Where do you expect the Crows to finish in 09?

[JK]

Who would you list as the Crows 1-2 elites Hondo? And by that do you mean AFL elite or Crows elite?

I knew someone would ask! Damn

McLeod = 1
Then scrape the "-2" out of Bock, Porplyzia, Goodwin, Burton - Goodwin was and the other 2 are close and Birdman is out injured

Even Thompson came 5th in the Brownlow in 2007 and we had about 7 players in the All-Stars game last year.

I think this sums up why we finished 8th the last 2 years. 1-2 (arguably) elite players and then a bunch of good to very good players. Enough to get us into the finals but not enough to take us very far.

My hopes for the coming years to find another couple of stars are Dangerfield, Walker, Tippett, Davis, Petrenko, Mackay, Vince. Everyone's got their own view on these lads but we'll see. I think we can assume that not all of them will get to elite level.

Far all his knockers, I think Neil Craig and his regimented, disciplined stle is the reason the Crows have made the finals in recent seasons with (IMHO of course) a pretty average list that get's exposed in September by better teams.

[Westsider]

Who would you list as the Crows 1-2 elites Hondo? And by that do you mean AFL elite or Crows elite?

I knew someone would ask! Damn

McLeod = 1
Then scrape the "-2" out of Bock, Porplyzia, Goodwin, Burton - Goodwin was and the other 2 are close and Birdman is out injured

Even Thompson came 5th in the Brownlow in 2007 and we had about 7 players in the All-Stars game last year.

I think this sums up why we finished 8th the last 2 years. 1-2 (arguably) elite players and then a bunch of good to very good players. Enough to get us into the finals but not enough to take us very far.

My hopes for the coming years to find another couple of stars are Dangerfield, Walker, Tippett, Davis, Petrenko, Mackay, Vince. Everyone's got their own view on these lads but we'll see. I think we can assume that not all of them will get to elite level.

Far all his knockers, I think Neil Craig and his regimented, disciplined stle is the reason the Crows have made the finals in recent seasons with (IMHO of course) a pretty average list that get's exposed in September by better teams.

Do finals appearances really mean anything though? At the end of the day premierships count.

[JK]

Who would you list as the Crows 1-2 elites Hondo? And by that do you mean AFL elite or Crows elite?

I knew someone would ask! Damn

McLeod = 1
Then scrape the "-2" out of Bock, Porplyzia, Goodwin, Burton - Goodwin was and the other 2 are close and Birdman is out injured

Even Thompson came 5th in the Brownlow in 2007 and we had about 7 players in the All-Stars game last year.

I think this sums up why we finished 8th the last 2 years. 1-2 (arguably) elite players and then a bunch of good to very good players. Enough to get us into the finals but not enough to take us very far.

My hopes for the coming years to find another couple of stars are Dangerfield, Walker, Tippett, Davis, Petrenko, Mackay, Vince. Everyone's got their own view on these lads but we'll see. I think we can assume that not all of them will get to elite level.

Far all his knockers, I think Neil Craig and his regimented, disciplined stle is the reason the Crows have made the finals in recent seasons with (IMHO of course) a pretty average list that get's exposed in September by better teams.

Do finals appearances really mean anything though? At the end of the day premierships count.

Dont think anyone would dispute that mate, but you can only work with the cattle at your disposal and not too many can turn their list around in a couple of years ... They persisted with the older blokes and were pretty close to GF appearances, and now we'll see how long it will take for them to recruit, draft and develop their list to challenge again.

Still maintain he's done pretty well with what he had to work with, although I'd question the club's directive of not bottoming out, those that do generally get back there quicker imho.

[FD88]

On the subject of elite players, the scholarship system is a great way of getting a player of potential no. 1 draft pick class into the club while still finishing high up the ladder. You can identify them when they're really young and take them out of the draft pool; Walker looks like he could be a big success story for the system.

[Zathrus]

some interesting reading....