What to take from 2004?

Johnson#26 · Joined: 18 Dec 2003

What can we get out of 2004 looking towards 2005?

We can take...

-We won't get injured like that again
-Richards will be a star - same with Cam Cloke
-Cole has improved and may be a wingman in the future
-Johnson has had his best season yet
-Walker has improved
-Rowe has shown something
-Maxwell will be a 10 year player
-We blooded 10 kids
-Holland has continued his good form
-Clement will be All-Australian

Plus next season Bucks and Burnsy will be better for the injuries, and be much fitter. Ditto Rocca.

MarkT · Joined: 07 Aug 2001 Location: Melb

Richards looks to have promise. A long way from being a star.

Cam looks the good to me. I love the way he goes about it and he looks to be able to read the game early on which is a great sign. He has limitation though in pace and ground skills. Will be a player IMO.

Maxwell was a great rookie promotion. Long way to go but there is definitely a bit to work with.

Rowe I am far from convinced with but he is definitely worth persevering with. Looks pretty lost too often though and turns it over a bit too much.

Walker has not made much ground IMO but his athleticism makes him worth persisting with. I don�t see anything special in the rest of the young players. The fact we debuted so many is good though.

Next year will be important for Walker, King, Swan, Mullins, Nixon and few others. A few of these guys have to grab a spot and show real ability or we have a large tray of also rans to deal with. Mullins might be a keeper. Morrison, Hall, Brayden & Heath Shaw and a couple of others need to show some promise and demand debuts as well.

PiesFan · Joined: 28 Sep 2003

All of the above and i think that Woewodin is finally playing some consistent footy. And lets hope we can look forward to some good draft picks and trades!

Johnson#26 · Joined: 18 Dec 2003

Yep, Woey has been great this year. He has moved to defence recently and has done well. After all, thats where he started at the Dees.

Daks · Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Location: Melbourne.

The youngsters.. and the form of Woey. Not much else is there?

LeonMcS · Posted: Mon Aug 23, 2004 1:02 pm

A early look at the upcoming cricket season...

d9 tank · Joined: 04 Oct 2002 Location: Victoria

Believe it or not there is a lot to take from 2004.

Most clubs would be happy to discover 1 or 2 players in a season, but because of our poor run we have been forced to play players who would have otherwise not got a crack, and as such have discovered four very good players.

I believe Nick Maxwell would not have got a crack this season and never played AFL footy if it wasn't for our injuries this season. Richards, C.Cloke and Rowe would have eventually been discovered, but the fact that a promising afl career has been made when it was against all odds is just terrific.

labrooy · Joined: 18 Sep 2003 Location: Toowoomba, Qld

I think Richards and Cam Cloke would have played this year regardless. In any event I agree with what you say, particularly about Nick Maxwell. It would have been a huge shame if he stayed on the rookie list as there would have been every chance we wouldn't have picked him up and he could have been lost to the game at AFL level forever. Every cloud does have a silver lining!!!

Johnson#26 · Joined: 18 Dec 2003

I think the best thing is that Rowe, Richards, Cam and Maxy and a few others (Kingy/Goughy etc) are ahead of what they would have been had we been successful. That will help us enourmously next season in our tilt for the flag.

Zeke · Growl Joined: 29 Sep 2003 Location: The Studio

Daks · Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Location: Melbourne.

First thing i'd lik to take is the four points from Carlton.

sq3 · Joined: 30 Mar 2004 Location: Gold Coast/Tampa

From 2004 -
The great improvements of Stretch, Lonie, Tex, C2, Maxwell, Crow, BJ.
The realization that the Pies overall list skill level is in the bottom half of the AFL,
Their pre season preparation and conditioning was worse than their skill level.

Pies will improve exponentially as their off field staff improvements do in 2005.

no fear · Joined: 18 Aug 2004 Location: Hovering high over Melbourne

Cricket... a rude interruption to the footy season!

Sultan of spin · Joined: 31 Aug 2003 Location: Burnley

Once again I think Mark has made a good assessment of where we are at, It is nice to hear somebody who can actually make subjective and informed comments. Although I think you were a little harsh on Walker who I think has shown a lot of potenial recently.

I agree with you that C2, Richards and Maxwell have all shown promise but are certainly far from established players and I agree that it is far to early for people to hailing them as future champions. Also your comments re Rome are also very accurate and I think that just because he has had a couple of kicks recently people think he is going to be a good player, but it is not just about getting the ball it is what you do with it that is important (eg MCG & O'Bree)

You named some guys that will have to stand up next year but I would be surprised If Swan & Nixon are retained next year I just don't think they have shown enough to warrant another season.

piedys · Posted: Mon Aug 23, 2004 11:45 pm

What to take from 2004? Asprin! The pluses?

Well, we get a full pre-season in 2005.
We won't lose the 2004 Grand Final.
Umm... We won't get any players suspended in this years Pre-lim final...
We don't have to queue up for Grand Final tickets and be dissapointed...
No players will leave because they couldn't get a game this year...

Well, i'm all outta optimism...

Dyso