The 2022 Season Review

[DJ75]

With the AFL season over, it's time to look back on the year and have a somewhat logical think about how it has gone.

So, I'd like to suggest the following be used as a template for our discussion.

1. Players that have performed above the level expected

2. Players that have demonstrated significant improvement

3. Players that have performed as expected

4. Players that have regressed

5. Players that are done and will be gone soon

6. Best team performances

7. Worst team performances

8. Coaching performance overall

9. Administration performance (Silvers, Olsen etc...)

10. Biggest issue for the club moving forwards

11. Did the club meet, fall short, or exceed your expectations for the year

12. What are your expectations for the club in 2023


Please copy and past these headings in to your response and then lets have at it!

 

[Rabman]

1. Players that have performed above the level expected

Tex, Worrell, Dawson, McAdam, Rachele,

2. Players that have demonstrated significant improvement

Berry, Fogarty, Soligio

3. Players that have performed as expected

Laird, O'Brien, Thilthorpe

4. Players that have regressed

Smith, Keys, Doedee, Butts, Jones, Schoenberg, Sholl, Mchenry, Milera

5. Players that are done and will be gone soon

Rowe, Murphy, Davis, Frampton

6. Best team performances

Bulldogs in Ballarat, 1st showdown.

7. Worst team performances:

Last Showdown, GWS, Gold Coast.

8. Coaching performance overall

Underperformed. Seems to continue to be beaten by what he knows. Not proactive enough on game day.

9. Administration performance (Silvers, Olsen etc...)

Meh, nothing inspiring. Need to get our new home base sorted, should be their priority.

10. Biggest issue for the club moving forwards:

Getting the fans back, our attendances have fallen off a cliff.

11. Did the club meet, fall short, or exceed your expectations for the year:

Expected 10 wins, fell short of expectations, not enough improvement in the young players. Not competitive enough against the top teams.

12. What are your expectations for the club in 2023:

10 Wins minimum, pushing the 8.

 

[Scorpus]

11. Did the club meet, fall short, or exceed your expectations for the year


For me the club met expectations because I expected us to stagnate and come close to bottom 4 again.

12. What are your expectations for the club in 2023

To finish outside the bottom 4 but still well short of finals

 

[BACCS]

1. Players that have performed above the level expected
Tex, Laird, Fog, Dawson

2. Players that have demonstrated significant improvement
Berry, Soligo, Rachele, Hinge, RT, Worrell, Taylor, Parnell, Gollant

3. Players that have performed as expected
ROB, Murray, Keays, Chayce, Ned, Murphy, Smith, Berg, Butts, Strachan, Frampton, Sholl, Hately

4. Players that have regressed
Doedee, Schoenberg, Milera, Pedlar, McAsey, Rowe, Crouch, Cook

5. Players that are done and will be gone soon
Davis, Crouch, Frampton

6. Best team performances
1st Showdown, Richmond, Bulldogs, Carlton, Eagles

7. Worst team performances
GWS, 2nd Showdown

8. Coaching performance overall
Showing more ability in 2nd half of year to be flexible with team structure and adapt on gameday, an improvement on 2021

9. Administration performance (Silvers, Olsen etc...)
Good with the camp situation, except for one board member…

10. Biggest issue for the club moving forwards
Biggest needs are to get Rankine and draft another classy mid to compliment Soligo, Schoenberg, Laird etc. More KPD depth. Stemming momentum and restricting teams from piling on 4-6 goals in a row, killed us in many games even if we won the rest of the game outside of that period.

11. Did the club meet, fall short, or exceed your expectations for the year
Met my expectations. Pushed a number of top 8 sides, were largely in the majority of games.

12. What are your expectations for the club in 2023
Pushing 10-12 wins and nudging the top 8, but won’t be shocked if we miss

 

[Golumless]

My individual ratings (for our kids): Which team out of Adelaide, North and Hawthorn has the better youth?

The only thing I'd change from that is Worrell would now in my good category and probably Hamill in trade bait, seeing I reckon we need to move on one of our defenders in that bottleneck.

6. Best team performances

Carlton at home. To bully a mid-table team like that was very promising.

7. Worst team performances

Port Adelaide in round 22. Looked a team who got sucked into the showdown hype (and Port) and eventually just gave up working hard. A very bitter note to end the season. GWS round 7 is also a contender seeing that game was there for the taking.

8. Coaching performance overall

Probably a B rating from me. Hard to be super critical as we didn't regress despite having a list primed too due to how young it is. We also showed a willingness to move away from senior players as the year went on with Crouch and Brown now on the outer.

9. Administration performance (Silvers, Olsen etc...)

Gets an A from me. This is probably the first year Adelaide hasn't undergone a fresh scandal in about a decade. Congratulations on passing over the lowest of low bars, but that's how little faith I have in Adelaide off-field.

10. Biggest issue for the club moving forwards

Getting more talent into the club and getting older.

11. Did the club meet, fall short, or exceed your expectations for the year

They repeated 2021, which met my expectations, seeing I suspected we over-performed in 2021.

12. What are your expectations for the club in 2023

Mid-table. Approximately 10 wins.

 

[John Who]

As far as rebuilding go, I think the season is on par with a positive trend. However, would this trend guarantee us becoming genuine contenders? Too hard to say still. The next couple of years will be crucial for us to draft and trade right, and making sure we can cover for the pending loss of the veterans in Tex/Sloane/Smith/Seeds/Crouch/Laird in 1-2 years time.

The big positives are that the forward line isn’t as dire as it seemed early during the year, with the breakout season for Fog. Rachele has shown he looks very comfortable up forward, and with the improvements in McAdam and RT.

The midfield isn’t too bad also, although we likely need 1-2 more bigger body mids to be more of a serious threat. Soligo and Berry are a definite positive. Schoenberg looks like he is lifting a gear and hopefully he can make bigger steps next year.

Worrell, Hamill, Murray and Hinge overall looks like they’re capable of being solid contributors down in defense.

Apart from a small number of big losses, most games we were mostly competitive and if we can turn some of the tight losses into wins, I think we could be somewhere around 10-12 wins for next year.

 

[NSolis]

1. Players that have performed above the level expected
Fogarty, Murray, Berry, Soligo, Rachele, McAdam

2. Players that have demonstrated significant improvement
Similar list to above plus the players who are developing at a good but not surprising rate: Thilthorpe, Worrell, Pedlar, Newchurch

3. Players that have performed as expected
Walker, Laird, Keays, Dawson, Himmelberg, Hamill

4. Players that have regressed
Regressed might be too strong a word, but a few players have definitely stagnated when you'd have wanted to see more improvement: Cook, Sholl, McHenry, Hately, Schoenberg, Jones

Actual regression: Doedee, Smith, Milera who have had below par seasons for their ability (only slightly for Smith IMO), and Brown and Crouch who I think are done.

5. Players that are done and will be gone soon
Brown, Crouch, Rowe, Frampton, Davis, Borlase, McAsey, McPherson

6. Best team performances
Dogs win in Ballarat and Carlton win at home.

7. Worst team performances
GWS pretty easily, followed by the second showdown.

8. Coaching performance overall
About par. Squad is developing well and the players are definitely giving their all. None of the issues at other struggling clubs like West Coast, North, GWS and Essendon where players seem to not give a shit half the time. Tactically it's not always great but a bit hard to judge IMO as the squad is still developing and I think there's a plan there. Next year will need to show some improvements in the final product.

9. Administration performance (Silvers, Olsen etc...)
Don't care that much about admin personally.

10. Biggest issue for the club moving forwards
It's easily the quality of ball use. We've got a lot of forward line quality and our competitiveness and contested ball work are good for the age profile of the group. What's not clear at all is if we have the ability to execute well when delivering the ball going forward. There are players in our squad who have the necessary ability like Dawson, Murphy, Taylor, Milera, Hinge, Hamill, Rachele and Soligo, but we will need these guys to have more of the ball on the outside next year to see some improvement in this area.

11. Did the club meet, fall short, or exceed your expectations for the year
About a par result, marginal improvement over last year which isn't too bad given the state of the list, but not a huge success. One positive compared to last year is that we didn't fall off quite so hard at the end of the season, and did have some good post-bye wins.

12. What are your expectations for the club in 2023
Will need to see some improvement over this year, something like 10 wins would be a positive result, give or take depending on injuries.

 

[1990crow]

Serious suggestion. Can we please hire the confidence expert who has been working with Thilthorpe and Fogarty full time for the rest of the squad.

 

[dplggr47]

1. Players that have performed above the level expected
- Worrell, Tex, Soligo, Rachele, Berry, McAdam, Parnell, Dawson, Hinge

2. Players that have demonstrated significant improvement
- Berry, Rachele, Soligo, Worrell, Parnell, Fogarty

3. Players that have performed as expected
- ROB, Murphy, Keays, Laird (solidly consistent)

4. Players that have regressed
- Smithers, Doedee, Sloane, Crouch, Brown, Milera, Scholl, McPherson

5. Players that are done and will be gone soon
- Crouch, Frampton, Davis, Rowe, Brown, McAsey

6. Best team performances
- Carlton and 1st Showdown

7. Worst team performances
- Too many

8. Coaching performance overall
- Meh

9. Administration performance (Silvers, Olsen etc...)
- Meh

10. Biggest issue for the club moving forwards
- Too many poor ball users and below average kicks in the team

11. Did the club meet, fall short, or exceed your expectations for the year
- 8 wins and outside the bottom 4 is only slightly above what I was expecting.

12. What are your expectations for the club in 2023

• somwhere between 7th and 13th (towards the latter is probably more expected)
• improvement in our young players (Soligo, Rachele, Thilthorpe, Cook, Taylor, Pedlar, etc)
• no more scandals (one can only hope)
• another solid year from Tex and Fog

 

[adelaidecrows]

Overall the club gets a D

Not a lot of positives.

Nicks gets a D. Right now, the club would be regretting the decision to extend his contract.

Laird will be B&F, a real standout season in tough conditions.
Soligo is easily best 1st year player.

 

[Bearded Clam]

Overall the club gets a D

Not a lot of positives.

Nicks gets a D. Right now, the club would be regretting the decision to extend his contract.

Laird will be B&F, a real standout season in tough conditions.
Soligo is easily best 1st year player.

Dawson for B&F for mine…

 

[adelaidecrows]

Dawson for B&F for mine…

there were times in Dawsons ultra defensive roll that he was badly outplayed as a defender. in our bad losses i think he will lose ground on Laird. Not Dawsons fault really. He isnt a defender.

 

[jackster83]

1. Players that have performed above the level expected
Walker, Dawson, Fogarty (2nd half of the year), Soligo, Parnell, Rachele, Berry

2. Players that have demonstrated significant improvement
Worrell, Berry, Fogarty, Parnell

3. Players that have performed as expected
Milera (I called him as being done 18 months ago), Laird, Thilthorpe, Hinge, Himmelberg (I didn't expect much), Murray, Hamill, Murphy, Jones (see Himmelberg)

4. Players that have regressed
ROB, Doedee, Crouch, Smith, Sholl, Schoenberg. Butts and Keays in the 2nd half of the season

5. Players that are done and will be gone soon
Sloane, Brown, Seedsman , McPherson, Davis, Rowe, Frampton, McAsey, Turner

6. Best team performances
Second Carlton game

7. Worst team performances
GWS, Gold Coast, Hawthorn games

8. Coaching performance overall
Poor. They've come up with a gameplan to "make it hard to play against us" but unfortunately it also makes it hard to play for us, given our tendency to over use the handball and hack kick the ball forward. Selection continues to be a mess. Forward line is developing okay at least, despite the midfield being bad.

9. Administration performance (Silvers, Olsen etc...)
Uninspiring. The men's team is a joke, re-signing Nicks so early was a moronic decision, the camp issue won't go away, we've still got Roo embarrassing us publicly, and we're seemingly no closer to knowing where our new home base will be (more than a decade after we found out we were moving to AO). How long can they hide behind our AFLW team?

EDIT: upgraded to average following the Thebarton announcement.

10. Biggest issue for the club moving forwards
The midfield. It's the worst in the league. Stop ignoring it at the draft FFS.

11. Did the club meet, fall short, or exceed your expectations for the year
Fell short. I wanted a % in the 90's which we failed to achieve even with an easy draw.

12. What are your expectations for the club in 2023
Basically for us to bomb out, move on Nicks, Hamish, Sloane and a few others. Use the top three pick on a gun midfielder - either through the trade or draft.

 

[CrowsB4hoes]

1. Players that have performed above the level expected

Laird, McAdam, Murray,

2. Players that have demonstrated significant improvement

Soligo, Dawson, Fog, Berry

3. Players that have performed as expected

Anyone not listed at 1, 2 or 4

4. Players that have regressed

Brown, Cook, M Crouch, Doedee, Keays, McHenry, Milera, Rowe, Schoenberg, Sloane, Smith

5. Players that are done and will be gone soon

Brown, M Crouch, McPherson, Rowe, Turner (& Hamill & Seed sadly)

6. Best team performances

Richmond & Carlton (h) & first showdown

7. Worst team performances

GWS, Suns, 2nd Showdown and first half of home game vs North Melbourne

8. Coaching performance overall

C- - mainly due to selections, and an emphasis on tryers rather than footballers. Golden passes to players who are consistently inconsistent and neglecting promising and talented youth. When you have a reserves team performing and winning, and a first team that isn't, there should be more accountability to first team players.

9. Administration performance (Silvers, Olsen etc...)

D- - still homeless. Have a Liberal president and a state and federal election where no support was provided one of the biggest member organisations in South Australia and our generational community development. Still silent on North Adelaide which in a post covid world where money is tight, should definitely be put back on the agenda.

The camp stuff handled well by Silvers, but poorly by Olsen. Do the rest of the board exist? Nothing from those who were on the board at the time and still continue to get their passes to the Adelaide FC Social Club.

10. Biggest issue for the club moving forwards

Explaining how we can be 3 years into a rebuild without one single midfield talent who is considered across the league to be a player of the future. Moving away from the good-little-battler approach and being a football team. Finalising the new HQ dramas in a way that makes all the fuss and delays worthwhile and not settling for second best because we ran out of times and options.

11. Did the club meet, fall short, or exceed your expectations for the year

Fell short. Expected more players to develop and to have some genuine excitement around the group coming through. We have some kids who put their hands up, but thats not even near enough that we'll need that would make these last 3 years worthwhile.

12. What are your expectations for the club in 2023

If we had won that last showdown, I had a dream that at the presser Nicks would have declared "the rebuild is over" and that we're now aiming to play finals. The capitulation put an end to that idea, but I still expect if we are going to recruit Rankine then it means the club thinks its time to look towards finals, and thats then the expectation. If we don't and take pick 5 to the draft, then we are still in the rebuild which is fine.

Expectations are more in line with player development. Fog in top 5 goals for the league. Thilthorpe in the 23 u23 side. Pedlar to become a permanent fixture. Rachele to shake off the first year nerves that started to creep in. Schoenberg to forget his 2022 and develop on the trajectory he ended 2021 on. And the club to work out what the hell it intends to do with McAsey.

 

[Dewy006]

4 wins against the 2 worst sides of the last decade has wallpapered over some enormous cracks. We regressed despite what some of the happy clappers have to say. Just fix the bloody midfield, don’t give up Pick 5 for a Forward Pocket. Spend actual high end draft capital on the most important position on the ground.

 

[Danger in Texas]

1. Players that have performed above the level expected
Laird, Walker, Fogarty, McAdam, Soligo, Murray, Berry

2. Players that have demonstrated significant improvement
Berry, Fogarty, Worrell, McAdam

3. Players that have performed as expected
Dawson, Thilthorpe, Hinge, Himmelberg, Hamill, Hately, Rachele, Frampton

4. Players that have regressed (edit: or stagnated)
Schoenberg, McHenry, Butts, Crouch, Keays, Milera, Smith, Sloane, Brown, Jones, Cook

5. Players that are done and will be gone soon
Brown, Crouch, Rowe, Moose, Seed sadly, Frampton, Davis

6. Best team performances
R20 vs Carlton
R5 vs Richmond
R3 vs Port

7. Worst team performances
R7 vs GWS
R23 vs Port
R17 vs Hawthorn

8. Coaching performance overall
Uninspiring. Still hate the idea of giving a developing side a defensive gameplan, with no real license to consistently use offensive weapons. Selection at times has been a bit all over the place, with very random shuffling (eg Crouch in vs Hawks). Think we need a ball movement and/or skills coach. Midfield structure overall poor, defensive structure baffling at times. Happy with the work done on the forward line

9. Administration performance (Silvers, Olsen etc...)
Eh. Camp issue was handled well by Silvers, but Roo’s comments in the media as someone directly connected to the club continue to paint us in an undesirable light. The Nicks re-signing could still come back to bite us, but I’ll give a little benefit of the doubt here. Don’t really care about anything else

10. Biggest issue for the club moving forwards
Finding and developing A+ grade talent across the ground

11. Did the club meet, fall short, or exceed your expectations for the year
Slightly fell short. Our record turned out to be kind of what I expected, but a lot of stagnant development amongst our youth is obvious cause for concern

12. What are your expectations for the club in 2023
I honestly have no clue, from an overall performance perspective. Depending on our youth’s development curve and our draw, we could go any which way - improve a good amount, be stagnant once again, or regress. That’s the volatility that comes with trying to build your club up from a ground zero rebuild

Individually, I’d hope to see Fog, RT, Schoenberg, Rachele, Soligo, Taylor, Butts, Murray, Worrell, Berry and (if he comes) Rankine continuing to build - can’t afford to have half of these players either regress or stagnate. Three or four players in 22U22 squad would be a good achievement, with a couple in the 22

Oh, and Dawson for captain

 

[Jarman3]

1. Players that have performed above the level expected
Fogarty, Soligo, Berry, Hinge, Parnell

2. Players that have demonstrated significant improvement
Fogarty, Berry, McAdam, Murray

3. Players that have performed as expected
Keays, Murphy, Hately, Hamill, Laird, Himmelberg, Jones, McHenry

4. Players that have regressed
Brown, Schoenberg, Smith, Sholl, Doedee, O'Brien

5. Players that are done and will be gone soon
Crouch, Seedsman, Brown, Rowe, Sloane, McPherson, Turner (*DISCLAIMER: This is the Crows, so "done" and "will be gone soon" may not be remotely the same thing).

6. Best team performances
Port (first time), Richmond

7. Worst team performances
GWS, Port (second time)

8. Coaching performance overall
Meh

9. Administration performance (Silvers, Olsen etc...)
Meh

10. Biggest issue for the club moving forwards
The list. Gradually improving, but still gaping holes in the midfield, defence and ruck.

11. Did the club meet, fall short, or exceed your expectations for the year
I guess I have to say met. I expected improvement, and I suppose I got it but by the barest margin possible. 1 more win, percentage 89.8 (up from 82), "climbed" from 15th to 14th. Hard to say if that's actual improvement or just a slight variation within the margin of error from last year.

12. What are your expectations for the club in 2023
Depends what you mean by "expectations". My expectations are improvement again, but SIGNIFICANT improvement. No more playing the "rebuilding" card. I don't necessarily expect finals, but need to set our sights on at least 10 wins and corresponding improvement in percentage (100+). What I actually EXPECT is more of the same.

 

[Betts are off]

Right now its all still fresh, but in the long run I think 2022 will simply be remembered as the year FOG turned his career around!

Oh, and the year Carlton missed the finals after going 8-2....

 

[davos44]

1. Players that have performed above the level expected
Fogarty, Berry and Soligo

2. Players that have demonstrated significant improvement
Berry and Fogarty

3. Players that have performed as expected
Most of the team really

4. Players that have regressed
Schoenberg, really disappointed with his season. He started to show something late in the season against North Melbourne though.

5. Players that are done and will be gone soon
We need an average player cleanout.

6. Best team performances
The bulldogs game was a great team performance, we were fantastic vs Collingwood, Carlton and 3 quarters against sydney.

7. Worst team performances
Hawthorn game, 2nd Showdown, the Carlton away game, Collingwood at the G, Patches of just about every game we played (last 5mins vs Gold Coast)

8. Coaching performance overall
7/10 for Nicks, he gets them working so hard each week but its now time to work smarter and be far more aggressive, take on the corridor, use some dare (yes I know Butts and Murray one out is a scary proposition but we get stuck on 4/5 goals at half time far too often). Walker on the lead, Fogarty and Thilthorpe one out with Rachele hunting at ground level needs to be provided to by an attacking game plan.

9. Administration performance (Silvers, Olsen etc...)
Fine, were a financially stable club

10. Biggest issue for the club moving forwards
F50 entries and our team defence is awful, when its going bad we get desperate and crowd the ball so outside teams rip us to shreds.

11. Did the club meet, fall short, or exceed your expectations for the year

Met expectations. We lost Sloane and Seedsman from last year (as well as Lynch who was a gun in the last half). Sloanes leadership was missed on field. Our core experienced group is pretty average but we managed to win 8 games.

Laird, Smith, Walker, Sloane and Seedsman are our core veterans with 100+ games. Keays and ROB make up the rest.
At the moment only 2 are walk up starts in any other team (Laird and Walker).
Smith hasn't been the same since his knee and partially why we struggle, our experienced players just aren't elite and barely A grade. I dont know how Laird can get it out of the midfield running toward goal and manage to hit the opposition on the chest every single time.


12. What are your expectations for the club in 2023

About 7-10 wins, with a percentage 90+. I would like us still in the hunt for finals at round 18 with a 7-10 record or thereabouts but that is probably wishful thinking.

Taylor, Pedlar, Soligo and Berry to be in the midfield at centre bounces.
Fogarty to kick 45+ goals.
Newchurch to maybe play a game or two.

 

[Schulzycrow]

10. Biggest issue for the club moving forwards
We are building a potent forward line, but these issues remain..

Need to stack the half forward mid and halfback lines with players who can execute kicks under pressure.
Rob is not our first ruck going forward.
Midfield remains a big problem.
Coming up with a better kick in plan than kicking it to the back flank where the talls are.
Keeping players that aren't AFL standard and giving them games.

 

[Mutineer]

 

[Gtowncrow]

Serious suggestion. Can we please hire the confidence expert who has been working with Thilthorpe and Fogarty full time for the rest of the squad.

An even more serious suggestion is the "mind coach" used by Ash Barty. Ben Crowe is an outstanding communicator and brilliantly impressive to listen to. 100% the best I've listened to. (I've heard quite a few).

 

[Vader]

There are a lot of positives to take away from this season, even if we didn't make the finals - and let's face it, nobody in their right mind expected us to make the finals this year.

Arguably the biggest positive this year were the changes we started to see in the midfield. We started the year with Crouch/Keays/Laird/Sloane as permanent fixtures. By the end of the year, Crouch was in the magoos, Sloane was injured, and Keays had been moved out of the guts - replaced by Berry, Soligo and Schoenberg. We've seen Generation Next take over in defence and the forward line, but 2022 was the year where it finally started to happen in the midfield as well. Don't get me wrong - the midfield is still our biggest weakness, but the 2022 was the year we finally started to move forward in this area.

Fogarty's emergence, in the 2nd half of the year, was a massive positive. It was plain to all and sundry that he needed to address his fitness and work rate - and Burgess no doubt played a large part in fixing these problems. He also sought help from outside the club to improve his mental strength and confidence. The results were nothing short of stunning. We've always known that he had talent & potential, but his first 4 years were full of frustration and disappointment - 2022 was the year he finally broke out, and revealed his full capabilities.

We won 8 games in 2022, 1 more than we did in 2021, despite fielding teams that were consistently younger and less experienced than their 2021 equivalents. To be fair, this was largely the result of an easier draw - 4 of those wins were against North & the Weagles, who won only 2 games for the year between them. We also won a few excellent games - most notably the first Showdown, the Bulldogs in Ballarat, and Carlton. We won away games in Tasmania, Ballarat and Perth - and that can only be seen as a positive!

Some of our younger players regressed, and that's not unexpected. We've recruited a lot of youngsters over the last few years, and now we're into the winnowing process - figuring out who will, and won't, make it. Others will make it, but have had a down year (e.g. Butts), once again this is to be expected when playing youngsters.

We came into 2022 with only 7x 100+ game players - fewer than any other club. We lost Seedsman to injury before the season even began, and Sloane shortly after the season began. Crouch & Brown were both dropped, and finished the year in the SANFL. That left just Laird, Walker & Smith as 100+ game players in our senior team. For a team to win 8 games, with so few experienced players, is arguably over-performing.

We still have some massive holes in our list - ROB is not, and probably never will be, a genuine A-grade ruckman; we still lack a truly elite midfielder; we're short on developing talls at both ends of the ground (particularly once Frampton is off the list). There are still areas that need fixing, but a lot of our weaknesses will slowly disappear as our youngsters mature and continue to develop. We're far from a finished product, but by the end of the year we were starting to see what the finished product might look like.

 

[Gtowncrow]

There are a lot of positives to take away from this season, even if we didn't make the finals - and let's face it, nobody in their right mind expected us to make the finals this year.

Arguably the biggest positive this year were the changes we started to see in the midfield. We started the year with Crouch/Keays/Laird/Sloane as permanent fixtures. By the end of the year, Crouch was in the magoos, Sloane was injured, and Keays had been moved out of the guts - replaced by Berry, Soligo and Schoenberg. We've seen Generation Next take over in defence and the forward line, but 2022 was the year where it finally started to happen in the midfield as well. Don't get me wrong - the midfield is still our biggest weakness, but the 2022 was the year we finally started to move forward in this area.

Fogarty's emergence, in the 2nd half of the year, was a massive positive. It was plain to all and sundry that he needed to address his fitness and work rate - and Burgess no doubt played a large part in fixing these problems. He also sought help from outside the club to improve his mental strength and confidence. The results were nothing short of stunning. We've always known that he had talent & potential, but his first 4 years were full of frustration and disappointment - 2022 was the year he finally broke out, and revealed his full capabilities.

We won 8 games in 2022, 1 more than we did in 2021, despite fielding teams that were consistently younger and less experienced than their 2021 equivalents. To be fair, this was largely the result of an easier draw - 4 of those wins were against North & the Weagles, who won only 2 games for the year between them. We also won a few excellent games - most notably the first Showdown, the Bulldogs in Ballarat, and Carlton. We won away games in Tasmania, Ballarat and Perth - and that can only be seen as a positive!

Some of our younger players regressed, and that's not unexpected. We've recruited a lot of youngsters over the last few years, and now we're into the winnowing process - figuring out who will, and won't, make it. Others will make it, but have had a down year (e.g. Butts), once again this is to be expected when playing youngsters.

We came into 2022 with only 7x 100+ game players - fewer than any other club. We lost Seedsman to injury before the season even began, and Sloane shortly after the season began. Crouch & Brown were both dropped, and finished the year in the SANFL. That left just Laird, Walker & Smith as 100+ game players in our senior team. For a team to win 8 games, with so few experienced players, is arguably over-performing.

We still have some massive holes in our list - ROB is not, and probably never will be, a genuine A-grade ruckman; we still lack a truly elite midfielder; we're short on developing talls at both ends of the ground (particularly once Frampton is off the list). There are still areas that need fixing, but a lot of our weaknesses will slowly disappear as our youngsters mature and continue to develop. We're far from a finished product, but by the end of the year we were starting to see what the finished product might look like.

I tip my hat to you sir.

Possibly the most articulate, accurate and considered post ever on BigFooty.

Sets a high standard to the rest of us.

 

[Bearded Clam]

There are a lot of positives to take away from this season, even if we didn't make the finals - and let's face it, nobody in their right mind expected us to make the finals this year.

Arguably the biggest positive this year were the changes we started to see in the midfield. We started the year with Crouch/Keays/Laird/Sloane as permanent fixtures. By the end of the year, Crouch was in the magoos, Sloane was injured, and Keays had been moved out of the guts - replaced by Berry, Soligo and Schoenberg. We've seen Generation Next take over in defence and the forward line, but 2022 was the year where it finally started to happen in the midfield as well. Don't get me wrong - the midfield is still our biggest weakness, but the 2022 was the year we finally started to move forward in this area.

Fogarty's emergence, in the 2nd half of the year, was a massive positive. It was plain to all and sundry that he needed to address his fitness and work rate - and Burgess no doubt played a large part in fixing these problems. He also sought help from outside the club to improve his mental strength and confidence. The results were nothing short of stunning. We've always known that he had talent & potential, but his first 4 years were full of frustration and disappointment - 2022 was the year he finally broke out, and revealed his full capabilities.

We won 8 games in 2022, 1 more than we did in 2021, despite fielding teams that were consistently younger and less experienced than their 2021 equivalents. To be fair, this was largely the result of an easier draw - 4 of those wins were against North & the Weagles, who won only 2 games for the year between them. We also won a few excellent games - most notably the first Showdown, the Bulldogs in Ballarat, and Carlton. We won away games in Tasmania, Ballarat and Perth - and that can only be seen as a positive!

Some of our younger players regressed, and that's not unexpected. We've recruited a lot of youngsters over the last few years, and now we're into the winnowing process - figuring out who will, and won't, make it. Others will make it, but have had a down year (e.g. Butts), once again this is to be expected when playing youngsters.

We came into 2022 with only 7x 100+ game players - fewer than any other club. We lost Seedsman to injury before the season even began, and Sloane shortly after the season began. Crouch & Brown were both dropped, and finished the year in the SANFL. That left just Laird, Walker & Smith as 100+ game players in our senior team. For a team to win 8 games, with so few experienced players, is arguably over-performing.

We still have some massive holes in our list - ROB is not, and probably never will be, a genuine A-grade ruckman; we still lack a truly elite midfielder; we're short on developing talls at both ends of the ground (particularly once Frampton is off the list). There are still areas that need fixing, but a lot of our weaknesses will slowly disappear as our youngsters mature and continue to develop. We're far from a finished product, but by the end of the year we were starting to see what the finished product might look like.

Well, well, well… a full paragraph on the brilliance of the fog..

He’s finally come around!.. I tip my hat to you Darth..

But its your second paragraph that rings true the most and was the most important change.. Keays/sloane/laird/crouch midfield. What a steaming heap of horseshit that was for the first half of the year!

It took them long enough but they finally changed it and the results were immediate and immense.

Instantly we looked better.. we still lost a lot of contests in the middle but that was to be expected due to the young group in there with Lairdy the only senior.. but when we won the contests we used it a thousand times better and looked a shitload more damaging.

In the North game in the first half they went back to putting Keays in the centre again and, hey presto!, it was back to being shite again..

Hopefully they have finally seen the light.. and R1 next season they continue with Laird and the youth. It was also amazing just how much better Laird looked without The keays and crouch weights on his shoilders in the middle!