20 minutes ago, stevethemanjordan said:

Pedo, T-Mac, Dunn, Vince, Gawn, Tyson.

They were all extremely poor. 

It's not just about inexperience. It's when most of your side are playing their worst football.

And for some reason we see it too often.

Gawn's played 45 games. He's going to be up-and-down whilst he's still learning his craft at AFL level.

Tyson 56, Pedersen 57, even McDonald's only played 88. This is still relative inexperience.

Today's players with over 100 games experience - Dunn, Garlett, Jones, Lumumba, Vince, Watts. How many of them played well (or at least acceptably well)? Jones? Watts? Is that it? That's the real problem. 

1 hour ago, stevethemanjordan said:

Pedo, T-Mac, Dunn, Vince, Gawn, Tyson.

They were all extremely poor. 

It's not just about inexperience. It's when most of your side are playing their worst football.

And for some reason we see it too often.

Well it is in a way, IMO, because our better players are younger. I'm sorry but even Gawn and Tyson have only 100 games between them. No excuse for Dunn or Vince though.

We get beaten by guys like Waite,Harvey,Reiwoldt and anyone else over 33. 

We are too inexperienced to respect proven experienced players. 

 

We fielded our youngest side all year this weekend. Great effort to come home with the chocolates 

That game was a mad crazy party for kids.

18 - Oliver 19 - Stretch 20 - Petracca, Harmes 21 - Hunt, Hogan, Wagner 22 - Viney, Kennedy, Tyson, Kent.

Eleven players on the field under 23 years old.

And meanwhile, waiting injured, there's Salem, Brayshaw, ANB, O.Mac and the draftees.

 

It doesn't mean a dynasty is starting, it doesn't mean all our problems are solved, I'm not getting ahead of myself, the lid is on, some of these kids wont sustain the standard long term, we're still getting a huge contribution from veterans like Jones and Vince, Pederson and... Garland? Lumumba? 

 

 

Didn't think we could go any younger but we did.

Record youngest side this weekend.

23yo 2 months. 57 games average. 14 players under 50 games.

I think GC and GWS first games had a more experienced side. 

Might be the youngest side that we will field for the next 10 years. 

We are building something special here.

Edited May 22, 20169 yr by bandicoot

Was on the fence today as the players were walking around giving high fives after game, could not believe how young they all looked, babies half of them

Edited May 22, 20169 yr by dave

That's nuts how young and inexperienced we are.

9 hours ago, bandicoot said:

Didn't think we could go any younger but we did.

Record youngest side this weekend.

23yo 2 months. 57 games average. 14 players under 50 games.

I think GC and GWS first games had a more experienced side. 

Might be the youngest side that we will field for the next 10 years. 

We are building something special here.

 

I think the Lions were more inexperienced than us, would like to see the stats for them.  Would be interesting.

Must be embarrassing being a lion's supporter knowing your team was beaten by a TAC cup team.

I am sure this explains (if not excuses) some of our inconsistency both within and between games, but we have a group that will hopefully mature together, get to know each other's strengthens and weaknesses, and then will develop more confidence and consistency  

12 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Must be embarrassing being a lion's supporter knowing your team was beaten by a TAC cup team.

I actually felt sorry for the Brisbane supporters around me because I could relate to their team being so bad but then I remembered they saw their team win three premierships in a row and then I stopped caring.

11 hours ago, bandicoot said:

Didn't think we could go any younger but we did.

Record youngest side this weekend.

23yo 2 months. 57 games average. 14 players under 50 games.

I think GC and GWS first games had a more experienced side. 

Might be the youngest side that we will field for the next 10 years. 

We are building something special here.

Can i ask where you get these stats from? I tried a couple of the sites i usually go to but ciuod find this overall team info. Cheers

11 hours ago, bandicoot said:

Didn't think we could go any younger but we did.

Record youngest side this weekend.

23yo 2 months. 57 games average. 14 players under 50 games.

I think GC and GWS first games had a more experienced side. 

Might be the youngest side that we will field for the next 10 years. 

We are building something special here.

What "record" are we talking about here? Do you mean youngest Melbourne side ever? Youngest AFL/VFL side ever? Youngest Paul Roos coached side ever? I'm not damning your post, just seeking clarification. 

6 minutes ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

What "record" are we talking about here? Do you mean youngest Melbourne side ever? Youngest AFL/VFL side ever? Youngest Paul Roos coached side ever? I'm not damning your post, just seeking clarification. 

It's not really a record. Just a record in the comp this year. I haven't gone back to last year but I don't think we are far off. 

2 hours ago, Petraccattack said:

 

I think the Lions were more inexperienced than us, would like to see the stats for them.  Would be interesting.

Lions were young this weekend but slightly older and more experienced.

average age 24yo and 66 games 

http://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/ft_match_statistics?mid=6250

39 minutes ago, Mac7 said:

Can i ask where you get these stats from? I tried a couple of the sites i usually go to but ciuod find this overall team info. Cheers

Footywire. Treasure trove of information

http://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/ft_match_statistics?mid=6250

have a look at the bottom RHS on the desktop version. Mobile doesn't have all the info 

The talented youth and exuberance is simply fantastic and really heart warming. The excitement amongst the players is great. The ongoing teachings by our coaches throughout the week is so important in their development. To see them play the way they're playing - so young - is fantastic for the club and it's fans. 

Really looking forward to the next 3 rounds - Port, Hawthorn & Collingwood. I'm really hoping to see them win all three. It's a big ask for them but from what I've seen they're more than capable. The depth we have to cover and rest players with many available is a big key during these games coming up. Then after Sydney in Sydney we have the break which will set us up for a decent crack in the run home.

2 hours ago, monoccular said:

I am sure this explains (if not excuses) some of our inconsistency both within and between games, but we have a group that will hopefully mature together, get to know each other's strengthens and weaknesses, and then will develop more confidence and consistency  

We wil no doubt have a rollercoaster year with 14 players under 50 games... Will be improved slightly with Jetta, trenners, Tyson and pedo coming back in. 

32 minutes ago, bandicoot said:

Lions were young this weekend but slightly older and more experienced.

average age 24yo and 66 games 

http://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/ft_match_statistics?mid=6250

Geez we had 14 players under 50 games compared to their 8. And yes we were younger and more inexperienced. Amazing stuff.

5 minutes ago, Petraccattack said:

Geez we had 14 players under 50 games compared to their 8. And yes we were younger and more inexperienced. Amazing stuff.

We were also substantially smaller. We gave up on average 4kg to them. 

Ussuly weight and height are standard throughout the league. 

1 hour ago, bandicoot said:

It's not really a record. Just a record in the comp this year. I haven't gone back to last year but I don't think we are far off. 

OK - thanks for the clarification.

4 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Must be embarrassing being a lion's supporter knowing your team was beaten by a TAC cup team.

I think all MFC supporters know the feeling well dd.

13 hours ago, bandicoot said:

Didn't think we could go any younger but we did.

Record youngest side this weekend.

23yo 2 months. 57 games average. 14 players under 50 games.

I think GC and GWS first games had a more experienced side. 

Might be the youngest side that we will field for the next 10 years. 

We are building something special here.

We are, but I would also like to se a bit more experience injected. The addition of Grimes and Trengove this weekend would be a positive. I also have heard that Max has a hand injury and that is why he is not holding his marks because he effectively is going for them one handed. This weekend it would be good to see Spencer included with or without Max. If he is injured then he should be rested, in preparation for the battles ahead against the top sides, until he recovers now that Spencer is showing form in the 2s. In-form Gawn AND Spencer would substantially improve our second half year line up IMHO, and give us some grunt when typically younger players get tired as they did last year. I thought even Jack Viney looked tired at the weekend - we sometimes forget he is only 21.

I think it is time for us to start including Dunn, Grimes, Trengove, AVB, Jetta and Pederson into our line up and rest some of the kids, depending on form and perceived "tiredness". We need some hard nuts in the second half of the year.

On ‎22‎/‎05‎/‎2016 at 11:19 PM, bandicoot said:

Didn't think we could go any younger but we did.

Record youngest side this weekend.

23yo 2 months. 57 games average. 14 players under 50 games.

I think GC and GWS first games had a more experienced side. 

Might be the youngest side that we will field for the next 10 years. 

We are building something special here.

It's quite extraordinary, isn't it?

The last  time we tried to build through the draft (ultimately unsuccessfully) and go down the youth path, and the only point where it vaguely looked like we were on the road back was 2010.

The peak of that rebuild was arguably the big Rd 17 win against Sydney.  Our age profile from then was:

Average Attributes
	Melbourne	Attribute	Sydney
	186.8cm	Height	186.6cm
	84.2kg	Weight	87.2kg
	23yr 4mth	Age	25yr 10mth
	68.8	Games	104.1
Total Players By Games
	Melbourne	Games	Sydney
	3	Less than 50	1
	4	50 to 99	1
	5	100 to 149	5
	10	150 or more	15

 Our development program is so far ahead of what he had in place then it's not even funny, and the growth left in this team is scary.

All things being equal, we're only seeing the earliest signs of what this team could do on a regular basis.

Exciting stuff.

Edited May 24, 20169 yr by ChaserJ