Review Season in review 2022

[Mighty Lions]

I don't quite agree. Who are the 'so many' that have another level to go. We were saying that in 2019. Dev Wilmot and Lohman are promising sure . Are they going to be very good players .Who knows.

Not saying you're wrong but the evidence isn't compelling.

The evidence is pretty simple really. The peak years of an AFL players career are between 26-29 on average. Most of our emerging players who are younger than 26 years old are those who have significant improvement to come. Andrews, McCluggage, Berry, Wilmot, Rayner, Hipwood, Robertson, Bailey, Payne, Ah Chee, Coleman, Prior, Fullerton, Sharp, Answerth, Lohman just off the top of my head.
The future looks bright.
The thing a lot of supporters miss is how difficult a flag is to win. Demons had all their planets align last year and they got the ultimate reward. Geelong look to be in the box seat this year but you talk to their supporters and its been 11 hard years to get where they are now and still no guarantees.
The club is in a good spot and will be in the mix for the 2023 flag 100%. With a bit of luck and everything coming together at the right time, we will give it a good shake.

 

[Nuggo]

Boys don't win premiership. Battle hardened, big, skilled men win premierships. Geelong have shown this by making the GF though their strategy could have backfired due to regular injuries that occur to older players.

We are on the right track. Maturing and developing our skilled players that we have drafted and topping up with B+ or better players that meet the criteria above.

It will happen if we keep a good culture and stick to the process.

 

[Tom14]

Melbourne ,Swans and Collingwood have come from behind us , one's already won a flag and two have gone past us.

It happens in footy. We're not that far away but to think our current group is any better to theirs doesn't withstand scrutiny.

Collingwood finished 2nd last last year didn't they ?

You've also got Carlton and Freo emerging.

It's not the end of the world and all of those teams are on a par with us now imo.

It seems we have many who are still thinking like it's 2019 and we're on the cusp of some sort of dynasty. It hasn't happened. Some of our supposed champs may never take the next step. If we take stock now and strengthen our list considerably and get whatever improvement and extra strength out of those we have confidence in the chances are we're going to be more than competitive.

Just trying to paint the picture as is ,not the one we're hoping for.

Pies weren't the second worst team last year, just as much as I don't think they were one of the 4 best teams this year. Losing every close game last year made them second last, winning more close games than anyone in history made them finish top 4 this year. Having a percentage of barely over 100 usually has you barely scraping into the 8.

Credit to them, they've taken their chances and have some great big game players, but I wouldn't say the fundamentals are there for a period of sustained success - they'll need a bit of a refresh when Pendles, Sidebottom and Howe retire.

I do find it funny that in what was pretty clearly a bit of a down year for us we did beat the 2 teams in the other prelim during the supposedly 'soft' first 10 weeks of the season.

 

[mattsmob]

I don't quite agree. Who are the 'so many' that have another level to go. We were saying that in 2019. Dev Wilmot and Lohman are promising sure . Are they going to be very good players .Who knows.

Not saying you're wrong but the evidence isn't compelling.

Imo Dev, Wilmot and Lohmann play the style of game we need with their athleticism, run and carry.

I think the way Andrews finished the season was actually pretty good and if he can continue this into next season he’ll be a better player.
Adams was AA and completely dominant to start the season before injury, so was Daniher so I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think those two have another level compared to how they finished the season.
Sticking with defenders I’m not too sure what more Starce can do, maybe a little bit more with ball in hand. Coleman was great but can definitely improve his consistency not just game to game but even throughout a game he can have some pretty poor patches of turning the ball over however that could be put down to having so much weight on his shoulders to make something happen.
I’ve said before that I think McCluggage will be a genuine star in the midfield going forward, adding Dunkley would allow him to be so damaging as a receiver from the contest. Berry has had his first uninterrupted season for quite a while and really came on towards the end of the season. Bailey and Rayner are the two wildcards imo, they both need huge preseasons to help them impact the game for longer periods. Really excited to see what Hipwood can do next season and expect him to really push Daniher as the number 1 key forward for us.

Basically due to age, injury and change in roles I just believe there’s a lot of natural improvement in a lot of players. As always a big preseason is needed and we’ve seen guys go to another level all based on the back of a big preseason. The actual core of our team is still quite young and barely entering their prime now so I just think it’s a bit odd when people say our window is either closing now or we’re out of contention for the next couple seasons and need to reset for 2-4 years down the line. We’ll be in contention next season and will continue to be so for at least the next few years imo.

 

[AFLQLD]

One of the big positives we have is that the task of lifting the club has passed to the next generation sooner rather than later. Rich, Zorko, Gardiner, Robbo, Lyons are now pretty clearly at the end or close to it. Some might still have roles to play but I don’t think anyone really expects them to be the major contributors any more - some cameo performances maybe but they aren’t really our stars and we know it. We don’t depend on them like we used to and we can rebuild on the fly I think. Turning over the list is important, some older stars need to be eased out this year and next. You can just hold on to favourite players too long.

One of the issues for Geelong is that they will need to make the hard decisions soon on many players. They have many now on the wrong side of 30, look like they might get a premiership for them, but the next stage is going to require some major trading or drafting. Rebuilding while staying successful over several years is certainly possible as they have proved, but the next group of ageing players is especially big. They could fall off the cliff quite quickly. After this grand final they might be tempted to do it with the same group one more time which could just make the cliff a little bigger.

Richmond are going through a phase now where their premiership stars are approaching the end and their rebuild, while staying strong has been moderately good so far, but more will come in the next season or two and that will be the big test.

Hawthorn didn’t quite manage a rebuild on the fly but might bounce back quite quickly, it remains to be seen.

West Coast will be an interesting one because they have had to virtually own a full rebuild now. Carlton have been rebuilding for a decade. Collingwood had plenty of the right cattle but butchered their salary cap then had some good drafting and have bounced back.

 

[Dalions]

We ended Melbournes Season.
Gotta be happy about that.

 

[Tom14]

One of the big positives we have is that the task of lifting the club has passed to the next generation sooner rather than later. Rich, Zorko, Gardiner, Robbo, Lyons are now pretty clearly at the end or close to it. Some might still have roles to play but I don’t think anyone really expects them to be the major contributors any more - some cameo performances maybe but they aren’t really our stars and we know it. We don’t depend on them like we used to and we can rebuild on the fly I think. Turning over the list is important, some older stars need to be eased out this year and next. You can just hold on to favourite players too long.

One of the issues for Geelong is that they will need to make the hard decisions soon on many players. They have many now on the wrong side of 30, look like they might get a premiership for them, but the next stage is going to require some major trading or drafting. Rebuilding while staying successful over several years is certainly possible as they have proved, but the next group of ageing players is especially big. They could fall off the cliff quite quickly. After this grand final they might be tempted to do it with the same group one more time which could just make the cliff a little bigger.

Richmond are going through a phase now where their premiership stars are approaching the end and their rebuild, while staying strong has been moderately good so far, but more will come in the next season or two and that will be the big test.

Hawthorn didn’t quite manage a rebuild on the fly but might bounce back quite quickly, it remains to be seen.

West Coast will be an interesting one because they have had to virtually own a full rebuild now. Carlton have been rebuilding for a decade. Collingwood had plenty of the right cattle but butchered their salary cap then had some good drafting and have bounced back.

Seems like I'm pretty alone on this but I still think Dizzy is worth retaining. Played his best 3 games of the year the last 3 weeks.

If we could bring in a genuine athletic intercepting tall back who can use the footy, I'd be happy to let him go - but clearly that's not on the cards this year if Dunkley requests a trade to us. Probably an area we need to target a free agent at some point noting our draft picks will be tied up the next few years with bids and potential deficits.

 

[Section 5]

Overall the 2022 season ended in a top 4 finish so pretty good result
I doubt many thought we would achieve this after our round 17 loss the the Bombers

We finished the season with only 1 best 22 player missing. Being through concussion issues
After the PF you can add Rayner to the list and i assume Joe will have some surgery on his shoulder
That is not to bad going into the offseason

I think we have enough forwards, forward/rucks and rucks on our list to get by in 2023
If Dunkley comes that hopefully solves our pure midfield issue

In my opinion we need to find a winger that can rack up possessions and deliver well to our forwards
Maybe Ashcroft can fill that position
Not sure who gets the other wing spot as this position was a problem for us in 2022
Ah Chee just does not get enough of the ball. Last 5 game disposals 6, 7, 10, 8
Answerth 10 disposal thrown in because they thought he would be better than Prior & Robbo

Irrespective of whether Gardiner (192cm) stays or goes we need a tallish defenfer that can take intercept marks
Adams is good most times but he is only 192cm and now has concussion issues. Hopefully he fully recovers

In summary a good year but we need to fill some holes
Trade period should be interesting as well as some delistings from our OOC players

 

[martinson]

Imo Dev, Wilmot and Lohmann play the style of game we need with their athleticism, run and carry.

I think the way Andrews finished the season was actually pretty good and if he can continue this into next season he’ll be a better player.
Adams was AA and completely dominant to start the season before injury, so was Daniher so I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think those two have another level compared to how they finished the season.
Sticking with defenders I’m not too sure what more Starce can do, maybe a little bit more with ball in hand. Coleman was great but can definitely improve his consistency not just game to game but even throughout a game he can have some pretty poor patches of turning the ball over however that could be put down to having so much weight on his shoulders to make something happen.
I’ve said before that I think McCluggage will be a genuine star in the midfield going forward, adding Dunkley would allow him to be so damaging as a receiver from the contest. Berry has had his first uninterrupted season for quite a while and really came on towards the end of the season. Bailey and Rayner are the two wildcards imo, they both need huge preseasons to help them impact the game for longer periods. Really excited to see what Hipwood can do next season and expect him to really push Daniher as the number 1 key forward for us.

Basically due to age, injury and change in roles I just believe there’s a lot of natural improvement in a lot of players. As always a big preseason is needed and we’ve seen guys go to another level all based on the back of a big preseason. The actual core of our team is still quite young and barely entering their prime now so I just think it’s a bit odd when people say our window is either closing now or we’re out of contention for the next couple seasons and need to reset for 2-4 years down the line. We’ll be in contention next season and will continue to be so for at least the next few years imo.

I'm not disagreeing with you in essence Mattsmob . I just think that to expect the improvement you're outlining in all of our players is an unreasonable expectation. Some could have peaked believe it or not . Some mightn't be as good as we think they are. Some might get struck down with injury.

I'm hopefully but not exceedingly bullish. If we recruit well and say 70% of what you're expecting goes to plan then we'll put a good team on the park.

 

[mattsmob]

I'm not disagreeing with you in essence Mattsmob . I just think that to expect the improvement you're outlining in all of our players is an unreasonable expectation. Some could have peaked believe it or not . Some mightn't be as good as we think they are. Some might get struck down with injury.

I'm hopefully but not exceedingly bullish. If we recruit well and say 70% of what you're expecting goes to plan then we'll put a good team on the park.

It’s a slippery slope when we start discussing whether guys can improve or not because you could say that about any team in the competition. Maybe I should say I believe our list has more theoretical improvement than most others.

 

[martinson]

Seems like I'm pretty alone on this but I still think Dizzy is worth retaining. Played his best 3 games of the year the last 3 weeks.

If we could bring in a genuine athletic intercepting tall back who can use the footy, I'd be happy to let him go - but clearly that's not on the cards this year if Dunkley requests a trade to us. Probably an area we need to target a free agent at some point noting our draft picks will be tied up the next few years with bids and potential deficits.

If we were confident Dizz was going to stay relatively injury free I'm with you. We need a strong lockdown defender. He's had a good game in all 3 matches so can handle the heat. His body worries me.

Don't know what was wrong with Starc last night. Wasn't running with much freedom and uncharacteristically slow with ball in hand. Answerth, well he couldn't do anything right,

 

[martinson]

It’s a slippery slope when we start discussing whether guys can improve or not because you could say that about any team in the competition. Maybe I should say I believe our list has more theoretical improvement than most others.

Absolutely .I've seen more apparent future guns never amount to much than I've had hot dinners so tend to believe it when I see it.

But nothing wrong with being bullish. It's the future. You could be right. It was kinda funny that nearly everyone gave us not much hope against the Tigers and the Demons and then all of a sudden thought we had a good shot at the flag when in reality we were miles off. Recency bias is often compelling. Maybe I'm erring a little too much on the pessimistic side.

 

[vic_LION]

Have a quick glance back at last years results… Geelong lost the prelim by 83 points…. The changes they made were limited… added a couple of players which is what we are doing. Natural growth and we are not far off at all!

While Port fell dramatically off at the start of this year after a similar scale prelim defeat. Anything can happen

 

[martinson]

Overall the 2022 season ended in a top 4 finish so pretty good result
I doubt many thought we would achieve this after our round 17 loss the the Bombers

We finished the season with only 1 best 22 player missing. Being through concussion issues
After the PF you can add Rayner to the list and i assume Joe will have some surgery on his shoulder
That is not to bad going into the offseason

I think we have enough forwards, forward/rucks and rucks on our list to get by in 2023
If Dunkley comes that hopefully solves our pure midfield issue

In my opinion we need to find a winger that can rack up possessions and deliver well to our forwards
Maybe Ashcroft can fill that position
Not sure who gets the other wing spot as this position was a problem for us in 2022
Ah Chee just does not get enough of the ball. Last 5 game disposals 6, 7, 10, 8
Answerth 10 disposal thrown in because they thought he would be better than Prior & Robbo

Irrespective of whether Gardiner (192cm) stays or goes we need a tallish defenfer that can take intercept marks
Adams is good most times but he is only 192cm and now has concussion issues. Hopefully he fully recovers

In summary a good year but we need to fill some holes
Trade period should be interesting as well as some delistings from our OOC players

Answerth and Ah Chee had half lockdown roles on the wings against Melbourne and it helped us win the game. Against Geelong it was glaringly obvious we need an attacking winger who could turn the game . Someone with real pace. They don't grow on trees. How Geelong has resurrected Isaac Smith has me baffled . They get all these old guys who seem to be able to play out of their skins. We're talking of retiring our guys in the 32-35 age bracket.

 

[Section 5]

Answerth and Ah Chee had half lockdown roles on the wings against Melbourne and it helped us win the game. Against Geelong it was glaringly obvious we need an attacking winger who could turn the game . Someone with real pace. They don't grow on trees. How Geelong has resurrected Isaac Smith has me baffled . They get all these old guys who seem to be able to play out of their skins. We're talking of retiring our guys in the 32-35 age bracket.

I am reasonably happy for one of our 3 wings to have a more defensive type gameplan
But not both wings.

McCluggage and Robbo were a great combo a few years ago
When Robbo was at his best a few years ago he did this well. But he also racked up possessions
His disposal under pressure was not great but most were long kicks out of our defense area
Probably 60% to opposition 40% to us or neutral. But they were never short kicks
However his marking deep in defense was great. His delivery from marks was usually fine

In the Melbourne game Answerth and Ah Chee minded Langdon and Harmes
They may have curtailed them to some degree but both played solid games for the Dees

 

[kylegee28]

If you told me at the start of the year that we'd make a Prelim Final after finishing 6th, beat the Tigers by 2 points in an Elimination Final and the reigning premiers in the Semi - I would've been jumping for joy. Throw the #1 Draft Pick on top and it's been a ****ing great year

 

[briztoon]

The dees also finished second last in 2019…. It doesn’t take much to have an off year! Could have easily been us but this group is extremely resilient!

All I am saying is I completely disagree with what you are saying and we are not that far off…. Clug, hippy and Bez 24… Rayner, Starc and Bailey 22… kiddy, Wilmot, dev all coming through! There is plenty… plenty to look forward to!

Those ages are incorrect.

Next year will be Hipwood, Ah Chee and Mathieson’s 8th season, that makes them 26 some time next year (no, I’m not going to go and look up their d.o.b).

JBerry & McCluggage’s 7th season, so they’ll be 25.

Rayner, Bailey and Starcevich 6th season, so they’ll be 24.

Coleman 23, Robertson and Prior 22.

But yes, you would hope we still have growth left in all those players. And that will contribute to improvement of the team.

 

[briztoon]

You talk like it's so easy to win a flag and so easy to identify weakness's in our club.

Definitely not easy to win a flag.

Lots of posters here have identified weaknesses in our club.

Some are more vocal than others and keep on about what they see. Others might just mention it once or twice, so their comments don’t get remembered.

There’s a lot of people hurting after last night (yes, no one more so than the players), but we got beat by what we know. We got beat by Danger being Danger, by Geelong’s defensive structure, our own lack of run, lack of composure, lack of size in our midfield, and lack of support for Neale.

These are all areas that have been commented on for a couple of seasons now.

Not all can be remedied at once, but there were elements that should have been planned for, that didn’t look like they were, and potential in game changes didn’t happen.

 

[briztoon]

We ended Melbournes Season.
Gotta be happy about that.

Nope.

 

[Dalions]

Nope.

You would have preferred we lost to Melbourne?
So we get a higher draft pick for matching purposes?

 

[Pride of lions]

Unfortunately Ellis-Yolmen and Cockatoo haven’t worked out as the bigger midfielder that we have been looking for over the last few years. Then Rayner’s ACL and the drop off in form of Lyons due to injury and fitness issues meant we were way too reliant on Neale this year. It speaks volumes to his mental and physical abilities that he actually managed to play so well over the whole season when he had so little support. Amazing effort.

 

[briztoon]

You would have preferred we lost to Melbourne?
So we get a higher draft pick for matching purposes?

Honestly, my hope coming in to the season was making the grand final. Anything less just felt like an underachievement.

 

[martinson]

Unfortunately Ellis-Yolmen and Cockatoo haven’t worked out as the bigger midfielder that we have been looking for over the last few years. Then Rayner’s ACL and the drop off in form of Lyons due to injury and fitness issues meant we were way too reliant on Neale this year. It speaks volumes to his mental and physical abilities that he actually managed to play so well over the whole season when he had so little support. Amazing effort.

To be fair to our planning we obviously recognised the problem bringing in CEY and Nakia.

Unfortunately neither were remotely up to the task.

So now we up the stakes to Dunkley which is a smarter if far more expensive move.

I'd love to see an enforcer in our M/F . Neale has to do all the bullocking work as well as the spread , carry and finishing.

 

[Tom14]

Honestly, my hope coming in to the season was making the grand final. Anything less just felt like an underachievement.

I don’t see how this is consistent with what I understand your view of the list has been for quite some time.

Good reason to be disappointed with this season in some respects, having the view that grand final is the minimum is a recipe to be disappointed.

 

[Morbidly_Obese]