lennyhaze wrote:BigMart wrote:Why
Wouldn't you buy a membership if we weren't that good?
Also
I don't think using YouTube highlights actually proves anything?
I could put together a 1 minute Zac Dawson highlights package that makes him look like Alex Rance
We are not a bad team I reckon, but we are not the GWS list either
That is so true but neither does the WB. If it is solely based on lists then no one can win the flag apart from GWS. Luckily there is more to a football club than just having the best 40 players.
But..... the Dogs do have the Bont - whom was freakishly good throughout the finals. A-grader who stepped up and impacted the game like only the A-graders do.
They also poached a No. 1 pick who ended up being BoG in the Grand Final. Liberatore is a genuine, consistently good A-grader at what he does too.
So they do have an even spread, and I'd argue that the Hunters, Dalhaus', Wallaces etc. aren't superstars and probably sit at a similar level to the bulk of our guys - but they have that cream at the top that I don't think we have. And as per the OP - I fear we won't develop.
Johannisen is a good example of what I'm trying to articulate. His development was steady and he looked like he'd be pretty good. He developed alongside the Hunters and Clay Smith's as the Bulldogs built a pretty even spread of young guys coming through together.
Like us.
But.....on the biggest stage when someone needed to have the ability to stand up and basically fulfil a level of talent that the others simply didn't posess - enter Johannisen. He turned out to be at the next level and that was what snared the Dogs the flag.
Without the performance of Boyd and Johannisen - they don't win. They just don't have the depth of top end talent to win a flag without it.
So, as per my OP - where is our top end talent going to come from? Who's the guy that will improve further to that next level when the rest of them taper off?