The Way Forward - What should we do?

[bornadog]

We have lost 18 games from the past 19 and won 6 of 30 games. We have a bunch of young players and a bunch of older players. The MC says we need the older players to help mentor the young players, but guess what, we are still losing and getting belted by 5 plus goals every week.
Yes, we have been competitive in some quarters but we still can't put together 4 quarters.

So, what is the way forward?

1. Continue the way we are and hopefully the inexperienced young players will start to help lift us and we may win a few games by the end of the year.

2. Split the group up and pick out the players we believe will take us forward in the next few years, and a back up squad of those that will just fill in every now and then and another group that just plays at Willi?

For Example -

Squad one:

Pick team from.

Grant, Roberts, Hrovat, Wallis, Prudden, Williams, Hunter, Tutt, JJ, Stringer, Macrae, Jones, Roughead, Smith, Griffen, Cooney, Minson Dahl, Libba, Howard, Lower, Stevens, Pearce, Cordy

When not Injured

Wood, Dickson to be considered

Squad two

The rest plus Murphy, Morris, Boyd, Cross, Goodes to come in and out but no more than one or two at a time.

In other words, play an even younger team, get games into them. Its not as if we are winning, so what have we to lose?

What would you do?

[G-Mo77]

We do have to make some hard decisions at some point this year. I'm in the belief that yes some leadership should be around the youth but we also need to make sure to get games into players especially with our horrible VFL relationship right now. Rest, general sorness or what ever else it takes to rotate the 22. At this point I don't care about W/L I want to see development, I also want to give chances to those on the fringe.

[Scorlibo]

Play the best 22 every week. Don't just give players games, make them earn it. Make sure they know every week that they're playing to win and not to just improve.

[Ghost Dog]

Get all the guys to have a go at kicking a ball into a wheelie bin from a fair distance away.
Do this every day for a week.
The blokes who get it in, put them on the outside.
Make them face each other in a wrestling comp. Every day for a week.
The blokes who win, put them on the inside.
Sprint races every day. Anyone that falls below a certain time is culled. Ruckmen are exempt.
Put Minson in the middle.
Selections done!

[boydogs]

Play the best 22 every week. Don't just give players games, make them earn it. Make sure they know every week that they're playing to win and not to just improve.

Agree. If it is borderline between a kid and a senior player getting a game then go for the kid, but you can't overstate the importance of being competitive on player development.

[Bulldog Joe]

Play the best 22 every week. Don't just give players games, make them earn it. Make sure they know every week that they're playing to win and not to just improve.

The only approach to take.

If you have a system (I trust they do) and believe in the system, you must adhere to the system and simply cull those who can't/won't adhere to the system.

Perserverance is the only way forward.

[LostDoggy]

This type of discussion occurs almost monthly, and my view never changes.
As much as you want to you can't just sack everyone and "play the kids". We have seen the culture that Melbourne has created and now they are in a downward spiral. If that happens to the Dogs they will be the Tasmanian Bulldogs before you know it.
Even as BAD says, what is the point when we are getting beat by 5 goals with the older ones???
Well the older ones know that isn't acceptable and the younger ones feed off that.
I would rather get beat by 5 goals and have it cut deep into the players than have a bunch of kids develop a callus to 10 goal hidings.
The old saying goes, you don't appreciate the highs if you don't go through the lows. Well it goes the other way too.... you can't be motivated to succeed when all you know is losing.

[Cyberdoggie]

This type of discussion occurs almost monthly, and my view never changes.
As much as you want to you can't just sack everyone and "play the kids". We have seen the culture that Melbourne has created and now they are in a downward spiral. If that happens to the Dogs they will be the Tasmanian Bulldogs before you know it.
Even as BAD says, what is the point when we are getting beat by 5 goals with the older ones???
Well the older ones know that isn't acceptable and the younger ones feed off that.
I would rather get beat by 5 goals and have it cut deep into the players than have a bunch of kids develop a callus to 10 goal hidings.
The old saying goes, you don't appreciate the highs if you don't go through the lows. Well it goes the other way too.... you can't be motivated to succeed when all you know is losing.

Some very good points there Hairy Midget.

I think we need to remember we don't have an entire side made up of senior players at the moment. On the weekend we had 7 players with 150 games or more, and 13 with less than 50. That's 59% kids and 31% senior players, with 2 others in the middle.
Less than a third of the side are senior players, so there is plenty of opportunity for younger players. The key is to give them enough time in key positions alongside the senior players and not have them play bit parts only.

[bornadog]

Some very good points there Hairy Midget.

I think we need to remember we don't have an entire side made up of senior players at the moment. On the weekend we had 7 players with 150 games or more, and 13 with less than 50. That's 59% kids and 31% senior players, with 2 others in the middle.
Less than a third of the side are senior players, so there is plenty of opportunity for younger players. The key is to give them enough time in key positions alongside the senior players and not have them play bit parts only.

I would have even less seniors and more kids, we are losing any way

[westbulldog]

Select the younger players whenever their form warrants it. Do not automatically select "senior" players when their form does not warrant selection. As examples, Stringer and Macrae are already doing well after just a few games, others may well step up given opportunity.

[Footscray 1954]

We put out our strongest squad every week.If the old guard are still the best in their respective positions then their still good enough to start it's that simple!