The worst type of football analyst is the ‘I’m confused’ guy. It’s the guy who, when confronted with something he doesn’t understand, instead of following his intellectual curiosity or professional responsibility as an analyst to try and understand the issue, instead lazy declines to invest the effort, and instead says “I’m confused” as if it is a fully formed point that would assist the viewer. Matthew Richardson is the captain of this loathsome club, and Cane Cornes is his less-likeable successor.
I don’t watch the Sunday Footy Show because I value my time, so I can only go on what was reported. So let’s tackle this line-by-line.
Question: “So Ross, are you rebuilding or are you not?”
Answer: Yes.
Off to a bright start.
“Danyle Pearce has been best on ground nine games in a row (in the WAFL) and you won’t play him, yet during the week you sign Hayden Ballantyne who had one possession at half-time and four for the game, didn’t touch the footy in the second or fourth quarter. He’s 31 years of age.
Notwithstanding that Ballantyne is a year younger than Pearce, they play different positions. Freo has a few players who can play that outside-linking midfield role, and there are three elite-level players ahead of Pearce at the moment (the Hills and Langdon). We are a little light on for small forwards, meaning a one-year deal for Ballantyne makes some sense. Add the fact Ballas was a guy who was undrafted initially and willed himself into the AFL with his work ethic, and played like every game was his last, was in the leadership group for a while and has taken on a mentoring role, I can see why you’d like to have him at the club on a one-year deal.
“You’re also thinking about re-signing Aaron Sandilands who’s about to be 36, he has hardly played in the last two years.”
Sandi has been arguably the most dominant ruckman in the league over the last decade, and we have a bunch of young ruckmen who could learn a lot from him. Sandi will probably sign on for a relatively modest fee, so the only detriment here is if games are taken away from talented younger ruckmen – who would struggle to put a full season together in any event.
“And Harley Bennell, he’s played two (AFL) games in his time at Fremantle and you go and sign him.”
Freo are struggling for elite talent and, in particular, skilled players. There’s probably only a small chance that Harley will resurrect his career, but the chance is probably greater than some guy we take at pick 80-100 in the draft.
Cornes seems to be labouring under the misapprehension that unless your entire list is 19 years old you are not rebuilding. Hutchy used to be guilty of this during his Footy Classified run. Sometimes there is merit in keeping some old heads on one-year deals. The trade-off is for one or two slots at the back of the rookie draft. We’ve had 8 debutants this year. We’ve got one of the youngest teams running around. Of course we’re rebuilding.
Maybe we’re not doing the rebuild well, but if that’s the view at least go to the effort of challenging the drafting, or the list management, or the coaching, or the effort. Taking two pieces of news – a whipping and Ballas re-signing for year – and putting them together to form an ‘I’m confused’ statement is the laziest form of analysis.
I can't see a decent point in there. That people are so disillusioned with the club that they think Cornes is making a point is a bit sad.
