I think so too tbh.
Well done Prior. Fought back well after a horror first month when he looked all at sea. Then as the defenders started falling al around him he gained in composure and fully deserved the new contract. One year is spot on. Make him work hard to earn another just like McVeigh used to do.
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A player who can stay on the park is like gold in this team.
A sensible, if not conservative decision.
Donāt hate it, but it doesnāt scream ādeep rebuildā
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Heās the last guy who signifies anything.
Itās the high profile guys (Draper, Ridley, Parish etc) who define the list direction. IMO. The guys who are on dollars and might actually get us some sort of return.
Someone like Prior is either the 39th best guy and gets another deal; or heās the 41st best and we replace him with a 5th round draft pick.
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Iām pretty sure that one was Dodoro
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Prior is the type of player that every team has, and needs, on the list. Decent enough to do a job when needed, but youāre hoping to have better, more skilled players around them. 1 year makes sense. And given that we need to make at least 8 or 9 list changes, it means someone else will be cut / traded out etc. itās going to be interesting viewing and will tell us quite a lot on who we expect to not be around for various reasons. Given we might be incredibly young and light, heās in the bracket to partially offset that and in a settled backline might improve a bit more.
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Genuine question.
But wouldnāt the list of current players we wish to re-sign come from the coach (with input from assistant coaches and list manager)?
Then it is the list managerās job to negotiate and organise contracts to satisfy coach, club and player/agent?
I mean Iād love it if Rosa could just delist all of Bradās favourites that he keeps playing for unknown reasons, but I just donāt think he has that authority. Am I wrong?
Players coming in to the club no doubt should be the other way around.
Iām not falling for that again.
It would be a collective decision of list management, coach, match committee etc, and probably Vozzo overlooking it all, youād think. The coaches opinion would carry a lot of weight but not the sole arbiter.
And itās interesting. Shiel was played right to the end, seemed to be a āfavouriteā , but was already aware that heād not be re-contracted. Thatās a difficult one to decipher for both sides of the B Scott argument, methinks. It doesnāt really fit into either of the prevailing zeitgeist thinking polarity on here.
Disagree on Shiel. He played plenty of VFL through the year until we had almost no one left.
With a fit list, all indications to me, says he would have played out the year in the VFL.
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He arguably could / should have been omitted for Johnson. Especially in the final weeks. He wasnāt . But was still essentially delisted.
And again, if your proposition is correct, then he doesnāt really fall neatly into the āfavouritesā storyline either way.
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Not gonna chuck a hissy fit over this but I donāt see what weāll learn next year that we donāt already know. Itās clear he wonāt play 100 games for us.
Rather churn and pick two guys who might be the next Baguley or Hibberd.
Hibberd, the bloke who didnāt play 100 games for us?
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Shut yer clams.
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Nah, Hibberd, the bloke who was another victim whose career was badly damaged by Vlad, Gil and the fkg AwFL.
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What do people think of Jaxons prospects for next year?
Jaxon was arguably our worst player in the first 5 weeks, but played some ok football later in the year. Especially given the circumstances.
Unless we draft Taylor, I can see him remaining a best 22 player for a while, given we donāt have many medium defender options
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He definitely got better as the season progressed, even if he did still produce a moment or two that made you grit your teeth. Was playing on much bigger opponents at the end of the year. Deserves to start in the 22 round 1 and with a year of games behind him should have the confidence to start better in 2026
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Heās best 22 until heās not.
As you said, some howlers early, but played well for the majority of the season. He cemented his position imo.
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Iām glad he lost that double fisted spoil when he should have been marking it. That did cause me some anxiety!
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