Shame because strengths are he is a polished kick and attacking defender. Would he really be any worse than Martin in the backline?
Look, no, he wouldnāt, but we need a defensive distributor that is substantially better than Martin to free him up forward.
Our backline already lacks defensively responsible personnel. Adding Witherden wouldnāt move us forward.
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Yeah, thereās a reason that he has been traded and delisted. I just like the fact that he can kick. But he also canāt be a one trick pony.
Probably not.
Iād much rather we tried finding someone at the draft.
Prior, Witherden and Rotham are what they are. Hoare Iād be ok with but my take on his VFL form would be solid but not outstanding.
Saad El-Hawli is the level of VFL player you take an AFL punt on. Not so much Hoare. But, Iād prefer him over the other three suggestions if I had to pick one.
We have no one on the llst that can kick goals like that our best bet is Kako
We are going to feel is viod imo
Good. Hopefully we finish bottom 4-6 as do Melbourne.
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Wouldnāt you rather finish 11th and go nowhere !
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Stringer wasnt the sole reason why we won 11 games.
I think him missing wont make that much of a diffrence in terms where we finish. we will get a softer draw and still win enough games.
For us to finish bottom four we need to gut the entire list.
for us to finish bottom 4, we need a poor start to the season, Brad to put injured players in for surgery and to play the kids, lots of inexperience and debuts.
best case is like close losses 5-10. But prefer we aim for finals and win one with exciting brand of footy then target a free agent to bring in, much easier when on the up.
Hawks 0-5 and make finals.
who have we lost - Heppell, Kelly, Stringer
now depends who we replace them with but its not like when we lost Kelly, Watson, Hocking, Howlett, Stanton all in the same year.
plus have ready made replacements - LAV play smaller, Reid/Hayes/Cox take KPD role
cox could play half back or Roberts or EL-Hawli possibly better than Hepp/Kelly.
Stringer gone, may mean we get more from Perkins and Martin up forward.
Full seasons from Parish, Draper (and preseason), would help too.
We will be competitive. Likely more exciting, unconventional.
b: McGrath McKay REID
hb: Redman Ridley El-Hawli
c: Duursma ^Parish Martin
hf: *Perkins Caddy KAKO
f: #Merrett Langford Wright
R: Draper *Durham #Caldwell
Bench: ^Tsatas Roberts Gresham, Guelfi
SUB: Cox
Depth: Bryan, Shiel, HOBBS, Jones, Setterfield, Davey, LAV
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Softer than butter thatās been left out on an uncovered deck on Xmas Day.
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Knock is Defending, he accumulates well, reasonable kick, but as others says can take the easy sideways option too.
Geelong falcons product, probably heads to Geelong or cats VFL.
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Standard response, no investigation or even a phone call to the club. Just print it.
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Pretty much we essentaily have to tank
Nah, Iāll take top 4 and win 3 finals. That should just about do it for me.
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just need to continually bomb it in to the forwardline and let the opposition loose defender mop it up, occasionally we lower eyes and hit a leading target, thats when we win games.
We just need Draper or Wright to create a contest as might have a dangerous small to rove the contest and kick a goal this year too,
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Going to be a lot of upset fans in here next seaosn if we win games 
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If we win 13 or 14 games there will be so many disgruntled blitzers complaining our first rounder was ruined. I see their point, a successful season would be disgusting in our desire to corner the top first round draft pick market for the foreseeable future.
Iāve already seen enough comments of people ripping the club for beating Fremantle with a great comeback, imagine if we cracked the top 8. There will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth.
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Tom cutler says hi
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I get the criticism that we are starting the refresh, rebuild (whatever you want to call it) 12-24 months later than they would have liked. I would probably have rather it started earlier as well.
Just something to keep in mind - itās not always possible to step in and just āblow up the listā. Players have contracts, sometimes long term. Certainly Stringer, Laverde and Shiel did. Scott can come in and suggest they have a look around but they have the right to decline that suggestion. They might be comfortable where they are, with the mates they have at the club, where they are living etc. They have every right to do that.
So sometimes you just have to wait it out a bit until the deals that were done before your time at the club are coming to an end before implementing change is more possible. Just something to think about.
10 Likes