Are we giving enough young players a chance?

[David]

It’s not usually like me to start a “play the kids” thread, but I’ve been thinking:

This isn’t a ‘development year’, per se. We’re a chance to play finals, but perhaps more realistically around the 9–12 mark. We’ve already debuted three players this season – Stephenson, Murray and Appleby – and all have been (generally) excellent. But it also seems that we have a lot of untried (or barely tried) talent running around in the VFL, including:

Josh Daicos (emergency twice)
Max Lynch
Sam McLarty (emergency three times)
Brody Mihocek (emergency five times)
Nathan Murphy
Brayden Sier (emergency three times)
Rupert Wills

It’s not unusual for players to not get a senior game in their first (or sometimes even second) seasons. But are some of these guys missing a chance to impress at senior level, and is that going to affect their confidence? This is potentially a make or break year for Daicos, Sier and Wills in particular (and Kayle Kirby, though there’s obviously not much he or the club can do about that right now).

My recollection is that, even in some years when we’ve played finals, we’ve had 10+ debuts in a season. I don’t see why we shouldn’t have 7 or 8 this year. Should we be taking the opportunity of a slightly softer draw over the next few rounds to give a few of these guys an opportunity? Or would it be worse for them to be in and out of the line-up? How many young players can we actually accommodate in a team right now?

[simon tonna]

My thoughts are with the run of games coming up we should be looking at the best of our youth or form vfl players. But seeing what we are doing now in the seniors (winning ugly) I reckon bucks is concerned about winning first to give us every chance to play finals.
But realistically I would have thought debuting mclarty when Moore went down and wills/sier when Aish got injured along with a few positional changes. But wtfwik. Just beat who we play.

[E]

in 2010, players had to earn their spot over aging stars like O'Bree, Lockyer and Fraser. They weren't gifted spots.

That should be how good teams function.

When they get there, they need to know they earnt it so they will work their asses off to make sure they dont go back down.

The culture of getting games into young kids is flawed and leads to mediocrity in expectations and ultimately performance!

I love that Sier is going to come into the one at some point having overwhelmingly earned it.

PS, not sure Daicos or McLarty have earned it just yet. i'd suggest Mihocek is getting named emergency in case a senior player doesn't come up.

[MatthewBoydFanClub]

In my opinion McLarty and Murphy will be ready in the second half of the season to play in the senior team. Mihocek and Daicos are ready now but who do they replace? Wills and Lynch have had a few niggling injuries to contend with which are holding them back. Sier is ready now and may play against the Bulldogs.

[Skids]

I think with the occurrence of an injury or two, almost every week, they have had their hand forced in this regard.

[Abdul The Bull]

With Wells being rested this week against the Doggies I'd love to see Sier get a run. I think the kid has done enough to warrant selection. Also, having just been re-signed the club obviously has faith in him so backing up that contract extension with some senior footy would be a huge boost to the lad's confidence.

[Pies2016]

I would have thought debuting three new players after nine rounds, is a good healthy ratio. We have been winning more than losing and those debutants have been far from out of their depth.
At the risk of repeating myself, there is so much to get right when a club makes the decision to pull the trigger on a debutant.
The club needs to feel confident these kids are prepared mentally, physically, emotionally and have the required skill level. Everyone responds differently to the biggest day of their life.
It wasn’t long ago, we all drooled for Kirby’s debut and it was at best, underwhelming. The bigger picture is whether or not those “ quiet “ debuts can actually set players back because some tend to lose a bit of belief.

Sier and others will get their chance soon enough and it’s the clubs responsibilty to get that timing right as best they can.

[AN_Inkling]

Playing young players just for the sake of it isn't in anyone's interest. We've played the ones who are ready and we have a spot for. I don't think a case can be all that strongly argued for the rest. Looking at the numbers, I don't think we've underplayed our youth this year.

Mihocek is an end of list emergency player. No point playing him unless we absolutely have to. I'd hope he never plays. So far we haven't made the mistake we did with Schade.

Max Lynch is very raw. Developing but not yet ready for a debut. Wouldn't expect to see him this year.

Murphy. May be a chance to debut this year, but lacks strength as a defender and could be a liability in the seniors.

Wills. A limited player who I'm not sure is going to be an AFL player.

Sier. Would be very close to debuting. Has some similar questions to Wills, but looks to have a bit more to his game.

Daicos. Still very light for AFL footy and hasn't quite done enough at VFL level. That said, he is close to another game given he's been named emergency on a few occasions.

McClarty. Second year tall, so not a surprise he hasn't played, but getting close.

I'm certain we'll see at least two more debuts this year: Sier and McClarty. Murphy will be a chance, but I hope we don't see anyone else. Those three are the maximum possible. Having already debuted someone like Appleby, I don't see how we can really claim that we've lacked debuts this year. We had a settled off-season so don't have a huge number of new playesr, that's the only reason our debut count may be lower than some other years.

[swoop42]

I would have preferred some of the youth ahead of likes of a Blair or Mayne but really we need to be guided primarily by picking the best possible team each week that we believe gives us our greatest chance of winning.

After 4 years in the wilderness, plenty of list turnover and blooding of youth in this period returning to finals should be our primary goal and what we should be expecting to achieve.

[RudeBoy]

We've currently got 3 first year players in Murray, Stephenson and Appleby in our team, which is more than most sides would have imo.

By year's end, there's every chance we'll have added McLarty, Sier and Murphy to that list. There's no need to rush any of them as they'll all benefit from a year in the VFL, as will Daicos and Brown.

[Dave The Man]

Not Really.

Bucks and Co seem to Rather stick with Players with no Future in like Mayne

[MatthewBoydFanClub]

You can't argue against the inclusion of Mayne given his performance in the last two games. Ideally you like to see young players coming up but players like Callum Brown, Murphy and Crocker don't have enough beef on them to be able to compete against the bigger bodied players. We don't want to kill them by playing them too early.

[bally12]

Agree. All those kids should have been blooded by now..there's been openings to justify at least having played 1 game this season.

Yes there are uknowns, but sometimes a kid rises at the higher level. Instead we've seen Blair and Crocker, and now Greenwood. We've seen what they bring. Play the kids ffs. We've often had a player down due to injury for the whole match. It's not as if we can't cover a kid with a 4-man interchange rotation.

[Pies4shaw]

Ben Crocker is a kid. He's barely 21 and he's played 20 games. I'm not sure why you'd bracket him with Blair and Greenwood.

[bally12]