The Hard Road To The Premiership

[cookie2]

While wins in the immediate term could be described as "irrelevant" we do need to be capable of winning some games, of being fiercely competitive and of avoiding absolute floggings. We will need to see some reward for our efforts.

Constant losing without hope or reward can be very damaging and lead to the destruction of club morale as we have seen in recent years. Some of our players have no doubt been very bruised psychologically, in some cases to the point that they may never perform well again whilst at CFC. Rehabilitation will take time.

So, we tread a fine line into the future between rebuilding but being able, at the same time, to demonstrate positive progress and that will involve getting a few wins IMO.

[flyboy77]

The future :

B : Buckley, TBA, TBA
HB : Plowman, Weitering, Docherty
C : Boekhorst, Murphy, TBA 
HF : Jacksh, TBA, Kerridge
F : Sumner, TBA, TBA
R : Kreuzer, Cripps, Gibbs
I/C : TBA, Phillips, TBA, TBA

Smith, Whiley, Holman, Lamb, Graham are yet to fully show their stuff but should have genuine claims to a spot in the team over the coming years.

No Levi Sheik?

[ElwoodBlues1]

The future :

B : Buckley, TBA, TBA
HB : Plowman, Weitering, Docherty
C : Boekhorst, Murphy, TBA 
HF : Jacksh, TBA, Kerridge
F : Sumner, TBA, TBA
R : Kreuzer, Cripps, Gibbs
I/C : TBA, Phillips, TBA, TBA

Smith, Whiley, Holman, Lamb, Graham are yet to fully show their stuff but should have genuine claims to a spot in the team over the coming years.

Might be going a bit early on Sumner and Boekhorst given their innocuous start to their careers  and I reckon Gibbs might be trade bait for some multiple picks sooner than later..Just my opinion...

[LP]

No Levi Sheik?

Well it seems fair.

If Jaksch steps up as KPF and you have Kreuzer / Phillips doing the ruck / forward thing, with Plowman / Weitering defense. You cannot also have the likes of Casboult, Rowe and Jamison in the one side.

Something has got to give, but it's good to have pressure for spots!

[PaulP]

While wins in the immediate term could be described as "irrelevant" we do need to be capable of winning some games, of being fiercely competitive and of avoiding absolute floggings. We will need to see some reward for our efforts.

Constant losing without hope or reward can be very damaging and lead to the destruction of club morale as we have seen in recent years. Some of our players have no doubt been very bruised psychologically, in some cases to the point that they may never perform well again whilst at CFC. Rehabilitation will take time.

So, we tread a fine line into the future between rebuilding but being able, at the same time, to demonstrate positive progress and that will involve getting a few wins IMO.

Agree cookie. The ideal future that people seem to think is almost a fait accompli if we really bottom out, may in fact never eventuate. Must be competitive from day 1.

[sandsmere]

[quote author=LP link=topic=2545.msg135972#msg135972 date=1446000568]
Well it seems fair.

If Jaksch steps up as KPF and you have Kreuzer / Phillips doing the ruck / forward thing, with Plowman / Weitering defense. You cannot also have the likes of Casboult, Rowe and Jamison in the one side.

Something has got to give, but it's good to have pressure for spots!
[/quote

There is a factor called injuries.
also, Weitering will be a first year player. While I expect ( hope ) he will play plenty of senior footy in 2016, it may not all be as a KPP.

[LordLucifer]

No Levi Sheik?

Just not sure about whether he will be a long-term fixture at the club.

[LordLucifer]

Might be going a bit early on Sumner and Boekhorst given their innocuous start to their careers  and I reckon Gibbs might be trade bait for some multiple picks sooner than later..Just my opinion...

Agreed, both of the young guys could flounder & fall and eventually feel the axe, no-one really knows what will happen with them, fingers crossed it is positive.

As for Gibbs, I have already predicted he will be part of a mega-deal next year.

[cookie2]

Gibbs being a senior player but so far having demonstrated only limited leadership skills/aptitude will no doubt work against him at CFC, but may not necessarily be a problem at another club with an established leadership culture.

[Jean-Claude]

The AFL website was ranking all midfields in the comp. Found it pretty interesting to look how all the engine rooms in the AFL look stacked up against each other.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2015-12-29/th...-team-rank

No surprises with the top teams, but what I found interesting was that bar Sydney the top few teams all have the perfect setup in terms of attributes in their midfields. They all actually have legit protype gut busting wingers on the wings, not any random midfielder which the rest of the comp pretty much have. This might explain the issue with Sydney a little.

For e.g:

C: Isaac Smith, Sam Mitchell, Bradley Hill
Foll: Ben McEvoy, Luke Hodge, Jordan Lewis

Compared to us:

C: Kade Simpson, Patrick Cripps, Ed Curnow
Foll: Matthew Kreuzer, Bryce Gibbs, Marc Murphy

First of all Simpson will spend most of the year in a back pocket/flank and Curnow will tagging. Boekhorst is the logical 'winger' we have, with Cunningham the next best as a natural winger type if he is that. I'm assuming he is a pacy outside type from what I have read/heard.

This area is a bit of pet obsession of mine and feel it is always underrated. With a solid foundation to the midfield in Cripps we desperately need to add to this part in the next couple years. Would like to see Buckley step up on one of those wings, Graham to work alongside Cripps, Boekhorst on the other and Cunningham in the wings. No pun intended.

Looking past Murph and Gibbs as I am not sure they will be there for 17, we still need another bull to assist Cripps, another pacy gut busting runner and hopefully Graham keeps tracking along nicely.