Every season we here on D/Land go into the draft expecting us to recruit what we see that we obviously lack-big key position players and every year we come away feeling let down. You go through our senior list now and it makes for pretty sad reading.
We have 12 listed players that would be regarded as KPP's or ruckmen. I don't know whether that is a good proportion compared to other sides(hello Fre_Doh)or not but i do know the following...
Out of that 12, Pav, Johnno, Dawson, Sandi & Griff are aged between 30-34, plus Silvagni is 29. That's half our big men near retirement you would think as bigger players don't usually play as long as smaller midfield types.(Fletcher excepted)
After that we have a gap down to Clarke-26, Tabener-23, Hannath-24, Pearce & Apeness & Collins-21.
You look at that younger group.
Clarke-lots here reckon he should be used as a key forward. Let's be honest. IT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN! He's had plenty of chances to show it and hasn't. For the last three years he's been mentioned in trade talks but still we persevere.
Tabener-this is going to be his breakout season according to a fair few here. I'd be happy for a bloody breakout game just to start with.
Pearce-definitely shows promise but we still can't even decide to play him as a backman or a forward so instead of letting him settle in one area we throw him around all over the shop.
Hannath-see Clarke above
Apeness-buggered his knee last year and is a long way from appearing in the seniors.
Collins-looked okay in pre season. Unproven.
There have been some interesting observations so far today. A couple i liked were-Silvagni won't get a game even if the whole backline was hit by a bus. Chuck him forward then and let him create some mayhem. He's at least more mobile than Clarke and Hannath.
Port recruited Dixon. This is my main point of annoyance and disillusionment. We have a huge gap of talented mid age tall players. Surely you recruit what you need, and that is someone to take over from our aging good big players. Our younger ones are either not good enough, injured or need more time to step up, which is a luxury we can't afford, so guys like Dixon or any other established WAFL, SANFL, VFL player should be worth a punt.
Say we do get Hogan next year, do we really think he can be the saviour, which judging by our recruiting is what we're expecting. And that's even if he does decide to return here.
When was the last time a young player came in and starred for Fremantle straight up? I know they're hard to find but Adams look mighty comfortable there today and we overlooked him of course.
Yes we finished high on the ladder which doesn't help but WB weren't near the bottom.
So after my rant I wonder if you were involved at the club and knew what you were doing, would you recruit so many midfielders who can't get a game, not trade any and not draft enough big men. If the answer is no, then why can we see it but our recruiting staff can't.
Phew!
