- Oct 3, 2012
- 13,000
- 25,330
- AFL Club
- Richmond
I think its a very common among footy fans to just say 'play the kids' because hey more games into young players = better for them, right?I disagree completely we are a long way off being a top 4 side again, it will take us a while to get Ryan, Gibcus, Bauer & Banks all to 60-70 games & that's going to take time, they will not be stars overrnight but we just need to start playing them it's why I don't think McQualter will ultimately get the job because he keeps playing guys like McIntosh & Pickett.
I could understand Dimma not dropping them because of what they did for him in the Premierships but Mini should have made some statements.
But its more than that and the fans have to understand how little we really know about what goes into picking a team. So many people look too closely on individual stats and performances without understanding what impact they actually make. Richmonds game plan is so team based, that players can have positive impacts without you every seeing them.
A guy like Castagna had Richmond fans calling for him to be dropped for years, but he got picked week after week. The coaches clearly do not pick players just for the fun of it, so use some critical thinking into WHY he is being picked.
Most people watch the game on the TV and thats it. You see a tiny zoomed in view. Coaches have a full team of people watching the game from every view, looking at things we never see, to perform a game plan we dont know and then spend the week going over the footage and advanced stats we will never see. So why the **** do so many think they know better? We've got like 5% if the information that they make decisions off. So maybe, just MAYBE, theres a reason why the coaches make these calls over and over.
For Picket and McIntosh, those guys run and run and run and know the game plan. Its nice and all to say, play x kid instead, but can they run like that? Do that have that fitness? Have they shown the understand the game plan and structure? Clearly not at the same level or else they would be playing. And yes, sometimes you can take short term pain for long term gain by taking the worse option now for the future benefit, but you can't do that all over the field.
We have actually been playing LOTS of kids this year.
Young: 17 games
Ross: 17 games
Mansell: 16 games
Ryan: 14 games
Clarke: 13 games
Miller: 13 games
Cumberland: 9 games
Rioli: 8 games
Banks: 5 games
Coulthard: 4 games
Sonsie: 3 games
Bauer: 3 games
Dow: 2 games
6 have played more than half the season. There is a limit to how many you can play at once. It actually hurts development if you play too many at once. Think about from a players perspective, say its 2018, Richmond are an elite and well drilled team, you come in to the defense and everyone know exactly what they are doing, you just have to worry about playing your role. You have leaders all around you covering your mistakes, telling you where to go and what to do. Theres little pressure on you to have to perform in a big way. You can learn little by little.
Now imagine coming in to say our backline against the Dogs 2 weeks ago. You look around and half the team is learning the gameplan, the guys around you were the guys you were playing VFL with earlier this year, you're all just trying to figure out what to do while your opponents have 100+ games of experience and are just a tier above. Your mistakes are highlighted by the fact that no ones there to cover, the pressure builds as they kick multiple goals in a row, you don't even know what you should be doing because no ones there to give you advice.
Great we get games into multiple kids at once but they don't learn and their confidence actually takes a hit. Just getting a game isn't helping development, it needs to be in a way they are actually comparable and confident.
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