#5 Devon Smith

Get him right for 2020? I understand its logical but its like people dont see Smith as a loss

Its huge. He’s the best defensive midfielder in the game. This kills us

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Agree won. Not only is he a very good defensive midfielder it’s the intangibles he brings. His mindset, his attitude, his leadership out on the field. He sets the standard for pressure for his teammates to follow

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Smith 2018 is.

Smith 2019 hasn’t been near that.

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He is nearly no use if he isn’t right so may as well get it done

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If they keep managing and playing him then people will want blood when he’s still injured next season. Huge loss but i’d rather him miss the rest of this season than be injured for the rest of his career. His output is down about 30% from last season too. Parish or somebody similar will have to step up and will end up a better player because of it.

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Yes he’s a big loss. But if he’s going to keep struggling and breaking down in his current state then yes we have to get him right for 2020. He has to be fixed, otherwise we won’t have him at all.

He turns 26 this Monday (happy early birthday wishes Dev). So from 2020 onwards he has what… 3 or so really good years ahead of him? If that’s our window to have a crack then he needs to be there then.

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I like Smith, but maybe he is symptomatic of the Dodoro ‘too clever by half’ approach to recruitment.

Smith, Raz, Brown, Gleeson, McKernan… I like 'em all… but these guys all came with issues (McKernan had hamstring issues at Adel). We can’t act too surprised when Smith and Raz continually show that, maybe, their bodies aren’t resilient enough to play 250 games of AFL… and that’s why they were overlooked by a lot of other clubs.

Smith had known knee problems… we shouldn’t act surprised. In the 18 years we’ve been sh*te, Dodoro has recruited a lot of blokes that were footballers first, AFL-resilient athletes second. Always looking for a bargain Dodoro… and I wonder if he hasn’t been a significant contributor to our mediocrity.

Of course he has been. He is the 1 constant in the footy dept since we’ve been ■■■■ and bringing in talent is how you get better. Of course they need to be developed as well.

Every other person has been replaced except him, unless i’m mistaken.

I’m not counting Doc Reid as footy dept, although he may be.

He’s fkn cooked, the sooner WOB deals with it the better.

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How anybody could be critical of Dodoro 's recruitment of Devon Smith is absolutely beyond belief.

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Well it is a fair question if it all goes to ■■■■ for the rest of his career.

Big IF obviously.

One great season and one poor one doesn’t equal a trading win, especially when it’s not like he was cheap.

Yeah, thats my point. Its a huge loss

Pick 11 and a third rounder for Smith and 2 x 2nd rounders.
It’s pretty cheap.

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It is, but we’re not resting in-form Smith.
We’re mothballing the 2019 version, to try and make sure we get his best form back next year.

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I guess that depends on your idea of cheap. I wasn’t saying it was expensive btw but imo it wasn’t cheap.

Particularly if we knew he had a knee issue that would raise it’s head later, then it is expensive but i don’t know how true that actually is.

My goodness, the 20-20 is back in vogue, nothing last year of course, but this year let’s get it back on.

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Was no secret he’d missed games with the knee.

Still, he’s won a B&F in his first year. He’d be a fine acquisition for pick 11 straight, even without the second rounders coming back.

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Good place for compensation payouts is Tullamarine. Had to pretend he wasn’t desperate to get to us at time I bet.

its 12 months off for a knee reco. That means he comes back around round 10 next year. Then the whole getting up to speed with the game, season over.

That’s if he isn’t another Docherty etc as so many players seem to do a knee straight after coming back from the first.

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Well aren’t you a little ray of sunshine.

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