Quinn in but gamble fails

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Authored by: Brett Northey
on Tuesday, September 08 2009 @ 01:44 pm ACST

Maybe. I'm sure Quinn has shown better form, so I'm not denying that. But I think there have been plenty of examples of players who fit into a skilful side very nicely and do well linking up etc. In the AFL if you can run and learn the team positions - where to run etc, then there are often a lot of "easy" kicks to get, team mates will use you. Put such a player into a lower grade team or one that is struggling and the possessions can dry up quickly.

Look at someone like Marty Clarke, slotted into Collingwood's side very nicely, gets a fair bit of the ball and uses it well. Got dropped back to the VFL, and has rarely featured in their best players since. Superficially given how well he was doing at AFL level you'd expect him to dominate in the VFL. There could of course be other factors in Clarke's case, but that kind of thing is not uncommon. I've seen Adelaide bring players up from the SANFL that were only going okay and yet they have fitted in and looked very good at AFL level. We won't get into a debate about what level is higher, SANFL or VFL. : )

Essendon played Quinn in the NAB Cup, they fast tracked him right from the start. I just wonder whether Adelaide have taken a different approach with Donnelly and decided to put him through a slower, graduated process, learn all the skills, all the game plan, learn to get your own hard ball, earn your games at each level. Craig has a history, sometimes quite unpopular in the local press and with fans, of making players wait. Just last year there were continuous calls for Patrick Dangerfield and Taylor Walker to get more games. Also Glenelg has developed an established, strong side up the top of the SANFL over the last few years, so breaking into their league side is not easy. So there's two sets of hoops for Donnelly to jump through.

I suspect there's a bit of both situations at play here - Quinn probably impressed his coaches more in pre-season and they decided to push him forward, Donnelly obviously needed more work and they decided to take the longer road. Assuming he goes on in 2010 then we'll get a better idea of whether he can make the grade. Clearly Essendon coach Matthew Knights has decided to throw young kids in at the deep end this year as well, whereas Adelaide although with plenty of younger players has a more mature squad with plenty of finals experience and probably more competition for spots. At the end of the day Adelaide did finish 3 and 1/2 games ahead of Essendon and have a long record of finals versus Essendon being out of it for several years, so the two squads are at different stages of their development - both seemingly on the rise but Essendon probably 2 seasons behind.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

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