Our veteran quandary

[Mr Miyagi]

Sidey clearly gets one more year. He’s not holding back any kids, because McCrae and McInnes and Johnson and others are doing nothing in the twos and won’t be at the club next year anyway. Give him next year and if his form drops then he plays vfl and adds much needed experience there.

[MAY-Z]

If we werent playing the likes of Bytel and Long over kids, then i would keep Sidey. If the recycled mid aged players are kept in the side we cant keep the real oldies otherwise we will go from oldest to youngest almost instantly in a year or 2

[Jezza]

Sidebottom did a brilliant job on Gulden.

Makes me think whether he might be suited to a tagging role next year if he stays on.

[Big T]

What we don’t want is to keep the veterans to prevent finishing bottom four and instead finish 11th again and miss a gun mid in 2025 draft.

We won a flag against all the odds, we are done now and need to rebuild similar to 2004-5 before tassie come in.

Cut the veterans take the pain play the kids and get the picks. Pronto.

[derkd]

^ agree with this, if we don't start to make changes to the age demographic of this list now, we are going to go backwards at speed.

Howe should have been one year extension, not two... love the guy, but he shouldn't be playing on in 2025.

Sidey should retire, if we are trying to find a place.for him in the team (he is done). Cox should at best be backup in 2025.

WHE shouldn't be on the list in 2025...(he will be however). Mitchell should also be done. Even Checkers is near the end.


Sorry, if we are relying in 2025 on these same above players to take us up the ladder, we have serious problems, they are too old.

Some players don't know when thier end has come.

Playing the same old fellas week in week out stifles development.

Collingwood missed a real opportunity after the Grandfinal win to manage out some older players on a high, I said it at the time.

As the list stands now we will be 9th to 14th next year.

The midfield is too thin, JDG has never played a full season and even fully fit is a burst player at best, not a typical midfield player. Pendles is great, but he is 36. Too much left to nick.

[Ronnie McKeowns boots]

Wouldn't be surprised if Jamie hung up the boots to be honest, he has lost a yard.

Sidey, I don't know...its been a pretty clear decline, last night notwithstanding.

Cox...we have rucks. I think we can do without.

Howe needs to go; we need to restructure the backline for the years to come.

BTW, unrelated, but does Long remind anyone of a cross between McCaffer and Sier? I expect his career will land somewhere between the 2 incidentally

[Mr Miyagi]

We have — apart from N Daicos — an 18-25 year old problem. Nothing I’m seeing in the VFL from McCrae, McInnes, Begg, Steene, Dean, are giving me any confidence they’re the future — especially regarding leadership skills. We get rid of Sidey and Howe and Elliot and that’s a huge hole in the leadership group I can’t see anyone apart from the Daicos boys from filling. We have no one who can fill multiple roles like Hosk can. Honestly, unless we get really bloody lucky with the trade and draft, we’re in for more pain.

[The Black and White Lion]

BTW, unrelated, but does Long remind anyone of a cross between McCaffer and Sier? I expect his career will land somewhere between the 2 incidentally

Macaffer drew and won a GF, Sier lost a GF. I'm not sure I like where this is going. Long doesn't remind of either yet but let's hope his pies career doesn't finish with a GF draw and a GF loss

[Gerry Cooper]

The other one who is dropping off noticeably is Crisp. His first half are always good but by the last quarter he is pretty much done. Its been the same thing for many of his games this season. One thing we dont (perhaps cant do) is manage him, Sidebottom, and Pendlebury's game time so they have something left for the last quarter. Perhaps some thought should have been given to that this season.

[neil]

Id offer Sidey one more year if he wants it only on the understanding that he will play VFL more than he likes
Howe is the same Id let him know that he may play more Vlf than Afl
Same for Cox
Crisp not sure if he is carrying an injury give him a medical and spell out the results
Elliot probably need to retire

[CrossPie18]

The biggest difference between this year and the last 2 is our inability to finish out a game - think Freo, Blues and Swans of late. The previous years, we always seemed to have petrol in the tank for a comeback.

To me, this is our age profile coming home to roost. Sidey has struggled all year (notwithstanding last Friday, which to me was an outlier). Cox simply doesn’t get to the ball (or take a strong grab) anymore.

Pendles has younger players running past him now in 4th quarters….although I would keep him and Howe for one more year due to list gaps, while we recruit.

The other problem is no (potentially) A-grade kids, other than Nick, and very few established players stepping up - Lipinski is a massive disappointment, Noble is limited and Quaynor’s 2024 has been modest.

McRae, McIness, Allan, Dean have shown not much when promoted. We have needed to fill gaps with plodders like Long, Bytel and Sullivan, who have all been serviceable but they don’t offer the star quality for deep finals performance. Add to that a crappy draft hand, due to a poor Schulz trade, and I think we are 12 months away from being able to properly reset/upgrade the list.

For me, I’m rapt we squeezed the lemon to the fullest in ’23 with shrewd recruiting, but it’s now time to make a hard call on 2-3 veterans (Sidey, Cox and maybe Jamie), with Pendles, Mitchell and Howe next year. We’re going to get pained regardless - may as well start now.

[qldmagpie67]

I’m hearing that no decision will be made on any veterans until after seasons end
This is mainly due to the club still trying to sort out what role Wright will play going forward if any
President Browne has made a mess of this from the get go
Wright was happy to hand in his notice. We decided to give him 6 months off to go travelling and use part time people (splitting the role between Leppa Bolton and Kelly) now Wright is back (well back in town at least) and Browne wants him to assume a role of basically job sharing
Seriously in what world would a guy recognised as one of the best footy administrators accept such a role given he has several options open to him (Tasmania and AFL head office is just 2 we know of)
Why wouldn’t we have accepted his resignation and then gone full tilt for the next best person out there ?
Setting that stupidity aside we now left with the following issues
Firstly given our list profile we know it has holes and needs improvement in several areas and we don’t have a first round draft pick to use.
Secondly our list is it stands right now will enter next year as the oldest average age list in the competition and with a massive gulf of players aged 23-26/27.
Lastly with no actual list management team working cohesively on how to sort through these problems we won’t know which veterans (if any) will depart until the off season is upon us.
So I’ll leave people with this thought
Let’s say we decide to move on 2 veterans (given most of the veterans are contracted for 2025) this leaves us limited options on who goes firstly. Secondly the oldest player without a contract is Sidey. So the club decides (this is a scenario not a given it’s going to happen) he’s not getting a contract and this is announced after seasons end. Who’s comfortable with him not being given the opportunity to say farewell on the field instead of saying goodbye at maybe the Copeland if the decision is made by then or worse the decision is made closer to draft time ? What happens then if he decides he wants to play on (which he has indicated he would like to) and he then departed for another team without the opportunity to thank the fans and the fans thank him ?
Does this sit well with people ?
It doesn’t for me at all
I’ve never rated Sidey as highly many that’s no secret and I’ve never hidden that fact and I’ve copped loads over the years for it. But I’m a big boy I can take it no issue I give as good as I get. But I have never questioned his commitment to the team nor his desire to do his best for the team. If he was to basically drift off into the night or to other club in the off season I think that sends the complete wrong message not only to fans but to the playing group as well.
Rate him or not he’s played 320 odd games for our club and that in itself should be celebrated the right way when it ends.
Let’s hope some commonsense csn prevail in the next week or so before the season ends so the fans know the fate of any veteran players and we can pay our respects in the correct way to any of them

[Mr Miyagi]

100% agree with yiu, Qldmagpie. If it’s true Wright wants 2-3 veterans retired, then retiring them after the season ends will cause a hell of a lot of friction at the club. I can’t see Wright being here next year no matter what happens.

But I’m going to cut Jeff some slack given his cancer. Others should have stepped up.

[The Black and White Lion]

Well we have one home game to go at the MCG and an away game at the MCG with our fate potentially decided 2 days later on the last Sunday of the home and away season.

If you’re retiring this year (Sidey, Howe, Elliot, Mitchell, Mihocek, Cox, WHE, Crisp all eligible with or without contract) you should be announcing it this week at the latest.

Can’t help but feel we’ve basked in the premiership glow the whole way through the club and don’t have the ruthless streak for sustained success

[lazzadesilva]

^^^^

Well if all or most of the players you mention depart, we have no option other than rebuilding with the next generation of players. And as others have mentioned, most of our current stock of reserve players are simply not good enough to be instant replacements and we have to recruit young players aggressively and take a few calculated risks which may backfire. So either we are prepared to take this path or go all out one more season to grab another flag with the veterans.