Bankers and Anchors: Season 2015

[bulldogtragic]

You know how this works. This is from off season, through regular season, through finals. Bank em, and Anch em.

[bulldogtragic]

Bump.

[F'scary]

BT, it is hard to find season-long Anchors when we had such unanticipated success.

With respect to Bankers, I can't go past the group of younger, less experienced players who had 2-4 seasons under their belts, they all had to step up to take us up the ladder and they did this with astonishing aplomb. Of this group, the players I am referring to in particular are Wallis, Stringer, Macrae, Dahlhaus, Dickson, Johannisen, Hunter and Stevens. They averaged 19.25 games played each.

If I had to pick Anchors, I would have to go firstly with the management of Clay Smith's return - but it is easy to do that with hindsight and not having first hand experience of Smith's determination to get back asap. Secondly, the Match Committee's persistent selection of Ayce Cordy (7 games in a row) - the experiment went on far too long. Thirdly, Club Management for allowing Talia to have access to a phone.

[bulldogtragic]

Bankers:

Our All Australians & Award Recipients:
Stringer AA & 50+ goals
Wood AA and B&F
Murphy AA, AA Captain, AFLPA Captain of Year
Bevo AFLCA Coach of Year
Bontempelli AFLCA Young Player of Year
Mitch Honeychurch Rising Star Nomination
Tom Boyd Rising Star Nomination

JMac & Simon: Tom Boyd was the best compo for losing Gryphone. Hamling impressed a lot! Then Jones, Tutt, Cooney did next to nothing for new clubs. Webb for Higgins is win-win. Our pups all played (ex. Hamilton) and looked good prospects.

Murphy, Robert. Gave a bunch of gut wrenched fans a reason to believe again.


Anchors:

Ruck stocks. No one elevated their game and took the spot this year.
Justin Cordy quitting again, this time mid season. Tool.
Matt Fuller's body, I would've liked to have seen just once the reason why he was recruited for AFL.
Tahyleeya & AFL cover up. You can all go suck it.

[The Underdog]

Bankers: Koby Stevens. The unquestionable difference between the elimination final loss and a grand final win was a fit Koby Stevens.

Honourable mentions to Bevo, Stringer, Bonts, Murph etc. they had pretty acceptable years.

Anchors: Kobys foot, for taking away the man who would be Norm Smith Medallist

Michael Talia. Wait until Koby catches up to you.

[LostDoggy]

2015 BANKERS
- Ridiculously successful evolution of our defence, from a seemingly fragile group during the preseason, Wood and Boyd in particular massively exceeded all reasonable expectations, whilst Murphy and Morris delivered to their considerable capabilities. JJ and Roberts came on nicely and bargain basement recruits Biggs and Hamling delivered in spades. Bev was defensive coach at Hawthorn, so his ideas on defensive sytems and methods must've been substantial, and Bubba Smith's passion and enthusiasm are no doubt a real asset.
- Inside mids. With Libba going down in the preseason, and Koby and Clay early, this should've been a real weakness, but Wallis and Picken picked up the slack and were rocks and Bont took on more than a teenager should be able to. Collectively they were superb and the additional responsibilities undertaken stands us in good stead for the future. The likes of Dahlhaus and Hunter also got more opportunity and showed plenty.
- Midsize forwards. With Boyd still very much a work in progress, the demands on Stringer, Dickson and Crameri were substantial. We all know how that turned out.

ANCHORS (OPPORTUNITIES)
- Ruck Division. Minson, Campbell, Cordy and Roughy all gave glimpses but none made the spot their own. One of the few positions we were regularly beaten in last year. If Will can return to his best consistently, or Roughy or Campbell can take their game to the next level, our competitiveness against the very best teams will be greatly enhanced.
- Key forwards. Boyd is understandably not yet ready to deliver consistently and Redpath is a trier but has his limitations. Neither were reliable in 2015 which placed pressure on others. If either take big strides over the summer, it will add heaps to our potency (scary for 17 other teams).
- Tall defenders. Talia looked our great white hope as a KPD early in the year, his demise was very sad. The decision seems to have been made that Roughy's future lays elsewhere. Roberts, Hamling and Morris had a lot asked of them and were at times exposed, hopefully strong recruiting will help out here.