Questions are being asked and the scrutiny is intense, but the mood around the place is still very upbeat.
I think one of the reasons for this is we have so many young blokes who are so fresh to the game that the whole experience of playing AFL is still so exciting to them.
If there is an upside to injuries to senior players, it is that we have been able to blood young guys. If we’d had a full-strength side they might not have got their opportunities this year.
And from what we’ve seen so far in 2009 there is a fair bit of talent coming through.
Brendan Whitecross has improved enormously over the past 12 months and Ryan Schoenmakers has played a handful of games. Liam Shiels was the youngest player drafted last year and he is a very strong runner and has been impressive in his three games.
We’ve also seen Josh Kennedy and Travis Tuck have a bit more of a taste of it and they are super keen to cement a spot in the senior team.
It’s great to see this sort of energy around the place and the enthusiasm is contagious. At training, and on gameday the young blokes are always up and about and it rubs off on the rest of the group.
Last year we had Cyril Rioli making his debut and it was thrilling to watch him go about his footy. But more than that, he seemed to enjoy every minute of it.
We have the youngest list in the competition and it’s a positive when there is an opportunity in the senior team that we have a bunch of teenagers being competitive for their spot.
Getting them mentally and physically ready for senior football at this early stage is only going to benefit them.
While we do have a lot of kids coming through, don’t think that we are only planning for the distant future. This season is still very much our number one priority and we are not putting the cue in the rack.
2009 has been an interesting season so far. There have been other teams like Collingwood and Adelaide who copped a bit of criticism early on but now they’ve strung a few wins together and are looking strong. The competition so even that any team can have a win on any given day.
We know that and we haven’t given up on the season.
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.
