The rebuild is on, make no mistakes about that

[GVGjr]

In need of a prune and rebuild and it's there because some of the kids we drafted(and traded for) haven't come through and age has caught up with our older players and they don't influence games any more as they used to.

With some good list management and drafting we can be pushing for a final 8 spot again next year. Hopefully every player that needs surgery can get it done early as to not affect their preseasons as 2012 should now be our focus.

We should have done a bit more a couple of years back leading into the compromised drafts and knowing about our father son commitments but whilst we need to take a stronger approach to list management we can't just play kids for the sake of it.
To me tanking games by ignoring form is never the right option. We can continue to tinker with the line-up for the balance of the season providing opportunities as form dictates but running the red pen though the names of the likes of Cross to manufacture opportunities isn't an option from my perspective.

[Ghost Dog]

In need of a prune and rebuild and it's there because some of the kids we drafted(and traded for) haven't come through and age has caught up with our older players and they don't influence games any more as they used to.

With some good list management and drafting we can be pushing for a final 8 spot again next year. Hopefully every player that needs surgery can get it done early as to not affect their preseasons as 2012 should now be our focus.

Grant has been a disappointment. Which other youngsters are you talking about?

[chef]

Grant has been a disappointment. Which other youngsters are you talking about?

The kids we drafted in the 2000-2006 draft group(not counting trades and rookies), we only got 6 decent players out of this and it is really starting to bite us on the arse now.

[1eyedog]

The average number of games played by our side on Friday night was 79.

The Gold Coast Sun's average games experience is 59.

Compare this to Geelong's average games tally of 135 and all of a sudden it becomes a lot clearer where we sit and what our expectations should be.

It will be very interesting to see how we transition between the current group of the 99-01 drafts and the kids of the 06-10 drafts. Morris, Murphy, Boyd and Cross particularly have shown no signs of slowing down and must continue to play. Gilbee, Hargrave and Lake are players with question marks over their heads and hopefully by next year we will know exactly where they stand and what they offer. We should use the remainder of this year to give every player a run at AFL level, with an eye to round 1 next year when we should have identified roles for every player in a reasonably settled best 22.

Lake's name in these discussions is pure madness! Has everyone gone mad? He is our key back, a recent AA and was last year the best defensive mark in the competition. He was ravaged by surgery over the preseason and has struggled to come up.

If Lake goes we'll be in a world of hurt because an unfit Lake and Cooney is what is hurting us most.

[1eyedog]

Think I put it out there wrong, I meant that will need to delist retire at least 6 players come the end of this season.

As I said I'm not suggesting playing all kids but we need to have about half the side as < 60 games. I think the mix yesterday was good from a trying to win games and blooding young players perspective.

Who are your six Top Dog?

Hudson, Hall, Gilbee...?

[Remi Moses]

There is some delusional opinions on here! Stkilda controlled that game for the majority of it, believe me neither side will play finals. The Beard and Barry will have farewell games in the coming weeks,the club regardless of who is coach must use the draft and put game time into Tutt, Cordy Schofield and the like. The season is shot and whoever thinks otherwise should book themselves into therapy immediately

[bornadog]

I think the mix yesterday was good from a trying to win games and blooding young players perspective.

half the team with less than 50 games and of those 9 with less than 20. I think that was too young.

[LostDoggy]

Did you see the 9 year old girl form Tas get the Auskicker of the week at HT , in the sideline chat she says shes a Dogs supporter , was asked what she thought of the year so far , she says well we are rebuilding so aren,t doing so well

If a 9 year old says we are rebuilding , well , I guess we don't need to hear it from Rocket

.

[Bulldog Revolution]

If a 9 year old says we are rebuilding , well , I guess we don't need to hear it from Rocket

.

Yes, it's clear, but why? We shouldn't have been rebuilding

We should have been challenging for spots 4-8 whilst continuing to blood Jones, Roughy, Libba, Howard etc

Its a convenient excuse for us now to be re-building

[Maddog37]

What should happen in life and what does happen are quite often very different.

Injuries and age have had a much larger impact than anticipated as well as the whole Lake fiasco.

[Ghost Dog]

The word re-building it can also be a bit misleading.
Predicting we'll a much better second half of the season.
There are a few reasons for this.
Firstly, we pulled back in preseason to avoid a repeat of the NAB experience last year ( peaking too early )
Secondly, our A grade players should be on the mend by then
Thirdly, we have a bit of an easier run in terms of opposition.
But most importantly, it's taking a while for the MC to find a reliable mix , then get enough consistent game time into it.

So when we start winning games, are people going to still say we're rebuilding?
Maybe it's a phrase that gives supporters a bit of hope, but it's not really accurate.

More or less, we are re-adjusting. If you look at the top shelf teams, they get enough consistent game time together to work in 'hunting packs'. They develop that intuitive sense of space that your back three or mids or foward line needs. We haven't had enough consistent game time as a unit in it's current form.

It's a confidence you'll see in players like Steve Johnson or Buddy Franklin, to play on fast, pull a few fancy moves out of their arse, as they have that confidence in their rank and file, and have the set patterns and confidence in delivery.

We need to draft well of course, but this current team is capable of winning good games once it finds it's feet. What concerns me is our supporter base. That's the big advantage geelong and hawthorn have over us, collingwood especially. That mental edge is not to be discounted. The crowd advantage is well documented and it's a hard thing to address.
HAve to win as many games as we can and stop the bleeding of supporters. I think we will, and am pretty up beat after seeing Friday's game, despite the shocking skills.

[LostDoggy]

^^^^^^Thanks for that GD

Yes , if we can fight our up to 8th or 9th while rotating younger players I,d say it was a "positive rebuild "

As you say , if we had of had a consistent 22 and be in the same position we are now we would be right to feel dismayed at the downfall of a consistent finals side but we just havn,t have a cohesive unit right from Round 1 , the intensity in patches against St Kilda was very good , we stopped several of their best players from having an impact , we kept them to a low score but mistakes and inefficient disposals cost us

.