AFL Rd 24 2023 Pre Game Prognostications Carlton vs GWS

[Thryleon]

They are going flat out, on average they are just a bit too old and now look slow as the seasons progresses towards the finals.

They got the label Dad's Army a few years back, now it's Grandpa's Army!

Before the haters label me an ageist, the reality is the difference between looking up to speed and looking out of the contest is almost nothing. A millisecond of extra reaction time, whether it's the thought process or the motor skills, and your trailing.

Six on the bench, what's the bet Chris Scott pushes for it! It'll be sold as "We need to accelerate the development of the kids" but the unspoken real reason is "These old blokes can't keep up anymore!" I suspect there will be a debate from the coach's side of this debate that is either more on the bench or release / restore the soft cap!

Anyway, the Handbaggers aren't a consideration for the 2023 final round.

Pendlebury is a prime example of this.  Watch the next Pies match.  He has survived to now because he is a classy ball user, and was getting on the footy in the open spaces, and only occasionally going into the contest.  Now he is a second slower, he is getting caught, more errant ball use, less clean looking and has gone from at the standard to sub standard pretty quickly.

Sometimes it doesn't take a remarkable difference either, but timing, a bit of luck, conditioning, and supplementing with the right mix of other players, and you go from chocolates to boiled lollies pretty quickly.

For example, the team that lost in the Semi Final against Geelong in 1994 vs the team that pantsed Geelong in 1995 had the following changes in personnell:

1994:
Barry Mitchell
Brett Sholl
Luke O Sullivan
James Cook
Matthew Allan
Troy Bond
Adrian Gleeson

in 1995, none of them featured on grand final day, and these guys were the proverbial "ins":
Matt Clape
Adrian Whitehead
Glenn Manton
Scott Camporeale
Dean Rice
Brad Pearce
Craig Bradley

Others in the team fared better because of the changes, plus another year into other players, and it makes all the difference come grand final day, and instead of 33 point loss, it was a 60 point win.  Sure a few players were not at their best in the finals series of 1994, and key ones, but sometimes its a matter of different parts means a greater whole, and getting that balance right can be as simple as one injury, or 3 or 4.