frank dardew wrote:
Agree with BV too as I said in another thread there are only a handful of the 22 playing to their capacity
2 out of 3 s output is less than last year but the overall squad is better with Williams Saad and Fogarty
It’s the 2 out of 3 in the team that need to lift look at Setters for example output compared to last year pales into insignificance
At the moment that goes for Murph Eddie Willo Cunningham Cripps Newnes Doc SPS etc etc
In terms of guys better than last year, this is who I can think of:
Walsh
JSOS (looks better than he ever has in the games hes played)
Harry (though still doesn't work hard enough, is stronger and more of a threat now)
Cottrell (looks a bit better than last year, though not so much against Port)
New players who have had positive impact
Williams
Fogarty
Saad
Parks (in 2 games hes played)
That is about it
Ones who are pretty similar to 2020:
Dow (wasnt good when he played last year and hasn't been this year)
LOB (ditto)
SPS
Kennedy (though he had some decent games last year)
Gov (I saw no difference, at least yet)
Jones (good last year and this year mostly)
Doch (good, though some possession howlers here and there)
Plowman (similarly okish, outside of an awful Collingwood game this year)
Weiters (dependable)
Pitto (still played less than 30 games, serviceable)
Newnes (okish to good)
Ed Curnow (still good, though had a poor one v Port)
Gibbo (been busy though poor against Port)
Gone Backwards
Betts
Murph
Cuningham
Setterfield
Williamson
Levi (slightly though probably not 100%)
Injured most if not all the season
JSOS
TDK
Carroll
Kemp
Martin
Newman
Fisher
C Curnow
Marchbank
OMac (well he is now)
So all of those things combined have left us almost where we began. The new guys coming and the improvement of a few, have been offset by young players either stagnating/going backwards, older guys getting worse and current longer term injuries to 6 guys who'd walk into our best 22.
So injuries are an excuse but they aren't the entire picture, we'd have banked on much greater output from Setterfield, Cuningham (i know he hasn't played but there is a reason for that) and at least hoped Dow would of risen to the level of a serviceable AFL player.