Got to have been around 8 years to qualify for FA, so none of them are young.
I just think it’d be pointless, and probably counter productive to chase other team’s mid-career B graders. Especially when we’ve got plenty of our own, playing VFL.*
Our 2013-15 list isn’t winning this year’s flag. Some of you need to get over that.
*except maybe a ready to go ruckman
What this shows is that unless Lav or Langford turns into an inside mid, we need a Jobe replacement.
I have seen no indication from Woosha thus far (early days obviously) that he’ll be playing journeymen over kids. And his list management so far has been delightfully ruthless.
Fact is, our kids are - in a few cases - already better than said journeymen, so it’s not really much of an issue atm.
We need to go hard at Will Brodie. Massive bombers fan and was hoping to be pick number one. I think if we get his ear we could pry him away from GC in a year or two. Would be the perfect replacement for a retiring Watson.
Do you think Ben Howlett’s our next best forward pocket? Cos I can think of a long list I’d rather see ahead of him for that role.
But I think you’re right in general, a few kids are already good, many more of them are showing a few signs they could be good. But I do worry about the list management group’s tendency to be conservative, more often than not.
I’d like that.
Like who?
The list of kids to play there is Mason Redman, and despite my faux hype, he’s miles off it.
You don’t just play kids for the sake of it, regardless of form. We’re not fighting for the spoon.
I don’t mind that Howlett played, he earned it on form. He won’t last long though, and I do suspect the returning guys might get one or two more games than they probably should, but that’s ok all things considered. I’d be surprised if they get too many favours when the list cutting starts.
Also, I’d keep Mitch Brown. He’s not rubbish, and he can play KP either end. He’s worthwhile depth imo.
Wait, have we just seen us transition from having the back 6 as our greatest strength to the forward 6?
Mind blown.
Midfield IMO is going to require some Dodoro magic for us to really breakthrough.
Heppell & Zerrett the clear ‘A-Graders’ and Parish every chance to get there but not yet. We probably still need a big bodied contested ball clearance beast ala, Jobe, Kennedy etc for the medium to long term and it wouldn’t hurt to have some extra speed/agility and physicality in there given our best future mids are on the smaller side.
Also if Walla has taught us anything it is that being lethal by foot counts for a hell of a lot.
Forwardline is finally looking the goods due to having so many threats (dare i say it…hawthorn-esque).
Backline missing a strong intercept marking player and some run.
Would love to see Hurley freed up to really be able to use his kicking to advantage.
Begley, Redman, or fiddle-de-dee and throw Stanton forward.
Hardly an extensive list.
If it was round 10 or something, then I’d suggest Begley might have got a run.
See, where possible, I’d be trying to blood lots of kids against sides like Brisbane. Get them a few games against softer opponents, before they have to face the really good sides.
Only FA that mildly interests me this year is Pittard. Only 26 and his attack off HBF is exactly what we need. Not a match winner but wouldn’t cost the earth either.
Otherwise surely its our turn to prise away some GWS/GC talent. We keep talking about adding some grunt to the mosquito fleet. Hopper and Kennedy are struggling to get games at GWS so id be enquiring.
Yeah, but they have to be ready I reckon, and not everyone is in round 2 of Season 1.
And let’s be honest, next week is the real soft opponent.
Begley was born ready. Eats defenders like he eats pies.
Only slightly off topic I reckon Raz had all of 3 kicks in his debut. Must be why he’s struggled ever since.
Sometimes you just have to back yourself
I don’t disagree on your sentiment (and with most of your OP for that matter) but I think Howlett earnt his game, Begley isn’t ready yet (despite how he was born) and Redman may never be.
Orazio debuted round 20 fwiw.
I’m not really seeing why the round matters that much? Sooner they’ve got a few games under their belts the better, as far as I’m concerned
You don’t see the difference between having 10-15 VFL games under your belt, or just coming straight in raw?
Anyway, we’ve probably done this to death, and your thread deserves better.
Young enough*
In most cases players with 8 years service are 26. That’s 4-6 years of quality footy left. Hawthorn got Burgoyne and Gibson at 26, then Lake at 30…pretty sure they didn’t think they were too old. It all depends on our performances this year and if we are in contention. If we are up there over the next couple years, and we start to lose some of our best 22 to retirement after that, why wouldn’t you fill those holes with 26/27 year old B-graders?!! Doesn’t seem like a waste if it gives us an extra chance at a premiership.
Of course I don’t endorse throwing everything at a player if they’re not worth it e.g. Crazy Buckley’s $2million Chris Mayne deal. But if the price is right and there is a hole in the best 22 that a player can fill for 4 years why not?!
Say Kelly and Stanton retire in 2018 after finishing 3rd, are you gonna disagree if we sign free agents Shaun Atley and Gaff (both 26 in 2018)?
We’re in nowhere near the same list situation as Hawthorn were when they chased Gibson and co.
I’d be for moving on middle tier players. I don’t think there’s any point keeping small/medium players beyond their current contract if they’ve peaked and aren’t in the best 22. There’s an exception if you’re in the hunt for a flag (by which I mean playing in at least a prelim, not being pretty confident that it will all come together next year), but otherwise depth should basically be guys seeing out their contracts and young guys who are still improving. The good thing is that the strategy should be self evident by the end of the year: if we’re a top 4 team and we want depth next year, keep some of them, if we’re not, don’t.
More broadly I think we need to be a bit more adventurous in our list management, which I imagine we’ll see now that the saga’s over. We need to get better faster than the teams around us, and evidence would suggest the conservative approach of taking a few draft picks and backing in our development isn’t likely to achieve this. That may be targeting players of note from other clubs, it may be trading out good players to get the draft picks we want, it may be bringing in Estonian ice hockey players, I don’t know.