A lot of our present problems are structural and we have struggled to with form and fitness to boot.
In the last draft our first thought was to get new midfielders. Hence the drafting of Dow and O'Brien. Both have shown a bit, although not as much as we hoped. But their time is in a year or two.
We traded for Kennedy and Lang, who were to be pillars of our midfield and who would replace Gibbs. Not a bad idea, but injury has screwed both of them up. We may not see them at their best for us until next year.
Lang hasn't played a game yet and Kennedy has played when he should not. They need time to get them right. But it means that we have a big hole in the midfield that we didn't expect to have.
We miss Murphy. The idea is to have him play forward a bit more often, as he does offer a fair bit as a goal kicker, while have the younger guys come through.
Well, the younger guys are not there yet and Murphy has been basically injured all year. He may not get back to full fitness until next year.
Hole in the midfield #2.
I do know that we were negotiating with Kelly to come over from South Freo. Geelong gesumped us and grabbed him at #31. He is not playing very well for Geelong.
Now consider our midfield with fit versions of Kennedy, Murphy and Lang, and with another good mid in Kelly.
Looks a bit different, doesn't it!
I gather that was our plan during the trade/draft period last year.
We showed our hand somewhat in the pre-season when we played Cripps forward. It was clear that plan was to cover our small forward problem with guys like Cripps, Lang and Murphy spending time forward.
Hmmmmmm.
Our defence has also been hit by poor form and injury. Alex Silvagni, for example, for probably planned to take a key defensive role until Rowe was available, leaving Jones to play a more attacking role from defence.
Whoopsies.
At this point Silvagni has struggled with injury and did not complete his only VFL game. Rowe has come back and had to stand up. He has, and great credit to him, but it was clearly not the plan to threw him in at the deep end, nor to have Jones against players that do not suit his style.
Notice the vast improvement in Jones as soon as Rowe returned.
Then there has been the form and fitness of Weitering, Marchbank and Plowman. All of these had extra pressure due to Docherty not being available. None has stood up so far. None have been 100% fit.
But we haven't been able to play guys like Williamson (probably our most athletic defender) because of injury. I am not sure what is going on with MacReadie at the moment. But it would be nice if he could step up.
Our plans did not foresee these players not producing.
Nor did our plans foresee the relative failures of Mullett and O'Shea.
The ruck. Kreuzer was fit for most of the game against Richmond, and has not been since. We fell against Richmond when Kreuzer got injured, as he was in excellent form. He has not been since.
At the time our backup ruckmen were also not available. Through injury. One of them has still not been able to get through a single VFL game.
On the other hand, Phillips, who did have a couple of games in the VFL, has played quite well since his return.
However, he is not Kreuzer.
This is also something our recruiting and planning did not foresee.
Last and not least, the small forward position. We recruited Garlett and hoped leBois would fill in this role. We had Pickett, who was improving every week and looking particularly dangerous.
We had SPS, whom we hoped would spend time forward and in the midfield.
Pickett broke his scaphoid and will miss half the year and probably not retur to his best form until 2019. Garlett and SPS have shown glimpses, but have not done enough and have not worked hard enough.
Again, not what was planned in the pre-season.
Now, none of these are fatal, but we do not have the dpeth yet to cover all the injuries we have and the problems that produces. Certainly a number of players playing poorly would probably be playing better with more talent around them. They have tried to step up and have been found wanting so far.
Not good, but that is where we are at.
As Bolton pointed out, we have increased the number of youngsters each year of our rebuild. We started with 2 - 4 per week. We went to 4 - 6 each week last year. We now have between 10 and 13 per week. That is a massive amount of experience to have missing. Fro last year's B&F, four of the top 5 players are not available. Only Gibbs is gone for good. So what has happened to the rest? Look at the stands or in the coaches box.
We are at a pretty low ebb at the moment, but think about it: our present available list is a long way from its best. But that does not need to be forever.
[I hate losing, but I look at the what we put on the field. I am happy in the way we are trying to rebuild and I will give the admin the benefit of the doubt for a little longer. But not forever.]
