Who do you need in a Premiership Team?

[sharp9]

I've only beeen following footy for for 8 years...This makes me either a quickly assimilating immigrant or bandwagon supporter, depending on your point of view.

One of the things I love about the game is (compared to soccer and league, anyway) the very specific requirements needed to fill very specific roles all around the field.

Over the last few years there has been a bit of talk about how the game has changed ie "We have seen the last of the great full forwards," and it got me wondering what players you do require in 2003 to win a premiership. Naturally this would be followed by, how close are we (and other teams in the comp) to fulfilling this list and therefore actually being a contender.

I'd be interested in anyone with more historical knowledge than me noting if any premiership teams of late have managed to win without players who fulfill the criteria below.

There are 14 positions on this list and nearly every one of those 14 would need to be in the top five (top ten for Key forwrds and backs) in the comp (on form) for the team to be a premiership contender, I reckon.

So here goes...(These are minimums)

Backline

2 Tall (192+) Muscular (95+) Mature age (23+) key defenders. (Fletcher/Michael/Leppitsch/Croft/Wakelin Twins/Jackovich/Archer/Wallis/Kernahan/Silvagni)
1 Genuine hard nut back pocket (Hardwick/The Scott Twins/Hart/Solomon/Pike)
1 Highly skilled, quick rebound specialist. (Kennelly/C. Johnson/M. Johnson/Fletcher again/L. Barry/X. Clarke/Dixon/Wellman)

Midfield

1 Superstar silky skilled, hard bodied mid-field General. (Voss/Mcleod/Buckley/Crawford/Kelly/Ricciuto/Cousins/Bradley/Campbell/West/Francou/Harvey/Bell/P. Williams/Hird)
2 Hard at the ball, first hands on it mongrels with no pain receptors who are slow to comprehend fear signals. (J. Johnson/J. Bolton/Kelly again/Libba/N. Stevens/Kirk/Cresswell/Hayes/West again)
1 extraordinary tagger. (Licuria/Ling/Crouch)
1 brilliant wingman/deliverer to the forward fifty (Ramanauskas/Black/Yze/Woewodin/Maxfield/Goddard/Lekkas)

Forwardline

2 tall (192+) marking targets with very high conversion rate from set shots. (Lloyd/Hall/O'Loughlin/J. Brown/Barnard/N. Thompson/Lynch/Embley/Neitz/Bradshaw)
1 small crumbing forward with uncanny knack of finding the goals from unexpected places. Has to be so good that oppositions worry about who to match up on him. (Matera/Schneider/N. Davis/Milne/Robertson/L. Davis/Rodan/Burns/Chick/Ladson/N. Brown)

Ruck

1 Stong bodied tall able to break eevn in hit outs but also with excellent marking skills to be extra man forward or back. (Gardiner/Ball/MacDonald/Primus/M. Clarke/Doyle/Charman/Everitt/Koschitske/King)
1 tall superstar rover equally capable of leaping in the contest or swooping on the loose ball. Touch of mad genius required.(White/Goodes/Hird again/Koutifides/Riewolt/J. Brennan/D.White)

We are only troubled in the Superstar midfield General role (Williams is good but nowhere near top 5), the Key defender roles (too light) and the hard nut (with skills) spot down back (Hello????).

Thoughts, kids? I'm sure there are loads of players that don't spring to my mind, who you guys reckon should be held up as perfect examples.

[penga]

i reckon powell has the potential of the hard nut down back

i reckon we should have a go at getting n. stevens for the general

[Rizzo]

>1 brilliant wingman/deliverer to the forward fifty

Watch Tiger grow into this role!

[Nico]

Good research Sharp9. I have been following footy for 45 years now, and what you have done is described the Holy Grail or the Footy Utopia.

Every club, coach and recruiting officer has a wishlist of the above.

Essendon was the Best Team Ever 3 years ago, but lost the plot by releasing players. Got arrogant and reckoned that everyone they recruited was a superstar. Now Brisbane has that mantle, but they seem to be aware that they must recruit well over the next 3 years to maintain their status.

So if a team flukes it and gets all the above right, they must win a flag in a very short time frame. We nearly got it right in 1996 but "lost it" within 12 months and recruited poorly, by trying to plug holes with so called established players from other clubs eg. Shannon Corcoran ex Bulldogs and Brisbane.

The one key ingredient you need to the perfect positional players is "speed", and speed in the midfield and off half back preferably.
Also there is the other age old saying "a champion team' will always beat a "team of champions".

Of course we can have lots of excellent triers but if the skills are lacking then you will always be middle of the road eg. Swans 1997-2001.

We are close to having the right mix and potential. It is a pity that Cressa is retiring because we seem to have the right mix of old, middle age and young players, and it seems to me that most of the oldies have a couple of good seasons in them yet. If we continue our form this season and contain the injuries then we are close to being right in the thick of things this season and moving strongly into an exciting 3 years.