The Swans have the 3rd youngest list in the AFL.
GWS are now the 2nd oldest after WCE. North Melbourne went from oldest down to 17th, just after us. Brisbane is easily in 18th spot.
As per Draftguru website: Draftguru
Statistically you would say the GWS Giants and The Bulldogs are more balanced for their window of opportunity in 2017 but I say beware the Bloods
"be tough, only when it gets tough"
For list quality, it's hard to go past the Giants. They've got excellent balance, a good age demographic and depth in every position.
The Bulldogs list is good, but not up the level of the Giants. Their success comes from everyone buying in to the Luke Beverage high intensity contested game plan that in the end wore us down in GF. Unless Tim English becomes a star, they haven't improved their list in the off season. Nonetheless, when you play like the Bulldogs, the onus is with the other clubs to find a way to beat them. It's hard to do unless you're willing to go as hard as they are.
Last year was a surprise in the way we were able to introduce so many young players into the side. We continue to improve and get a younger list demographic at the same time, something which is not easy to do. We are getting younger and faster, and hopefully more skillful too. We have several players who will push for senior selection as well as a few key players returning from injury. We enter the 2017 season with every chance to once again challenge for a premiership.
I can't believe GWS are now the second oldest list! That's amazing. I reckon we'll go alright next year but GWS will be the ones to beat, which will be hard to take. Their list is formidable. It would not surprise to see them really dominate.
Slightly different tables but a little bit easier to compare here
How experienced is your list? | Zero Hanger
Testament to the quality of our list that we made a grand final with such a young and inexperienced list although there is less than a year in average age between the 2nd and 17th ranked teams indicating a fairly standard list profile for most of the competition.
Looking forward to more GF visits in the coming years.
Now if we can only get over the mental hurdle that seem to afflict us
Maybe in the excitement of the impact of the newbies this year we don't give enough credit to our senior bunch. Led by Macca and KJ, along with Reg, Smithy, Buddy, Joey and Hanners and backed up by Rampie and Parks they did a mighty job across the season especially on field. We lost the GF but if you watch the first 3 quarters again our team played great football that day and were right there until the last 5-10 mins. despite Macca and Mills not being match fit and Buddy hampered.
We are going to have that solid core again along with KT, and their load will be made easier by the 7 young 'stars' having the experience of this year. Add in Lloyd, Rohan and Reid and we have one powerful unit! Then we have 14 players who will be pushing hard for a spot and who knows what the draftees and rookies may bring to the table.
I think the Dogs will come back to earth next year. Like Leicester City, 2016 proved to be a 'perfect storm' for them to win the Flag. Other teams will find ways to combat their style, the umpires might be encouraged to not be so lenient when it matters next year, and as you say they haven't improved their list significantly. I think they'll still be a very good team, but I don't think they'll be so lucky in 2017 with everything falling into place.
GWS are going to be awfully tough to beat for any team. But we will be up there again, assuming a good run with injuries, and while Tom Mitchell is a loss, there is plenty of young, quality players that will only get better. And frankly, how many teams have the luxury of losing a high quality midfielder like Mitchell knowing they have two under-age midfield guns just waiting for their opportunity in the guts.
Bring on 2017 - it is a huge year for us I feel, as we need to deliver when it matters and bring home that Cup. Otherwise there is a real possibility that what could have been a truly golden era (not to say it hasn't been an amazing period in the club's history) will not reach the heights it should.
"You get the feeling that like Monty Python's Black Knight, the Swans would regard amputation as merely a flesh wound."
Run and carry has been discussed a few times now briefly by horse and KB and our search to find a few more players with this ability to compliment the team we currently have
We have all watched the ability of GWS with their run and carry out of their backline and wings via Williams, Wilson, Lachie etc and the same again with the Bulldogs and their run and carry HBF Johansen winning best player on the ground in the grand final
Interestingly we haven't chased a trade in this area so there is no genuine AFL HBF player with run and carry joining us
yet listening to Horse talk about Shaun Edwards yesterday and watching the development of a player such as Jordan Dawson I can't help but think we would be a a better side if we can match in rebound against the Dogs, GWS when needed
The flexibility of transitions from our backline requires one or two extra genuine outside players who can run and carry
These two players might need to be carried a little for half the season but we did this successfully in 2016 by allowing some newbies to play simple roles and bit by bit they developed to a strong standard
For me I think our evolving game plan and our ability to be more flexible and attacking with our transitions requires two or three fairly one dimensional players to be dropped and two minimum attacking players to be added
Under pressure = Laidler, Towers, Hewett and potentially Macca which is a massive call but Jarrod in my opinion will be under pressure middle of the season if we do evolve in our game plan to play with some more rebounding width
Potential in =
COMPOSED Attacking players with the football with the ability to run and carry
Edwards
Dawson
Florent
I have seen much of Edwards but they have talked about getting him on board already for this reason
Also As we saw with Malceski you don't need to be super quick as a run and carry player IF u have time with the football
Florent and Dawson certainly have this and there is no reason that we can't have HFF pushing up the field to HBF / Wing regions to open up the space and provide better forward entries
I feel After watching our losses last year and weakness in rebound having Rampe and or Zac Jones as our run and carry is not enough to genuinely take on the Dogs and GWS
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