Do we have enough AFL standard players on our list.

[Sleeve 67]

Listening to the Sunday inquisition and I don't recall the media personality

that said it but it did get me thinking. " Do we have enough AFL standard players".

His take is that we're simply no good, our list is shizen. Does he make a valid point?

I'm certainly beginning to agree.

Midfield, Not 1 true A Grade midfielder. At present Nathan Jones is our best and his

disposal is questionable at best, as with Grimes, they give everything and win their

share of ball , but that's clearly where our issues begin.

We've gone about attempting to rectify the problem but without A Grade talent to follow

,how do we expect Barry, Blease , Tapscott Toumpas, Trengove and Viney to become stars of the game?

Is our list as bad as observers are saying? If so, how can we go about rectifying it? How do we

Develop our own talent when we are devoid of star leadership quality?

The money we're wasting on Dawes, Jamar , Byrnes and Rodan, could it have been

better served trying to attract a Goddard type?

What is everyone else's take?

[Sleeve 67]

Sorry , feel free to delete the duplicate. Damn Iphone

[The Song Formerly Known As 6,479]

Mitch Clark is A grade.
Imagine him in a side with good delivery.

[Sleeve 67]

Sorry I mean A Grade midfielders

[Biffen 12,432]

Jeremy Howe is about the only guy worthy of an AFL jumper.

The rest are kids or grown men who need leadership because they cannot provide it.

[jumbo returns 6,546]

Jeremy Howe is about the only guy worthy of an AFL jumper.

The rest are kids or grown men who need leadership because they cannot provide it.

Mitch Clark can provide it - he leads by example.

Jack Viney is a young kid who will provide it.

You're being a bit dismissive of Nathan Jones who is a fantastic AFL standard player.

[Grimes is Great 183]

We have an average loosing margin over 100 points from the first 3 rounds I think we can safely say we do not have enough talent on our list.

[titan_uranus 22,776]

My take:

AFL standard - Jones, Grimes, Trengove, Viney, Sylvia, McKenzie, Blease, Evans, Howe

A-grade at their best - Sylvia

B-grade at their best - Jones, Grimes, Trengove, Viney, Howe, Blease

Consistently at their best - Jones, Grimes, Viney

The problem, therefore, is that our only talented midfielder, Sylvia, can't consistently play to his ability, meaning that we're being led by B-graders. No other midfield in the competition is in this situation - they all, with no exception, have at least one A-grader who consistently is an A-grader.

Until we push more players into the A-grade bracket (I'm looking at Grimes, Trengove, Viney, Howe, Blease and Toumpas), and we get consistency out of these players (Blease and Howe play at least one bad game for every good game), we're going to struggle.

Edited April 14, 2013 by titan_uranus

[The heart beats true 16,485]

You can't be serious with this question.

I counted 8-10 players in our side yesterday that would be less than a 20% chance to get picked up by another club in a 18 team competition. That about sums up where we are at.

[Deecisive 1,663]

Funny that a couple of years ago Malthouse and others were talking about how bright our future was with the talent that we had. Most of those players are still there, but the talent is not showing through. did everyone get it wrong?

[Lordweaver 235]

^{how can we say we have wasted money on byrnes and rodan when we have played 3 rounds of footy!!}

[Green Machine 63]

People thinking Nate jones isn't an A grade midfielder have something wrong.

Consistently performs against every opposition whilst copping the best tagger the other team have with very very little help.

If he was in another side with other A graders around him he would be seen as a top 10 midfielder by the football public.

[Carlos Danger 380]

The money we're wasting on Dawes, Jamar , Byrnes and Rodan, could it have been

better served trying to attract a Goddard type?

What is everyone else's take?

Money isn't being wasted on Byrnes and Rodan, both were in the process of being delisted with no interest from other clubs. They're on minimal coin and at the club solely for the sake of another crack at the big time.

Outside of conceding spots on the list, they are very low-risk acquisitions.

[Sleeve 67]

Low risk acquisitions?

What was the purpose of bringing in 2 more inconsistent players that are finished at AFL? What exactly does that do to our culture?

I'm sorry but I don't accept that they bring anything to this football club other than mediocrity. With exercises like this

It's little wonder we're the laughing stock of the competition.

[Roost It 1,434]

Our spine next year will read

Frawley

Tom Macdonald

Viney

Hogan

Clark

By anyone's estimate that is a Premiership spine

Third and fourth tall in forward half, Dawes and Watts

Small forwards/midfielders:from Blease, Sylvia, Howe ,M Jones, Recruit

Third and fourth backmen: Recruit, Recruit

Running backs/midfielders: from Grimes, Strauss, Evans, Jetta, Tapscott, Terlich, Kent, Barry,

Midfielders: N. Jones, Toumpas. Trengove, Recruit, Recruit

Rucks: Gawn, Recruit

By my reckoning we simply aren't that bad. We have talent we just lack the midfield punch to capitalise on it. We are 3 A grade midfielders from being a top 4 side. That hole can be filled this year if we're smart enough. We should be targeting these players right now. We're going to have possibly the first 2 picks in this years draft. That's the 2 best midfielders in the land. We then need to trade away some talent and throw some cash at a third midfielder and we're away. Don't listen to the media, they don't know shite. This shithole will turn around very quickly.

[Sleeve 67]

2 best mids in the land? Trengove and Scully. It isn't that simple.

Unfortunately it's all we've got to try and fix this glaring weakness. I too believe we're not as bad as it seems up forward or down back.

Our midfield is our Achilles heel. We simply can't go with most teams.

[Nasher 33,166]

What was the purpose of bringing in 2 more inconsistent players that are finished at AFL? What exactly does that do to our culture?

I'm sorry but I don't accept that they bring anything to this football club other than mediocrity. With exercises like this

It's little wonder we're the laughing stock of the competition.

The idea is that they're ready made players who can play a role. I fully support(ed) the theory of bringing in Byrnes in particular; we had zero competent small forwards on our list unless you count Davey, but who would have come the end of last year? It was an obvious need.

I'm not quite ready to stamp the idea a failure yet.

[jumbo returns 6,546]

I'm not convinced that Chip will stay.

[Mono 454]

2 yrs ago, people (incl Voss among others) said that we were heading to be a powerhouse. Now we don't have enough AFL quality players.

WTF?

It just aint that simple.

[jnrmac 19,324]

2 yrs ago, people (incl Voss among others) said that we were heading to be a powerhouse. Now we don't have enough AFL quality players.

WTF?

It just aint that simple.

Maybe he was joking.

[bing181 8,227]

You can't be serious with this question.

I counted 8-10 players in our side yesterday that would be less than a 20% chance to get picked up by another club in a 18 team competition. That about sums up where we are at.

It's not that they wouldn't get picked, they'd be the 21st or 22nd pick in a much stronger team. Even players like Buckley and Cheney went on to get games at Collingwood and Hawthorn, teams not exactly short of decent players.

The idea that there were star midfielders available and ready to come to Melb is far-fetched at best. Rodan, Byrnes etc. are experienced players from successful teams, brought in to help establish some standards in training, preparation etc. Don't think we'll be seeing reports that either of them were out at 5 am getting p*ssed. As has been posted elsewhere, Terlich credits Rodan with being the one who's helped him most make the transition to AFL footy - that's already a win. If the pair of them spend most of their time at the Dees as effectively playing assistant coaches at Casey, that seems to me a more than useful step in helping with development - something we're apparently notoriously bad at.

[Sleeve 67]

Apparently we don't. How do we rectify it? We clearly can't draft.