Time for a hard reset

Football Discussion Dustin Fletcher Hangar
1

If JD, Raz or both leave, its time to put a broom through the playing list and do a hard reset. Even if they both stay, this is something that we should consider.

Our KPP under 30 next year will likely be Gown and BZT. Our rucks under 30 the untried Draper coming off a big knee. Our midfield still can’t go with the best teams. The list profile is one of the oldest in the league.

Realistically I think we are going to get worse before we get better. I’d be moving older players on just as Hawthorn has done with some of their aging stars.

It pains me to say this but right now we are further from a finals win than we have been for 10 years. In my opinion we should put our ego to one side, recognise where our list is at, and start a full re-build. Starting with this trade period and draft.

Is this peak gloomer or a realistic view of where our playing list is at?

1 Like
2

Its pretty gloomer. It isn’t necessarily wrong though.

If jd goes and hooker is cooked as defender with Hurley not far behind we are nowhere.

That’s before you consider the ruck situation and a midfield that routinely gets overwhelmed by the best

3

I agree with you that if Joe & Raz leave and we can’t prize out genuine ready made stars to come in during the trade period then I’d see it as an opportunity to re-calibrate the list in order to build around Merrett, McGrath, Smith, Shiel, Saad, Stringer, Redman, Francis, McKenna and co. to be relevant again in 2-3 years time.

The young guys you’d get from the swag of picks from this draft would be making a genuine impact by then and all those current players mentioned wouldn’t be too old. Not a full blown re-build but a chance to make a correction.

I know we are in the minority in this though from when this has been discussed in dispatches through threads on here.

There’s also every chance Joe and Raz stay as well in which case I’d stay the current course.

4

This is not having a go at the OP but…

Since '04, pretty much every other year we put ourselves in a position where culling and restarting look like the only option. Basically, we are constantly 3-4 years away from contending. Something has to give.

5

Ctrl + Alt + Delete or actually pressing the button on the case?

1 Like
6

It all depends on salary.

If we have cap space, we can attract anyone at Tulla.

Big no to the hard reset.

1 Like
7

I’d argue that’s because we never did it properly. So we’ve been left talking about it every couple of years.

Rather than recognise we needed to rebuild under knights, we sacked him and appointed Hird.

Rather than realise after getting flogged by Carlton under Hird that we needed a better list, we went the “strength and supplement” route.

After getting flogged by Sydney under Woosha we went full trade made bringing in 4 players rather than rebuilding.

I suspect one year it will all come home to roost.

2 Likes
8

Peak gloomer I’d say.

How important are KPs. We’ve had quality KPs for ever and haven’t been near it. Ruck is fixable with the right moves in this trade period. Our midfield is more than capable when given half decent service.

We obviously will need to tweak the game plan for the cattle we have on the park, but that’s a need anyway. And we need complete buy-in physically and emotionally from the entire list.

And we need some luck, FK knows we’re due it.

This comp is very even at the moment. We’ve been trying to build for a crack. We have to believe in what we have, while continuing to build for the next generation on the edges. 2 players going (if they go) is not the end of the world for a list of 38, and a team of 22. This is not the NBA where one “franchise player” changes everything. It’s a team game played by teams of 22 on one of the biggest sporting fields in world sport.

9

Yep, I can’t think of a single established senior gun that the club has intentionally forced out with a view to hitting the draft. Certainly not in the same way that the Hawks did with Rawlings hay and Thompson.

The only time I can think of that we looked at it was the hooker caddy situation which was hideously misjudged in any event

2 Likes
10

I count those 4 as part of a rebuild, they are not old players.

1 Like
11

I agree with this to an extent, but only if jd stays and gets back to his best

12

That assumes there was an opportunity to force out an established gun, and that that is a good way to approach a rebuild, etc etc

13

There was a clear opportunity to do it at the back end of the saga. I understand why they didn’t but the opportunity was there.

1 Like
14

I’m of the opinion that that wasn’t an opportunity for that, for a number of reasons. Not the least of which being that moving such players on was not going to extract the value that they were worth.

Compare and contrast what Hawthorn got for Hay to what we got for Ryder in that period…

15

Knowing us we wouldn’t hold the reset button long enough and spend 2 years wondering why nothing happened.

16

We had much better offers on the table for Ryder than what we were forced to accept from Port though.

It obviously wouldn’t have been an ideal reading situation however I think we can say with some measure of confidence that we could have recorded multiple first round picks for hooker and Hurley

17

Even if JD stays there’s no guarantee he plays. Hooker is without doubt close to cooked if not already cooked and Hurley isn’t far off. Belcho is cooked and Draper never played. We are bottom 4 next year regardless imo.

18

That sentence is exactly as the media would write it. If 1 leaves, do something. If 2 leave, do something. If 1 stays, do something. If the both stay, do something. Got all bases covered to say, do something.

BTW I agree we need to continue doing something as we still have some holes. But getting the 4 S’s was part of the doing something. All 4 were picked due to holes in the list and part of the rebuild of the side so that we have a core group of similar aged players.

1 Like
19

Francis is going to be over 30 next season? Sheesh, that happened quick

2 Likes
20

The four Ss were not picked as part of a re-build strategy. We gave up two first rounders for Shiel. They were the cherry on top that was supposed to make us a top four side.

1 Like