And Hartley. And Ambrose?
I agree with that, but instead of going for a KPP with the two first rounders, throw the kitchen farking sink at KELLYYYYY.
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Parrish, Merrett, Heppell, Zaharakis, McGrath, Langford, Laverde, Myers, Tipungwuti, Colyer, Fantasia.
All run through the midfield. Some players will pick up their endurance, and gain more bulk.
Players leaving: Watson, Goddard, Stanton, Hocking, Hewlett, Kelly.
Weāre hardly going to be struggling with our future midfield.
Youāre arguing semantics here. You know what I mean. My point is pretty clear.
Iām not yet convinced that our large number of midfielders that you mention are of sufficient quality to be considered an elite midfield.
Zerrett is elite. After him there is a lot of hope, but little certainty.
Parish isnāt getting it enough inside which may just be the way the coach is using him.
Heppell has floaty disposal
Zaharakis is inconsistent
McGrath has hardly run through there
Langford may be a too good for VFL not good enough for AFL player
Laverde can hardly get on the park
Myers struggles to dispose to advantage
Walla in the midfield looks great on paper, but we havenāt seen much of
Colyer cannot kickā¦ again.
Fantasia is a superstar, but really helps us if we can keep him predominantly forward.
I think there is every chance we are indeed going to be struggling with our future midfield.
Must draft midfielders.
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Iām a lot more optimistic about our midfield.
Heppell is an A-Grade midfielder, an All Australian. Heās getting used to the pace of the game after a year off. And fitting into his new role as Captain.
Merrett is already a gun.
Parrish is only 20 years of age. And is already playing a significant role in the midfield. Just needs to add some size, and his contested footy will explode.
McGrath is already looking like heās been in the system for many years. He will slot straight into the midfield group, just needs to add a few KG and heāll be at the very least, a very good player for us.
Zaharakis is up and down. He canāt be relied upon, but he keeps the opposition somewhat aware of his presence as he can turn a game within a quarter of football.
Tippungwuti as all the attributes of a gun inside/outside midfielder. He just needs to build his endurance, which he is working incredibly hard at doing.
Fantasia is too dangerous to have sitting in our foorwardline for his whole career. He is explosive, and makes things happen. A perfect wingman/HFF, in the future.
Langford showed plenty last year. He lacked form earlier in the season, but hopefully his confidence is up and he can show why can be an important midfield cog for us.
Myers/Colyer havenāt played for 2 years. Give them some time, theyāll be back.
LaVerde just needs abit of luck.
Then we have Mutch, Clark and Begley who we drafted, who may end up being handy footballers.
All it takes is for Daniher to go down with a long term injury and our Forwardline is f*cked. We have all our eggs in the Daniher basket, with Hooker helping out. Thatās not going to win us finals.
Our forwardline has looked promising so far this season, but Iām not entirely convinced. Worsfold has most of an emphasis on resourcing the forwardline, which has come at the detriment of the midfield (and defence). Which imo is the reason, our midfield is being beaten and outnumbered at the contest.
When is a swipe not a swipe? dunno???
Maybe you are being generous, more likely around 14th in the next few weeks.
I wouldnāt want to cast aspersions on anyone but if you cast aspersions, you must be an aspersion caster.
Yep Iām casting away. Hoping for he best but also realistic in terms of our chances.
You mean apart from Draper, Ridley and Clarke you missed from last yearās draft, Morgan and Redman from the 2015 draft and Langford, Laverde (when fit) and Long from the 2014 draft? But yeah, weāve got no kidsā¦
[quote=āaboods, post:368, topic:10164, full:trueā]
If Draper is ready to get more than a taste of AFL next year, heās progressing ahead of schedule. Which he may well do, as his development is very good. Keeping Smack as insurance would make sense. However, if weāre going to be nowhere near it, then maybe he goes and we take another ruck somewhere.
Yep, we should have moved Fletcher on when he was 33.
But seriously, how do you know Kelly wonāt still be doing a Fletcher/Harvey at 38? Its one thing to cut older players outside the 22, or when you desperately need list spots. When they are still solidly in your best 22 and everyone can come up with 8 players to delist quite easily, then letting him go is ridiculous. Even if weāre not going to challenge for three years, he could still be good enough then.
I really think it is foolish to cut anyone in your best 22 just for a bog standard list spot.
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Draper wonāt be ready for AFL next year. He is coming along very well, but he isnāt superman.
And whatever the case, give McNernan the flick and get someone else on the rookie list.
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[quote=ājonovdp, post:379, topic:10164, full:trueā]
Someone made mention in the father-son thread, of the idea that we put all our money on Mason Fletcher in the 2018 draft.
Trade our 2018 first round pick, for another first round pick this year.
Which gives us 8 first round picks in 4 yearsā¦[/quote]
I mentioned that first, but it was very much tongue in cheek. You would want to be pretty certain heāll be good, or that youāre still getting value for money with the trade.
You can always afford them. It may just be costly. The question is whether you value those picks as a single elite talent plus bottom of the barrel late picks, or as multiple lesser talents.
I mentioned that first, but it was very much tongue in cheek. You would want to be pretty certain heāll be good, or that
On the talls, why? We have a good set in the best 22 right now. We spent picks #6 and #22 in the last two drafts on talls who can play either end that should come through together. And you mentioned Mason Fletcher who we may have next year. Why do we need more talls?
The context is for a F/S kid, not in general, although if thereās multiple lesser Fletchers, can we get them all and stack them, Voltron style?..
And no, I donāt think thatās necessarily true? You can dip into next yearās pool of picks, but only to a certain extent.
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Iām pretty sure you can dip quite a bit into the next yearās picks.
Either way, I donāt think there would really be a question if a 3rd gen Fletcher (or Watson or Daniher or Hird) was that good.
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The irony is some of the trade talk revolves around us trading for other clubs 2-3 year players running round in the twos!
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Iāve snipped a lot of what was an extremely long post above. I said wait until midseason to evaluate where weāre at. Well, weāre at midseason and there is still a lot of uncertainty over where weāre at. But there is a lot of cause for optimism. Generally, I think Worsfoldās balance of older and younger players has been good (except maybe playing Stanton last week), and it was the right call to not go all in on development and youth.
At the moment I expect some of our older players to be retired/cut at year end, but the age mix isnāt looking too bad. Especially as Watson is refinding form, and Kelly just keeps on being class. Having one of Howlett/Bird around for depth is working out quite well.
The caveat to all this is that outside of tall backs (where weāre blessed with depth), weāve been incredibly lucky with injuries. Hopefully that continues and isnāt luck, just Crow.
Having the leadership of Kelly in tight games and finals will be huge. Right now Iād have him top 10. If he slips down to top 15, but maintains the level head and leadership, his impact to the team will still be valuable. Replace that experience with a zero gamer and your finals hopes take a huge penalty.
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remember all those years when people said, itās not about having fast players ???
yeah who around here wants to go back to those days ?