by Magellan » Sun Nov 27, 2016 4:25 pm
Some players simply take time to mature. Plenty of 18-19 years old kids have been drafted and have subsequently failed to meet the expectations of the AFL system, which suggests that they were too young and weren't ready.
As for young Jarman, he's certainly not ready now, but that doesn't mean he might not develop into a serviceable (or better) AFL standard player given some time. He might also turn out to be a completely average footballer. Just goes to show that with all the scouting and sports science, it's really just a raffle.
There seems to an expectation that players must ready to participate in the professional sporting system of the AFL against fully developed and conditioned men when their bodies (and minds, more importantly) are not yet fully ready, and if they're not ready then they're a failure. It's easy to forget that the golden years of SA footy development in the early to mid 1980s had the cream of our crop heading over to the VFL in their early twenties, when they were properly developed men and experienced as footballers, and by and large they dominated for extended periods.
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