Richmond’s AFLW’s list is weighed down by slow, unskilled battlers. In three years we have gone from being woefully uncompetitive to somewhat competitive, and that is certainly something.
But the disaster of player selection for our inaugural season will take many years to rectify. Some further progress was made in the offseason by offloading the lumbering Frederick for more mobile players like Shevlin and Jess Hosking, the recruiting of Poppy King was a good get, and draftee Yassir looks promising. However, the use of our first round selection on Stella Reid raises red flags aplenty for mine. She obviously is capable of more than she has shown to date, given we are only four games into her first season, but its her “type” that is puzzling to me. She is not quick, and appears too big and rangy (unco) for a mobile player and too small for a key, so where exactly is her position? I really hope its not a doubling down on the Sophie Molan-type, who is as slow as a wet week and clearly not AFLW standard. Of course it is not Molan’s fault she was drafted so high, but the only reason she will be on our list next year will be to avoid embarrassing our recruiting team by jettisoning our top draft pick so soon. But jettison they should.
Our opposition, even the lowly ones like StK and Gold Coast, have a number of small, quick agile and skilled runners that can not only hit targets but run and create off half back. The better teams have even more quality athletic footballers with these traits. In contrast, we have slow, unskilled battlers who certainly try their hearts out but simply don’t have the talents to challenge the good teams. And the longer we ignore the very obvious trends of our competitors of recruiting skilled running types with good aerobic skills, the gap between our best and the comp will, like a scene from a Hitchcock thriller, get further away the closer we appear to get.
I really like that the team has a genuine crack, and I think Ferg is doing well with the cattle he’s got. Conti and McKenzie are obviously stars, Seymour is very genuine and when King comes back we’ll be better in midfield contests, Brennan is good but over-rated - but after that the genuine young up and comers are harder to identify. Kate Sheahan and the recruiters past and present have got a lot to answer for imho, and need to change direction and get with the program. The template for what they should have done was right in front of them – ie the men’s team: aerobically strong, fleet of foot, and small / nimble rather than tall / slow. The good teams are well ahead of us in development terms and targeting the right players for where the comp is going, and unfortunately no amount of brave battler performances can mask that.
But the disaster of player selection for our inaugural season will take many years to rectify. Some further progress was made in the offseason by offloading the lumbering Frederick for more mobile players like Shevlin and Jess Hosking, the recruiting of Poppy King was a good get, and draftee Yassir looks promising. However, the use of our first round selection on Stella Reid raises red flags aplenty for mine. She obviously is capable of more than she has shown to date, given we are only four games into her first season, but its her “type” that is puzzling to me. She is not quick, and appears too big and rangy (unco) for a mobile player and too small for a key, so where exactly is her position? I really hope its not a doubling down on the Sophie Molan-type, who is as slow as a wet week and clearly not AFLW standard. Of course it is not Molan’s fault she was drafted so high, but the only reason she will be on our list next year will be to avoid embarrassing our recruiting team by jettisoning our top draft pick so soon. But jettison they should.
Our opposition, even the lowly ones like StK and Gold Coast, have a number of small, quick agile and skilled runners that can not only hit targets but run and create off half back. The better teams have even more quality athletic footballers with these traits. In contrast, we have slow, unskilled battlers who certainly try their hearts out but simply don’t have the talents to challenge the good teams. And the longer we ignore the very obvious trends of our competitors of recruiting skilled running types with good aerobic skills, the gap between our best and the comp will, like a scene from a Hitchcock thriller, get further away the closer we appear to get.
I really like that the team has a genuine crack, and I think Ferg is doing well with the cattle he’s got. Conti and McKenzie are obviously stars, Seymour is very genuine and when King comes back we’ll be better in midfield contests, Brennan is good but over-rated - but after that the genuine young up and comers are harder to identify. Kate Sheahan and the recruiters past and present have got a lot to answer for imho, and need to change direction and get with the program. The template for what they should have done was right in front of them – ie the men’s team: aerobically strong, fleet of foot, and small / nimble rather than tall / slow. The good teams are well ahead of us in development terms and targeting the right players for where the comp is going, and unfortunately no amount of brave battler performances can mask that.
