The cull - will it happen?

[Pevers-Legend]

We know the list is not up to scratch and players we though may get the chop have not - so what do we do with the players on the fringe. Personally, I think we should give these players, providing Bendigo form warrants it, a spot in the team for a few weeks in a particular position and given free reign to do their best. This philosiphy probably needs to be applied to maybe one or two players at a time tops, but we must find out one way or another where these players careers are headed. This is what we need to do:

Henneman - gets a go but in the wrong position - if he is to be abckup ruckman, then he is finished now - has failed countless times, if he is to be a backman, then play him there. All he has going for him is that he is big.

Alvey - what a pretender. had all these raps on him and has done nothing. the knee reco excuse is wearing thin. his effort against carlton was embarrising. Is he a midfielder or forward - pick a spot and play him there. has nothing going for him - too slow, too cute, too small. Can kick goals but if you can;t get it whats the point.

Haynes - showed so muh 2 years ago - but is he just a good VFL player. Needs to be given one more go on the HF line. play and lets see if he can stand up. He is the type of player that has made us regress.

Richards - forward or backman? has to be one or the other to get settled into the team. can not play good footy as a spare parts player yet. Why did he not get a gig at FF with Lloyd out - even half fit he is as fit as Henneman. Needs to do something or probably the best trade-bait we have.

Bullen - same as haynes showed somehting but done nothing. Make or break, give him a go in the middle (he can;t do worse than what we already do now) and let him play there for a few weeks. Not in then out of the team like the Bear - who gets confidence this way?

Hunt - a handful of games in how many years? just shows how desperate we are for a big backman. Suprised he and Henno didn;t go last year. how do you find out if he is good enough if you don;t play him in the firsts? play ahim and if he fails - hello VFL full-time.

Winderlich - don;t understand the raps on him - like Harvey a massive waste of a 1st round draft pick. Too small and has no awareness. Has been given a chance but hasn;t taken it so far. 1 more year after this one if he fails, only to see if he can bulk up a bit more and be able to compete with the big boys.

Cartledge/Laycock - no problems for another 2 years. Already showing enough as bigmen, but play em, don;t be afraid to play them - they will make mistakes but who cares if it pays off when we have a good team.

Cupido - we have to make this work, he is with Rioli the most skillful player on the list. Needs some confidence and should be slotted in next to Lloyd and given the fwd 50 to roam. would persist for at least another year yet.

Bolton/McVeigh - losing confidence with no permanent spot this year. I think Bolts is an ideal run with player - tall,speed ok, excellent endurance. Peverill should not be the no.1 tag anymore - give him more freedom and use Bolts. Otherwise is Bolts trade-bait? McVeigh - all in sundry know should be in the midfield but Sheedy won't play him there. Needs to go in there or is possibly an attractive trade-bait for a better more needed player.

Reynolds/Watson - class acts but injured too often. Can;t afford to have em both injured all the time. We need both fit and firing and the poor drafting doesn;t look so bad.Give em time, but patience is running out with injuries. Some players bodies are the reason they don;t make it - could this be true of them?

I am not saying all of these should go/be used as trade bait but they all must be on the cusp and form is required to ensure for themselves they don't go.

 

[Disco Clarky]

Agree with most of what you say especially the part about our list not being up to scratch. Have to say that I don't think Aaron Hennamen has a role to play at allin our side this year once the likes of Allan and Hille are fit. Well no longer need him as a back up Ruckman and he sure as hell cant play anywhere else.

For me Alvey, Haynes and Bullen all fall into the same category. (The Simply not good enough for league football category). Unfortunately for Essendon I think most other clubs will also see this and I cant see us getting much for them if we were to on trade them at end of season.

Ted Richards is an interesting one. Still think he's more a defender than a forward. Unfortunately for him it looks like Kepler will hold down CHB and do it well. ( I was a little critical of fellow BFM talking him up as a champion before the season had even started however it appears I am wrong! HE WILL BE A GUN.) Agree with your comments on Winderlich, about the only thing he has going for him is his pace.

Damien Cupido.... Where do I begin he has the heart the size of a pea! Yeah he's got skill but from the way he struts around youd think he has 2 brownlows hanging around his neck. Its dissaopointing when you see guys put their body on the line to get the ball into him only to see him go half arsed when theres a chance he might get hurt. He cannot tackle about the only time he lays a tackle is when the player hes tackling is on the ground over the ball or has already been held up by another tackler. He simply is SOFT! DOnt think you can ever change this fact. You can train a player to show courgage and lay tackles hes scared. Beats me what to do with a player like that I simplyu dont know. (its no surprise Brisbane gave him up they simply do not accept players who dont put their body on the line).

I like Reynolds and Watson as players its not their fault theyre injured hopefully they come good. Raste them both.

I like your views on placing Bolton as our number 1 tagger and freeing up Peverill. Although he frustrates me at times I still feel Mark Bolton is a player who we need to keep on the list he gives us options when the oppostition plays a tall forward line or when Bradley is being beaten at CHB. But yeah definately think he should play more footy in the guts or on the Half forward line.

 

[Longy413]

I don't think we need a cull. I think we are going along the right path. Sure we have some drift wood to get rid of, but a cull will only set us back.

Mercuri, Salmon, McAlister, Wellman, Hardwick, Long, F-Knight, Barnard, Walsh, Wallis, Barnes, Misiti, Heffernan, Alessio, McGrath, Moorcroft, Blumfield, Caracella, Davies, Bannister, Harvey, Davis (and probably missed a couple more) have all been and gone since 2001. Off the top of my head, half our team from the 2002 Semi Final remains.
That is a lot of change in a couple of years.

We will make a few changes. Wouldn't at all be suprised if we try for another Jacobs type deal. Get another top pick and pick up another four quality youngsters. However a big cull isn't what we need, we have the second youngest list (from memory) in the competition. Not all of these are quality but I'm certain Sheedy will seperate the men from the boys and continue to rebuild this side.

 

[Jaymin]

Winderlich's an intereesting one. I liked his game against Carlton and thought he was a little bit harshly dropped. He has pace and i think he's a guy we need to keep playing. Against Carlton he pulled off a good smother which resulted directly in a goal. Chased hard and looks farily poised when he gets the ball. He's definately one i'd persist with.

Not a bad summary of the rest of them though.

 

[Stealth bomber]

The common thread here is that they have to play, and play for a period of time. You can't get a proper gauge on where players are at when you have this revolving door of Bendigo players getting 5 minutes in a pocket every quarter and then sent back to the 2s the following week, only for a different group to take their place. Nobody is learning to play together as a team. There's no chemistry, no cohesion.

I think we might be trying to play too many players at once. How many guys on our list are unproven? Injuries sort of force your hand sometimes, but that's footy.

 

[Winderlich]

Very true stealth bomber, and jaymin. The players that are mentioned on the cull list by Pevers-Legend (well done), well, some are not getting enough of a run in the first team. They come in for 40 minutes and are dropped. Agree with everyone else you guys have said

 

[jackie_bombers]

We're missing 14 Premiership players since 2000 so I think we've done a fair bit of trading/drafting. I think a few of these guys have been at the club for too long and not shown enough. With a few player contracts expiring this year, I think there'll be some major resigning and delistings.


Senior List

Allan, Matthew 2005 May be gone/retire
Alvey, Mark 2005 Er, some gametime please Sheeds!
Bolton, Mark 2006 We know he's safe
Bradley, Kepler 2006 Safe!
Bullen, Marc 2005 GONE
Cartledge, Tristan 2005 Might be given a few more years. Sheedy likes him
Cupido, Damian 2005 Has 19 weeks to prove himself.
Dyson, Ricky 2005 Should be given a few years
Fletcher, Dustin 2006 (veteran) Safe
Haynes, Ben 2005 GONE
Henneman, Aaron 2005 Knowing Sheeds
Hille, David 2005 Could be gone unless he steps up and really stamps his mark
Hird, James 2005 (veteran) May be his last year (spec with his dodgy knee)
Hunt, Sam 2005 What is this guy spose to do?
Johns, Courtney 2005 Will he ever play?
Johnson, Jason 2005 Reckon he'll resign?
Johnson, Mark 2005 Will be given a few more
Laycock, Jason 2006 Will be given a few
Lee, Andrew ?
Lloyd, Matthew 2006 Safe
Lucas, Scott 2006 Safe
McPhee, Adam 2006 Safe
McVeigh, Mark 2006 May be used as trade bait. Needs to return to his form last year
Monfries, Angus ?
Murphy, Justin 2005 GONE
Nash, Jay 2005 Given a chance
Peverill, Damien 2006 Safe
Ramanauskas, Adam 2006 May be done
Reynolds, Joel 2005 make a move
Richards, Ted 2005 see reynolds
Rioli, Dean 2005 Trade bait?
Slattery, Henry ?
Solomon, Dean 2006 Safe
Stanton, Brent 2005 a few more years
Thomas, Paul ?
Watson, Jobe 2006 Should be safe
Welsh, Andrew 2005 Safe
Winderlich, Jason 2006 Could be gone
Zantuck, Ty ? Will be safe

Rookie List

Bain, Ryan ?
Jolley, Ben ?
Lovett, Andrew - 2005
Lovett-Murray, Nathan - 2005
Wilson, Adrian - 2005

Richards - we dont know where to put him. Hunt- what is his role in the team? Reynolds is God but doesn't know it, Watson is going to be a star just unlucky with injuries. They all have potential but I think they've given up on Haynes and Bullen mainly. Sheeds plays them, then drops them. The kids need a full game. It doesnt benefit anyone when they are on for 20 mins then in the pine. Lovett kicked a goal then got dragged. Monfries slotted one from the boundary and ran straight to the bench. I think Sheeds needs to play the same group for two or three weeks in a row before they can develop coheision, learn to play with eachother and for eachother. At this stage, they dont know what they're doing and are constantly being ignored by their team mates while they are standing on their own, a very good chance of doing something special (ie, Lovett and Stanton against Hawthorn)

Laycock and Cartledge are the future ruckmen of our club. They need to play now. We need to blood the kids. Nash, Dyson, Monfries, Winderlich, Lovett all have great pace. Give them a go, they will show us what they've got.

Haynes is doing well with Bendigo, but there you go, only a VFL standard player. He kicks 5 goals in the magoos but cant seem to convert in senior footy. Teddy has been great down back for Bendio, as has Joel.
Benny and Bullen have shown a bit, in small bursts, but will never get there. I dont think these blokes will be on the list next year, I hope not anyway. Gives us some room to blood some fresh new talents

Cupido hasnt been great since he's knee. We need him returning to form and kicking 40 goals a year. If he doesn't pull the finger out, he might be gone.

Bolts and Henno are favourites of Sheeds. IMO, they won't be touched. Henneman has improved and I guess Bolts has been reasonable on the wing. Just dont play him in defence. I think Henno frustrates a lot of us, he has the size of a Wayne Carey but the football brain of a mouse. It's harsh, I know, but if only he knew how. He'd be a great defender. Unfortunately, not the case. Bolts is usefull to play on guys like Goodes, not Hall and Riewoldt. He's athletic and probably the fittest bloke at our club. So long as he doesnt play in defence. Pev is a phantom, he just runs and runs and I think he's a great tagger too, but does he belong in the BP? Bolts, when Lucas was at CHB did some good things at CHF. I remember he was outstanding in the Port game, although that might be because Cornes was 50m off him

McVeigh, I think, has been the most disapointing seeing he was fantastic in the second half of last year. If he doesnt play the footy we know he can, he may be trade bait to go to Sydney with his brother.

Alvey was the up and coming major posession winner great midfielder of the doggies, and thats why we picked him up. I personally dont think he gets enough chances. He isnt named, and when he is, gets dragged after ten minutes because he's a 'dud' How can Sheeds expect him to get into the action in ten minutes? Needs time, but I think he might go aswell.

See, Reynolds is not his grandfather, and never will be, although he's shown glimpes, I think the only reason they're keeping him is because of King Richard.
Courtney, how good is he really? Has a great size, can do anything, but he is yet to play a game. If he cant this year, I think he'll be going aswell.
Watson - the son of Timmy. Will be a gun, just really unlucky with his injuries.

Murphy and Rama - seem out of touch, continue to play like this and they might be gone too.

Thoughts??