Parko made a really good point on Friday night footy this week. Probably as good as Lethal Matthew's "at 50 games , you know what you've got" measure.
Apparently, history shows (someone has worked this out) that Premiership teams have a "minimum 12 players who have played 100 games or more. "
Now, Freo has 16 players in its squad ( by my reckoning...happy to be proven wrong :). ) that have played a hundred games or more. Of those, eight - Ballantyne, T. Fist, Ibbo, D Pearce, Z. Clarke, Johnno, Suban and Spurr - will be lucky to go around again let alone play another year.
The other 8 are Fyfe, Mundy, 2 x Hill, Walters, Neale, Sandy and Sutcliffe. 3 of those will be lucky to play for more than a year.
Take the "conjecture players" as you like - ( Sandy, Spurr, Sutcliffe, Suban and Mundy ....Ballantyne??...Johnno??), the argument which group they are in is academic really....
Point is, a fair percentage of them are borderline players, or are unlikely to play for more than a year.
Now, Griffen has played 96 games, and he' s the next closest to enter the hundred game club. But is he on the list next year?? Then, Harley is on 81. ( a year away from 100...at least), and the likes of Crozier and Sheriden are way back on 67 ( 2 years away) and I'd expect one of those guys not to be at the club next year!
And then the likes of Tabener, Kersten and Weller are around the 45. -55 mark ( ie 3 years away) and then its way back to Blakely and Tucker at 30 odd games or less. Then there is the rest!!
Long and short of it, is that as a squad we are a long, long way away from "Parko's Premiership Team " requirement.
Anyone who thinks we are going to be in contention any time soon is delusional!
Having said that, I'm interested in how the '93 'Baby Bombers stacked up against this measure...? Would have thought they would have pushed having 12... so anything is possible I guess...!??
