I know these types of lists have been done to death before and I apologise if I'm rehashing something and also for the length of the post. I know some people eat up this kind of crap so take it for what you will.

A lot has been mentioned about our depth and whether or not this year is over if we lose this weekend.

As most of us know regardless of the win/loss record this year is not about scraping into the finals it's about finding out who can or can't cut it and who will be a part of the future plans for the CFC.

The thing that struck me was how many threads/posts I've read over the last six weeks regarding some of our players. Drop McGrath, Wiggins is a dud, Wiggins is great, drop Sporn, drop Prender, bring in Prender, give T-Lo a go, give Clarke a go, drop Deluca, what about Bryan? etc etc etc. It seems no-one can agree on the worth of many of our players.

I include myself in that category. At the start of the year I thought our depth had improved, now I'm not so sure. I think over the last 3 or so years our bottom six senior players have improved but maybe not so our middle tier group.

For example in 2003 our 27-33 ranked senior listed players (assuming that the last 5 spots are usually taken up by kids) would have been the likes of Fletcher, Eccles, Freeborn, Franchina, Plunkett and Merrington.

In 2004 it would have been Harford, Beasy, Clarke, McCormick, Franchina, Hulme and Kenna.

In 2005 it's now Clarke, Bowyer, Davies, Bentick, Simpson, Morrell, Longmuir, Simpson. All reasonable players but the list goes on and on which finally leads me to the following groups.

1/ First picked. 2/ Fringe players. 3/ Kids.

1/ First picked
Whitnall, Lappin, Scotland, French, Houlihan, Teague, Thornton, Koutoufides, Stevens, Camporeale, Fevola and Waite.

These guys at there best are our match-winners. Unless they are in terrible form you wouldn't consider dropping them or delisting them at the end of the year and would all be pencilled in the team sheet each week. Sure one or two names will be thrown up for trade but not if they are anyway near their peak.

The player you would consider to be the 12th best from this list is still highly rated.

2/ Fringe players.

Walker, Chambers, Longmuir, Norman, Johnson, Sporn, Wiggins, Davies, Deluca, McGrath, Bannister, Bowyer, Simpson, Prendergast, Bentick, Carrazzo, Morrell, Livingston, Clarke and Fisher.

There you have it folks. 20 players each week playing for 10 spots. It's too many, but at the moment a necessity. Everyone of these players has either already been dropped in 2005, not got a game or in the case of Sporn, Deluca and Carrazzo very lucky to still be there in a lot of people's eyes.

Regardless of what happens in 2005 it's the form of this group that will keep us watching for the rest of the year.

IMO the gap between the 12th and 13th player on our list is greater than the gap between the 13th and 32nd!! and that's where our problem lies at the moment. You can't win games with half a side that is currently a revolving door and unsettled.

BTW, this may seem harsh on Walker but fact is he has been dropped this year so it doesn't make him "an automatic selection". FWIW, he is the only one of this group of 20 that I am positive will make a 150-200 game player. Sure I have my favourites, and am harsh on other like will all do but despite being for example a Wiggo and Prender fan I wouldn't put the world on the fact that they'll be around in a couple of years time.

Just as an exercise for yourself try and rank this group of 20 in order and you'll see how little there is between them. You could make a case for all of them to be in the senior side, but on the other hand probably make a case for the Bullants! I know I have every week for the first six weeks of the year!

At some stage during the last two years I've either sung the praises or wielded the axe through the name of everyone of those 20.

3/ 1st year 'kids'

O'Hailpin, Russell, Betts, Bryan, Hartlett, Raso.

1st year players who I don't consider are playing for their lives (Apart from maybe Bryan).

Apologies for how long it took me to state what is the bloody obvious but I'm just basically typing as I think and hoping that it all works out in the wash.

What's my point? I'm not really sure! I just think when you sort the list this way it goes to show that there is still a long way to go and the guys should be commended for the effort shown so far considering that maybe the talent isn't as strong in the middle ranges as some might think.

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We're on a mission from Judd.

Pretty good analysis there. I think I agree that our depth in the bottom 6-10 positions in the team has gone up, but its that second tier that needs to kick on for us to go anywhere.

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"The ability to speak doesn't make you intelligent." Qui-Gon Jinn 15-05-2005

"there’s more chance of me becoming the full forward for the [Western Bulldogs] than there is of any change in the Labor Party." Julia Gillard 18-05-2010

Yeah interesting topic as always. I wonder if you included a poll similar to the TBV most valuable player for the round and asked everyone to rank the list in order I think that would probably come out quite similar to yours although Walker might be higher rated as the exception but I know what you're getting at.

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The great are great to us only because we are on our knees. Let us arise.
--Robert Collier

My brother from Chicago, Elwood Blues talks a lot on these boards about 'Chiefs' and 'Indians'. It's the 'Indians' that will keep you in a contests but the 'Chiefs' will get you over the line as the case against Essendon* and Hawthorn.

Although I appreciate the Kouta's, Sexton's, Brown's, Ratten's of this world who didn't hit their straps until around 22/23 I really worry that none of that middle group will be able to make the next step to 'Chief'.

All bar Walker and Bentick are in the 21-25 age group and really need to be doing more rather then us getting excited because "Archie kicked a nice goal" or "Karl made a couple of important spoils".

Half this middle group wont be there in 2006 and really now have to start picking up 20 touches, kicking 3 or 4, or holding a gun backman rather than playing the odd flashy quarter to keep us warm and fuzzy for another week. It's going to be a tough choice for the MC, as all have shown 'potential' at some stage but at some stage you need to cut them loose.

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We're on a mission from Judd.

extremely good points and analysis

spot on - not much else to say

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*(grow - fun - gah)

Yeah but whatabout your whataboutism.

You forgot to include the second Wiggins, spawned from a boil on his bum and nurtured with TC love

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Love Cricket? Love me

The biggest challenge is how are we going to get the players we need? We do not have much trade bait at the moment, as eveidenced by our first half!!

I agree with most but i would put Scotland in that list of Fringe players this year also.

This is a good post....my bro Jake is pretty much spot on with his snapshot of where we are . Some of us including me have been too forgiving and been too generous in our praise of certain players.

We dont have the star talent neccesary to take us any further than where we are....cameos from certain players are fooling us into believing they will make it.
Jakes right...where are the next group of matchwinners coming from?.....Collo/Denis get the cheque book out and buy us some star material and lets trade to get some early picks and get ourselves a Buddy Franklin and Daniel Wells.....its not knee jerk stuff just reality...we have stabalised the club but need to move on by further player culling and specialist recruiting....