17 hours ago, brendan said:

Wow hawks and freo are in for some pain going by that, I was surprised we are still youngest 

I could handle the Hawks' pain after a trio of flags.

19 minutes ago, Skuit said:

The match report on the AFL site even mentioned the Blues' immaturity as a factor in allowing us to get on top.

Yep, i even know you don't put your jaw in the way of someone's fist or hand (hurties)

It's going to be a rough 4-5 years for Freo, especially because they aren't known for being the greatest recruiters going around. There best draftee since 2013 would have to just about be Hayden Crozier, who isn't a bad player but that needs to improve

This pleases me and concerns me. 

1. We still have a large gap in the 80-150 game mark. I suspect we'll struggle against the likes of the Bulldogs and Giants for many years until we close that gap. Essendon I suspect will cause havoc for us as well because they seem to have a nice balance of experience across the board, albeit not as skill as the aforementioned.

2. We have to expect erratic performances as per last Sunday. It was good to get up but we're going to see some big wins and some disappointing loses still. I think it will turn around though and we'll see more of the former than we do the latter. In past years it was the other way around.

3. If we can make the finals as a group this young, it stands to be VERY good for the club. In 2-3 years we're going to be where the Bulldogs are now, age and games wise. They obviously over-performed last season, but I think in current development we are ahead of where they were 3 years (they were a basket case).

23 hours ago, DeeSpencer said:

I don't really care for these things. In fact they annoy me.

Oscar, Weeds and Oliver I consider young and inexperienced.

Others in their 3rd, 4th even 5th year on AFL lists or under say 23 and with limited experience are nice to half but what does it matter if they don't perform and show they have more development?

We have to make sure this current crop makes it and then we need to keep adding pieces both young and older. 

Generally there is a correlation between age and experience, and performance. Of the top 9 teams, age wise, 6 are considered flag threats, 7 genuine finals contention. Games wise, 8 of the top 9 are all top-performing clubs.

It would be naive to ignore the correlation between performance, experience, and maturity (which is different to experience). Freo is too top-heavy, as is North, which is causing them to go through what Melbourne went through in 2007.

Pre-seasons, finals campaigns, you can't understate the importance. Rarely does an inexperienced team compete for a flag, let along avoid the bottom ladder positions. There are anomalies, but teams like the Bulldogs are utterly stacked with top-tier talent. Even still, they aren't the "pups" people perceive them to be, and are well within that "window" where they *should* be competing for a flag.

Edited April 6, 20178 yr by praha