TOPIC:

ROYAL wrote:

We need to shed at least 20 players in my opinion so players leaving is a god send. Unless it’s Ramma, Jones, Ameduri or Msando it doesn’t matter 

Spot on,and to the players leaving i say bon voyage and happy trails.

ROYAL wrote:

We need to shed at least 20 players in my opinion so players leaving is a god send. Unless it’s Ramma, Jones, Ameduri or Msando it doesn’t matter 

so which 20 players are we going to shed.20 reserves players.20 league players or a combination of both.we've already had two players retire and if we lose another 3-4 league standard players then no matter how good our recruiting is i doubt we will improve.

SD351 wrote:

C22, your No#3 item, will be very interesting 🧐

all you have to look at what happened at the start of the season.five players left who had league experience.arbon,hart,gorter,hooper,rudrum and only three we recruited who played league in wright,edwards-baldwin and merritt.we were thin  in our depth especially in our backline and lacked height.at times.we had edwards baldwin in the backline and used cooley who i hope will be developed as a midfielder this year..no point in having a revolving door.

We only have perhaps 10 league standard players at the football club. So a complete fresh start is required to have any success. You guys may be happy winning 6 games a year.  I want to win 14 plus per season and that requires more competitive athletic footballers. Anyone that can’t run and won’t commit to a proper weights program has to go. 

chaddy22 wrote:

interesting decision,a one year extension isn't a ringing endorsement of the coach.barney will be under a lot of pressure for next year.so what needs to happen for us yo improve.

1.needs to change his coaching style.maybe a new mentor.
2.obviously some targeted recruiting.with a few players retiring our list looks even thinner.
3 player retention.i will be interested to see how many players may pull the pin now the decision has been made.if we lose more then we recruit like last year  we will be battling to move up the ladder.

Gee wizz you don’t see that often these days , a one year extension at the end of a contract but I applaud EP for it, just not the timing of it. I think Earl Spaldiing’s last contract was a one year extension at Perth but that’s all he wanted. 

I think it would have looked much better if the EP board had of made this decision a lot sooner so maybe they were feeling out other suitors. But too often clubs feel obligated to give 2 year extensions when a one year extension would have been wiser to avoid costly payouts.

ROYAL wrote:

We only have perhaps 10 league standard players at the football club. So a complete fresh start is required to have any success. You guys may be happy winning 6 games a year.  I want to win 14 plus per season and that requires more competitive athletic footballers. Anyone that can’t run and won’t commit to a proper weights program has to go. 

Yep and there in lies the rub with the current process, one of the primary roles of a coach is to develop players for now and into the future.

3 examples - Boules dominates the reserves with a high average possession rate, plays 1 or 2 league games and does well enough that the opportunities continue but no we will just leave in the reserves when clearly players in the league are playing poorly, Underwood does well and does enough to get a league game plays on a player that is dominate for the opposition keeps to less than 15 possessions when normally averages over 25 and hey back to ressies, Dobson the player you either like or hate hurts his hamstring, gets back and is told that oh you're in the ressies cos there is less chance of hurting it again, Cahill comes back from the same injury into ressies when we needed his robustness in the backline and what happens he hurts the hammy again in the reserves.

Lets hope the Director of Coaching has a degree in communication and a large serving of common sense.

Boules I think benefited from time in the reserves but definitely is a handy player.  Underwood struggles at reserves level but had a good league game as a tagger. Dobbo needs to train harder or retire.  Cahill needs to improve his kicking and decide if he wants to continue at EP.

ROYAL wrote:

Boules I think benefited from time in the reserves but definitely is a handy player.  A fair point but surely his development would have been better served in the league more often than not. Underwood struggles at reserves level but had a good league game as a tagger. Not sure that I agree he did well and deserved further opportunities instead being relegated to the reserves where clearly it was a bit of a kick in the teeth for him.Dobbo needs to train harder or retire. Mitchell struggles with where he is played and what he is told to do, when he is let loose as a mid he has an impact also he is built the way he is and surely again his bulk would be useful in the middle of the ground but .......  Cahill needs to improve his kicking and decide if he wants to continue at EP and  where does that improvement get driven.

Good points Grump, my opinions are.   Boules as a small body should be brought along slowly.  Your right I have no proof that playing more league would have been detrimental. Just my experience and eye says slower is better. 
Underwood is not a league player but is he worth a month as a tagger to see if he could do the job consistently, perhaps. 
Dobbo has the talent to play any position, but he needs to lose weight and increase his mobility to get the best out of himself. I feel we will be saying at the end of his career underachiever. 
I love Cahill speed, tough and intensity. Need him to step up as a leader and put the club first. 

www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-30/danish-ar...3il7Jp24zd20RdMTmF0o

MMM a danish art gallery and the EP board.