Team selection disection

[deags]

It was Judd's influence that got Cripps motivated to hire a coach to help with his speed one off season.

[blue4life]

It was Judd's influence that got Cripps motivated to hire a coach to help with his speed one off season.

Obviously a fairly average coach.

[ElwoodBlues1]

Hmmm.

I think you are ignoring the environments that these guys all started playing football in granted they are tough as nails, but sometimes the difference between looking tough and being tough is simply being taught how to handle yourself on field.

Even our own Patrick Cripps had the benefit of having Chris Judd  even if it was a short time.

Anyway going back to the question of Kerridge its a simple equation.

Is the team playing like it lacks belief in its ability to compete?  For me, certain players are (they are learners).  That means that they need someone who can help them walk a bit taller, and IMHO, Kerridge is one of those players.

If we are relying on Kerridge to add leadership and hardness then we are in trouble.....when he has the footy it wont be long before the other team get it back, thats the bottom line and why he plays VFL....
We lack depth in the middle tier age bracket, those mid age senior players are not good enough and thats one of our major problems, no seven man defense anymore and a high banana factor means big floggings when the kids tire..
Look at the reality, people want the likes of Kerridge, Matt Shaw in the team...not to win the game but to prevent massive losses.....we might as well go back to stacking the backline and playing negative footy again...

[LP]

Obviously a fairly average coach.

Cripps acceleration has certainly improved significantly from his first season, top speed won't really be affected.

But isn't it the first 3m to 5m that really count for an inside mid, after that he should be dishing off to an outside runner!

[Lods]

If we are relying on Kerridge to add leadership and hardness then we are in trouble.....when he has the footy it wont be long before the other team get it back, thats the bottom line and why he plays VFL....
We lack depth in the middle tier age bracket, those mid age senior players are not good enough and thats one of our major problems, no seven man defense anymore and a high banana factor means big floggings when the kids tire..
Look at the reality, people want the likes of Kerridge, Matt Shaw in the team...not to win the game but to prevent massive losses.....we might as well go back to stacking the backline and playing negative footy again...

Do we have an alternative at the moment

What you point out is exactly right....that mid age/experience group is basically not up to it.
They provide little to the youngsters in terms of support because they're not secure in their own positions

...an ongoing problem :

[kruddler]

Just a bit of trivia....How many games did Judd play with Cripps?...the answer surprised me.

8 by my count.

Wasn't too surprising to me. It wasn't until Judd went down that Cripps was fit and got a big go at it.
He kept breaking down before that.

[Gointocarlton]

If the structure is correct Kerridge will be OK, don't have him trying to hit targets, make sure he works inside and dishes off to kids like Fisher and SPS.

Word the kids up, it's time they played big boy football and self-organised on field, no more you stand next to him and go everywhere he goes!

It's time we started seeing some genuine footy smarts from some of these "talented kids"!

In other words, cut the robot crap!

Just let em be natural, have some fun, show some flair.

[LP]

Just let em be natural, have some fun, show some flair.

One thing about that GTC.

As long as we aren't predictable then allowing some freedoms can be very hard to coach against!

[Thryleon]

As you can appreciate, I think we know that we are still in development mode, and one of the things we are looking for is to develop a winning attitude, as well as a winning feeling.

Irrespective, the conversation surrounding who plays when is occurring and largely it will vary depending on what our aims are.

Team balance is one.
Learning opportunities with guidance is another.

Realistically I look at it, and I can see a few "constants" that are likely to be the case for our team selection, irrespective of what value we perceive they bring to the table.

What I can see happening is that the following players will be picked most weeks unless injured, or struggling for form/fitness majorly.

Mature agers, team leaders, onfield coaches, call them whatever you want:

Marc Murphy
Kade Simpson
Matthew Kreuzer
Ed Curnow
Dale Thomas
Levi Casboult
Matthew Wright

These guys are going to play pretty much when they are available and even if we think they are struggling.  They are there not to perform well themselves, but play their role to the best of their ability and ensure that the team is playing the right way, and that other blokes are playing their allotted roles or learning to play them properly.  These guys are only going to exclude themselves from selection if they are struggling big time.


The next tier:

Jack Silvagni
SPS
Matthew Kennedy
Patrick Cripps
Harry McKay
Darcy Lang
Lachie Plowman
Jarrod Garlett
Caleb Marchbank
Jacob Weitering
Zac Fisher
David Cunningham
Charlie Curnow
Tom Williamson
Jarrod Pickett
Ciaran Byrne


These guys are no longer "learning" to play football.  Some are learning to compete, or learning roles, and some weeks they will benefit from dropping down to VFL level to polish up something or work on their leadership ability, but you will find that these guys are going to be 15-23 gamers for the year (some more likely to play more than others).

The next Tier:

Sam Kerridge
Jed Lamb
Liam Jones
Sam Rowe
Aaron Mullett
Cam O'Shea
Matthew Lobbe
Nick Graham
Andrew Phillips
Matt Shaw
Alex Silvagni

This group are role/depth players who could surprise and play every week but are more likely to be filling in the gaps for team balance that we cant quite get right from the aforementioned.  I expect some to play frequently but most of them will be doing well to get 10+ AFL games for the year and will be the VFL equivalent of what the first tier I wrote down do for our VFL team.

The Next Tier:
Paddy Dow
Lochie O'Brien
Tom De Koning
Angus Schumacher
Harrison Macreadie
Cameron Poulson
Pat Kerr

Youngsters that are still firmly on their L plates and looking to find their feet at this level, or learn roles.  Some might emerge instantly and play like seasoned pros (looking at Paddy Dow mainly or Cam Poulson hopefully) but realistically if they get anywhere near 10 games for the year, they will be deemed a roaring success.  (Projected anywhere from 0-10 games with anything else being an outlier).

This is where I see our list for 2018.  This is likely to be how our MC select our team for round 1, and will contain a few but not many surprises, mainly regarding team balance and opposition match ups, but anticipate that some are going to be ahead of others in the pecking order simply because we need them to be.  I expect we will see the 3-4 year draftees playing pretty much every week unless their form is putrid (and even then we might persist because there is little they can benefit from at VFL level).

So I figured post round 9 is a good time to revisit this particular thread.

We all have our questions as to why things are the way they are, and the answers are wide and varied but ultimately, the way I broke up these groups, and forecasted how many games they SHOULD play, based on where our list is at, paints the picture better than any other explanation of why we have been so poor in season 2018.

Effectively, if you look above I have listed a fairly best case scenario regarding our list, in terms of what players bring what effort and class every week and it really does tell the story of where we are at, and why we are performing so poorly.

Of the first tier: Simpson, Thomas and Wright have been the only players to play every game and the absence of the rest has been sorely missed, irrespective of how well we have covered them at times. 

Of our second tier:  Unfortunately, Cripps, Fisher, SPS and Plowman are the only ever present players from this tier and most of this tier have shown patchy form, or ability to be on the park.  Cripps, Fisher and Charlie are the only 3 from this tier that have really had what can be called good form.  The rest have come in and out, played the odd stinker, or generally haven't been cited. 

Of our third tier:  Liam Jones and Aaron Mullet are the only ever present options and we would have been doing well if the rest of these guys had shown good form when they were playing (Rowe is probably the only other player from this tier to have been a good contributer most of the time).  The rest have been similarly patchy.

Our fourth tier:  Paddy Dow is playing more footy than I was expecting/hoping he needed to, and Lachie O Brien is ahead of schedule and done ok.

What the above shows, is why we are miles off the pace of a competitive footy side, and the fact that we have managed a win, is almost a miracle.  We have had the perfect storm of the players we needed to rely on not performing this year.  We needed to have our best 22 made up of our first 2 tiers of players, with sprinklings of the others for team balance, and the one week we got that against Essendon, we had a win.

Unfortunately, circumstances have conspired to prevent us from picking the top tier altogether, which was going to be the key to us doing any damage on the scoreboard this season.

Again, I expect us to be better after the bye, and frankly Gold Coast and Western bulldogs aside, it might actually work out better for us to fare better with blokes getting on the park in the second half of the year as we have played a fairly tough schedule until now.  Given whom we have faced, we could and should do much better in the second half of the season.

[townsendcalling]

Jack Darling is just hitting his straps. Been in the system for 7 years, is 25 years old 191 cm 95 kg and played 160 games. Had many lean years but WCE have stuck with him.

Patrick Kerr is 19, 194 cm 94 kg. 1 game. Has strong hands and kicks straight.

These guys take time........IF you have the patience.