Exactly. Blitz moans about Hepp’s form, but just because Rockliff makes it onto the park, he’s a gun with no problems. He put in some shockers this year in the wooden spoon team.
I’m amazed Brisbane lose any games. “one of the the best clearance players in the game” + Zorko (a legit gun) + Beams + Lewis taylor + Christensen + Witherden + Mathieson. Would be some people’s top targets in order.
What a team, eh?
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I agree with this.
But as previously pointed out by ■■■■■■ choir he is a polarising guy and loves the cans.
He also was partial to a social media controversy.
I would take the risk on him. As I don’t think the risk is that great.
But we all heard Catherine talk about “Essendon types” and this is the only feasible reason I can see as to why we may not be interested (if we aren’t).
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And change our name to Mc Don alds.
But is he from a good family?
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Interestingly, looking at stats (and no he isn’t at Rockliff’s level ffs) Heppell was our best clearance player ranked at 29, he was also our best stoppage clearance player ranked at 31. Not bad for a guy who was apparently crap this year.
But of course you know that we don’t have anyone at the top, that’s been our problem all year, I still don’t want Rockliff though.
They beat us
You would think that. But the Lions have 3 gun mids (one in Beams has missed a lot of footy), a handy ruckman, a bucket load of promising kids and a farkton bunch of hacks that wouldn’t get a game anywhere else.
Lewis Taylor is only a Rising Star award removed from Coyler
Christensen hasn’t played for a season and a half
So you point out our best inside mid ranks around 30th in the league but you don’t want a inside beast. Any real reason?
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He didn’t have a crap year by any stretch, I don’t think he’s year was as good as some think, but nevertheless different conversation
Why wouldn’t you want Rockliff? The age? Surely not because of playing ability. It’s quite clear he’d be our best inside midfielder. In my opinion, we need to get whatever talent we can around Hurley and hooker and try and get a flag before their cooked.
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Not really, just a gut feel about him.
BTW, not against getting but not fussed if we don’t.
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You forgot Myers - he’s primed for a breakout year, once he gets his body right.
I get your argument but:
(a) He wouldn’t be quite clearly our best inside mid. He’d be on par with Hepp
(b) if we’re not interested, you’d imagine it would be the off-field stuff driving it. Maybe he’s cleaned up his act a bit this year after the shock he got last off-season when the Lions shopped him and there wasn’t a single club interested.
Yep he re-signed yesterday.
Heppell is the one really that we are hoping steps into that role as an elite clearance mid. He was spending time in other positions on the ground this year. I suspect that won’t be the case in 2018.
Parish similarly will get more centre square time in 2018, and if he is there, he’ll win clearances.
Zerrett and Zaharakis also go alright in the centre.
Langford is the great white hope.
Myers is the one that we hope either gets pushed out, or improves significantly on his 2017 performance.
I don’t agree with this at all. Everyone seems to be in a rush to win a flag cause we’re stuffed after Hooker and Hurls leave. This is so short sighted and a reason why I’d prefer to chase a younger player (if not this year, next) and not pay overs for Rockliff. (I have no problem picking him up through free agency on a reasonable wage, I just don’t want to give up anything significant for a 28 yo).
Chasing a flag in the immediate future is short sighted. I’d rather create a quality list that will stand up over a decade, not just for a few years now. Hooker and Hurls are vital for us now, but they will finish their careers and be replaced by players that are more than able I’m sure. I hope we make a GF while they’re playing, but our next premiership will depend on the following core players for mine:
Daniher, Merrett, McGrath, Parish, Fantasia, Heppell, Tippa, McKenna.
This core group are our base and we should add to this group of youngsters with someone that will be here for 8+ years, not some stop gap option that may sneak us a flag. I’m surprised so many are suggesting Rockliff is the answer to our flag push after how we were completely written off in here as being miles off after the Sydney loss. We’ve made amazing ground in the last week to again be a flag contender.
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Ah yes, the old play the long game for a flag. I don’t buy it. Look at the dogs last year, look at Richmond this year. You do make a lot of good points but there’s no reason why we couldn’t push for a flag in 1-2 years if we added, say 3-4 decent players in the course of 2 off seasons
Things can turn pretty quick. I’d be very disappointed if our coaching staff were of the view “let’s aim for a flag in 2023”
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Would rather sneak a flag than endure another 17 years of fark all
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I wouldn’t call it a rush, but I think our window is open now. If we look beyond Hooker and Hurley our Key Position stocks go from 3 elite players to 1. The list of core players you have listed for our next flag only has Daniher as KP player and we have few if any likely KP replacements on our list… Therefore we would be doing ourselves and Hooker and Hurls a massive disservice if we didn’t seriously throw our hat into the Rockliff ring. Otherwise we are basically conceding that we are miles off and might as well not recruit anyone older than Daniher.
As for paying more – I think everyone recognises that to get a player to move clubs you have to pay overs unless there are other circumstances, ie come home factor or saga fatigue. It is public knowledge we have cap space and here is a player that we can obtain for nothing other than using that cap space, so why wouldn’t we
Personally I don’t believe we are that far off becoming a real contender. Ok we got smashed when it counted, but this is a super close competition and a few subtle tweaks to our playing group could make a huge difference.
Lets break it down by lines:
Forwards
Most people recognise that we now have a fantastic forward line. Competition wise it would be A rated. The only real improvement would come if we had a mid sized forward, but then this could unbalance the current setup.
Backline
I think backline is a solid B with potential to move to a B+ and beyond with some extra midfield help. We need to sort out the 2nd key defender and if you can play both Ambrose and Hartley together. Also a succession plan for Bags would be helpful.
Midfield
Easily our weak point. I think it is a C rating at best. Good honest and not much more. Zac is a gun, while Parish and McGrath should continuie to improve and could be anything in the next couple of years. Hepp and Zaka are good players who are probably unlikely to move into absolute superstar status. Beyond that is it severely lacking. Add in Rockliff and find a couple of others from drafting, trading or developing those already on our list and all of a sudden we have a midfield that can compete against most others.
Once we do this we have a team that can challenge the better teams be a serious threat. Rockliff’s age profile might not be ideal (but its hardly a deal breaker for me), but there isn’t a better available alternative out there so why wouldn’t we get him now.
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Nobody is suggesting Rockliff is the difference between a flag and mediocrity, but he’s a big upgrade on our bottom few midfielders and we don’t have to give up draft picks to secure his services.
The other issue is, the sooner we become a quality team that appears to have serious finals prospects, the more attractive the club becomes to free agents and the less likely it is that existing players will walk to other clubs to chase success. Take JD, for example - he’s contracted to 2020 and will then be a restricted free agent, at which point i’d imagine he’ll have a handful of teams chasing his services for enormous dollars (assuming his 2017 form is continued) - if we’re not seriously in the frame at any point during the next 3 years, he’d be well within his rights to take extra dollars and chase success elsewhere. The biggest impediment to us being in the frame in the short-to-medium term is the midfield, and Rockliff alleviates that problem.
The increased mobility of players brought about by free agency (as well as the increased tendency to demand trades mid-contract) makes it more important that teams seriously contend in the short-to-medium term - it’s no longer a viable option to trawl the mid-to-lower parts of the ladder for years on end accumulating picks, attempting to develop young players and assuming that everyone will stick around for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, because some players (particularly the better ones with more mobility/options) won’t.
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