Team Mgmt. Makeup of our team II - Strengths & deficiencies, player development

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A rough draft of what I think Brad sends out round 1 2025.

Kinda assuming Shiel moves on to another club. Structurally a small forward such as Kako makes sense over Stringer/Wright but 🤷🏻‍♂️

B McGrath - McKay - Ridley
HB Redman - Reid - Roberts
C Duursma - Durham - Jones
HF Martin - Wright - Gresham
F Stringer - Caddy - Langford
R Draper - Merrett - Caldwell
Int. Parish - Cox - Hobbs - Bryan
Sub Perkins
 
Lots of discussion on Menzie and his contract but it highlights an issue with the list. Menzie and Laverde get games because they go at the contest 100%. Has been the same for Kelly in the past. Problem we have is we need to get past these guy's but in general we are a soft side so it has been hard to get past them.
If the Davey boys showed as much effort and attacked the football as much as Menzie then maybe he does not get another year.
 
Not much point in the coach insisting on hard, contested footy and then not giving games to the handful who actually go out there and do it
 
Speaks volumes of where the list is at when there's no all australians selected and one guy who made the squad who might be a bit unlucky.
 
Old Campaigner said:
Speaks volumes of where the list is at when there's no all australians selected and one guy who made the squad who might be a bit unlucky.
Click to expand...
That is my argument with people who want to just line up the low hanging fruit but do not realise the top end is an issue as well. How many stood with me two years ago when
I said trade Parish for a top 10 pick?
 
rumply posted this elsewhere but I think some of the other stuff Sanderson said is interesting around building our endurance and resilience, within games and across seasons. He mentioned anxiety as being a potential issue.

Also identified some interesting questions about how the list is set up, leadership in terms of players who support Merrett to lead us towards mental toughness and goal alignment.

And then some questions about talent development which is interesting too.

I think his general observations are right although some of the actual list management stuff was suggesting things we had already done, so would have been good to acknowledge that and note whether it needs strengthening or just a waiting game.

In particular deficiencies in terms of more medium/small forward power (including mids that go forward or whatever), we’ve been too tall at times this year but also need another key forward (he mentions Wright but doesn’t mention Caddy?). And then also talking about whether our defence needs overhauling, but doesn’t mention what we’ve actually got there already.

I’d like to hear his take on what our strengths are and whether they’re actually a good fit… Is it injuries and such, do we need depth or a better injury prevention program?

 
Old Campaigner said:
Speaks volumes of where the list is at when there's no all australians selected and one guy who made the squad who might be a bit unlucky.
Click to expand...
Yeah it is depressing every year when we struggle to even get players in the AA squad.
There are players in our team that i was hoping to be AA by now. Redman (2023 AA Squad), Langford (2023 AA Squad) and Ridley (2020 AA Squad). It doesn't take much to turn it around. If you look at some of the names this season and there are plenty that you wouldn't have imagined getting in the AA team.
In the end the reason our guys don't get in this team is because of their inconsistency's.
All you need is your core players to lift at the same time and who knows what the future holds.
 
ant555 said:
That is my argument with people who want to just line up the low hanging fruit but do not realise the top end is an issue as well. How many stood with me two years ago when
I said trade Parish for a top 10 pick?
Click to expand...

You certainly weren't alone there.
 

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MattyB3150 said:
Yeah it is depressing every year when we struggle to even get players in the AA squad.
There are players in our team that i was hoping to be AA by now. Redman (2023 AA Squad), Langford (2023 AA Squad) and Ridley (2020 AA Squad). It doesn't take much to turn it around. If you look at some of the names this season and there are plenty that you wouldn't have imagined getting in the AA team.
In the end the reason our guys don't get in this team is because of their inconsistency's.
All you need is your core players to lift at the same time and who knows what the future holds.
Click to expand...
Decent players who had a good year rather than guys consistently shooting the lights out. When that’s your upper echelon it’s a sign the list is not great
 
Old Campaigner said:
Decent players who had a good year rather than guys consistently shooting the lights out. When that’s your upper echelon it’s a sign the list is not great
Click to expand...
I guess you can look at it many ways. We have had plenty of guys make the All Australian team after leaving Essendon.
Saad, Ryder, Hibberd all won it in the 1st years at new clubs from memory. Then you have guys like Richards and Hoili also got AA who left Essendon.
 
Anyone else find it weird how our players are somehow smaller than other teams. Like Archie Roberts, Jye Caldwell, Matt Guelfi and Ben Hobbs are all roughly the same height as players like Zach Guthrie and Lawson Humphries. Yet I'd rarely expect our guys to be as aerially competitive as the Geelong guys are consistently.

What is that? Limb length? Running capability so they're are closing the distance more and jumping from closer in? Pressure on the ball carrier so they can read the drop zone better?
 
Red Black and Blue said:
Anyone else find it weird how our players are somehow smaller than other teams. Like Archie Roberts, Jye Caldwell, Matt Guelfi and Ben Hobbs are all roughly the same height as players like Zach Guthrie and Lawson Humphries. Yet I'd rarely expect our guys to be as aerially competitive as the Geelong guys are consistently.

What is that? Limb length? Running capability so they're are closing the distance more and jumping from closer in? Pressure on the ball carrier so they can read the drop zone better?
Click to expand...

Guelfi is decent overhead for his size, so is Durham. Probably a little athleticism, a little read of the play?

Ridley for example; is tall, long-limbed, athletic and has a very good read of the ball in flight = elite overhead mark.
 
So moving from backline to forwardline I want. In brackets I have included who on our list could potentially be these players right now if we forgot about talent and just put players in their right roles.

1x Lockdown KPD (McKay)
2x Intercepting players (Reid and Ridley)
1x Unaccountable offensive kicker. (Redman)
1x Lockdown small defender (McGrath)
1x Lockdown mid sized defender (???)

1x Fulltime Ruck (Bryan)
1x Clearance midfielder (Caldwell)
1x Burst midfielder (Durham)
1x Big bodied defensive midfielder (Setterfield or ??? if he is delisted)
2x Gut running wingers with foot skills (Martin and Duursma)

1x Crash packs/Second Ruck (Draper)
1x Push up the ground outlet KPF (Caddy)
1x Mobile third tall (Langford)
1x High half forward who pushes up the ground (Gresham)
2x Pressure forwards (Davey Jr and Guelfi)

On the Interchange I want

2x Midfielders (Merrett and Tsatas)
1x Backline halfback (Roberts)
1x High half forward/wing (Perkins)

Sub: 1x player with immediate attribute (speed/goal kicking/intercept marking/etc.)

(From who is left the sub would most likely be El-Hawli, Stringer, Shiel or Jones)

Pretty grim and we have nobody to play that lockdown role on mid sized players at all and no big bodied defensive focused midfielder.
 
Bit of talk about defensive running patterns from midfielders etc.

We were 'ok' with getting our hands on the ball, I thought our biggest weakness was allowing teams to transition the ball from one end of the ground to the other? Locking the ball in our half essentially.

Im not discounting having a fit Guelfi and young Kako coming in and changing the dynamic of our forward group almost immediately. Stringer for all his short comings is a very good pressure layer. The lack there of lies with the walls. Wright, Caddy and Draper/Bryan moving forward.



Adding the dynamic smalls changes a lot imho
 
Yoda_ said:
Bit of talk about defensive running patterns from midfielders etc.

We were 'ok' with getting our hands on the ball, I thought our biggest weakness was allowing teams to transition the ball from one end of the ground to the other? Locking the ball in our half essentially.

Im not discounting having a fit Guelfi and young Kako coming in and changing the dynamic of our forward group almost immediately. Stringer for all his short comings is a very good pressure layer. The lack there of lies with the walls. Wright, Caddy and Draper/Bryan moving forward.



Adding the dynamic smalls changes a lot imho
Click to expand...
Welcome aboard. How long have I been saying the the lack of pace in the forward half has been killing us ?
Stringer is very hit and miss with his forward pressure.
 
Yoda_ said:
to be fair, its the defensive pressure ive wanted. Not necessarily pace although pressure = pace
Click to expand...
Lack of speed = no defensive pressure when you multiply it x 6.
It has been rather obvious for a while. Our team defense has not only been because of some in the midfield being ball watchers or poor at defensive transition. The overall lack of speed in the forward half stops us from defending the overlap run. It is the overlap run that allows the end to end transition.
 
ant555 said:
Lack of speed = no defensive pressure when you multiply it x 6.
It has been rather obvious for a while. Our team defense has not only been because of some in the midfield being ball watchers or poor at defensive transition. The overall lack of speed in the forward half stops us from defending the overlap run. It is the overlap run that allows the end to end transition.
Click to expand...
my gripe for bringing in small fwds is the over saturation in one position it creates. If rumours Jayden is let go on top of Tex moved on means two spots are possibly created. Kako (small) and maybe a mid sized fwd who may end up further would be my ideal scenario. Add El=Achkar next year and the group looks as dynamic, albeit more physically ready
 
Yoda_ said:
my gripe for bringing in small fwds is the over saturation in one position it creates. If rumours Jayden is let go on top of Tex moved on means two spots are possibly created. Kako (small) and maybe a mid sized fwd who may end up further would be my ideal scenario. Add El=Achkar next year and the group looks as dynamic, albeit more physically ready
Click to expand...
If you do not fix the current issues then you go nowhere. You can not have a bunch of slow small forwards. The fact we have a fe of them is the issue. If you want to stop end to end transition then you need to inject some speed into two of the spots.
The over proliferation argument is a nothing argument as it changes every year.
We get killed on defensive transition because the current group of forwards are too slow and the Davey boys have to prove the want to make some tackles and compete a bit more.
Last year the argument was we had too many KPD.
It is swings and roundabouts.
We need a FF for sure but we need a speed upgrade in the small forward department and we need some speed and foot skill in the medium half back department.
The FF rates third on my list for that right now.
We need to be able to move the footy and defend the footy better.
 
Last edited:
Something else that has really stood ut to me over the years is we have pigeon holed our selections.

Our 'small' forwards, are just that. Small. Lohman (185cm), Cameron (180cm), Zac Bailey (182cm) and even the extras, Ah Chee (183cm) and Morris (193cm) are all BIG dudes. They play small to mediums. Feel this is true across the board with our list management. Our "Big" bodies are still in comparison to our opposition and when said player does not work out in preferred position, they are almost always behind the 8 ball to make it in other roles.

I know the argument on big bodied midfielder is old and stale but wouldn't mind us taking a genuine key forward. Someone that is 198cm (as much as I love what Caddy could become), I would dearly love another Langford (188cm+ medium marking forward) who could potentially push further up the ground in the future. A half back of decent size would be nice but not the be all and end all. Roberts and Lual building nicely.

Having Kako (175cm) is still small and dynamic, but we dont have any genuine small pressure forwards so happy to give him a mulligan.
 

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Team Mgmt. Makeup of our team II - Strengths & deficiencies, player development

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