Terry Wallace on Richo and the list

[suss]

Terry Wallace makes me cringe a bit but he said a few things on SEN yesterday (particularly at the back-end of the interview) that I thought were interesting:

https://www.sen.com.au/news/2018/05/22/ ... g-wallace/

I think our drafting has been terrible and the single biggest reason why we stink right now. Our trading on the other hand has, I reckon, been okay (Membrey, Roberton, Carlisle have all been wins). We've been unable to land any decent free agents, which hasn't helped - that's no-one's fault. Hopefully we'll change that this year.

But who keeps drafting half-back flankers and key backs when we need mids? Who decided to swap our 2018 second and third round picks for a back-stop defender from Port Adelaide? Who picked Paddy over Petracca, Brayshaw and DeGoey? Who picked Billings over Bont? Find that person, and fire him today. If it's Elshaugh, then fire him. If there's someone else to blame, then fire them too. He or they are the reason why we suck right now. Our list is desperately unbalanced and no where near it need to be after five years of rebuilding.

I've been frustrated with the coach in the earlier rounds, and concerned that he's lost the players, but the obvious, most glaring deficiency we have in our personnel rests with the list manager.

[Spinner]

The Paddy over Brayshaw and De Goey is a bit rich, as is the Billings over Bont.

Bont and De Goey were reaches. Both developed into superb players.

Paddy over Petracca has been the only major call we have made against the grain, and it has been a disaster.


Our major issue has been that mid/late 1st round that we traded into. Acres, Dunstan, McKenzie and Goddard taking so long to develop. Acres and Dunstan finally cemented into the senior team, but the other two are a worry. Coupled with the draft where we went White/Wright.

[thejiggingsaint]

Plough? Gee he was a roaring success as a senior coach, was he not?

[saint-stu]

What Terry says does sound right to me.

I think we were unlucky with last years draft. We had two picks in the top ten, but it would seem there is a fair gap in class between the pick before hours, Jayden Stevenson and our two recruits in Clarke and Coffield. Our players will be good players, but the 6 before them could all be stars.

Very good point about our trading vs drafting. Maybe we're not very good at identifying potential in young players? Maybe we're too conservative with the whole "good character, good family" thing.

[lefty]

bulls***. It's not drafting, its development. All our players can't be s***, it does not make any sense.
Its 100% development. Look at Wright, started well, now the coach barely gives him a go. When he does, he gets 1 senior game and gets put back to the reserves. Tom Lynch anyone?

But lets all blame the people drafting the players... just remember this was the same players that beat Richmond last year (minus Roo and Monty).

[saint-stu]

bulls***. It's not drafting, its development. All our players can't be s***, it does not make any sense.
Its 100% development. Look at Wright, started well, now the coach barely gives him a go. When he does, he gets 1 senior game and gets put back to the reserves. Tom Lynch anyone?

But lets all blame the people drafting the players... just remember this was the same players that beat Richmond last year (minus Roo and Monty).

If you want to pick out individual examples, some youngsters have developed well. Ben Long is going well, as is Dunstan, Gresham and Webster. Membrey, Bruce and Roberton were quite young when we go them in too.

Nathan Wright was drafted as a half back. He is quick but can't hit a target by foot. That would to me appear to be a drafting error.

Tom Lynch is a very unfortunate example. We did play him, but each time he hardly touched the ball. This is one of the reasons I believe you should always hold on to these players until they're around 23 before making a call on them.

[thejiggingsaint]

bulls***. It's not drafting, its development. All our players can't be s***, it does not make any sense.
Its 100% development. Look at Wright, started well, now the coach barely gives him a go. When he does, he gets 1 senior game and gets put back to the reserves. Tom Lynch anyone?

But lets all blame the people drafting the players... just remember this was the same players that beat Richmond last year (minus Roo and Monty).

If you want to pick out individual examples, some youngsters have developed well. Ben Long is going well, as is Dunstan, Gresham and Webster. Membrey, Bruce and Roberton were quite young when we go them in too.

Please stop making sense saint-stu
Nathan Wright was drafted as a half back. He is quick but can't hit a target by foot. That would to me appear to be a drafting error.

Tom Lynch is a very unfortunate example. We did play him, but each time he hardly touched the ball. This is one of the reasons I believe you should always hold on to these players until they're around 23 before making a call on them.

[thejiggingsaint]

bulls***. It's not drafting, its development. All our players can't be s***, it does not make any sense.
Its 100% development. Look at Wright, started well, now the coach barely gives him a go. When he does, he gets 1 senior game and gets put back to the reserves. Tom Lynch anyone?

But lets all blame the people drafting the players... just remember this was the same players that beat Richmond last year (minus Roo and Monty).

If you want to pick out individual examples, some youngsters have developed well. Ben Long is going well, as is Dunstan, Gresham and Webster. Membrey, Bruce and Roberton were quite young when we go them in too.

Please stop making sense saint-stu
Nathan Wright was drafted as a half back. He is quick but can't hit a target by foot. That would to me appear to be a drafting error.

Tom Lynch is a very unfortunate example. We did play him, but each time he hardly touched the ball. This is one of the reasons I believe you should always hold on to these players until they're around 23 before making a call on them.

Please stop making sense mate

[CURLY]

What Terry says does sound right to me.

I think we were unlucky with last years draft. We had two picks in the top ten, but it would seem there is a fair gap in class between the pick before hours, Jayden Stevenson and our two recruits in Clarke and Coffield. Our players will be good players, but the 6 before them could all be stars.

Very good point about our trading vs drafting. Maybe we're not very good at identifying potential in young players? Maybe we're too conservative with the whole "good character, good family" thing.

What bulls***. Clark and Coffield are very talented footballers but different types to say a Stevenson. Wallace is a know nothing who gets on his high horse on a new agenda that he back up by a weeks performance.

[spert]

I'm thinking that Richo has been far too focussed on developing the player rather than the team as a whole. Players come in for one or two games, obviously don't do something that Richo likes and out they go irrespective of team balance. Minch, Wright, Lonie etc would probably be further down the track in development had they had more consecutive games in the seniors. Why he is persisting with Armo is beyond me.

Now we see Richo out of desperation coaching at ground level so he can see how the TEAM is playing finally.

We have good talent, but we have not been developing the talent, hence the big gap in skills and application at senior level.

[Cairnsman]

Has anyone got links to Wallace in the media after our wins from the last 3 years, especially say the GWS and Richmond victories last season. I'm tipping you'll find Wallace was full of praise for how the club was going about things.

[CURLY]

Has anyone got links to Wallace in the media after our wins from the last 3 years, especially say the GWS and Richmond victories last season. I'm tipping you'll find Wallace was full of praise for how the club was going about things.

Correct. He flips and flops from week to week.

[DJ Higgins]

I copped a lot of crap from people from this website last year for saying we were stupid for picking so many half back flankers and that we should have gone after mids, so much crap. Some even justified the selection by putting photos of the u/18 all aus team showing that we had 3 of the best players. BUT THEY WERE ALL BACKS. Some people just don't get it.
I supported Paddy but said that I am not a doctor and i don't know enough about his condition but if our medicos said it would be fine then I would support him. Our doctors were wrong and now we have a dud. Every extra minute he waits on the bench for his blood sugar to drop is another minutes someone has to cover his arse. Potentially the worst #1 draft pick in a generation (name worse). Terrible selectors, just terrible.
Billings over Bont was fine at the time, it was. They both had a lot of potential, Beveridge just knew how to get the best out of his charges, ours finds it pleasing to win a quarter a week.
we have been sold a lemon in Richo and his team, we bought a lemon in Paddy, we got an under achiever in Billings, few players are getting better, we traded picks this year for a nobody, what else is there to say.
We need our players to turn things around asap or we need a massive clear out of our staff, starting with those who keep picking duds. Yes Hunter and Coffield are good but almost all newspapers etc picked how the top 10 would go and it is what occurred so it was hard to get that wrong.
Its so frustrating this year.

[suss]

The Paddy over Brayshaw and De Goey is a bit rich, as is the Billings over Bont.

Bont and De Goey were reaches. Both developed into superb players.

Paddy over Petracca has been the only major call we have made against the grain, and it has been a disaster.


Our major issue has been that mid/late 1st round that we traded into. Acres, Dunstan, McKenzie and Goddard taking so long to develop. Acres and Dunstan finally cemented into the senior team, but the other two are a worry. Coupled with the draft where we went White/Wright.

To be clear, I'm not knocking Paddy and Billings as players - they were, and deserved to be, very high draft picks. I also see that both are busting a gut and I have never criticised their performance.

My issue is that we selected a key forward and a half forward flanker with picks 1 and 3, when what we needed desperately were two elite mids.

From a balance perspective, having Brayshaw and Bont in the midfield feeding Bruce and Membrey would've made more sense than our current structure.

And our decision to draft a raft of defenders in all shapes and sizes was absolutely bizarre, when Blind Freddy could see we needed to develop a deep, talented midfield.

The trading-down you highlight in 2012 was another disaster.

[Linton Lodger]

Did anyone see Paul Roos on The Couch talking about Bontempelli?

As Melbourne's Coach he looked into Bontempelli. He had 2 contacts he spoke to about young talent in the draft and he spoke to them about Bontempelli. The feedback he got was that he could end up been the best player in the draft or his AFL career may not last 2 years!

Bontempelli had mainly played half back flank in the U18s and only played in the midfield late. He himself says, that at the time of the draft he hardly knew how to play midfield and was just learning the position and had just started learning how to use his body (which had grown late). So based on that feedback, I would suggest that most Clubs (including the Bulldogs) would have taken Billings ahead of Bontempelli.

In addition there is a persistent claim at Big Footy, that Melbourne under Roos, rated Billings ahead of Bontempelli and Kelly and the following year rated McCartin No.1 and would have taken him if we didn't.

[Linton Lodger]

I copped a lot of crap from people from this website last year for saying we were stupid for picking so many half back flankers and that we should have gone after mids, so much crap. Some even justified the selection by putting photos of the u/18 all aus team showing that we had 3 of the best players. BUT THEY WERE ALL BACKS. Some people just don't get it.
I supported Paddy but said that I am not a doctor and i don't know enough about his condition but if our medicos said it would be fine then I would support him. Our doctors were wrong and now we have a dud. Every extra minute he waits on the bench for his blood sugar to drop is another minutes someone has to cover his arse. Potentially the worst #1 draft pick in a generation (name worse). Terrible selectors, just terrible.
Billings over Bont was fine at the time, it was. They both had a lot of potential, Beveridge just knew how to get the best out of his charges, ours finds it pleasing to win a quarter a week.
we have been sold a lemon in Richo and his team, we bought a lemon in Paddy, we got an under achiever in Billings, few players are getting better, we traded picks this year for a nobody, what else is there to say.
We need our players to turn things around asap or we need a massive clear out of our staff, starting with those who keep picking duds. Yes Hunter and Coffield are good but almost all newspapers etc picked how the top 10 would go and it is what occurred so it was hard to get that wrong.
Its so frustrating this year.

For the greater part of his U18s career, Bontempelli was a half back flanker.

Don't care where they played their junior footy, both Coffield and Clark will be very good midfielders.

[Darth Vader]

bulls***. It's not drafting, its development. All our players can't be s***, it does not make any sense.
Its 100% development. Look at Wright, started well, now the coach barely gives him a go. When he does, he gets 1 senior game and gets put back to the reserves. Tom Lynch anyone?

But lets all blame the people drafting the players... just remember this was the same players that beat Richmond last year (minus Roo and Monty).

Crazy I know, but could it be a combination of both?

[saint-stu]

I copped a lot of crap from people from this website last year for saying we were stupid for picking so many half back flankers and that we should have gone after mids, so much crap. Some even justified the selection by putting photos of the u/18 all aus team showing that we had 3 of the best players. BUT THEY WERE ALL BACKS. Some people just don't get it.
I supported Paddy but said that I am not a doctor and i don't know enough about his condition but if our medicos said it would be fine then I would support him. Our doctors were wrong and now we have a dud. Every extra minute he waits on the bench for his blood sugar to drop is another minutes someone has to cover his arse. Potentially the worst #1 draft pick in a generation (name worse). Terrible selectors, just terrible.
Billings over Bont was fine at the time, it was. They both had a lot of potential, Beveridge just knew how to get the best out of his charges, ours finds it pleasing to win a quarter a week.
we have been sold a lemon in Richo and his team, we bought a lemon in Paddy, we got an under achiever in Billings, few players are getting better, we traded picks this year for a nobody, what else is there to say.
We need our players to turn things around asap or we need a massive clear out of our staff, starting with those who keep picking duds. Yes Hunter and Coffield are good but almost all newspapers etc picked how the top 10 would go and it is what occurred so it was hard to get that wrong.
Its so frustrating this year.

For the greater part of his U18s career, Bontempelli was a half back flanker.

Don't care where they played their junior footy, both Coffield and Clark will be very good midfielders.

Clark looks like a chance to be a mid, but at the moment, Coffield doesn't look like a mid and isn't being played as one.

[saint-stu]

What Terry says does sound right to me.

I think we were unlucky with last years draft. We had two picks in the top ten, but it would seem there is a fair gap in class between the pick before hours, Jayden Stevenson and our two recruits in Clarke and Coffield. Our players will be good players, but the 6 before them could all be stars.

Very good point about our trading vs drafting. Maybe we're not very good at identifying potential in young players? Maybe we're too conservative with the whole "good character, good family" thing.

What bulls***. Clark and Coffield are very talented footballers but different types to say a Stevenson. Wallace is a know nothing who gets on his high horse on a new agenda that he back up by a weeks performance.

Let's come back to this in 5 years time and compare our guys to the likes of Raynar, Paddy Dow, Brayshaw and Stephenson. I hope you're right!

[CURLY]

What Terry says does sound right to me.

I think we were unlucky with last years draft. We had two picks in the top ten, but it would seem there is a fair gap in class between the pick before hours, Jayden Stevenson and our two recruits in Clarke and Coffield. Our players will be good players, but the 6 before them could all be stars.

Very good point about our trading vs drafting. Maybe we're not very good at identifying potential in young players? Maybe we're too conservative with the whole "good character, good family" thing.

What bulls***. Clark and Coffield are very talented footballers but different types to say a Stevenson. Wallace is a know nothing who gets on his high horse on a new agenda that he back up by a weeks performance.

Let's come back to this in 5 years time and compare our guys to the likes of Raynar, Paddy Dow, Brayshaw and Stephenson. I hope you're right!

Stevenson is your Daisy Thomas type while Clark is Pendles. Coffield is more your Hodge type.

[DJ Higgins]

For the greater part of his U18s career, Bontempelli was a half back flanker.

Don't care where they played their junior footy, both Coffield and Clark will be very good midfielders.

I see what you are saying but still disagree in part. You are correct in that great players can play in multiple positions but most players by 18 know which position is their best position. Most not all.
I am in a minority but I hope Coffield stays as a HBF. He is young still so he is still learning his craft but he looks good already. Does need to improve of course but that will come. He prowls the back 50 like he owns it, reads the play really well and seems to have extra time whenever he gets the ball. Leave him there. Fast forward to next year after 20 games in him and another preseason. Coffield, Carlisle, Webster. Not a bad back line, not bad at all.

[SaintPav]

The HBF can become mids.

Weak argument.

[Flagless]

I agree wholeheartedly, our drafting has been disgraceful for many years. We continue to pick players who while they are triers they cannot kick, the list is endless, Gilbert, Armitage, Dunstan, Roberton, Geary, Steven, Steven. Poor drafting has cost us at least one flag ( Ball instead of Judd) and to say Bontempelli was a stretch is a joke. He's a big bodied mid fielder with great leadership traits, he only went the puck after Billings.

[shrodes]

The HBF can become mids.

Weak argument.

Absolutely. Every club at the draft picks a half backer and goes "we think he's great down back, and can go through the middle too". How often does it actually happen, compared to drafting a genuine mid?

[bigred]

Fwd pocket can become mid.

FFS