report that he is a CHB that likes to run and carry out of defense and attack if possible. He's kicked a few goals I think for Vic Country. I see him similar in height and body shape to Hunter and thought he'd naturally be the most likely candidate to play a similar role. He and Hunter are like all-rounders in cricket, just bloody useful to have if they're quality. To play forward or back.
If JJ got to Hunters level, I'm sure the Eagles would be delighted.

 

[Gunnar Longshanks]

Hard question. Depends on your draft success, so bit hard to know as it's likely not too many of your current list will be around then. Maybe some of your recent drafts, it they're successful, will be still there as senior players

Thanks for clearing that up.

This had not occurred to me previously.

 

[beatlesmith]

Is it the voice that you hear in the shower?

The same one that tells you to keep scrubbing at the invisible dirt?

Gunnar, how is the progress on the book, because that there is some serious lol worthy material.

 

[Masten2McKinley]

That's a good looking team except our forward line. No specialist FP crumber. Hell, every team has 2 of them at least, whereas we don't have anyone close.

Plus i'd like to think the Management will make every effort for Naitanui to become a forward ala Franklin. Waste of talent in ruck.


HF - Lecras - ? (Kennedy) - Swift/Waters
FF - ? (Kerr) - Naitanui - Mckinley

WTF, in the ruck he can be all over the field plus givin our mids first touch of the footy

 

[tesseract]

Somthing tells me Jordan Jones will never play forward but he will be a better backman than Hunter is. Strong, Classy and Calm, Jordan Jones will make it if all goes well and after a full preason wont be behind McNamara, S.Selwood or Davis.

Jordan Jones plays a different role to the 3 you've mentioned above. JJ is 189cm but plays taller than he is. Considering he is around the same height and size of Hunter, do you see JJ eventually playing CHB like he did for Vic Country or just as the 3rd tall on the HBF or BP? Is JJ under sized for CHB?
IMO JJ is fighting for a spot with Ermac, Wilkes, Schofield and Spangher, not the other 3 who play smaller.

 

[Norman Ross]

IMO Pick 36 for Ash was about even money in this draft

He has a few things to work on before he will be AFL level - I can see him going 2 ways in the next 3 years

1. He gets shredded and improves his engine and is best 22 running off half back getting 20+ disposals a game with that pin point right foot.

2. He doesn't get fit, sulks in the WAFL for 3 years and gets traded back to vic metro or is delisted.

Very similar style to Hurn overall, both have a big arse and that long accurate powerful kick but Smith looks more agile, faster and has a greater ability to push forward at this stage (can be very effective as a lead up half forward flanker)

Agree with everthing except this, have you seen Ash, a bit of a rake.

 

[Gunnar Longshanks]

Anyone wanna update?

 

[lewigie]

I can see Schofield being in there. Same with M.Brown and Emac.

 

[Gunnar Longshanks]

I can see Schofield being in there. Same with M.Brown and Emac.

Care to elaborate?

For the record, I will have nothing but contempt for any line-up that doesn't include Q.

 

[Juddy88]

I don't know, but it appears we could possibly be building one of the great backlines.

If only we could get a few more forwards..

 

[lewigie]

Care to elaborate?

I also forgot Spangher. He'll play every position at once.

Uhm.. McKenzie should, at this rate, either take over Glass' role which it seems like Woosha is planning to do, or he'll stay at CHB.

With McKenzie playing as FB, that leaves M.Brown to take CHB. Or if McKenzie takes CHB, he may be groomed into a forward.

I can see Schofield playing in the team for the next 17 rounds and by then he'll be best 22. Hopefully.

EDIT: Q can do whatever the f*ck he wants

 

[The Passenger]

in a nutshell we're a lot better placed to win a flag around 2012-2015 mark, then we were to win in a flag in the 2004-2007 period in comparison to our position in 2001. (i don't think that makes grammatical sense but you get the point).

not only we were crap in 2001 (much like 2008), but the team was quite old; what the hell we were doing recruiting richard taylor, david sierakowski, michael prior, mark merenda, michael collica (was reasonable for us actually) and greg harding to the club for??

but the recruitment of chris judd changed everything for the club.

not only his individual brilliance but i've no doubt he bought a whole new confidence to the likes of Andrew Embley, Adam Hunter, Darren Glass and Michael Gardiner (unfortunately never fully recovered from injury in late 2003). These guys had all been in the system a few years (more for Gardy) and were still 50/50 prospects to be playing on a week-by-week basis (except for gardy but he had no competition in the ruck). Seeing some young buck come in a basically considered in our best 6 players within his first half-season in the AFL no doubt gave some guys the kick up the arse they needed.

The other thing we couldn't expect in 2001 was Dean Cox to develop into the games best ruckmen, and probably in the best 4 or 5 of all-time.

our list of under 23's in 2001 consisted of; callum chambers, ben cousins, dean cox, andrew embley, travis gaspar, michael gardiner, darren glass, rowan jones, daniel kerr, andrew williams, david wirrpanda, josh wooden, andrew mcdougall, kane munro, chad fletcher, david haynes, adam hunter, jeremy humm and kasey green. brandon hill, michael o'brien and joel duckworth were drafted in 1998 and probably on our list in 2001 but never played so no sure.... i can't find any others??

cousins was already an elite player by the stage, but aside from him and kerr if you think back to 2001 there wasn't a lot to be optimistic about that bunch really. there was high hopes for mcdougall but a lot had their doubts from day one whilst we thought gardiner was just going to be inconsistent for his entire career (which was true except for rounds 1-16 in 2003)...

we definately didn't expect Hunter, Cox, Glass, Embley to turn our as good as they were, whilst wirra has also turned out to be a gem. but outside of those 7 (5 just mentioned, cousins and kerr) none of the rest did anything of real note.

there wasn't a hole lot of depth to that group, with only Fletcher (who played two good seasons and a number of indifferent ones) and rojo offering much...

basically when you compare that lot to our current group i think the current group has a lot more even spread of talent, but i don't know if we have the guys with the ability to domiante games like Cousins, Kerr, Cox, Embley have done. but then thinking back to 2001 we would've thought at the time only cousins and kerr were going to become elite from that group.

current list of under 23's: mitch brown, mark lecras, beau waters, nick nataniu, scott selwood, jamie mcnamara, chris masten, tom swift, eric mackenzie, josh kennedy, brad ebert, tim houlihan, luke schuey, matt rosa, shannon hurn, ben mckinley, ashley smith, matt spangher, will schofield, jordan jones, tony notte, ryan davison (plus rookies).

that's 22 youngsters, and even without the benefit of hindsight, i think that group is much better placed than our youngsters were in 2001 to deliver a premiership.

what i'm struggling to see unfortunately, is where our absolute elite players are going to come from that group. but if you think back to 2001 i don't think too many people predicted those 21 guys would produce 7 (or more if you include gardy and fletch prior to the grand final years) guys who could play at or close to all-australian level. also throw in the recruitment of Judd....

from our current group i think there are at least 16 or 17 who are AFL level footballers, which is far more than there were amongst our youngsters in 2001. as it turned out only 10 of those guys were AFL level footballers, but i think at the time in 2001 we probably thought even less would be (Embers and Hunter two guys who were very close to finding themselves on the scrap heap i'd say).

what's hard for woosha and our match committee is settling on these young guys because there is so little seperating the fifth best from the fifteenth best. in fact there's probably nothing.

for that reason it's near impossible to work out which exactly of the young guys will be the guys that are going to be pushing for a premiership. obviously we have very high hopes for NickNat, Mitch Brown and Chris Masten but it'll be a while before we know if they get there.

when 2012 hits, we will need the experienced guys like Cox (31), Kerr (29), Embley (31), Glass (31) and Brett Jones (30) to still be playing at their peak or close to, which IMO is all australian form (or close to in the case of Jones).

If they can keep going, then i've no doubt we'll get enough support from these youngsters. I really think Brown, LeCras, MacKenzie, Ebert, Hurn and McKinley are capable of progressing into elite players in this competition. Whilst i'm going to have to see more of Masten and i'll reserve comment on NickNat till he plays. As said there is also a lot of depth in that group of youngsters, which is crucial in the competition these days.

throw these guys in with Selwood (whom i think is taking that first step this year to becoming an elite player), Waters, Lynch and maybe even Staker and Rosa, not too mention who knows who we'll recruit in the coming seasons and i really think we have a reason to be excited.

at least i'm a lot more excited about the club's future now than i was 2001

 

[Gunnar Longshanks]

when 2012 hits, we will need the experienced guys like Cox (31), Kerr (29), Embley (31), Glass (31) and Brett Jones (30) to still be playing at their peak or close to, which IMO is all australian form (or close to in the case of Jones).

Do you reckon Embley will last that long?

 

[bodazoka]

When a player gets to around the 30 mark they start becoming impact players off the bench to come on for 50-70% game time and help the players in the 25 bracket have a rest. In a developing team when you dont have those 30+ year olds doing that you use the kids to come on for that game time and have an impact.

The older guys are used to settle the game down, provide support and experience in the line up.

The younger guys are used for speed and excitement, to unsettle the opp coaches match ups because they dont know how the kid plays and what he is capable off, and to provide support to the 25's.

Out of that above list though Glass should play allot of game time, but his role will change to basically what Brown does atm. Kerr should still be around his peak playing allot of game time doing what he does now. I rekon Cox will be starting to slow, Naita/Sullivan will start to take the majority of ruck duties and Cox will spend more time forward/bench rather than running around the field.

Embley and Jones might not be with us by then.. they are still young enough to have an impact but depending on how the kids come on they might just be over taken in their positions. If they are still around I would not be expecting them to have AA seasons.. just to be solid week in week out contributers.

At the start of season 2012 Masten, Ebert, Brown, S.Selwood, Davis, Naita, Cockie, Notte, Swift, Shuey, Smith ect... should all be around the 20-21 age and the first 6 would of played over 50 games (some well over) while the best of the rest would be either best 22 or seriously pushing for selection.

 

[beatlesmith]

B: Scooter, Mackenzie, Schofield
HB: Hurn, Brown, A.Selwood
C: Smith, Masten, Lynch
HF: Waters, Kennedy, Ebert
F: Naitanui, Notte, Lecras

R: Cox, Kerr, Swift
INT: Shuey, Mckinley, Butler, Cockie/Davis

Brown swings forward, schofield covers at CHB
When Brown swings forward to CHF, Kennedy is either rested or moved to FF with Notte rested
Old cox to be rested, with Naitanui going in to the ruck and mckinley replacing him up forward.
Selwood, Hurn, Smith and Waters to interchange between HB, Wing and HF.
Lynch to play richo esque role on a more permanent basis.
Kerr, in his older age, to rest forward more often, using his evasive skills as a crumber, replaced in ruck by inside specialist shuey
Notte and Naitanui to swing back when required.
Interchange between Hurn, Lynch and Smith as designated set play kicker when required; keeps them guessing
Selwood, Waters and Schofield to be designated taggers.

 

[Tyberious Funk]

when 2012 hits, we will need the experienced guys like Cox (31), Kerr (29), Embley (31), Glass (31) and Brett Jones (30) to still be playing at their peak or close to, which IMO is all australian form (or close to in the case of Jones).

How many Eagles have played into their 30s? The travel has too big an impact. I think it's unlikely all those guys will make it

 

[Brazen]

In 3 years after a cpl of kids return home to be part of what will be known as the "Naitanui Era"...

Davis (22) Glass (30) Schofield (23)
Hurn (24) Mackenzie (23) Shuey (21)
Rich (21) A Selwood (27) Ebert (21)
LeCras (25) Kennedy (24) Yarran (21)
McKinley (24) Brown (23) Notte (22)
Naitanui (21) Kerr (28) Swift (21)
Int: Cox (30) Masten (22) Lynch (23) Butler (26)

 

[NYJetsfor2029]

Schofield - Glass - Davis
ASelwood - MacKenzie - Hurn
Ebert - Masten - Butler
LeCras - Brown - Kennedy
Kerr - Notte - McKinley

Naitanui - Swift - Shuey

Cox - Lynch - SSelwood - Matera

 

[keviewiggle]

IMO Pick 36 for Ash was about even money in this draft

He has a few things to work on before he will be AFL level - I can see him going 2 ways in the next 3 years

1. He gets shredded and improves his engine and is best 22 running off half back getting 20+ disposals a game with that pin point right foot.

2. He doesn't get fit, sulks in the WAFL for 3 years and gets traded back to vic metro or is delisted.

Very similar style to Hurn overall, both have a big arse and that long accurate powerful kick but Smith looks more agile, faster and has a greater ability to push forward at this stage (can be very effective as a lead up half forward flanker)

I have heard him refered to as a David King type player.
I'd be happy with that.