Same issue with Ridley. In one week, out for 3.
McKayās woes are all in his mind, he doesnāt look like overcoming them anytime soon. Ridley is classy but fragile. Both should be gone, albeit for different reasons. A defensive system does rely on having the right players, at the moment we donāt have the players we require for a tight defence. Regardless of who is put in the back half, we can expect the mauling to continue next season, until such time as a full ground defensive game plan kicks in.
I agree with Wim, you are right that they have years of high picks but what do they really have to show for it?
Sheezle and wardlaw are great but wardlaw is as injury prone as Ridley and sheezle is very reliant on others. Not sold on Dursma either. Oāsullivans probably the one id want. Not sure id swap Robey, sharp or caddy for any of them.
I reckon theyre really only ahead of us because of their 25yo plus guys
Thatās fine to disagree and I hope Iam wrong because I very much dislike north.
But they have plenty of talent in larkey LDU Trembath Curtis Xerri etc some of which are AA I doubt they are retiring any time soon
Not even close. This is like saying luke ryan is in freoās top 3 most important players.
Our list is shocking. WHEN ridley is fit, yeah heās a solid player, im not saying at all heās not. But the way people carry on about him, its like weāre being robbed of a prime jeremy mcgovern. its not a reflection of how good ridley is - itās a reflection of how utterly sh*t our list is. We over rate our own. He looks better than what he is because heās surrounded by duds.
Oh yeah absolutely their experienced guys are streets ahead of whatās left of ours, but thats part of my thinking, tgat group might have a while left but they arenāt going to get better.
Yeah those guys wonāt get better but those young players will.
Ridley is an excellent playerā¦.when fitā¦.which he rarely is. I donāt think we lose anything by trading him. His trade value has probably gone down this year.
Obviously your right to disagree. Both our wins came when he played full games.
Ridley was a great playerā¦a few years ago before he started getting injured all the time.
These days, even when fit and playing, he is timidā¦he rarely takes on the play and heās got into a bad habit of just doing dinky 15-30m kicks.
Nowā¦on the rare occasions that he gets onto the ground, heās a shadow of the player who won the Crichton all those years ago.
Correct.
Heās half the player he was five years ago.
Five years ago.
Even when he plays.
Maybe we can package him up with his mate Mackay and get an early second.
Sydney might need some replacements off their HB line if Bice and Lizard are gonna be shipped off into exile
I donāt thing we can build a backline around a bloke that hardly plays.
Hes either injured, recovering from injury or playing and about to be injured.
We badly need a tall mature defender.
Last few years the patternās been the same.
He gets over an injury, takes 2-3 weeks to knock off the rust, plays a really good match or two, then breaks down.
Just has no trust in his body anymore (currently) doesnt sprint much, doesnāt kick long. Just no drive in his legs. Who knows if he can get that back. Probably spend 2027 just getting up to speed again
Based on what Iām hearing, Ridley is convincible to remain with the Dons.
Got to admit itās a worry that we have to convince a highly paid contracted player who barely gets on the park to stay. If he wants out, then despite my trepidations, itās probably best to cut the chord - weāve gotta let the new coach start with a list who want to be here.
I think I would be ok trading him if Spike or Rosa had a replacement in mind (like a VFL player or Rampe) . We just need some mature bodies to support Reid back there.
