Flower: ageing list a worry

As if we don't have enough problems.

It is a problem, but we do have some kids to be excited about also. We have a handful of players that have been on our list for a few years to long which meas we may not have the depth of kids to come through, but we still have Mclean, Bate, Jones, Sylvia, Dunn, Newton, Frawley, Petterd, Bartram, Garland that all look like they can play at AFL level ad have good futures ahead of them add in Rivers, PJ, Bell , Davey and Moloney, thats 15 players that should be around for another 5-10 seasons. Hopefully CJ and Buckley can get games and show they will also be around for a while.

We have got some handy kids as well, once the new coach gets rid of Ward, Brown, Biz, Holland. Pickett thats 5 players around 30yo we will only have Yze, Neitz and White, Jmac 30+ that will still have 1-2 years left and 5 new kids to get exited about, one will be a top 4 pick and we will get another inside top 20. It's not gloom and doom

Why does it take an ex-champion to make these comments to highlight the problem?

This issue has been discussed on this site for a very long time, especially with out forwards.

Just another typical flaccid article from the Herald Sun.

Hardly a problem from the article.

Neitz has been known about for some time.

Bizzell and Holland have been fringe players for years and will be finished by year end.

Yze is outside best 22 and his contributions have been infrequent and overall he is lacklustre.

What is it? 9 guys over 30 at the end of 07?

How many are in our starting 22?

About 3.

Case closed.

Garbage article.

Exactly. McDonald, Neitz, Robbo and White are the only key +28 year olds on the list.

Neitz and White will be difficult to replace. But we are in a much better position than Essendon, who rely on Hird, Lucas, Lloyd and Fletcher to win them games every week.

While a temporary glance over the two lists will show that Essendon's is younger, anyone with any footy knowledge who sits down and assesses the two lists will know which team relies on its older players more and which team will be in more trouble when it's older players retire.

whether they are in your starting 22 or not is somewhat irrelevant to the point being made. And strangely enough Id listen to Robbie Flower before most here.

The problem is they are on the list. They are drawing pay, and they limit what you can do in as much as only so many can be delisted per year. yes some will simply fall off the cliff but what he says is pretty well the case no matter which way you want to paint it.

despite claims that only so may are key players... look who has been playing this year

Neitz 32, Bizzell 31, Brown 30, McDonald 30, White 30 , Holland 30, Ward, Pickett , Yze..all 29

Id say Flower was pretty well on the money

Flower: ageing list a worry

As if we don't have enough problems.

He's not really raising an alarm, it's just a kind of overview of the key issues for a new coach to look at.

It's odd, but while we do have a statistically fairly old list, we don't really have a huge problem with impending retirements.

Bizzell, Ward, Brown, Holland, Yze and Pickett aren't exactly key players for us at the moment.

McDonald is, but onballers are a commodity we have in reasonably good supply.

Neitz and White are obviously a big deal, with Robbo maybe only a couple of years to go after them. But we'd be hoping for Dunn/Newton to cover at least one position up forward, and I personally would love to see Green spend more time closer to goals.

Rucking without White is an issue. PJ is improving, Jamar appears to have plataeud, Neaves is still potential, though good potential.

Dean Cox might be a better targeted recruit than Chris Judd.

But things can look very different in a hurry with six or seven draft picks coming into a side when mostly depth players have gone out. (guessing based on possible retirements, delistings, trades)

And there now appears to be three different highly rated ruckmen coming towards the draft, so hopefully we'll add one to the list and build them up to fill that hole.

What is it? 9 guys over 30 at the end of 07?

How many are in our starting 22?

About 3.

Case closed.

Garbage article.

well said. i think our list is actually a pretty young list when you consider that of our best 22 only 4 are over 28. i posted the ages of everyone at the mfc at the start of next season and the next group is thin as well (only a couple of 27 and 26's) the bulk of our players are 19-24 and these are the players who look like they could carry us to a flag...im not concerned.

Id agree Distance...he's not scaremongering...just making an observation.. areasonably valid one I would say again.

Youre dead right in noting that it can change with suitbale drafting and that will have to happen.

with the relatively limited life span ( on averae) of AFLplayers yo ureally need the next batch in the wings as the new kids take to the track to replace the aging .

Draft/trade week is really important this year

I'm not having a crack at Robbie Flower, far from it.

What will have happened is a journo has written the article, called Flower and said hey Robbie, what do you think about Daniher going? Robbie gives an answer the journo has used, then he's asked what do you think of Melbourne's list. Robbie's quoted answers are:

"They need to look at the ageing list at the top end with Neita almost due to retire. And I suppose Benny Holland and Clint Bizzell up in the backline are getting towards the end. And there is Adem Yze."

That's it - entire quote.

All else he says is that every club goes through that. The journo writes that Flower conceeds we're in for long term pain, and his quote for this is: "its not easy but I suppose everyone else is in the same boat in the competition". Not exactly a ringing endorsement of the journos contention.

The journo (Daryl Timms) doesn't say that we've drafted in recent years to replacing ageing key position players (Neitz/Holland-Newton/Dunn/Frawley) and ageing half backs/midfielders (Bizzell/Brown/Ward/McDonald etc - Jones/Buckley/Petterd/Bate etc), even going back further to the drafting of Rivers/Miller/Smith etc, knowing that by the time they were genuinely ready we'd be facing losing older guys.

It's a garbage articule written to emphasise a "club in trouble", which we are not, despite the last 48 hours.

its been said already...

but our old players are not integral parts of our team apart from neitz and white.

all the rest are replaceable and are basically depth at this stage in their carreers. guys like ward,brown,holland,pickett and co are on the list basically until the youngsters improve enough to take over.

this season guyz like pettard, bate, sylvia, bell, jones and PJ have improved out of sight. dunn, newton, Frawley, Buckley, Garland will continue to improve in the second half of the season. they will all be given a go now that our season is shot. with these guyz improving, the importancde of our old depth players in decreasing. alot of these guyz will struggle to be on the list by years end.

players who could be gawn at years end-

Ward, Brown, Pickett, Neville, Jamar, Ferguson

others playing for their careers second half of the year-

Miller, Yze, Warnock, C.Johnson

players who must be close to retirement-

Holland, Bizzel, Neitz, Mcdonald

Its halarious because many people now believe we must rebuild but critised me when i suggested the idea in round 4 or 5

I dont think a rebuid is necessary.. certainly a revamp!!

Neitz (aged 32 in 2007), McDonald (31), Bizz (31), Brown (31), White (30), Ward (30), Pickett (30), Holland (30), Yze (30), and Robertson (29). Oh, and Pickett.

I agree with the majority of comments. We might have an ageing list but we don't have an ageing 22 and within two years most of the fringe-type older guys will be gone - without overly significant harm to our on-field performance.

Its halarious because many people now believe we must rebuild but critised me when i suggested the idea in round 4 or 5

Do we need to 'rebuild'? Most of the older guys are fringe, being pushed out by younger players or losing form.

Neitz, White, McDonald and Robertson are the only best 22 players there. I think we can cover the departure of McDonald and Robertson still has a few years left. Neitz is the major concern, and we need to recruit rucks as a priority (recruit and rookie 1 p/year). No idea why we didn't draft more rucks last year...