Adrian Dodoro - Flankers into Mids since 2000 (Part 1)

McNiece is Cat B so is really a free extra list spot. Dea played ~11 games during our best part of the season. Seems sensible to me.

Long is a bit more dubious.

Also if our small forwards come on faster, it frees Stringer, Raz and Walla to spend more time in the midfield.

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This ignores the fact that Shiel was available this year, and if we hadnā€™t taken him when we did, he would be playing against us again next season, while we have no idea of who will be available next season, and what hoops Jackets would have to jump through to pick up an unknown player. An extra 100,000 is not a major consideration, when you recall that Shiel knocked back 3 times that amount to come to us.

The Shiel deal was every bit as remarkable as the Saad/Smith/Stringer trades. You reduce it to the ordinary, but it is far from that, and the intricacies involved in making it work out prove that it was anything but ordinary.

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ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā–  hell are supporters ever satisfied. Go barrack for Carlton and Silvagni as list manager. If Adrian didnā€™t take Shiel supporters wanted his head now that we have him. Weā€™re paying him too much. For a start no-one knows what heā€™s getting paid. Be excited for the list we have going into 2019. FFS.

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Looking at the Free Agency list posted previously, thereā€™s only one of those 2019 blokes Iā€™d be remotely interested in - Coniglio.
In reality free agency is BS - itā€™s much more common to prise blokes out of their contract.
So weā€™d be hoping for a bloke better than Shiel to break his contract (for $100,000 more - divided by length of contract - PA)
In return hoping our pick 10 or 12, after draft concessions, turns out to be a really good midfielder in 3 years time.
Doesnā€™t make sense.
A Shiel in the hand is worth it now.

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Conbloodycur wsb.

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Several people have lauded how Dea provides great depthā€¦I just think the mid-season draft makes it unnecessary.

Sure, we now have Dea for the first half of the season, but then the list tends to be in better health during that period.

Meanwhile, if weā€™d left that list spot open, I think it could have been of value:

  • eg. As insurance for a much wider range of player types - say we suffer a couple of injuries to players that are a different type to Dea, say outside runners. Well we would have been able to look to replace that type at mid year.
  • eg. For list build - get the best Victorian 19yo into Essendon VFL and monitor him up close for the first half of the year, to potentially draft him for the long term.
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The mid season draft ends in March.

Highly misleading itā€™s really a preseason extension to sign an extra rookie. You canā€™t use it to draft a player that has a real ā€˜midā€™ season injury.

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Not that he would leave, but Stephen Hill might suit well. Seems to be less rated than historically, so maybe we could squeeze his wages in. And we could do with more outside run.

But reality is I doubt heā€™d leave WA even for a chance at a premiership. Especially with his brother now at Freo. Although who knows, maybe heā€™d want away from Lyon ā€¦

Iā€™d look at swallow. He needs a change of scenery, wouldnā€™t cost the earth but could still be a very solid player.

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You can.

There are two intake periods. One on eve of season and one mid season IIRC

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Except for the mid season draft you donā€™t need spare list spots if you have an LTI. So we can still do that.

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Our midfield now bats deep enough to avoid bringing in ā€œsolidā€ players from outside.
Smith, Shiel, Hepp, Zaharakis, Parish, Langford, McGrath and of course Zach.
With Stringer, Myers, and possibly Franga to chuck in for big bodies.
And Fanta & Tippa for bursts of extra pace.

An argument maybe for the pace of Hill, but another year and heā€™s close to over himself.
Certainly not when Redman & Ridley are both possible wide players.

If itā€™s still a concern come the end of next year Iā€™d expect Jackets still has his eye on a certain Gold Coast player in Martin for that role.

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Dodo is banking on McGrath & Shiel transforming our midfield from middle of road to elite and forwards & backs that can pinch hit or turn into midfielders providing depth.

Whilst he continues to stockpile KPF and KPD.

It might work. As a supporter Iā€™d just prefer drafting more mids than he does.

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Donā€™t underestimate the impact that Parish and yourself could make to the midfield from 2019 and beyond

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Personally I think our midfield is in great shape. Iā€™d rate them in the following order:

Likely best 22 mids:
Merrett
Heppell
Shiel (maybe Iā€™m underrating him, but I think Hepp is underrated by some here).
Smith
Zaharakis
McGrath
Langford
Parish
Myers

Guys pushing for spots over the next few year:
Guelfi
Laverde
Begley
Clarke
Mutch
Mynott

Guys in the best 22 in other positions who can and do add to the midfield + they might increase their midfield minutes in future
Francis
Fantasia
Tippa
Stringer

The only blokes in that list remotely old are Myers and Zaharakis.

I reckon all 3 of Parish, McGrath and Langford are just about ready to explode and become A grade. As long as 1 of them does, weā€™ve essentially added 2 A grade midfielders (Shiel being the other)

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Sydney Stack anyoneā€¦?

Um, relevant to the Dodoro thread how?

This is where Dodoro stuffed up imo kept stock piling KPF and KPD whilst every other club kept drafting mids.

Nathan Buckley copped it for always gettings mids but it got him to a Grand Final. Itā€™s like we are playing catch up and only started drafting mids the last few years.

Having a strong midfeild has always been number 1 priorty when building a list

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Bad example, Iā€™d say West Coasts talls were the difference in the GF winning them the flag.

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