Rival goes in to bat for under-fire Roos

BESIEGED Clarence has found the most unlikely ally in this round’s opposition coach, Richard Robinson, with the “Bear” as he’s known giving a clip to past players pot-shotting their old clubs.

However, Roos playing-coach Jeromey Webberley said criticism levelled at the club by life member Blair Brownless in last Saturday’s Mercury was mostly correct, but was part of a much bigger issue surrounding Tasmanian football.

Brownless highlighted the gaping hole in the Roos’ list of players between 22 and 28 as the reason why Clarence had just one win for the season going into Round 14.

Robinson said instead of criticising, Brownless should be offering to help fix the issues.

“The coaches all stick together, that’s a given, but I just get frustrated with people on the outside commenting on what’s happening at their club when they haven’t been there for 20 years,” Robinson said.

“You’ve got some criticism of your former club why don’t you get your hands dirty and go back there and help them out.”

Webberley said he was not thrilled to see criticism levelled at the club publicly on match day, but said he agreed with Brownless’s view of the list, and that since the article went to print Brownless had emailed the club offering to help.

Webberley said the club had been guilty of topping up with recruits in the past rather than developing its own as it changed flags and this philosophy had now caught up with the Roos.

But he said the lack of players in their 20s age bracket was a much wider issue than just at Blundstone Arena.

“It’s quite alarming the number of players that are falling off between ages 20 to 25 and that’s just not in the TSL and at Clarence footy club, that’s across the whole state,” Webberley said.

“I’ve admitted that we probably have invested too much in recruits, but I reckon there is a major issue around the state of players just falling out of footy now.”

He said clubs are being forced to blood 16-year-olds who are possibly burnt out from football by their mid-20s.

Webberley hopes the arrival of a Tasmanian VFL team in 2021 will keep players in the system longer.

“There’s that dream of playing VFL footy for Tasmania and potentially getting drafted from Tasmania as a 25-year-old,” he said.