I honestly think we could afford to lose Leuy, although as we’re contending it probably wouldn’t be my preference.
Not really. If Hooker plays back, we’ll play two (maybe three) of JD, Smack, Brown and Stewart in the AFL. That means a developing ruck could play as part of three talls in the VFL, or two talls if we have just a single injury. Doesn’t seem to be an issue.
Especially if Laverde is playing midfield.
Not many 18yo ruckmen get taken as it is.
JD and Smack in AFL… Brown and Stewart in VFL, plus one of Draper/Looney resting forward.
Bit too heavy to add another one in.
I guess the odds of no injuries are very long.
The change from 2 rucks playing in the seniors, to 1 ruck and a fill-in, has meant that our VFL side is too tall if everyone is fit. It is a problem.
As stated above, the right number of rucks on a list now is probably 3, and you go to the mid-season draft if it all goes to ■■■■.
I don’t particularly care if the VFL side is a bit unblanaced
Stages of list development
Stage 1 - We can’t win a flag. Anyone that has value and isn’t a key leader goes out. In come draft picks. Focus on the draft.
Stage 2 - Have an elite core. Trade in some elite talent to really double down on that age group and fill any skills gaps. Out go draft picks. Focus on the trade.
I think we have reached the end of stage 2. Where to now?
Stage 3 - Build into that core, but don’t have any coin for elite players. Balanced position. You are looking for cheap trades that build into your depth. You are looking to keep your top end picks and drafting in quality kids to start to build your list again for the next wave of opportunity, and because they don’t cost you a lot in the salary cap. You may choose to trade out good players to get in good players if your list balance is wrong or the AFL change the rules on you.
Stage 4 - Core group is now ageing. Focus on free agency to bring in quality players that fill a need, or are happy to take reduced coin for a premiership.
Stage 5 - Clutching at straws / last gasp. Sell the farm to get whatever you want. It doesn’t matter how much you screw the list as any real chance you have has gone anyway. Give your ageing stars a last crack at it.
Stage 6 - Admit you need to go back to stage 1.
Where is C*nton at?
Stage 9: tell everyone you’re building, talk up your list, win 2 games, ask for a priority pick, then go chase old guys??
Yes and no.
The senior list plus rookie list is 44 players. 2 sides.
A simplistic way to check the balance of your list is to be able to put two balanced sides out on the park. If you do that exercise you will find we have 1 ruckman too many, have too many defenders and don’t have enough small forwards.
Sure, some of the defenders may develop into midfielders.
They have a list strategy?
“Pick 1”
And how could that possibly fail?
Simplistic is the right word. For specialist positions you need to have proportionately more depth. If we have just two injuries to ruckman, then we’re already scraping the bottom of the barrel. If we had four midfielders out then we’d be able to cover them much better, because it’s easier to shift your non kp players around
It would be very easy for all our ruckmen to get injured at one time, but it would be a freak occurance if all of our midfielders were out
You may be surprised how often it identifies what type of players we are going to trade for or draft.
It is impossible to overstate the value of keeping pick 1. The best young player in the country. The first step on the path to redemption. Totally unrelated, did you know that in round 23 2017 Murphy, Gibbs, Kreuzer and Weitering played together in an 81 point loss?
Shamelessly stolen from AFL Integrity Unit Twitter.
We’re going to have to disagree on this one.
I don’t classify Smack as a ruck. Draper is a long way off being even a backup, hence keeping Looney, Lavender at this point is not even in consideration.
I think if there is anybody who is a smart ruckman we should take them and start developing now, you can always move them on or trade them later.
IMHO the last thing we want is the end of 2019, TBell’s ankle start struggling with the workload, Looney retires, Draper doesn’t come on and we are stuck having to chase a ruck through the trade.
Fair call. I think if that was the scenario then you’d delist Leuenberger and Lavender to free up space for a development ruckman. Which may happen. Given our current list we’re in win now mode, which favours keeping serviceable backups over development. I agree we need a more permanent solution behind TBell, and maybe that falls to us in the draft. I’m pretty bullish on Draper filling that role in time.
But we’d be better placed to chase a ruck at end of 2019, in your hypothetical scenario. More picks and (with TBC broken down) the opportunity. You’d go after the equivalent of Hickey or Preuss and just get it done.
Right now we’ve got 2 picks and a very very well established ruckman. No-one’s going to want to come here.
Rucks sorted:
TBC
JD/McKernan/Stewart/Draper
No need gor Leuy
I’d take him for one more year of backup and mentoring Draper than take pick 100 or whatever it will be.
The idea of going into games with our tall forwards as our only genuine ruck options is horrifying. Ryder almost pulled Port back into a game we dominated just because he had no-one worth while to ruck against
It might be a simple statement to make but west coast won the flag this year with a combination of impressive structure, and driven/talented players.
Looking purely from a talent/motivation perspective. We have Daniher, Merrett, Stringer, Fantasia, Heppell, Shiel, Hurley, Hooker, McKenna, Saad, McGrath, Smith, Francis.
That’s 13 off the top of my head that are both extremely talented and competitive. Add guelfi, zaka, parish, tippa, laverde and redman and that side should beat pretty much anyone. It’s a side full of class.
■■■■■■■ Judas ■■■■