Why Play them?

Sorry about the last one being a bit late. Just was struggling to get it to show.

As you probably saw I tipped the pies to win by 16 points against the saints, the pies got up by 8 goals which was good but hey, its only the pre-season although there were good signs etc etc.

It doesnt show for anything really except giving these youngsters a run which Collingwood didnt really do. But everyone says that, that the pre-season is all about the youngsters, i disagree to a certain degree. Because whats the point of blooding these youngsters if they aint gonna play another senior game to the NAB cup next year? Fair enough if they are a chance to play round 1 I suppose, as a coach I would rather get the players that are penciled in for round one and get them match fit instead of chucking them in the deep end in round 1 with no match practice and then use the extended bench by playing all the 'fringe' players and let them battle for the final positions.

Some might say how do you expect the players that are on the outer to show that they can mix it in the big league? Well thats where consistency in the VFL comes in to it. And let them work there way up. Or injury could cause somebody unexpected to play at the top level. But playing youngsters in the NAB cup/challenge also does have its advantages. Which are quite obvious, so I will let you figure those ones out.

Anyway back to the game it was good to see Collingwood get up and there were promising signs with Heath Shaw was the Pies best along with Fraser and Cloke.

And Congrats to a fellow Queenslander in David Armitage who played a terrfic game aswell.