Laverde is the one that gets the excuse though given he missed over half the season injured. He just hadn’t managed to stay fit and get a decent run at it yet.
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A serious injury curtailed his output. If he gets an uninterrupted preseason, then he starts 2018 with a clean slate from me., l fully expect Francis to be the one to really step up and rip things / teams apart.
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I’d trade Francis and our first round draft pick for Jake Lever in a heartbeat.
And I’d trade Langford and our first round pick next year for Jake Stringer and Bulldogs 2nd round pick next year.
Laverdes a keeper for mine. Has played since drafted basically whenever he’s been fit. The other 2 well… have potential. That’s all.
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I’d be happy if 2 of them had big years.
And I’m with fogdog. Still reckon Langford is going to be a gun
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But if your second option went through, what would you do about your username?
That’s the real question.
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WTF?
2000 says hello.
As would many other years from our glorious history.
I think people are going to be surprised by these guy next year.
Langford has done his apprenticeship, he will be brought in to replace Jobe.
Laverde is still a bit off, needs to not get a major injury, if he gets a full preseason and rolls into the season without a hiccup, watch out.
Francis, hard to tell, he could spud it up, or he could break out. I think there would be a bigger emphasis on his perpetration and by mid preseason we will know. An up and firing Francis changes our team enormously.
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I think we know what the problem is with Francis: he’s just not fit enough.
I’d like to see all three of them put in really hard summers and undergo transformations the way Jobe Watson did when he decided to get himself really fit. All three have shown glimpses of their talent. If they got their bodies really lean and hard they would all improve out of sight.
I’m not convinced that fitness is his only issue. Certainly it’s his most pressing issue, but he may have a couple of others as well.
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Yeah that statement should be clearer, I mean recently in terms of culture, Last decade or so. We are much better placed to go forward with the young leaders we currently have.
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Francis is totally going to make it.
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Its hard to shake early perceptions. Sure, in his first year he was not fit. But about 8 weeks ago, Harves said Frangers GPS numbers were adequate and it would be possible for him to play AFL late in 2017.
So why didnt that happen? Imo, his form was not good enough. Simples.
I thought Woosha made it pretty clear on Francis a couple of weeks back.
He’s fit enough but just doesn’t run and get to the right spots enough.
As a third tall defender in the AFL the expectation will be to cut off as many high balls coming in as possible and then getting on your bike to continue to provide a link in the chain.
You cant be a one trick pony in the modern game any more so he needs to continue to expand his game. Gleeson and Hartley have gone through similar tough love experiences this year.
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They are at the critical point in their career’s that they should be in the best 22 next year (regardless of injuries) if they’re ever going to make it.
I wouldn’t be surprised if all three play 15+ games next year, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if they can’t live up to the expectations and play 5 to 10 games.
What would surprise me, is if any of them have a good enough season to finish top 5 in our B&F. I’m not sure they are ready for that level of play yet.
After next season, we’ll know what we have with these three.
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Barring injury, they’re all set to make steps forward. It’d be great if they were leaps. If I had to pick one who’ll put up a huge '18 I’d say Langford. He’s been simmering for long enough, time to give him a run at it.
Rather than hoping, fingers crossed, we draft some of the missing links into our 2018 team, we must get games into some of our young guys. To find out whether Laverde, Langford and others will make it playing AFL and the step up from VFL is getting bigger by the year.
Just because we have a treasure chest of dollars to spend, doesn’t mean we will get who we want.
I’d like to see both langford and laverde go through the middle as big bodied mids. Francis makes too many critical errors in the games iv’e seen him. Talented yes, but turns it over and makes stupid decisions, i think they want him to iron that stuff out first.
Laverde will either use his good body for the game to good effect, or be another mcphee. So yeh langford is the one i see most likely to be a regular senior player.
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Yep, these guys should be the icing, not the cake.
Edit: which is sort of the point of the original post. Fk me. I’ll go back to sleep.
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I reckon either way, by the end of next season we’ll be able to make pretty definitive calls on them. Next year will tell a lot about if their going to make it long term.
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Langford will be a top 5 player on our list within two years in my opinion. Has a special quality about him and exposure to seniors next year will speed up his development.
Francis can also be a very good player but will take a little time.
Of the three I think Laverde has the most question marks. Next year he will need to start showing something.
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