I’m not overly concerned tbh. If the players we had gone for are 28/29 and we gave a first rounder, I’d be worried. Between the ages of 23-26 still gives you 5-6 years worth of value and ample time to plan ahead with future drafts.
I also think we have enough youngsters coming on to allow us to take a few more mature players anyway. Th draft is really overrated. If we can get a good 100 game player in both this and next years draft with the picks we’ve got, I think we’ll be absolutely fine.
Thankfully my kid’s footy club has just started an 8 week post-season training program, so I was at that and missed the crunch time blitz meltdown. Happy to finally see it confirmed when we got home - bring on 2019!
So what number does Shiel wear? The all important question.
Whats free?
It’s gotta be 9, I reckon.
give them our 1st round next year after we finish on top and take their 2nd round back after they finish on the bottom - I say meh.
I don’t really disagree with much of that, except the bit about the draft being overrated.
It’s really not, and certainly not the first round of it. Danger, Martin, Buddy, Fyfe, Kelly, Cripps, Oliver… The best in the game are usually first round picks.
I’m not saying it’s the only place to get elite talent, but it’s clearly the most common, and we will have avoided it for three consecutive years. That will create a hole in our young talent in a few years time, but it very well may be worth it.
Nail that second rounder this year, Disco.
Given the semi usual practice of gun recruit = low number, and 9 freshly available, … it would be a pretty safe bet you’d think.
I’ve certainly got a semi thinking about him in the red n black
No way we overpaid IMO. The chances are that Shiel will be a better player than any pick we gave up.
I remember being home in 2013 and watching GWS in its infancy and watching Shiel run through the middle during a game and thought to myself that Essendon need a player like that…5 years later we have him!
Yep. I watched a lot of GWS in the first few years, and Shiel and Smith were the clear standouts.
Whynothaveboth.gif
I don’t think their ladder position this year was a great guide of where they are really at, but i wouldn’t say they are on the slide just yet. Age of the list will test them, but you just know they’ll land a big FA most years.
We overpaid, but any club in our position would have done the same.
The course of events as I reflect upon them now:
So we overpaid.
And now, as we strive for a premiership, the margin for error became a fraction tighter. We’ve got little currency to alter the make up of our list.
If we win a premiership, no one will care. WB overpaid for Tom Boyd, won a premiership, so no one cares. But that doesn’t make it a good move. If WB don’t steal that premiership, we would be laughing at how horrendous that deal was…I hope we still peak with a premiership, and don’t fall that fraction short because of this.
They are paying a guy $1million a year to play VFL. And they would have still won the flag without him.
I still laugh at them anyway.
And while I agree with your comments on Shiel… It’s not even close to the Boyd situation.
Yes, I was using the most extreme example…I obviously think our Shiel play is much much better than Boyd.
I really just wanted to lay down a warning about how a team can spend big on a player, and it can help you surge towards a premiership…but you can start your surge from too far away…you might still get there, but it isn’t a good play of the probabilities.
I felt the same way last year when Melbourne got Lever. I felt they had spent big to put the final cherry on a slightly unfinished cake. I’m having similar doubts about us today.
We didn’t pay overs, not at all.
We have not had the chance to get in a player of his caliber in a very long time.
This is what you pay for an A grade player, just reaching his prime.
Watch the replay again of the 2016 GF.
Without Boyd, the Doggies lose that game. He is worth every million bucks just for that.
Shiel is a better player than Smith and he is a star. That makes Shiel worth 2 first rounders. Getting a second back is icing. Some of the people saying we paid too much are the same ones who, at 8pm last night, were screaming for Dodoro to give two straight firsts.