So, GWS and the Bulldogs seem to be one of the stories of the trade period.
For GWS, everyone knew they would have guys leaving, but they’re turning out to be pretty aggressive at getting guys in. They have brought in Patful and are now chasing Griffen. Going out is (likely) Giles, O’Rourke, Jaksch, Whiley and Frost. Only Giles could be said to be in their best 22.
With Griffen, Patful and Mumford last year they have added players who are 28, 29 and 28 (right now). Surely this indicates they are going for finals? What is the point of bringing in players that age otherwise? Why lose picks #4 and #7 on a 28 year old if not to push yourself up the ladder?
Personally, I still think we should try to deal with GWS. Eve after the Griffen trade they should have pick #24, plus a plethora of mids who are pushed down the order by Griffen or were already fringe. Or one of the spare talls - we need to strengthen that area. #24 and a good prospect is better than the #17 and steak knives likely from Port!
____________________________________________________________
On the other side is the Bulldogs. Widely seen as having a dearth of talls, but a really strong midfield, they also have players reputedly asking to leave left right and centre. Griffen, Jones, Higgins, Cooney are all trying to flee the den, have already left or are being pushed out. Rumours Minson unhappy as well.
Personally, I don’t get it why Bulldogs are fighting this. If I was them I would be trying to take an opportunity to draft or trade the talls we all know they need. Their young mids are great, but without talls Griffen ain’t getting a premiership anytime soon. Better to trade him and Cooney out, take talls or picks from GWS, take Higgin’s compo, hit the draft hard and then prepare a war chest for next year’s FA with all the spare salary cap.
Unfortunately I can’t see anyway for us to get involved in this. The curse is if this had happened last year and they were chasing Crameri, they would now have the picks for a decent trade. Whereas last year the only reasonable pick was #26. Good thing we used it well!
Hopefully they fight tooth and nail to keep all these guys and continue to be terrible!
For the bulldogs, of the 4 you mentioned who want out, they would really only be spewing on Griffen.
Higgins - Plays 6 games a year and after the first one is a blinder the next 5 are average
Jones - Dead set spud. You know you are a ■■■■ forward when you can't even produce one decent game against us
Cooney - Shot. Would he be able to get through a pre-season without being managed?
If they do lose Minson however then that (along with Griffen) exposes them badly. Libba played much better with Griffen in the team (tagged less) and while they have a good midfield coming through, they are not guaranteed to be stars. If they lose Griffen and Minson it will set them back a couple more years at least.
Dogs senior players must really really hate being told to do better.
Dogs senior players must really really hate being told to do better.
Same thing happened at St Kilda.
But they're years off a premiership anyway. Probably at least five. They would need that time to develop any talls they get via the draft, and to build their spine they probably need several drafts to do it. Between the extra picks and possibly trading in talls, they probably actually speed up the process.For the bulldogs, of the 4 you mentioned who want out, they would really only be spewing on Griffen.
Higgins - Plays 6 games a year and after the first one is a blinder the next 5 are average
Jones - Dead set spud. You know you are a **** forward when you can't even produce one decent game against us
Cooney - Shot. Would he be able to get through a pre-season without being managed?
If they do lose Minson however then that (along with Griffen) exposes them badly. Libba played much better with Griffen in the team (tagged less) and while they have a good midfield coming through, they are not guaranteed to be stars. If they lose Griffen and Minson it will set them back a couple more years at least.
Perhaps seeing McKenna get burnt has signalled to GWS coaching staff that they do not have time on their side to get up the ladder.
The AFL need gws to be competitive. Internally, they have been unhappy with the Giants fixation on young draftees, starting with the U17 mini drafts. That was set up to get the Giants a core of top line afl ready players, not more top 3 picks. The pressure is now on from the Afl executive to give western sydney a team that is competitive and watchable each week.
But they're years off a premiership anyway. Probably at least five. They would need that time to develop any talls they get via the draft, and to build their spine they probably need several drafts to do it. Between the extra picks and possibly trading in talls, they probably actually speed up the process.For the bulldogs, of the 4 you mentioned who want out, they would really only be spewing on Griffen.
Higgins - Plays 6 games a year and after the first one is a blinder the next 5 are average
Jones - Dead set spud. You know you are a **** forward when you can't even produce one decent game against us
Cooney - Shot. Would he be able to get through a pre-season without being managed?
If they do lose Minson however then that (along with Griffen) exposes them badly. Libba played much better with Griffen in the team (tagged less) and while they have a good midfield coming through, they are not guaranteed to be stars. If they lose Griffen and Minson it will set them back a couple more years at least.
was thinking similar could be a blessing in disguise making the older, slowing down, injured brigade walk instead of having to push them.
obviously though it'll get worse before it gets better for the dogs, and Macca might not survive another 1-2 years of under performing.
will be interesting to watch though, they will either come good cos of it, or it will bury them for another 5 or more years, doesn't seem like they will finish inbetween those two options imo.
Hawthorn benefited hugely from the combination of low picks, priority picks, and the picks they got for Croad, Thompson and Hay. Geelong similar with trading out Bizzell, Mansfield, Murphy, Grgic and Colbert.
ExactlyThe AFL need gws to be competitive. Internally, they have been unhappy with the Giants fixation on young draftees, starting with the U17 mini drafts. That was set up to get the Giants a core of top line afl ready players, not more top 3 picks. The pressure is now on from the Afl executive to give western sydney a team that is competitive and watchable each week.
Coincidence that Griffin's trade to GWS and the Swans recruiting ban was announced on the same day, think not.
Orcharstrated by the AFL to try and get GWS on the map.
Titus O'Reily â€@TitusOReily 2h2 hours ago
Western Bulldogs decide they just might stay in bed today.
With Griffen, Patful and Mumford last year they have added players who are 28, 29 and 28 (right now). Surely this indicates they are going for finals? What is the point of bringing in players that age otherwise? Why lose picks #4 and #7 on a 28 year old if not to push yourself up the ladder?
Don't get the traded in 3 28yr olds = must be thinking they're a finals contender logic.
That point of bringing in players that age for GWS is for experience - to give their young guys time to develop - not necessarily about finals. Last season GWS had been forced to rely on part-timers as the 2nd ruck due to Phillips being injured and Downie not being ready - they desperately needed an AFL ready ruck because if Giles got injured they were screwed and Mumford was forced out of Sydney by Buddy.
Patfull is just as necessary for GWS as Warnock was for Gold Coast. Mohr's done an ACL, Frost and Jaksch are leaving and Phil Davis has missed half the season two years running and has a lengthy history of shoulder issues, Patfull meanwhile has proven to be extremely durable over his career, so at worst they ought to have one of those 2 to anchor the defence without having to rely on two 20yr olds as your key backs already.
Griffen they don't necessarily need given midfield is their strongest area, but I think his chosen club is as much about the existing Bulldogs in key posts there as it is anything else and nobody has said they'll have to part with both 4 & 7 to get him - he's not Dayne Beams so one should be ample - plus the Dogs wouldn't get that much for him as FA compensation next season.
Let's also remember that GWS as a whole don't organically have guys in that age bracket, they didn't follow the Gold Coast route of recruiting 25-27 yr olds that would be 30ish when they would've expected to challenge for finals. The oldest guys from their original list are Mohr & Giles at 26, Palmer is the oldest of the guys they got off AFL lists at 25. They need to bring in guys of the ilk of Heath Shaw, Mumford etc to fill that experience gap until 15 or so of their original group of draftees get into the 50-75 game bracket.
But they could have done that when they started, with no pick cost, with the huge amount of salary cap room they had. They didn’t. Why now?
GWS....if they get Griffin in and sharked Ryder....■■■■ they might win the damn thing
Why now? Because they admitted they needed more experience on the list last season, hell Sheedy trotted out the more experience/bigger bodies line in a large majority of his press conferences in the 2nd half of the season.
They had only 8 games last season when they weren't beaten by more than 10 goals. You can't expect any fledgling team to sit back on their hands and say - yep, we won 1 game for the year, we lost by 100+ pts 5 times and Gold Coast who we're inevitably compared with thumped us by 83pts - this is clearly working, no need to change anything. The Suns weren't that much better from a wins perspective in Year 2 but they were much better at being competitive each week (only 1 loss by 100+ pts for starters).
Given the AFL's investment you can expect they would've bluntly pointed out how uncompetitive they were and the need to change things up before supporters and sponsors dwindle.
This season the AFL still wouldn't like that they had 6 beltings by 60+ pts (2 over 100), experience is one easy way to reduce their beltings as the mature bodies will handle the week-to-week grind better so consistency in theory ought to improve.
Takes less pressure off the bottom 3/4 of their list as well.
Their best 10-12 are OK (kids and mature types) but every week they'd be picking half a side of kids like ORourke, Tomlinson, Jaksch, Buntine, Boyd, Lamb who are more sink than swim at the moment.
Should have given tassie a team
What are the ‘issues’ Macca had to work on?
What are the 'issues' Macca had to work on?
His cramped, busy schedule.
He now has a lot of leisure time.
GWS....if they get Griffin in and sharked Ryder....**** they might win the damn thing
No chance.