- Aug 10, 2005
- 46,545
- 42,487
- AFL Club
- Brisbane Lions
This has been raised a fair bit, but I reckon it's hard to develop in a increasingly young side and fighting to survive matches.
Which players?
Green? out of sorts and injured, has only played half a season this year, but even those games on average, the last 3 years are miles better than the first 3.
Mayes? Had a down year last year, (second year blues in his third year). Learning a new position, he has now performing as well or better than before.
Close? Had a year off and is still performing better than his first.
I hope we're not looking at guys like McGrath, Watts, McGuiness, or even Beams as development failures. The poor bastards haven't been fit enough, long enough to develop a blister, let alone a game. Are people looking at standouts at other clubs to make development judgements? Look how well Bontempelli has come along. Yeah, the guy who beat him for the rising star hasn't progressed, but again, trying to get better in a team that was getting worse is probably a tough ask.
Just not sure where people expected to see leaps and bounds.
Then we're screwed.
There's also Paparone, Taylor, Robertson, Freeman and Paine all stalling or not coming along as quickly as we'd like.
The only development success stories we're seeing are Cutler and Mayes arguably although I think both have been dropped this season IIRC.