How lucky/smart are we?

[liz]

Actually, I said that only in relation to the West Coast players I listed. All those have played, and I think all have made quite an impression. Rosa, Waters, Priddis and Hurn got upwards of 20 touches a game in a star midfield last season, Le Cras is scoring almost two goals a game, McKinley has been remarkable in a struggling side this season and Kennedy is widely touted as a great prospect. That's far greater success than those players listed for Sydney have managed, in my opinion.

.

Even if your observation is limited just to WC (which was ambiguous), I think your observation is debatable. Most of those players aren't comparable in experience levels to the youngsters the OP of this thread was celebrating. And the major reason they have had far more opportunities than their closest equivalents on our list - the likes of Moore and Schmidt - is that West Coast's depth in 25-28 year olds was nothing like as good as Sydney's. They had no choice but to play those players early.

In terms of the players better comparable to Jack, Barlow and Bird in terms of experience:

McKinley's been very good but it's a bit rich to say he's achieved far greater success than Jack. Their efforts have been pretty comparable playing very different roles for their teams.

Kennedy's achieved absolutely nothing yet - he's not even played an AFL game yet.

Brown played a few good games last year but currently isn't in a position to make any contribution. Nor is Le Cras.

And yes, you could have thrown Masten, Selwood or Ebert in there. All look like players with promise. But none has achieved anything more than our equivalents.

[sharp9]

Rhys Palmer and Cyril Rioli have done much more than any of our fiurst or second years.

Having said that I could of LIKE the fact that our good young players just play and don't cause an enormous stir...Barlow and Moore, especially. they just seem like they're part of the team (same with Schmidt last year).

[DeadlyAkkuret]

Why so defensive?

Not defensive at all, I'm simply challenging Donners' very debatable points.

The part about Kennedy being "widely touted as a great prospect" is baffling. He hasn't played a senior game, so at the moment he's nothing. Also, how many games have Priddis and Hurn played? More than Barlow, Moore and Jack I'm guessing.

Condisering where our youngsters are at, they're comfortably on par with most newbies in the league. Let's not forget that those West Coast midfielders were playing with the likes of Judd, Cousins and Kerr from the start, so they were hardly getting the opposition's best players.

[DeadlyAkkuret]

Rhys Palmer and Cyril Rioli have done much more than any of our fiurst or second years.

Which picks were they taken with? Higher than most of our youngsters I'd imagine. Fremantle would be pretty pissed if their top 8 pick wasn't showing any promise.

[ugg]

Josh Kennedy of the Eagles has played 25 games for Carlton. (Although they were mostly insipid performances)
Josh Kennedy of the Hawks hasn't played a senior game yet.

[liz]

Josh Kennedy of the Eagles has played 25 games for Carlton. (Although they were mostly insipid performances)
Josh Kennedy of the Hawks hasn't played a senior game yet.

Has he really? My error. I think he's been named to play this weekend for West Coast and read somewhere he'd be making his debut. I guess they meant West Coast debut.

Still hasn't achieved a huge deal though...

[DeadlyAkkuret]

Josh Kennedy of the Eagles has played 25 games for Carlton. (Although they were mostly insipid performances)
Josh Kennedy of the Hawks hasn't played a senior game yet.

So one of them is yet to play and the other was so good that even Carlton gave him away? Quick, let's trade Barlow so we can snap one of these gems up.

[Donners]

Kennedy's achieved absolutely nothing yet - he's not even played an AFL game yet.

Josh Kennedy at West Coast, the #4 draft pick, has played 22 games by my count. He hasn't made a big impression yet, but key position players take time to develop.

Once again, the point is that our youth stocks are at best on a par with other sides. I think some sides are in a better position in this regard, since their young players have had a chance to gain experience and prove themselves, while others have had plenty of high picks. There's not much we can do about the latter, and the former is a process that is really only just starting. We can't really judge this batch yet.