Just like Nic Nat wouldn't be the player he is now if he was with us, the same can be said for Ollie Wines if he were at Melbourne this year.
When your team is getting smashed week in/week out, it doesn't matter what individual you have in your side.
There is too much talk of individual performance and neglect of the root causes and complexity of issues at our club.
It's plain and simple to me. We need to be absolutely ruthless as a club and strip the list bare. This is about re-conditioning the entire club and moving on players that some will say are too valuable to get rid of. It's about saving this [censored] club.
If we need to trade Frawley or any other high profile player at our club for well developed players and leaders who can change this [censored] place then so be it.
The lack of thinking ability and level of consciousness of players on our list is astounding and I'm going to outline some of the symptoms shown because of this:
Absolutely no ability to execute any sort of game plan.
Terrible decisions and awareness.
No want or desire to lead.
Happy to cruise through AFL football, without too much thought process and individual analysis of what it means to be elite.
The following players are like a virus to our club.
Frawley
Sylvia
Garland
Dunn
Davey
Jamar
All of these players are sick. They are asleep. They have a conditioned mentality which we see on-field weekly. They are all shot. The sooner we move them on, the better for our club.
Watch their [censored] body language onfield. Garland is the only one who gets a pass this year but that's because he is the only one with the capacity to think. The others are sheep. Frawley is a physical monster, but that's it. He has a pea brain which tranlates to his body language onfield and we see it every week. He doesn't think about anything other than himself and his opponent or what he is going to do that night for dinner.. The same can be said for the rest on that list. They are sick. They are complete sheep.
These players are supposed to be our leaders. I want them gone.
Then there's our many number of players that don't have the required skill level to be playing AFL. This can be directly pointed to our terrible drafting over the past few years. Players in this category who are not AFL standard are the following:
McKenzie
Tynan
Nicholson
Spencer
Davis
Evans
Bail
Jetta
Macdonald
None of these players would be starting 22 at other clubs.
The mature age recruits brought in by Neeld to inspire culture change and a mentality change are as follows:
Dawes
Clarke
Byrnes
Rodan
Gillies
Pederson
Sellar
You could hardly say that list have been influential in the transformation of our mentality and playing culture. Dawes and Clarke are the only two valuable players in terms of on and off-field performance. The rest need to go.
Then you have the poor young brigade of talented players who have been on the list for a while now and these poor kids are slowly getting sick as well. Look at the development rate of some of these kids. They have had no real leaders (bar Jones) to look to and two of them are our captains, they have no inspiration and their confidence was shot from day one due to a number of factors and because the team is flogged most weeks. Here they are:
Watts
Trengove
Blease
Strauss
McDonald
Grimes
Tapscott
Gawn
Fitzy
Howe
These players are a part of our future and we need them to be able to push past this Virus at our club just as Jones has. They are sinking however, and it's a worrying sign.
Then we have the untried young brigade who were either drafted last year or have been slowly developing for Casey.
Viney
Toumpas
Hogan
Barry
Kent
Taggart
Matt Jones
Terlich
Clisby
Stark
We must absolutely nurture these players, manage and develop them in the right way for our club to move forward but for this to happen, we need to move on that first group of sick players who have no positive influence for our club or the development of these kids. Whilst some of these guys are considered mature-age players, it's still their first year within the AFL so I've slotted them in. I haven't included Magner or Couch as they are simply depth fillers and we have clearly seen enough to know that they aren't AFL standard either.
Whilst this post is more or less a ramble, I felt the need to spit it all out. These are the issues of our list. It's a sad spot to be in but it is fixable. The more Clarkes' and Dawes' types we bring in and the more Daveys' and Jamar types we move on, the better. It's the only way the list can overcome this illness and before the latest crop of talented youngsters become affected as well.
Please let next year be an absolute overhaul of these sick players who are slowly killing our once mighty club.
Apologies for the long-winded rant. It's over.