Just my opinion but I reckon the only player the club wanted to keep was Ryder, based on clubs talk at the time “required player” and the fact we’ve traded in Giles and looney to replace the hole left in our list. Generally you keep the players you want to keep. We may not have shopped Melksham, Hibbered, Carlisle and Crameri around but if we desperately wanted them they would still be here. Did the club ever come out and say Carlisle is a required player? They just talked about getting fair value. We obviously didint think they were worth the coin they were being offered elsewhere, knew their limitations and thought the picks we could get where needed given the picks we lost due to the saga.
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Agreed.
Ryder we wanted to keep.
Given our tall depth at the time, Crameri was already likely to be traded with our first pick for us to move up to get Dogs 1st pick (as we wanted Bont). Have to think McCartney may even have been privy to that before he went to Dogs. Also Crammers relationship with Hird/McCartney was far stronger than Bomber, who wasn’t the cuddling type.
Melksham was a fringe midfielder which we somehow got a high 2nd rounder for. Melk himself felt completely lost under Bomber however, no clear direction as coach for him. Hird he loved.
Hibberd wasn’t being offered remotely close to what was out there. Personally I think the way he dealt with the year off, with the partying aspect, no doubt got back to club & would have been seen in negative light. Was seen as expendable IMO.
Carlisle was not well liked within the playing group, somewhat of a sook and his professionalism questioned regularly and as we saw after the trade happened that was as clear as day. Pick5. Francis.
…
I was really annoyed to see Crameri & Carlisle go though however.
Whilst we did well out of the trades for majority there we also had lost draft picks as well as ability to bring in quality players from other clubs.
Now our focus is on the group coming through for success in 3-5yrs time. As Dodoro has said.
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We didn’t want any of them to go. Bomber spent a lot of time trying to convince Crameri to stay. Melksham had a contract offer, but Melbourne priced us out of the market. Hibberd, like all the suspended players, was also wanted, but the club openly said they weren’t going to stand in the way of anyone who did decide to go. Carlisle was also wanted and the club spent a lot of time trying to appease him but he was a lost cause by the end.
The fact that we got decent returns overall at the trade table for them in the end doesn’t change any of that.
He means John Somerville though.
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Destination club.
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So with 2 million in extra Cap space along with retiring stars, looks like we are going to be pretty cashed up. However we are not going to be the only ones. The big question is do we go after a player or two this year, or do we wait for the dust to settle and pounce at a later date?
Depending on how the contracts play out these are some of the players that could be available next year (out of contract in 2018 and RFA/FA)
Rory Sloan
Tom Lynch
Isaac Smith
Max Gawn
Andrew Swallow
Shaun Atley
Robbie Gray
Travis Boak
Andrew Gaff
Jeremy McGovern
Luke Shuey
Easton Wood
Jordan Roughhead
Luke Dahlhaus
Mitch Wallis
Thomas Liberatore
We won’t be going now where if we don’t fix our midfield
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I think this year we’ll be saying goodbye to Stanton, Howlett, Hocking, Watson, Kelly, as retirees and guys like Bird, J.Merrett, Long and Morgan will probably also get the chop.
It’ll be interesting to see how play it over the off season, whether we go all out for players from other clubs or attack the draft hard or maybe both
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Watson stays because he is a dream boat (and there are 3 or 4 that will go before him)
Need another Kelly in the team, or the Josh type.
Sink, throw it. All of it.
Just remember the buzz when Goddard signed, we were back (and he was a top 10 player at the time)
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Why do people keep saying “with the extra money in the cap” like it’s an advantage for us? Applies to every single club.
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It’s more the excitement of spending big money on talent vs spending big money on average talent (through saga guilt)
I am sure there were a couple of contracts where we gave the 12 ‘overs’
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I think that is just too many players (9) to loose.
I can see one of Watson, Howlett staying.
I can see Jerrett being moved to another club.
I think Morgan will be given a 1 year deal.
That is still a monster turnover again.
I agree its too many players. I suspect that Kelly will stay unless he tails off, and same with Watson (unless he wants out). Both are pretty solidly in the best 22.
Howlett, Bird, Hocking, Stanton would all be on the chopping block. Jerrett will be gone (no club will pick him up), and Morgan given the above might get a one year reprieve. Long is a rookie and needs to do a lot to stay (IMO). Eades will be gone of course.
That is only 5-6 senior list players and two rookie players. Not exactly unusual for that many to go. And that would mean Kelly, Goddard and Watson would all be potential 2018 retirements (and Morgan might go if kept on this year).
I can see us having up to 14 changes to the list.
I think we will cull hard at the end of this year, unless we make finals.
Plenty of blokes on our list playing for their careers. This includes kids who have barely started, and old-timers who may wish to keep on keeping on.
It’s not a huge amount when you need to have a good clean out/semi rebuild which is exactly what we need.
Morgan won’t as I think they will be patient with his body issues. The kid can play and I am sure we will see it once a full year and pre-season is completed
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Who are the 14?
Old players (4): Goddard, Watson, Stanton, Kelly
Older players stuck mostly in VFL (3): Howlett, Hocking, Bird, McKernan
Young players who’ve got issues (3): Long, Jerrett, Eades, Morgan
That is 12. How do you get to 14? And of those 12, I suspect a number will be on our list in 2018. I would be surprised if we cut more than 8 of the players above.
Aren’t Stanton, Hocking, Howlett all contracted until the end of 2018?
We had 7 new to the main list this year (+1 rookie) - 9 including rookies is hardly crazy. If we can get 2-3 cheap trades or FAs, there’s nothing wrong with taking 5 odd picks, look how well we’ve done with guys like Brown and Hartley deep in the draft.
With that said:
Stanton, Howlett, Bird, Jerrett, Morgan, Hocking & Long have all been fit for most of the year, and have not played a good game between them - what possible justification is there for keeping any of them?
I think Watson will stay
Kelly pull the pin
And I think they’ll rookie Morgan due to missing his first year and a bit injured.
Rest have had their time and their chances. NEXT.
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Baguely belongs in the old category, playing great now, but his form is prone to fall of a cliff.
Dea, Brown and Hartley are good enough to be playing senior footy. Hope they all stay to fight out for spots, but they could leave of there own accord for opportunity. We have 5 key backs, clubs might be eyeing us off.