The depth of our best 22

[Damien]

With all the current debate about who we should delist/trade and who we should keep, something hit home while reading James Hird's article in Wednesday's Herald-Sun.

He listed Heffernan, Solomon, Rioli, Johnson and Prior as the bottom five players in Essendon's best 22 and Power, Lawrence, Keating Black and Johnson as the last five players in Brisbane's best 22.

Any of these guys would walk into our best 22.

My point is, as a group of supporters we have sub-consciously allowed our idea of an acceptable standard of player to drop due to several years of poor on-field performance.

This becomes obvious when people start trying to justify keeping the likes of Patterson, Wild, McDonald, Crow, Watson, Richardson and Tape.

While I'm sure these guys are all good blokes and there is some feeling of loyalty to them simply because they have donned the black and white jumper, the fact is these guys form the nucleus of the second 11 of our best 22 and are simply not up to the task and should go.

It could be argued that Schauble, Presti, Godden, Olarenshaw and Orchard should also be added to this list, however this will depend on a lot of other factors, ie: how the draft pans out and who wants to trade.

As for the 'kids', while there is no doubt that they will not all make it, most have shown enough to justify another season before a decision is made on their future.



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Damien