Playing the kids now will pay off

Playing the kids now will pay off later on.
 
On Sunday afternoon Hawthorn fielded a team consisting of Brendan Whitecross, Ryan Shoenmakers, Garry Moss, Cameron Stokes, Cyril Rioli and Travis Tuck. All have played less than thirty games, most less than a handful and all have the makings of being excellent AFL footballers. None, with the possible exception of Rioli are there yet.
 
And therein lies the rub for the Hawthorn Football Club early in season 2009. I think that all of us now acknowledge that we have commenced our quest for back to back premierships significantly behind the eight ball due to injuries. Watching these early rounds we now know that whilst we have some very talented kids to fill the breach, there is no substitute for game time and getting precious matches into these youngsters will inevitably prove to be critically important. Being an early draft pick does not guarantee success in this game and every young player is entitled to be given time to earn his stripes. Every player that comes into the system is prone to form swings as they adapt to the rigours of AFL football. Generally the younger and more inexperienced the player, the greater the swing and that is the nature of being an AFL footballer.
 
Having said that we as fans should be nothing but extremely pleased with the start that these talented young men have made to their careers. The performance of Whitecross on the weekend was first class whilst the shutdown job that Moss did on the Kangaroos best player, Brent Harvey was particularly noteworthy. We all know by now what Rioli brings to the table and Tuck looks every bit as though he belongs. Shoenmakers too is an obvious talent as is Stokes, who has become a favourite of mine because of his willingness to do the "one percenters."
 
Going into any season minus ten of your elite players is an extremely daunting exercise. However, as a fan knowing that you have the depth across the park to cover most of these omissions provides a great level of comfort. We all know that the likes of Campbell, Croad, Sewell, Ladson and Lewis are critical to our set-up. What we don't know is how quickly our next generation of players will cope with the significant step up to AFL level. We know that there is emerging talent  in spades and the great part about season 2009 so far is that we are being given a mouth-watering entree into what is to come.
 
Go Hawks.