Jasper
19-09-2010, 11:21 AM
What Happened, Why and Where to from here?
In the cold light of day, we have not met expectations to make or win a Grand Final in 2010. I’ll admit it, I went to the GF in the pre-season and marvelled at what Barry Hall added to our forward line - little did I think then that Barry would become our forward line.
There are a number of reasons for what happened, but boiled down:
1. List management in 01 -03 – It’s commonly believed that having good 25,26 and 27 year old players (so in 2010 that is draftees from 2001- 2004) are the key to winning GFs. We had two of these players in our team last night, the Saints had nine:
a. Two from the 2003 draft (Minson and Cooney) – Saints had four Ray (4), Fisher (55), Dawson (41) and Peake (43) last night, and another on their list, Raph Clarke, played a big role in stopping us getting to the GF last year
b. No-one from the 2001 and 2002 drafts played last night (Cross - rookie and Callan are the only 26/27 year olds on our list) – Saints have five players from these drafts, Del Santo, Montagna, Gram, Goddard and Dempster – enough said
To Eade’s credit, after he took over our list improved markedly after 2003 as we started to grow our own players and the stopgap recruiting practices from the Wallace and Rhode eras was ceased. I won’t list them except for the Koops trade for Pick 19 in 03 - Koops lasted five games, the pick netted Freo Mundy.
Having said that, Ray, Dawson, Dempster and Peake were all traded in by Lyon, Eade hasn't traded in any in this age bracket apart from Callan who is fringe at best. So Eade and the footy department, bears some responsibility for this issue, but really our list was set back significantly way back in 01-03.
2. The increase in the speed and skill of the game – particularly the need for forward line pressure. Stack, Akermanis, Thorne, and Hill’s poor performance up forward meant we persisted with players that were unfit (Higgins, Johnson) or too slow (Hahn).
While our contested ball winning was fantastic, our foot skills have gone backwards. Players such as Cooney, Boyd, Higgins and Ward have the ability but appear to have slipped.
This problem is due to the Football Department’s failure to anticipate the game’s direction and recruit/develop players to meet this need (as well as the individual player’s responsibility)
3. Injury – All clubs have injuries, losing Higgins and Cooney, having Johnson, Morris, Lake, Minson, Ward, Murphy and Williams carrying injuries has cruelled our season. Some of these injuries were impact injuries, which can’t be avoided; some though were illness, strains, sprains and overuse injuries, which can be minimised by quick diagnosis and effective management. Unsure if our medical and training department have been performing well enough. Bad luck as well contributed.
For the future (which I believe has possibilities), this year looms as a critical year for our club as a number of key players retire or are reviewed. The competition will continue to get stronger, so how will we get better with an aging/declining list? Issues to address:
Our list requires some surgery. Our large number of 28 plus players means that we should be looking to address this list imbalance and recruit 1 or 2 capable 26 and under players with speed and skill (the younger the better). We may have to trade someone of note in our plus 28 category to engineer this change given our draft picks are sown up with father son selections
When the above is combined with the fact that Eade is in the last year of a contract having not met expectations this year, that we have a new list manager, and our football manager (Fantasia) has a poor recruiting record – can I suggest that this combination of factors scares the bejesus out of me (but it also creates an opportunity for success with some reasonable risk taking)
Our training and medical department needs to be reviewed to ensure it is best practice
Our conservatism with match selection needs to be looked at, with younger players being given preference to older players. For instance if Hargrave is retained via the veterans list, it should be on a reduced contract and he needs to understand that he may not be first 22 any longer
In the cold light of day, we have not met expectations to make or win a Grand Final in 2010. I’ll admit it, I went to the GF in the pre-season and marvelled at what Barry Hall added to our forward line - little did I think then that Barry would become our forward line.
There are a number of reasons for what happened, but boiled down:
1. List management in 01 -03 – It’s commonly believed that having good 25,26 and 27 year old players (so in 2010 that is draftees from 2001- 2004) are the key to winning GFs. We had two of these players in our team last night, the Saints had nine:
a. Two from the 2003 draft (Minson and Cooney) – Saints had four Ray (4), Fisher (55), Dawson (41) and Peake (43) last night, and another on their list, Raph Clarke, played a big role in stopping us getting to the GF last year
b. No-one from the 2001 and 2002 drafts played last night (Cross - rookie and Callan are the only 26/27 year olds on our list) – Saints have five players from these drafts, Del Santo, Montagna, Gram, Goddard and Dempster – enough said
To Eade’s credit, after he took over our list improved markedly after 2003 as we started to grow our own players and the stopgap recruiting practices from the Wallace and Rhode eras was ceased. I won’t list them except for the Koops trade for Pick 19 in 03 - Koops lasted five games, the pick netted Freo Mundy.
Having said that, Ray, Dawson, Dempster and Peake were all traded in by Lyon, Eade hasn't traded in any in this age bracket apart from Callan who is fringe at best. So Eade and the footy department, bears some responsibility for this issue, but really our list was set back significantly way back in 01-03.
2. The increase in the speed and skill of the game – particularly the need for forward line pressure. Stack, Akermanis, Thorne, and Hill’s poor performance up forward meant we persisted with players that were unfit (Higgins, Johnson) or too slow (Hahn).
While our contested ball winning was fantastic, our foot skills have gone backwards. Players such as Cooney, Boyd, Higgins and Ward have the ability but appear to have slipped.
This problem is due to the Football Department’s failure to anticipate the game’s direction and recruit/develop players to meet this need (as well as the individual player’s responsibility)
3. Injury – All clubs have injuries, losing Higgins and Cooney, having Johnson, Morris, Lake, Minson, Ward, Murphy and Williams carrying injuries has cruelled our season. Some of these injuries were impact injuries, which can’t be avoided; some though were illness, strains, sprains and overuse injuries, which can be minimised by quick diagnosis and effective management. Unsure if our medical and training department have been performing well enough. Bad luck as well contributed.
For the future (which I believe has possibilities), this year looms as a critical year for our club as a number of key players retire or are reviewed. The competition will continue to get stronger, so how will we get better with an aging/declining list? Issues to address:
Our list requires some surgery. Our large number of 28 plus players means that we should be looking to address this list imbalance and recruit 1 or 2 capable 26 and under players with speed and skill (the younger the better). We may have to trade someone of note in our plus 28 category to engineer this change given our draft picks are sown up with father son selections
When the above is combined with the fact that Eade is in the last year of a contract having not met expectations this year, that we have a new list manager, and our football manager (Fantasia) has a poor recruiting record – can I suggest that this combination of factors scares the bejesus out of me (but it also creates an opportunity for success with some reasonable risk taking)
Our training and medical department needs to be reviewed to ensure it is best practice
Our conservatism with match selection needs to be looked at, with younger players being given preference to older players. For instance if Hargrave is retained via the veterans list, it should be on a reduced contract and he needs to understand that he may not be first 22 any longer