Virgin Blue wrote:
jimmae wrote:
I showed last week through a statistical break down that we are physically and mentally behind teams like Collingwood, and that one of the key reasons is age and experience.
2 or 3 more young blokes will do that to you. It's not the only issue but it is an issue. Shooting from the hip really isn't your strong suit.
BTW I said 1 or maybe 2, not 2 or maybe 3
Go look at the players who took to field yesterday
Pies had kids I hardly knew. But they have a system, game plan, structure they fit into
Where is ours??
The Pies had only 4 players under the age of 22: Beams, Sidebottom, Blair, Reid; two first rounders, a second rounder & a rookie, so virtually all the youth was quality. 22 - 23 is around about where players start to click as they are physically read for AFL football week in, week out (presuming they were drafted at 17-19).
We had 6: Yarran, Garlett, Joseph, Ellard, Henderson, Gibbs. Half our forward line, our only small defenders and a mid we expect to be a prime mover of the football. Three first rounders, three rookies. As I said the other day, you can't hide them all on the bench when they're not in the game; we've poked most of them up forward or down back but eventually the mistakes they are trying to iron out of their games impact on the rest of the team, and we know there are a few senior names who aren't exactly up to it at present.
The thing you're all overlooking when you quote average ages and games is the spread of these figures. How many 100 game players; how many 23 and over with 100 games, etc. Again, I stress it isn't the be all and end all, but it is significant enough to take our confidence and self-belief down, and that loss of focus is all you need to falter at this level.