That would be one formidable group owning the dance floor at a Croxton Hotel over 28s night…
Questions for you all:
Considering the fact that we won’t be knock, knock knocking on a premiership door anytime soon, how many of these players can we afford to accommodate going forward without jeopardising the list space required to bring the ‘next batch’ through…
If we have committed to signing all the 12 back up (which I think is the right thing to do) will we have to clear space with players that under normal circumstances may have received another year or two contracts? (guys like Gwilt, Dempsey and Goddard)
I’m a little concerned hearing rumours that we’re throwing big 4 year contracts at guys like Jenkins who are in the same age bracket. Shouldn’t we be trying to lure players in their early 20’s to form a core group with Hep, Zach, Joe D and Parish?
I simply don't buy a lot of the talk about Goddard, by supporters, that he is finished.
He isn’t at the level he was at 3-4 years ago. But he is still a valuable player, and still better than many on our list.
Cooney & Gwilt were brought to the club as insurance in case the 12 got suspended. They don’t have a role at Essendon past next year imo.
Imagine how Goddard (not to mention the 12) will feel when they can just concentrate on footy? When he doesn’t have to be captain or spokesman for the players who got infraction notices?
See North Melb. Age profile older than us. Hawks flag side had many plus 28’s.
Who cares how old they are if they are good enough.
Perhaps we aren’t actually that far from a flag if we fix the fwd line through next trade/draft period, and our list profile will have us right in the mix.
As long as you filter a couple of old guys out each year, it will be ok. And the list doesn’t look like there are that many on Huge Coin. As soon as those guys are dropped to the reserves they will know their time is close to up and probably give the game away. Look at Waites form at the moment. If they are playing good footy and better than the reserves then im happy for them to stay. I wouldn’t look at bringing more in though unless they are A Grade.
Jenkins fills a need and if we get him would be good for team structure and Daniher IMO.
I think it would be an issue if we didn’t have a group of young players that couldn’t take the responsibility of players like Watson, Hocking, Goddard, Stanton etc.
It’s not the case. We have Hurley, Zaharakis, Heppell, Myers, Zac Merrett & Parrish that will pick up the load. The good thing is, it’s not a question of ‘if’ they can carry the load and responsibility… We know they already can.
For me it was to stimulate discussion on what age bracket of players we should be going after in the trade period.
I’d like us to nab a couple of players in their early 20s to boost our group of ‘next gens’ into a proper ‘brigade’.
Astute trades like Josh Kennedy (swans), Sam Jacobs and josh Bruce where you don’t brake the bank, all in tgere early 20s when traded and have provided huge benefit.
Two players who were both dropped last week but i think could add value to our side would be Lin Jong and Lewis Taylor.
Jong is developing nicely, takes a good grab and spreads from the contest (something i think our midfield lacks)
I would give Taylor 3 years. Add some incentive based clauses not just around goals but around tackles, forward turnovers and pressure acts.
With big contracts going to Hooker, Heppel, Hurley (hopefully) i dont think we should be offering massive dollars to a messiah. Rather we should look to puck up a bargain or two and follow my hippie uncles line of growing your own.