Matera intrigues me the most, but I think they’re all worthwhile suggestions.
Id take Hartung before Miles -he still has some potential. Matera would be an upgrade on Green but I think they are gunna still want a top pick as trade for him.
What about McKenzie to replace Kelly at half back? At the very least it would secure one of the guys who play their best footy against us to hopefully play good footy for us. I just don’t believe he’s lost his ability & the game against us showed its still there somewhere. He needs a new start.
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The ball magnet midfielder that JBomber doesn’t want must be pretty stinky!!!
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Your point about Stewart doesn’t make sense to me, as for Miles, I would say his previous three seasons were very handy, Prestia, Caddy and Miles are all born in the same year. They may work better together, but so did Cameron, Patton and Lobb. Because of that we snatched Stewart and he has been fantastic. It’s a very similar situation, we’ll agree to disagree on his skill level.
Thanks for waiting HAP lol.
Point taken. I’ll retract the inside midfield depth. But standby the talent.
take out Martin and they win about 6 games IMO
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And take out Rance and…
Worsfold doesn’t like inside midfielders
Miles is farken garbage, would rather pick up Balic and/or Wigg who atleast have age on their side
Stewart was young & couldn’t establish himself in the team because they had more young talented talls than any team has had EVER! Its also not practical to play too many talls whereas mids can often rotate through the flanks. Miles is not young, he’s not struggling to establish himself in team with handfulls of 1st round draft picks, he’s already been in the system for 6 years, was a regular senior player & now been superseded by better players. They are completely different scenarios. Yes I agree that players can & do find better form with new opportunities at new clubs but Miles is a known quantity. He would right now probably be in our best 22 BUT we simply have to build a midfield where he’s not best 22 or we won’t be a serious contender.
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Miles was limited hence they went out and got Prestia & Caddy
That said I still think he is better than all of Bird, Hocking, Howlett. But you’d rather we be going after someone with more to offer that would be worthy of a flag contending side.
Sums it up perfectly for me.
Miles was 6th in the league in clearances per game in 2014, you are deadset having a laugh if you think that Bird, Hocking or Howlett have ever been that good.
That said, he’s still a jobber.
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Are we still talking about Miles because I got about 20 posts in from his initial mention and then found myself trying to stave off water in my throat. FAAARKK NO! Actually just NO!
YEP
I’m still waiting for anyone to tell me if O’Kearney can actually play.
Both bang on.
For those criticising. I don’t think anyone here is suggesting Miles is now our number 1 target.
I think what is suggested is should we fail in getting a top line mid via trade then he certainly provides an option later on during the trade period to improve our list.
We actually have a good enough team to seriously compete next year with a “just good enough midfield”. Which is just a very small improvement from our current “not good enough midfield”.
We may even attain this through the natural development of our young guys.
But should we not identify a “quality” player to come in we shouldn’t pre-emptively criticise a scenario whereby we improve our list whilst targetting silverware. And anyone thinking Woosha isn’t thinking premierships next year and how to identify any way to build a list to get that hasn’t been watching.
I don’t know enought about Miles, so all I’ll say is that if any team has an area of strength where we (or another team) has an area of weakness, their spare man might be an inclusion that improves the team.
I think we’ll delist/retire 7 senior list players (Morgan/Jerrett/Watson/Kelly/Stanton/Hocking/Bird/Howlett with one older player kept for depth). I’d be happy for all of those to be replaced with smalls, of one type or another. As to who I would target (and I’m assuming Rockliff is not realistic):
No 1 target: ADELAIDE
They let Lyons go, who has done well at Gold Coast, and its not cost them a bit in the midfield. They’re possibly bringing in Gibbs or Rockliff, who would push someone out of a minor premiership team’s midfield. They’ve got seconds players and players they’ve recently let go who are dominating at SANFL level (Grigg, Wigg). We have to accept - they’re good at identifying and developing midfielders. It seems to me to be a no brainer to be targeting their fringe young midfielders. I mentioned Greenwood last year tongue in cheek - who else wishes we’d nabbed him? Whether the outside player is Wigg or another unproven player we can get for tiddly winks, or someone inside but at the fringe of their best 22 that will cost something, either option would be ok.
One thing I would be considering is getting involved in any Gibbs deal. Maybe hand over our first (or our 2018 first) for their 2017 first and the player that Gibbs will push out of the best 22 (as long as their young of course). So assuming we get beaten by Sydney, pick #11 would be more enticing for Carlton than #17/#18. Or our 2018 first from a reputably better draft. We’re going to (hopefully) lose our 2018 pick on Fletcher, so losing it may not be a problem and effectively gives us another first rounder this year and a young mid from a great development team. Maybe get Wigg added as steak knives (he won’t cost anyone anything), and you’ve given yourself another 2017 first to take to the draft lottery, and two young players who might fill holes.
No 2 target: M Kennedy
Has his own thread, is pretty obvious why.
No 3 target: Balic
He was considered a good prospect in 2015, but the wrist injury saw him drop. A late second round pick at the end of their first contract, virtually no AFL games, limited WAFL games, should be virtually free. He’s a risk due to the lack of training and development, and the possibility of a bad attitude. But you get the potential of a first rounder equivalent for a nothing pick.
No 4 target: state league and draft
I’m not aware of anyone else to be a major target. So I would use our 3rd round and later picks to get a mature midfielder or two. I like Hind, I think he has skills that transfer to AFL, and is probably gettable for a late or rookie pick. I also like what I’ve read on Tim Kelly who seems to tick all the boxes (inside/outside, clean disposal, tackles), who Dell likes from the WAFL (see the mature aged recruits thread). Then use the first two picks in the draft on the best small talent - and if that’s not a pure mid, bite the bullet. I’d prefer (non-tall) elite talent over a lower talented pure mid. We have holes in defence if McGrath goes to midfield, and freeing up Raz/Walla for midfield minutes also boosts the midfield.
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Summary
Those are the best options IMO out of what is left. If we got Balic, Hind, Hill, an Adelaide fringe player, two first round picks and a second round pick on smalls, we’d give ourselves a real shot at finding some smalls talent on top of our youngsters from the last few drafts (and that also comes to 7 players in for the 7 out I said earlier).
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I will add, he was 6th on average when he played half a season. Half seasons can produce weird results when comparing averages. Scott Selwood currently is 3 tackles per game clear of the next best tackler on half a season. Matthew Taberner is the leading contested marker in the league on a bit under half a season. In his best fullish season, Miles was 22nd. Hocking’s best was 20th in 2011.
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I haven’t seen him. Is he that good?
Good summary.
Also there is an extremely high probability that players not even mentioned will be the ones moving clubs.
Last year threw out massive curve balls.