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Re: Unpopular takes
The challenge is - as it always has been - that the best players are absolutely excellent. And what happens whenever the skills of the game are called into question someone like Kate Hore will be thrown up as in "Well, if it's so bad, look at what Kate did here..." - and you'll see her kick an awesome goal...I get it. The best players are awesome and the goal Molloy kicked in Round 1 for the Swans was brilliant and yep, I know.
But the drop off is outrageous.
In the bottom teams - and sadly, we are one of them right now - 10-12 of the players on the park (and there are only 16) actually cannot play. But there is NOWHERE for them to develop because the state leagues are poor...they can't drop back and learn their trade (aka Jordan Sweet not that I wanted to mention the war) because there is no-one to compete against. So all the development needs to come in a training situation...but at the weaker clubs there is not even enough competition at training to drive standards and foster improvement.
I know I'm not supposed to say any of this because being supportive of the game and the players is important...but the footy is bad right now.
My suggestion is that some clubs need to dare to be different - and train as cohorts to help raise the level of their own players. North Melbourne are just down the road - we should REGULARLY train with them...not full on match sim but break down the elements of the game. The mids do stoppages against each other, forwards and backs compete etc...get the better players working against one another more often because most squads are too 'skinny' in talent (come to think of it, North are a bad example for me to have used) for any real improvement to be driven.
People say the girls just need games. They actually don't. Again, I can't talk for the non-WA girls but our state leagues over here are filled with girls who SHOULD be playing Rogers Cup (Colts equivalent). But they aren't - which weakens the Rogers Cup games...and you have girls competing at 16 against mature footballers and that's fine for some, but others should still be in development mode so they get spat out and quit. We have 17 year olds playing senior footy one year (State level) and then walking away from the game 12-months later. Can you imagine a 17 year old boy getting a game of WAFL league footy? And if he managed to do that (come on down Dan Curtin, Koltyn Tholstrup) well they're high draft picks...in the girls game it is happening to girls barely graduating from junior CLUB footy...it's BAD.
Someone needs to take control. The girls want support in the CBA etc - great - they should get it. But we need to fix the game. Money doesn't fix it. More time at training wont solve this stuff...you improve through competition and right now it is not set up for success.
The challenge is - as it always has been - that the best players are absolutely excellent. And what happens whenever the skills of the game are called into question someone like Kate Hore will be thrown up as in "Well, if it's so bad, look at what Kate did here..." - and you'll see her kick an awesome goal...I get it. The best players are awesome and the goal Molloy kicked in Round 1 for the Swans was brilliant and yep, I know.
But the drop off is outrageous.
In the bottom teams - and sadly, we are one of them right now - 10-12 of the players on the park (and there are only 16) actually cannot play. But there is NOWHERE for them to develop because the state leagues are poor...they can't drop back and learn their trade (aka Jordan Sweet not that I wanted to mention the war) because there is no-one to compete against. So all the development needs to come in a training situation...but at the weaker clubs there is not even enough competition at training to drive standards and foster improvement.
I know I'm not supposed to say any of this because being supportive of the game and the players is important...but the footy is bad right now.
My suggestion is that some clubs need to dare to be different - and train as cohorts to help raise the level of their own players. North Melbourne are just down the road - we should REGULARLY train with them...not full on match sim but break down the elements of the game. The mids do stoppages against each other, forwards and backs compete etc...get the better players working against one another more often because most squads are too 'skinny' in talent (come to think of it, North are a bad example for me to have used) for any real improvement to be driven.
People say the girls just need games. They actually don't. Again, I can't talk for the non-WA girls but our state leagues over here are filled with girls who SHOULD be playing Rogers Cup (Colts equivalent). But they aren't - which weakens the Rogers Cup games...and you have girls competing at 16 against mature footballers and that's fine for some, but others should still be in development mode so they get spat out and quit. We have 17 year olds playing senior footy one year (State level) and then walking away from the game 12-months later. Can you imagine a 17 year old boy getting a game of WAFL league footy? And if he managed to do that (come on down Dan Curtin, Koltyn Tholstrup) well they're high draft picks...in the girls game it is happening to girls barely graduating from junior CLUB footy...it's BAD.
Someone needs to take control. The girls want support in the CBA etc - great - they should get it. But we need to fix the game. Money doesn't fix it. More time at training wont solve this stuff...you improve through competition and right now it is not set up for success.
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