Class Of '14

[Breadcrawl]

Taylor Adams - debuted for GWS in '12, but played his first games for us this year. Strongly staked his claim to be our insidest mid for the next decade.

Tim Broomhead - Class, speed, good footy brain and accurate in front of goal. Others see Sidey and Daicos and I'm not going to disagree with them. But I see a faster, more resolute Didak and it excites me.

Tom Langdon - I don't care who gets the Rising Star. Here is the best debut season by any player, let alone a number 65 pick, in many a year. What a find. Staggering that folks were into Hine the year after he found this bloke that no one else was vaguely interested in.

Tony Armstrong - debuted for Adelaide years ago, but his first game for us was only a few weeks ago. I lol at people who were denigrating him before he'd even played a game, with shit like "you know we are scraping the bottom of the barrel when Armstrong gets a game". He's been very good. He's fast, composed and efficient with the ball. He's everything that all the bitching whingers say they want so he should make them happy. He makes me happy too. And he can play eight quarters

Jackson Ramsay - great to see him finally debut, not a lot to go on yet but he didn't embarrass himself

As far as unearthing players goes, this season is a triumph.

Class of '13: Grundy, Witts, Kennedy, Frost and Josh Thomas.

Class of '12: Elliott, Seedsman and Williams.

The class of '15 will very likely include Scharenberg, Freeman, Karnezis, Moore and hopefully Marsh.

I've left out the Clinton Youngs and Quentin Lynch's intentionally based on age when recruited as free agents.

We all know that we have heaps of young players but the point of this thread is to highlight how it is being done. We are rolling three to five quality young players into our squad each year. This is the recipe for sustained success. We are a game out of the eight and it is the closest we are ever going to get to a 'bottom out'.

Ramsay Frost Scharenberg

Armstrong Moore Langdon

Seedsman Adams Kennedy

Broomhead Marsh Elliott

Freeman Witts Karnezis

Grundy Thomas Willaims

There's a fairly even and capable starting 18 entirely comprised of players that will have debuted for Collingwood SINCE BUCKS TOOK OVER THREE SHORT YEARS AGO.

This is why there are only fourteen dickheads on Nicks who want him moved on, and more than five times as many who can smell what Bucks is cooking up.

My final point concerns a team that the trolls love to fete - the Cats.

I want you to pretend you are a Cats supporter and you are watching the 3rd quarter last night.

How do you console yourself like Scott tried to convince them all they should in the press conference? How do you see anything but a brittle, aging group standing on the edge of the precipice, with zero upside?

What does the Cats best 18 look like if you only count guys they've debuted in the last three years?

In a couple of years we will MURDER them every time we play them

[AN_Inkling]

I agree with your post, we do have a good crop of young players coming through, with assumedly, Moore to be added in November. I'll disagree on the Cats though, they also have quite a few young players (more games from players under 24 than us this year). What they also have, that we don't, is a number of over 30s which will need replacing very soon.

[Breadcrawl]

They have guys like Josh Caddy and Mitch Duncan who are great, young players.

But as you say, they have the Kellys and StevieJs and Enrights and Mackies and when those guys are gone, their worst five players on the field will be BAD. They simply haven't been investing in the future (like we certainly have) and it is going to catch up with them.

Ten consecutive goals kicked against them last night.

[swoop42]

Unbelievable that out of all our draftees last year (not including rookies) only Langdon remains standing.

This is a major worry right now with Scharenberg out with an ACL, Freeman and Marsh with serious hamstring concerns.

If this draft turns out to be a turkey it's going to cause us significant problems in the seasons to come and will probably decide our fate between being a genuine premiership chance or just making up the numbers in the final eight.

Need at least 2 of those 3 to succeed as quality AFL players.

[The Boy Who Cried Wolf]

Lololol Breadcrawl nice post minus the semi personal attacks on us 'Sacks', sure there is plenty of good young talent coming into the club, but some will fall by the wayside on the way, that's only natural... we're more concerned with how they are used, and we are far from convinced about Bucks.. and it's not only us, many others who had voted YES have also noted their concern - but I must admit, even I (who seriously doubts Bucks and has for _YEARS_) almost had a tear swelling in my eye after watching the after match pressy - he's not going to get the sack, even if we lose to the Hawks next week by 15 goals, so we'll all watch this space and see where it goes next year - but mark my words, he's started to run out of time to prove his worth. PASSION 4 PIES!!!

[AN_Inkling]

[Cuthbert Collingwood]

great post bready!

[roar]

[stui magpie]

[swoop42]

[AN_Inkling]

^^Just meant that, like Langdon, he was picked late in the draft. To have one 70+ pick pay off is great, to have two from the same draft would be a minor miracle.

[woftam]

[swoop42]

[matrix10]

Bravo Breadcrawl!
Sensible and rational post- a rarity these past few weeks on here.
Hard to disagree with any of that- yet we know some will still try

[Stupied]