Lukas Webb staying at the dogs for another 2 years…in fantasy land, I would have liked him - I think he can become a decent mid, of similar quality to Langford.
At this point, I’m frankly closing off any residual expectations of a trade acquisition. At least that will leave us with the fire-power to retain what we already have (Conor).
I guess I’ll entertain myself watching the draftees instead.
If we can’t get one of Hopper/Kennedy, the two I’d be interested in are Baltic and Wiggins. Would both cost peanuts, both have potential upside, and would probably only get two year contracts. Would leave us our picks to get more talent.
I assume you were referring to Balic and Wigg. I haven’t watched them play, so will have to trust your judgement.
Damn you iPad auto-complete, damn you to hell!
I’m getting more bullish about our midfield for next year the more I think about it (I’ll probably change my tune after the elimination final next week).
Even if we don’t trade, our main midfielders will be: Merrett, Heppell, Zaka, Parish, McGrath. That’s a pretty good first 5.
Myers will still get plenty of games and I think with less slow blokes around, he’ll be less of a liability. He could actually be important with our lack of bigger mids.
But most importantly, all of the youngsters will know from the start of pre-season that there are big opportunities available to them now that Jobe, Stanton and most likely Hocking, Bird and Howlett are all out of the way.
So Langford, Laverde, Begley, Clarke, Mutch, pick 12 (presumably we’ll get a midfielder) and hopefully 1 or 2 others will all be battling it out all off-season for a couple of spots in the team. I’d be very disappointed if at least 2 of these guys don’t become very handy contributors by the start of next season. The good news with all of these guys (apart from Laverde) is that they’ve played a fair bit of footy this year so have a fair of development into them and will know what they need to work on in the offseason.
Edit: 1 or 2 of the youngsters that come in need to be outside mids with pace that can push Colyer.
I ■■■■■■ hope Colyer can get back to his early 2015 form. That would make a big difference to us.
I agree with the above. Given we miss out on Kelly I think the major upside to our midfield hopes rest on the internal development of Langford Begley and Mutch.
Langford has been playing on ball. Corrigan commented that Mutch was playing outside to develop that part of his game but when I side just seems to naturally find the ball. We know Begley is a good size and hopefully develops that HF/IM balance. And don’t forget McGrath will go midfield in 2018.
I think we might get a Charlie Constable type with our first pick which would be awesome. If we can upgrade our second somehow and pick up Worpel then we have some inside mid depth.
In my mind, we could see a centre line of Zaka-Parish-McGrath and an on ball combo of Langford and Zerrett. I like the idea of sending Hepp behind the ball as a left footer setting up play on the rebound. I think the potential Langford role is critical and this is obviously thr spot that we are looking to address through trade or draft as well.
I think we might see some advancement of the midfield stocks in 2018.
I’m actually hoping we get Hepp back on ball where he was so good in 2013-15. He’s solid off half back but he can be a real match winner in the guts.
Jack Higgin literally fixes our midfield.
I think we need to defer to the quicker players through the midfield so our defensive running/positioning improves when the opposition rebound. I like the odea of Hepp being at HB picking off the turnover due to the pressure from the mids.
Hepp leading the midfield to the opening bounce like
But can you imagine the skills??? oh baby slicing through teams off the defensive 50
From SEN (haven’t seen this posted anywhere)
Essendon list manager Adrian Dodoro has mapped out the plan for the Bombers’ strategy heading into the player movement season.
The Dons will face Sydney in an Elimination Final next Saturday, but Dodoro and his team have already been thinking about ways to improve the list for 2018 and beyond.
“Fortunately, we won’t be as busy as the last few years where we needed to go find top-up players,” he told SEN at Friday’s NAB Rising Star.
“It is more around the needs of the team. We would like to bring in a couple players if we could, if not, we will go to the draft. We have always been a draft and develop club. We have an open mind about it.”
On a wider basis, Dodoro said to “expect the unexpected” in this year’s trade period, drawing back on the Sam Mitchell and Jordan Lewis moves from 12 months ago as inspiration.
However, he also anticipates the new CBA between the AFL and AFL Players Association will influence the player movement climate.
“I don’t think there will be as much trading this year as previous years,” Dodoro said.
“I think the 20 percent increase of the salary cap has meant clubs have kept most of their players, that’s a by-product of the 20 percent. A lot of players that move will be players in contract, which will make it an interesting trade period.”
Dodoro also confirmed Essendon asked the question of Dustin Martin as a part of their “due diligence,” but opted out of the race for the Tigers superstar “pretty quickly.”
ESSENDON
ADRIAN DODORO
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Mitchell and Lewis type scenarios look scarce in terms of unrestricted free agents.
Burgoyne, McVeigh & Mundy.
McVeigh looks the most likely but a few people in the know have said it’s not happening.
So who knows?
Still hasn’t given up on McVeigh.
Indeed.
Audio of the interview where Disco says all that
So we are targeting contracted players also
I know SplitRound referred to it but I really do see our lack of height through the middle of the ground as a real problem. I hope Dodoro does too. We need to redress the balance in there. The fact is, most of our best and promising mids are midgets.
It places an even greater importance on the need for Lav and Lang to make it as genuine midfield contributors.
Out midfield next year would be looking A grade with a circa 2013 Jobe.
Spot on mate. It’s why though I love barnz’s lad Jack Higgins I am reticent because he makes Parish look like Patrick Cripps.
But I see @barnz has pencilled in Jack this year as his boy. One of his other boys Ainsworth has as expected shown more ticker than most of the Gold Coast list combined! Taranto goes alright as well.
Both would look better in a sash.