This offseason will give us the best indication yet (since Worsfold has been there) of where the club sees the list.
They’ve been hamstrung to a degree because of the Saga and then last season with all the retirements and obvious delistings, they baulked at the chance of really clearing out (eg Jerrett, Long) because of the concern with the quality of really late picks.
Considering there are fewer obvious delistings this year they are basically forced to make tougher calls. If they end up removing 7 or 8 from the list (which is doubtful) they would have made some pretty tough calls
we played 3 legit bigs and Gleeson in about 6 games last year from what I can count, the rest of the time Gleek was the 3rd tall.
So yes, he does take tall opponents, despite your bent against him.
His year arguably turned around when we stopped playing him on smalls (which he was doing in the first month) and started giving him mid-size and talls.
One day hopefully an AFL side will have a match-up that Hartley can beat. Just can’t be anyone fast, or smart, or strong, or have any ground level game… other than that he can play on everyone.
Agree I think people are reading too much into it. Jackson Merret was the easiest delisting decision to make since I can remember and out of respect Goddard was tapped on the shoulder for his goodbye game.
I am always in favour of having a mature backup ruck on the list.
If Draper is ready now then that is great and we can then push Lav through as the development role. I just don’t think that either Draper or Lav are ready for next season.
So if it’s not Burger, then it should be another mature ruck. It’s not exciting and no long term upside other that protecting our kids but necessary imo as ruck is such a brutal role.
Hang on a second, I’m not saying he’s an alternative. I’m saying he’s depth. Remembering that in an ideal world we’ll also have McKernan. And the major reason you’d be bringing him in is an injury to Belly, which means you need him as ruck depth. Which you’ve just agreed he goes ok at.
At the end of the day if in an emergency or for a short period he had to come in, and got some experience against AFL rucks in 2019, I don’t think that would hurt his development at all. Witts played 7 games in his 3rd year, Jacobs played 19 games, Grundy played 15, getting a run in your third year as a ruck is not going to stuff his career.
The question here, is IF Luey retires, and the choice is giving Draper some 2019 games and freeing up a list spot, versus getting a state level player, is there any point? Will the state level player even be as good as Draper?
Gleeson can’t hold a tall key position role, he’d be killed. He got rag dolled last year by a guy under 190cm. The idea he’s competing with Hurley, Hartley, Hooker et al. for a role is ridiculous.
Look, if you don’t rate Hartley, fine. That’s your opinion, say you don’t, and say you think he should be delisted. But don’t make up a whole argument about how he’s surplus, which he isn’t yet, rather than just saying you don’t rate him and think he should be delisted.
My opinion is Hartley is fine at AFL level, as shown by his 2016 performances, and a side can work around a limited defender (see Dawson or Gilham). So I’d be keeping him around as the youngest of our “proven” AFL players until at least two of those youngsters have shown they can step up.
Really like Gleeson. Improves every year and makes good decisions. Can he be a KPD in the future…probably, maybe not next year but in 3 years…yep I can see that.
We won’t win a premiership with Hartley at FB or with Dea in the team, they aren’t up to it IMO. Really excited about Redman, Ridley, Francis playing together in our backline, it will be our strongest area in the next year or two…those kids are top shelf
