Apparently that’s true.
Perhaps our name is being leaked to try and get the best offers from others. OR perhaps we’re just back in fighting hard - hope so.
Or we could stop with the novel approach of asking players to come to our club for less $ than they could get elsewhere, and start shedding our list of average players getting paid more than they’re worth. How much do we really lose letting go of luey, myers, colyer, laverde etc. I also don’t think the club should have paid zakka, the club needs cap space and picks to poach elite players and gave up both re-signing him.
We were told Kelly isn’t interested in going to us.
So we’ve ramped up our interest in Stringer.
I get the feeling Doddoro has been chatting to him since he got drafted. we never had the chance to recruit him in that draft. We’ve been a huge fan since he was training with our VFL side.
A lot of people are very narrow minded about recruitment.
If you put all your hope in sercuring one player, you’ll end up with nothing. This would have been the case if we just focussed on Kelly.
We would have paid zaka less than what GC were offering. Also with around 3-4 retirements this year plus Goddard being on less (you would think) and the increase in the salary cap we most likely have good coin to throw around. Merrett and JD signed good deals this year along with Zaka, anyone else?
Pretty simplistic viewpoint with no understanding of the fact club lists are more than just a best 22. And if you pay too much to the top 5 players you end up with little quality across the list – it happened at Saints.
If for example we went and paid Kelly $1.5 mill, when all of Hurley, Hooker, Daniher are at $800k level, and Zerrett, Hep wouldn’t be far behind how does that look?
We are also costing ourselves ability to have an extra class player which wouldn’t help TEAM success as well as creating divisive situation within the team.
On the Zaka front, our midfield needs to be strengthened & added to. We lose Jobe and Zaka but just replace with Kelly doesn’t help that. Zaka has been terrific over past few seasons.
We can’t afford to just have one ruck on list, as a back up Leuey is an excellent option.
Myers I agree should be on trade table. Colyer has seriously under performed but we also have zero outside mid depth who are better… Jerrett & Long?
LAV is a 21yr old kid whose had a serious injury, way too early to be giving him the chop nor would his contract be affecting any chase of others.
There is nothing stopping us still offering Kelly $1mil/yr and Stringer $700k/yr IMO, they could choose to go elsewhere for more but there are many other factors we are ahead of compared to other clubs and that’s what we’d be selling to them.
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Hard to say since I don’t really know how much each player is getting paid. I have an idea what luenberger would be getting paid since the lions got compensation, who now sits in the vfl. Laverde was probably able to get more with saints interest. Colyer and myers would be getting more than say mutch and begley as replacements. Zakka waited until after the cba and got a four year deal so it would be difficult to believe he came cheap. The club pays the list about as much as the team that goes on to win the premiership, it seems difficult to believe that they’re aren’t players being overpaid who’s salary couldn’t be used to chase elite talent.
Seriously, why are we even talking about Kelly for next season!? Isn’t he contracted for 2018? GWS would expect this years and next years first round picks + a player. It ain’t happening. Essendon won’t sell next years first rounder.
Mind you, X was forceful in his declaration that Essendon would aggressively pursue top end talent. More hot air or substance?
No. He’s out of contract this year
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The cap floor (minimum payment) is 95%. So based on a $12 Million TPP from next year, that means there’s no more than $600K difference between what the premiers might potentially pay their list and what the wooden spooners pay their list. So of course they’re likely to have blokes being paid well above average for their ability levels, and as we’ve seen in the past with Geelong, they’ve had blokes getting paid under market value to remain at a successful club. The landscape has changed though. You’re not going to get top players anymore for $600K and lure them with team success if they can get paid $1 Million a season elsewhere.
I agree that the team is more than just a best 22 but it should also be a about where that money is being spent. For example Luey is a great back-up option but he’s also being paid like a #1 option. Is it better to keep that or try to trade him out promote Draper as cheaper back-up while still having mckernan, daniher and perhaps another catB in waiting and using the money saved elsewhere on the list. Is it better to keep myers and colyer or promote begley and mutch into the best 22 and use the money elsewhere. The league now has free agency and player agents willing to move their clients into the best situation for them. It’s not neccesarily to me which players we keep or trade but Dodoro and the club willing to keep the status quo and being more determined to win every trade than improve the list.
As for Kelly you may be right that it could cause divide and jealousy but if he plays better than all of those guys by winning a b&f and a few finals perhaps they’ll overlook his pay packet.
I don’t really understand your saints example either. They were arguably a few kicks away from being a two time premiership team, we haven’t won a final in 13 years.
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Lining up every player on your list against a wall and telling them how much they are going to get paid based on output and performance, it just doesn’t work like that.
There are a number of factors to why players are paid the rate they are. I don’t think we should be concerned about how much players are paid, when we’re not trying to scrape everyone under a salary cap. There is money that needs to be spent.
Where for out thou Fogdog?
I get where you are coming from in part but it’s a massive massive risk to run with
Belly as an injury prone main ruck, and then Draper and a catB ruck as reserve. The latter two with zero AFL level experience. Draper may be getting good hit outs at VFL level but barely gets a kick so would be seriously out of his depth at AFL level. It’s too early to rely on him.
Rucks are a vital part of midfield and no other team in league would run so thin for that area. Some have 3-4 mature bodied rucks.
Also in regards to those players your suggesting, that may well happen but they are only 1st year with little or no AFL experience and plenty of development still needed. It may be too early for them also. Begley hasn’t even played midfield at VFL level yet, to think he is just going to step up to AFL next year is wishful thinking.
Either way I expect we will be pruning the list hard again and very proactive trade wise.
What about the Brisbane guy Tom Rockford? Are we going after him too?
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He’s already said “at least we tried”
Reckon you can take it that we’ve either put our best offer in and they are considering it or we’ve put our best offer in and they’ve said no
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hello, but did we ring a thousand times?
And exactly what is our aggressively? What the hell does that mean?
It’s unlikely but not impossible.
Hypothetical situation.
For example. If you had Kelly and Stringer commit to us.
You could trade out Hartley or Langford as part of a deal with Dogs and probably free up 200k extra on top of budget.
Then you could feasibly give colyer and / or Myers away to West Coast for virtually pick 80 but you get them off your books. This could free up anywhere from say 250k to possibly 700k a year pending their contract arrangements.
So again through some extra turnover you have found anywhere from 200- 900k.
So not impossible.
Just depends how ruthless you are willing to be.
I’d give those guys away every day if the week if it meant we got both stringer and Kelly.
If you did that you probably wouldn’t delist Howlett and you’d keep him and bird on a minimum 100k a year salary.
Time to get creative.
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Again, just hoping for some tongue in cheekery.
Like: Ät least we tried…
…cause that’s why we farkin got him!!!
But yeah, reality says NO.
You’re making a lot of assumptions about the willingness of contracted players to agree to be traded here.
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Yes very true
Just hypotheticals