Would it have been prudent or appropriate to have played Harry Seijka staright into first grade first week do you think?
Personally I don't think it would have been prudent. It had been at least 2 years since he last played first grade and, at the most, he would have had a week training with the team. I would have given him
at least 2 weeks in the cutters and training with the first grade team before even considering putting him up into first grade. Unfortunately for us, he was injured and that put that option to bed.
Dezziedc, as a rule, if you were a Coach do you think there are circumstances that warrant promoting Young Players by "throwing them into the deep end" so as to speak?
I think there are - but they would have to be exceptional circumstances and I would need to be convinced that the player in question could handle the promotion and is worthy of the promotion - it's a very difficult position to be in because it has the potential to backfire on you - from the players point of view, from the point of view of other players coming through and from the current teams point of view.
Just because a team is performing badly does not necessarily count as an exceptional circumstance. As Benny said, alot of this praise goes to the younger players heads and they believe they deserve that chance immediately. I think Hastings is one such player. Give him a chance in the Cutters by all means, but in my mind there is no chance I would be putting him in 1st grade at this stage. He needs to prove himself at the next level. Hell, he may play 6 or so games for them and really shine - that's when I would be looking to drop him into a game here and there in the 1st grade team. If he doesn't perform, you need to keep developing him or drop him back again - he obviously isn't ready. It's trial and error.
Do you think Young Players should only get a run when injuries and origin come about, or do you think giving them 1st grade time before the inevitable call ups due to injury etc, may send another, stronger message to the player being promoted, and those whom they are replacing.... Or is it situational?
I don't think young players should only get runs in those situations. There should be a plan within the club to drip feed some players through to the Cutters and first grade. And I think that has been happening.
The problem we have as fans, is that we don't see what is happening off the field or behind the scenes that helps shape those decisions. For example, at the start of the year, I was excited to have Drinkwater join the team. He sounded like a good prospect. I didn't fully expect him to start the season, but I was hoping that we would start seeing him getting some game time around game 4 or 5. And we did see him play one game around that time. But for reasons not obvious to us, he didn't get another start. And then I hear that he has been dropped from the Cutters. This points to performance issues or attitude problems. If he wasn't dropped from the cutters, we would not have been able to make these very logical assumptions. Sounds like he is performing a bit better now - he needed that attitude adjustment. Also, why buy Harry if Josh was performing well? There was obviously something significantly wrong with Josh's game or his attitude.
I am happy that Quinlan is finding his feet in first grade and I am hoping we might see more of Charly before the end of the year. But as I said, I don't believe bad 1st grade performance warrants making wholesale changes to the team if we don't have players ready or enough depth.
In the back of my mind is Steve Price's comment at the beginning of the year concerning Drinkwater, Fein and Soward (from another more light hearted thread)....
"....I'm very happy with how Josh is carrying himself at training, he's got a very sound kicking game and he plays direct and he goes to the line, so Jamie and Nathan will get first crack and they've got some heat under them."
This may have been the case at the time, but something went very wrong with Josh between then and the early part of the season. And unfortunately, at the time, that was the only depth we had.
If Harry were not injured now, would you play him instead of Fein, giving us two rookie halves 'til the end of the year, or at least have him on the bench?
I haven't seen any of the games Harry played, but if he performed well in his games for the Cutters, it would be a definite option.
You make a very good point about 2 rookie halves though, and that is definitely a risk. You would have to assess Harry's performance with the Cutters and his interaction with the team at training and make that call. The difference with Harry is that he has some limited first grade experience already AND he has spent at least a couple of years playing in the lower mens grades.
We all agree the Fein is not a half. But at the moment, he is providing some seniority and guidance for Quinlan coming through. I think you do need that, but it would be better coming from a player who has played in that position all his life.
And lastly, what if the cutters is not "on the same page" as the first grade Team as the means by which fringe and young first graders prove themselves worthy of a first grade start ?
I am not completely sure what you mean here. If you are referring to the teams working together to bring players through, then that is a club issue. If the teams aren't working together to get the best results across the board, the club needs to step in make the necessary changes to ensure this is happening.
I know this has become a wall of text, but I just wanted to point out that I do not believe Price has done everything right. There have been some odd decisions made (again for reasons we are not privy to) and some positional assignments that leave me scratching my head. But I do believe he was between a rock and a hard place right from the beginning of this year - lack of solid recruitment, his job on the line (as well as a very public recruitment drive for alternatives), lack of depth in key positions, injury etc. I am not suggesting I am convinced he is 100% a first grade coach, but I am willing to give him next year to prove himself. We have recruited well, we have good backup in key positions and we are hopefully looking to remove the 'dead wood'. At this stage, next year he should have no excuses. I am expecting top 8 at the minimum with the squad we have next year.
