Re: Re: Goaltracker 2018
Reply #394 –
4 years ago we had the following players in the 21-24 age group on the senior list.
Gibbs
Yarran
Garlett
Robinson
Henderson
Tuohy
Bell
Lucas
Everett
Ellard
Watson
McInness
and
Kreuzer
Casboult
E. Curnow
So 4 years ago, 3 of our 15 (next generation) players are left, the rest are no longer on the list.
Of course i could expand that further to include 18-20yo's as well, you know the future of the club...
Menzel
Buckley
Holman
Bootsma
Temay
Giles
and
Graham
Docherty
Cripps
So we only have 6 out of 24 players from our 'future' still on our list.
18 out of 24 players aged 18-24, are NO LONGER on our list.
Tell me again why our 'aging' list was the problem?
We can't get too caught up with our kids being locked in as we can see from above, we've been very wrong before. Doesn't have to be just about talent either.
Players want out.
Players go off the rails.
Players get injuries.
Players get booted out.
Two quick points.
1. You might want to check your 21-24 age group from 4 years ago. Some of these blokes (Kreuzer and Gibbs) have somehow managed to age 5 years in 4. Casboult was 24 already and an unproven commodity.
I just checked even Lachlan Henderson Mitch Robinson and Jeff Garlett turn 29 this year!! That 21-24 age group was full of middle agers!
2. That's a serious reach. Most of our kids have shown more positives about their attitude and ability than we had then, and for the first time since Fevola we've drafted key forwards that can hit the scoreboard multiple times in a game consistently and they aren't even in your subjective 21-24 year age group!
Think back to our 2013 9th place finish. We had stuff all key defenders, stuff all key forwards and our midfield batted as deep then as it does today except we have genuine kids playing in all these roles rather than relative question marks.
I don't know how well these guys will all go, but I've seen enough to suggest the future is absolutely looking better than it did, even if it's tough going right now and only a pessimist would look at our list and see no future. That doesn't mean what you say can't come out to pass but there's enough substance to work with that says we should be ok.
Think about it, I'm not a blind optimist, I'm a realist.
Even macreadie has shown more than Matthew Watson had back then!
@LODS I wanted a broom through the place years ago.
Edited underlined. Our promise today lies largely IMHO in a bunch of sub 22 year olds. The opposite was true back then.