Side looks well balanced however it’s clear that unless one of McGovern, Haynes, Dean or Kemp stands up as a key defender we’ll be exposed. Other concerns are our ability to defend clever/strong small forwards & the durability of Cottrell & Chesser who could provide much needed pace.
All of Cripps, Weitering, Smith, Hewett, Walsh, Kemp, McKay, Cerra, Hayward, Saad and possibly McGovern have the ability to make the AA squad so let’s hope we see at least half of them get there.
Unlucky not to make the side - Okeefe (could swap with Kemp), Dean (could swap with Haynes or McGovern), Lord, Pittonet, Acres, Boyd, Hollands, Moir & Evans
Hey dorotich you're short one on the interchange
Thanks I wasn’t across that - I’d add Okeefe in that case
Side looks well balanced however it’s clear that unless one of McGovern, Haynes, Dean or Kemp stands up as a key defender we’ll be exposed. Other concerns are our ability to defend clever/strong small forwards & the durability of Cottrell & Chesser who could provide much needed pace.
All of Cripps, Weitering, Smith, Hewett, Walsh, Kemp, McKay, Cerra, Hayward, Saad and possibly McGovern have the ability to make the AA squad so let’s hope we see at least half of them get there.
Unlucky not to make the side - Okeefe (could swap with Kemp), Dean (could swap with Haynes or McGovern), Lord, Pittonet, Acres, Boyd, Hollands, Moir & Evans
Still don't get the fascination for Evans, Young & White.
I’m with you, we’re scraping the bottom of the barrel
A minimum of 3 (more likely 4) of Durdin, Fogarty, White, Motlop, Young and Evans will need to be replaced this offseason. I’d be leaning toward keeping Motlop and Evans only - time to find the next Eddie, Kozzie, Cyril which is obviously easier said than done.
Dekoning complete lack of effort - unforgiveable McGovern, Docherty and Acres decision making and composure simply awful Pittonet, Fantasia, Hollands, Motlop, Evans, Fogarty VFL cannon fodder at best. Harry O’Farrell a bit too green Cerra no impact
Curnow badly down on form and confidence but looked like he was trying
Cowan and Moir were the only positives for me
Game plan is awful but let’s face it, even if we had Collingwoods game plan, we couldn’t execute it.
Lemmey, Moir, B Campo & Cowan all appear to be better AFL prospects than all of Docherty, Fantasia, L Young, B Wilson, F Young,…..hopefully a lot of changes
We don't need a full rebuild. We can turn this around for next season if we make the right moves.
Totally agree. But we need to find better foot soldiers. And create a development plan that produces better foot soldiers.
I think Voss's big error is he is putting too much hope in the fact that a handful of A-Graders can constantly drag the whole team over the line.
Once you get past our top 10, we are very poor.
I've seen this before with coaches who were gun players themselves (apart from a couple of exceptions like Barassi and Matthews) - they never get the best out of the average list players, because they don't understand the mind-set needed to be a role player in a team.
That's why the coaches with the best record are often average footballers who had to work so hard to get a kick and think far more about the game - Hardwick, Clarkson, Beveridge, the Scotts, even Malthouse, Pagan and Hafey.
They know exactly what it takes for a role-player to be effective in a team, and they structure that way.
We will never be a serious challenger while we have superstars surrounded by spuds - who end up being the weakest link. The spuds don't turn into chips, and the superstars get increasingly disenchanted.
A great post
People will laugh but it may be time to consider a successful coach from a different code - the ex-player DNA pool (including assistants) is limited, so the chances of finding the next Clarkson from the pool is a very low probability.
I’d bet that we’re a much higher chance of challenging conventional ways of moving the ball with a master coach of another code - soccer given the professionalism and years of development to create space/defensive structures which leaves the afl in the dust.
List needs to be semi nuked. Cripps to WCE - too many slow players in the midfield and WCE will pay up McKay to Melbourne/Sydney/Brisbane - is becoming more blatant by the day Motlop and Kemp trade TDK - trade Docherty, Evans, White, Fantasia, McGovern, Cincotta - delist
Need as many future picks (2026) as possible before Tasmania
Cripps no! Talk about destroying team morale. Motlop yes Kemp no McKay no but Curnow .... TDK YES McGovern and Cinc no the rest yes Walsh no
We just have too many key players injured. Voss is coaching with one arm tied behind his back. Needs better assistants, heaps better.
There is some truth to this, however at critical moments our “key players” don’t step up and often make poor decisions - a long winded way of saying we’re not very good, compounded by an average game plan and some bewildering recruitment choices.
Assuming Curnow is out, I’d probably go with debuts for Lemmey & Ben Camporeale. Acres/Docherty survive as there is nobody else, but I do want to see the back of Fantasia. Side looks weak but the best we can muster. Fogarty stiff and could replace Motlop.
for years we have been to SLOW like i said weeks ago we need 3 Chris yarran in the side (before the trouble )
I agree with this - every team knows that if they are able to get the ball outside a contest and spread we simply can’t keep pace, exacerbated by our slow (and often poor) game plan/decision making.
I’ve never seen a slower small forward brigade and our wings and half backs are also so slow.
I’d be seriously considering trading/delisting 15+ including a selection of our more highly rated players to get some trade currency to get some balance through the list.
Once again they were bigger, stronger and faster than us and had more desire. Once again our planning for Dawson, Walker, Fogarty & Keays was poor.
Whilst Adelaide had a couple of players missing, our list depth is by far the worst in the AFL with far too much invested in too few, who deliver highly inconsistent output and effort - we need to address through trade, most probably starting with TDK. We need to trade our top end talent to address the problem and make calls on ageing players sooner. We also need to address the lack of fast and strong players on our list. A Michael Conlon (of near!) would be great along with some genuinely fast half backs.
2 things stand out 1. We have no athleticism - Harry McKay looks like he hasn’t had a meal for 6 months, Elijah Hollands is flat footed and aside from being poorly disciplined off the field, is also very average in the field. In fact both Hollands brothers are very average 2. A number of our listed players look a lot worse than VFl also rans - Francis Evans, Billy Wilson etc query whether we’re picking the best available player. Harry OFarrell’s Dad is the club lawyer, Ben and Lucas’ Dad played for the club, Elijah’s brother played for the club - are we selecting the best player?? Wtf is going on.
The good news is that we have enough players with currency that would allow us to trade our way into a completely different side - I know this is extreme, but what sort of side could we put together if we traded every player on our list with currency and recruited young/developing players in their place?
I know that wouldn’t be easy but would we improve? Would our list be more balanced?
Something to think about.
I hope we're not at that stage yet but.... I don't think it's completely without merit Target players who are consistent in terms of output, work ethic and importantly durability. They don't have to be flashy types, but are solid posession winners and reasonably skilled.
Build a champion team rather than a team of champions. But you're right, it wouldn't be easy...it would be a big job and take a skilful recruiter ....and it could be painful in terms of the players we let go.
Agree with this and others views that our current recruiting team couldn’t get it done.
Of course in reality you may choose 3-4 players to trade rather than every player - in any event, the whole concept is depressing but it feels like or reality.
The good news is that we have enough players with currency that would allow us to trade our way into a completely different side - I know this is extreme, but what sort of side could we put together if we traded every player on our list with currency and recruited young/developing players in their place?
I know that wouldn’t be easy but would we improve? Would our list be more balanced?
....and it could be painful in terms of the players we let go.