08-26-2019, 10:16 AM
(This post was last modified: 08-26-2019, 09:34 PM by crashlander.)
2019 Positives & Negatives:
On field:
Players who delivered, consistently: Cripps, E Curnow, Gibbons, Jones, Newman, Simpson, Thomas, Walsh (Murphy later in the year).
Cripps remains dynamic, but needs to put more work into breaking tags. But he has delivered.
Ed Curnow has had one of his best years and probably still has a few more in the tank.
Gibbons has probably been something of a surprise. I didn't expect him to play as much as he did.
Jones is beginning to look like an excellent defender. Couldn't be more pleased after his horrendous start.
Newman has been everything we could hope from him.
Simpson started slowly, but has finished the year as well as anyone could hope.
Thomas: I wish we were keeping Daisy on his form this year. However, we are hoping for fitness and improvement from our other small-mid defenders.
Walsh has been everything we could hope for.
Murphy looks like he still has a few years in the tank.
Biggest disappoint(s) when compared to pre season expectations: Dow, Cuningham (the King Of Cameos), Fisher, Garlett, Pickett, Kennedy, Lang, McGovern (until fitter!!!!), Polson. Northern Blues.
I have to agree. I was hoping from more from all of these guys.
Dow: Paddy hasn't gone forward, if anything he has gone backwards. He need the right sort of pre-season to get his body right and he needs to work on his kicking and his defensive running.
Cuningham needs to get that bit fitter, as he showed that he has what it takes.
Fisher has gone backwards. He needs to work on his strength and stamina and his kicking.
Garlett is unlikely to get a chance to improve. We need the list space.
Pickett is another huge disappointment, but his body wasn't capable of the AFL load.
Kennedy is looking better as a forward than as a midfielder, but he needs to work on his speed and fitness. He is too slow to do the job he is trying to do.
Lang is lucky if he remains on our list.
McGovern is likely to improve, if he can stay injury free.
Polson is now worrying me where I was not so worried last year. He isn't getting enough of the ball and he isn't stopping his opponents getting the ball. That leaves him in a very precarious position.
Northern Blues: If there was one area I was expecting real improvement in this season, this was it. Granted we had a couple of young speculative picks going around, but we also kept the good ex-AFL players from last year and added a couple of others. However, all of them went backwards. Our midfield went backwards, even though we often had a winning ruck. We were wracked with injuries again (when will it be otherwise?), and our youngsters didn't set the world on fire.
In fact, I find it difficult to find many positives with the NBs.
I have been generally satisfied with the coaching staff until now, but having so many guys who looked promising last year go backwards is the exact wrong thing to happen.
Surprise packet(s): Newman, Gibbons, Casboult, Walsh.
DCMs: Garlett, Lang, Macreadie, Polson.
These guys are under a lot of pressure. I do not believe all of them will survive this cull. Maybe not even half of them, depending on how ruthless we are feeling.
Sign him up for more years, now: Cripps.
We need/get him/them: [color=lime green]Gun mid, gun small forward, our next top ruckman, more speed.[/color]
Off field:
Most encouraging activity/results: Membership and Member initiatives. Club’s involvement in community. Getting The Terrier to the club and now the Hawthorn psychologist as well. DT appointment.
I agree.
Biggest disappointment (s): Bolton’s performance and subsequent removal & Board slow to react to BBs removal. Dow and Fisher failing to improve as hoped/expected. Obviously, injuries to key personnel. Judd embarrassing the club with foolish and ill-considered public comments.
We need/get him/her/them: New coach for the Northern Blues, DT gets the assistants he wants. More involvement from past champs… should be regular visitors to the club.
2020
Acceptable minimum wins: 11.
I would like to say we will win more, but with the usual (ordinary) draw, the (usual) ordinary umpiring, and no certainty of recruiting what we need, I would not want to put the bar any higher.
Players MUST: start well and stop periods in games where we concede 4-7 unanswered goals. Profound concentration and on-field leadership and discipline improvement. Cease to be the nice guys of the competition... time for some ruthlessness. >
> >
Player(s) who MUST improve: Cuningham, Dow, Fisher, McGovern, McKay’s kicking & thinking, Setterfield, Charlie Curnow's decision making.
(crystal ball time) Player(s) who will surprise with their improvement: Deluca, McGovern, Setterfield. I can pray.
Most looking forward to beating: Richmond, Geelong, Sydney and Hawthorn.
(crystal ball again) Our ladder position will be: mid range. We may challenge if we can get the personnel we need. We may do better if we get the sort of run with injuries that Brisbane has had this year.
AFL should: Prevent marquee players changing clubs to top 8 clubs. 'Equalization is happening' says Gil… lying pr1ck, I say.
I'm inclined to agree. The AFL have been making the problem worse rather than better and need to adjust the free agency issues.
The AFL also needs to address the issue of the umpiring. We cannot go on with 20 - 25% of frees being 'wrong'.
The AFL also has to start considering a 3rd Melbourne venue (Not Geelong: that hole has had millions wasted on it and it still can't cover any sort of crowd.) Princes Park is the obvious one, not just because we play there. There are options for crowd movement that the AFL could arrange for a supportive government to supply. Not some of the pipe-dreams that some others have put out: various club presidents should not be allowed access to illegal chemicals before submitting such fantasies.
On field:
Players who delivered, consistently: Cripps, E Curnow, Gibbons, Jones, Newman, Simpson, Thomas, Walsh (Murphy later in the year).
Cripps remains dynamic, but needs to put more work into breaking tags. But he has delivered.
Ed Curnow has had one of his best years and probably still has a few more in the tank.
Gibbons has probably been something of a surprise. I didn't expect him to play as much as he did.
Jones is beginning to look like an excellent defender. Couldn't be more pleased after his horrendous start.
Newman has been everything we could hope from him.
Simpson started slowly, but has finished the year as well as anyone could hope.
Thomas: I wish we were keeping Daisy on his form this year. However, we are hoping for fitness and improvement from our other small-mid defenders.
Walsh has been everything we could hope for.
Murphy looks like he still has a few years in the tank.
Biggest disappoint(s) when compared to pre season expectations: Dow, Cuningham (the King Of Cameos), Fisher, Garlett, Pickett, Kennedy, Lang, McGovern (until fitter!!!!), Polson. Northern Blues.
I have to agree. I was hoping from more from all of these guys.
Dow: Paddy hasn't gone forward, if anything he has gone backwards. He need the right sort of pre-season to get his body right and he needs to work on his kicking and his defensive running.
Cuningham needs to get that bit fitter, as he showed that he has what it takes.
Fisher has gone backwards. He needs to work on his strength and stamina and his kicking.
Garlett is unlikely to get a chance to improve. We need the list space.
Pickett is another huge disappointment, but his body wasn't capable of the AFL load.
Kennedy is looking better as a forward than as a midfielder, but he needs to work on his speed and fitness. He is too slow to do the job he is trying to do.
Lang is lucky if he remains on our list.
McGovern is likely to improve, if he can stay injury free.
Polson is now worrying me where I was not so worried last year. He isn't getting enough of the ball and he isn't stopping his opponents getting the ball. That leaves him in a very precarious position.
Northern Blues: If there was one area I was expecting real improvement in this season, this was it. Granted we had a couple of young speculative picks going around, but we also kept the good ex-AFL players from last year and added a couple of others. However, all of them went backwards. Our midfield went backwards, even though we often had a winning ruck. We were wracked with injuries again (when will it be otherwise?), and our youngsters didn't set the world on fire.
In fact, I find it difficult to find many positives with the NBs.
I have been generally satisfied with the coaching staff until now, but having so many guys who looked promising last year go backwards is the exact wrong thing to happen.
Surprise packet(s): Newman, Gibbons, Casboult, Walsh.
DCMs: Garlett, Lang, Macreadie, Polson.
These guys are under a lot of pressure. I do not believe all of them will survive this cull. Maybe not even half of them, depending on how ruthless we are feeling.
Sign him up for more years, now: Cripps.
We need/get him/them: [color=lime green]Gun mid, gun small forward, our next top ruckman, more speed.[/color]
Off field:
Most encouraging activity/results: Membership and Member initiatives. Club’s involvement in community. Getting The Terrier to the club and now the Hawthorn psychologist as well. DT appointment.
I agree.
Biggest disappointment (s): Bolton’s performance and subsequent removal & Board slow to react to BBs removal. Dow and Fisher failing to improve as hoped/expected. Obviously, injuries to key personnel. Judd embarrassing the club with foolish and ill-considered public comments.
We need/get him/her/them: New coach for the Northern Blues, DT gets the assistants he wants. More involvement from past champs… should be regular visitors to the club.
2020
Acceptable minimum wins: 11.
I would like to say we will win more, but with the usual (ordinary) draw, the (usual) ordinary umpiring, and no certainty of recruiting what we need, I would not want to put the bar any higher.
Players MUST: start well and stop periods in games where we concede 4-7 unanswered goals. Profound concentration and on-field leadership and discipline improvement. Cease to be the nice guys of the competition... time for some ruthlessness. >
> >Player(s) who MUST improve: Cuningham, Dow, Fisher, McGovern, McKay’s kicking & thinking, Setterfield, Charlie Curnow's decision making.
(crystal ball time) Player(s) who will surprise with their improvement: Deluca, McGovern, Setterfield. I can pray.
Most looking forward to beating: Richmond, Geelong, Sydney and Hawthorn.
(crystal ball again) Our ladder position will be: mid range. We may challenge if we can get the personnel we need. We may do better if we get the sort of run with injuries that Brisbane has had this year.
AFL should: Prevent marquee players changing clubs to top 8 clubs. 'Equalization is happening' says Gil… lying pr1ck, I say.
I'm inclined to agree. The AFL have been making the problem worse rather than better and need to adjust the free agency issues.
The AFL also needs to address the issue of the umpiring. We cannot go on with 20 - 25% of frees being 'wrong'.
The AFL also has to start considering a 3rd Melbourne venue (Not Geelong: that hole has had millions wasted on it and it still can't cover any sort of crowd.) Princes Park is the obvious one, not just because we play there. There are options for crowd movement that the AFL could arrange for a supportive government to supply. Not some of the pipe-dreams that some others have put out: various club presidents should not be allowed access to illegal chemicals before submitting such fantasies.
Live Long and Prosper!