Team 2013

[Hartijon]

Here is a team for 2013, taking into account potential improvement in some players and the natural attrition (due to age/injury) of others.

Goodes, Tippett, McGlynn
Rohan, Reid, Lamb
Jetta, Kennedy, Hanners
Shaw, Grundy, Mattner
Johnson, Richards, Smith

Mumford, ROK, Jack

Bench: LRT, Parker, Mitchell, Macca

Other players
Jude - love him, but have a feeling age/injury may creep up on him. I hope not and he can take Mitchell's spot if form is good.
Mike - I couldn't put Mumford, Pyke, Tippett, LRT in the same side. Happy for Mike to replace any of these if form warrants it.
Morton - Loses his spot due to improvement of Lamb, Mitchell and Rohan.
Mal - Will be thereabouts.
Bird - Very underrated player and will more than likely be ahead of Lamf & Mitchell, so don't know why I'm leaving him out.

The majority of other players on our list would be in the best 25 of at least 8 others sides, so they are stiff.

Have hopes for Towers and Membrey, so will be interesting to see how they go.

One thing as a side effect of winning a GF is that you see who comes good under the most intense pressure imaginable.These are the players who will win you another GF. GF heroes like Malceski whose amazing 2 goals made all the difference,Mike Pyke who proved the knockers wrong and Morton showing how to crumb and kick straight.You don't go up to these guys and say "Sorry your dropped coz we think Lamb,Rohan,Mitchell etc have more potential. "

I believe the selectors know this and players like Mal, LRT, Jude, Morton ,Bird will be the first ones picked thank goodness!The rest have to wait for an injury or fight their way back through outstanding form.The Premiership heroes will have a Gold Pass for quite some time.

[jono2707]

I wonder how long it'll take for the old 'premiership credits' argument to pop up in discussion of whether to drop player x due to poor form...

[barry]

pkye and mummy fighting it out for 1 st ruck. Pyke may be ahead

[Doctor]

no doubt........we just need to micro manage Gazza.........he will be lucky to be ready come the second half of the season let alone the first half.

We have enough talent without pushing Gaz......I want Gaz right for 2014-15-16-17-18-19-00 onwards

Towers looks like he could play the role that Gaz was given quite easily.......he is very very quick and can easily chase down any fast HBF like Gaz's role in Seniors.

Lambie looks like he would be a fair contender for that role also

Morton and Rohan had their role very much simplified in 2012

Agreed. I don't think we'll see much of Gaz in the firsts in 2013.

[Big Al]

With KT holding nearly 10% of the budget - better kick some goals IMO!

Rod_

Kick and create goals would probably be more accurate. He'll provide an imposing target for us and will take the best defender. That'll bring the rest of the forwards into play.

[707]

Good thread and some good replies. I do like the look of the side post veterans retirements, gives me real confidence about the next few years.

The overall list looks very strong, late season 2013 we'll be starting to look at the list changes in readiness for the drafts. I wonder how many retirements there will be ? Who may not have progressed enough to keep their place on the list? Who will we draft with pick 18?

Already got my mind ticking over and it's not even Xmas yet!

[707]

I wonder how long it'll take for the old 'premiership credits' argument to pop up in discussion of whether to drop player x due to poor form...

Premiership credits will last a while in 2013, how long they last for an out of form player will very much depend on whether anyone is burning it up in the ressies. Wondering if we might do a bit of resting of veterans ala Geelong 2011 if we do have a good depth of reserves.

I'm hoping that a number of ressies players are burning it up, Mitchell, Lamb, Lockyer, Membrey, Towers etc would be very satisfying. The ressies should be really strong next year

[i'm-uninformed2]

A few things - we had an extraordinary run in 2012 with injuries (bar Rohan, and the last sad glitch for McGlynn) so we'll need the depth.

But I wouldnt be expecting to see too much of Red Rooster in 2013.

Also, a little birdie tells me young Mitchell is still rarely on the training track and keeps have issues with his body. They reckon he'll grow out of it but right now, a fair way off having a sustained crack at it.

[jono2707]

Also, a little birdie tells me young Mitchell is still rarely on the training track and keeps have issues with his body. They reckon he'll grow out of it but right now, a fair way off having a sustained crack at it.

That's a bummer to hear, but I'm sure we can wait. It'd be good to see Tom get at least a taste of the action next year, but if they need to give him time to get his body right, so be it. We're talking about a long-term player here if it all comes together for him....

[liz]

A few things - we had an extraordinary run in 2012 with injuries (bar Rohan, and the last sad glitch for McGlynn) so we'll need the depth.

And Goodes and Mummy never quite getting to their best. Had anyone said this time a year ago that we'd now be the reigning premiers but with arguably our two most important players having never been able to get it quite together due to injuries, even most of us would have said "Yeah, right!"

But do agree with your general premise that we did pretty well last year overall on the injury front. Even though some important players suffered with significant injuries, enough of the team managed to string lots of games together to bring some real stability to the team. This was something West Coast, and to a lesser extent Collingwood, never quite managed to do last year. And, of course, Essendon's injury woes became almost comical at times. I doubt we could cope with a spate of injuries like that. I doubt any side could.

[Go Swannies]

And Goodes and Mummy never quite getting to their best. Had anyone said this time a year ago that we'd now be the reigning premiers but with arguably our two most important players having never been able to get it quite together due to injuries, even most of us would have said "Yeah, right!"

But do agree with your general premise that we did pretty well last year overall on the injury front. Even though some important players suffered with significant injuries, enough of the team managed to string lots of games together to bring some real stability to the team. This was something West Coast, and to a lesser extent Collingwood, never quite managed to do last year. And, of course, Essendon's injury woes became almost comical at times. I doubt we could cope with a spate of injuries like that. I doubt any side could.

Liz, it's not just the obvious players. Losing parker left us weaker - and we looked really fragile without Nick Smith, too. And, after endlessly watching the GF I don't think we'd be Premiers without AJ's efforts throughout the game. (He was funny at the B&F too "Nic Mal keeps going on about how he kicked first and last goals but I have to remind him that I had the last kick of the game.")

[liz]

Liz, it's not just the obvious players. Losing parker left us weaker - and we looked really fragile without Nick Smith, too. And, after endlessly watching the GF I don't think we'd be Premiers without AJ's efforts throughout the game. (He was funny at the B&F too "Nic Mal keeps going on about how he kicked first and last goals but I have to remind him that I had the last kick of the game.")

Yeah, but every club has to expect some injuries. And while promising as Parker is, it is hard to argue he was critical to the side in 2012. He played his role, when able to, but didn't need to be a mainstay.

The whole point about having depth is that you can afford to lose the odd player here and there. Losing Smith for even just a few weeks was - and will be in 2013 -an issue but mostly because we have close to no depth in that particular position.

However much depth a club has, however, it is hard to cope with losing your best, or structurally most important players for even a few weeks. The fact that we won a premiership with modest - by his standards - contributions from Goodes, and with Mummy well down on his best of the previous two year, is testament to just how disciplined and resilient the team became over the course of 2012.

[Triple B]

I wonder how long it'll take for the old 'premiership credits' argument to pop up in discussion of whether to drop player x due to poor form...

If Kurt was available from round 1, it may well have started already. The two premiership credits (LRT) v one premiership credits argument (Myke)...

[Velour&Ruffles]

One thing as a side effect of winning a GF is that you see who comes good under the most intense pressure imaginable.These are the players who will win you another GF. GF heroes like Malceski whose amazing 2 goals made all the difference,Mike Pyke who proved the knockers wrong and Morton showing how to crumb and kick straight.You don't go up to these guys and say "Sorry your dropped coz we think Lamb,Rohan,Mitchell etc have more potential. "

I believe the selectors know this and players like Mal, LRT, Jude, Morton ,Bird will be the first ones picked thank goodness!The rest have to wait for an injury or fight their way back through outstanding form.The Premiership heroes will have a Gold Pass for quite some time.

One of the more intelligent posts in RWO history. Winning GFs is about so much more than natural ability.

[Doctor]

One thing we can probably all agree on is that our depth is a very nice problem for the selection panel to have.