Trent Croad

[Charlie]

Ouch. Rawlings must have been a late starter then... I thought he was still in his early 20s!

edit: Not a late starter... just been around a lot longer than I thought! He'll be 26 in October. Not THAT old. That's still what? six, seven years of footy? Perhaps even eight or nine.

Michael's about the same age... but IS the best CHB going around. If we can get him... we must go for him.

I still wish we'd put an offer on the table to Shane Wakelin last year, before he signed with Collingwood again. Could have been usual and still has at least 3 years in him after this year.

[TheHood]

Michael's about the same age... but IS the best CHB going around. If we can get him... we must go for him.

Small point, but Mal is mainly FB.

Yes I reckon he's our best option and I hope Mr Ireland is putting in the hard yards as we speak!

[Charlie]

Michael has just turned 26. Croad's only now turned 23 - still has PLENTY of time to become the star he's capable of, at CHB.

I'd like to see our KPP situation worked over big time. Develop LRT, bring home Playfair as another option, keep Schaubes (if he can eventually be allocated the third forward, he's still very capable... but he's not a fb), hope against hope that Heath James can return, and nab one of these bigger names, and we're looking fine.

[penga]

Originally posted by Charlie
Michael has just turned 26. Croad's only now turned 23 - still has PLENTY of time to become the star he's capable of, at CHB.

I'd like to see our KPP situation worked over big time. Develop LRT, bring home Playfair as another option, keep Schaubes (if he can eventually be allocated the third forward, he's still very capable... but he's not a fb), hope against hope that Heath James can return, and nab one of these bigger names, and we're looking fine.

with that we would have:
michael
playfair
james
schauble
lrt
powell

thatd be looking GREAT!!!

[Newbie]

Brisbane would be loath to let Mal Micheal go. They got no one to replace him. Same for Rawlings. Reality is that Trent Croad is our only decent chance for an established KP.

[Bart]

Originally posted by penga
with that we would have:
michael
playfair
james
schauble
lrt
powell

thatd be looking GREAT!!!

Erm every one of these is over 190cm! need some small types too

[omnipotent]

Mal loves the $$$$ but you can be sure Brisbane will try to keep him. Mal said recently though if he went anywhere he would like to go back to Melbourne, he said he wants to settle back there eventually and misses it. Croad is overrated and lacks footy smarts, would command more money than he is worth. Davis is a more talented and footy smart player and we were reluctant to even give up a second round pick for him so I doubt we would want to surrender too much for Trent.

[Charlie]

Originally posted by Bart
Erm every one of these is over 190cm! need some small types too

They're key defender options. I don't see Powell being among them really... and Schauble won't play much past 30 probably - he's 26 now and has had a shocker of a run with injuries. He'll be good though, taking the less established/slower of an opposition side's 3 main forwards.

Playfair and LRT would be the two out of that group that would excite me the most - I feel that if we simply show an interest in Playfair, he'll come. He's been at Geelong for a year and a half, and is about the only young guy there who hasn't had a chance to show his stuff yet. He'll be off contract this year, but noticably wasn't one of the stable that Geelong signed yesterday. He is from North Shore, and would have played with LRT there and in the Rams, as well as playing alongside Schneider, Meiklejohn and McVeigh with NSW/ACT. He seems to fit, and he appears to be attainable. He was only #41, is still kinda raw but he IS a KPP. He seems to be a great option without being all that expensive. I want him at the Swans.

Heath James - you could flip a coin and be more sure of whether or not he'll ever play again. He's an optimistic choice, but hell... he looks more likely now than he did three months ago... why not include him?

Michael IS attainable - if we're willing to give up enough. He's at a club that is about to lose some of it's cap, which has a huge number of players coming off contract (including Michael himself). He has to contend with Jason Akermanis as well as a host of younger guys with premierships under the belts, looking for their first real taste of AFL riches, including Shattock, Notting, Bradshaw (older but probably still on a low contract) and Copeland. All of those guys mentioned have considerable bargaining power - they could get more money elsewhere. Brissie can't keep them all, and may prefer to keep 4 or 5 by offloading one of the big two than losing basically their entire fringe. We'd be much better served by targetting Michael than Aker in terms of our team structure, as well.

Probable sacrifice for Michael? Probably our first round pick (probably around #12 at this stage) and someone like Seymour. Worth it in my opinion - we have plenty of young options to take into the future, and we are showing this year that a premiership within two years is far from impossible.

[Dpw]

Hey Charlie, It worries me Playfair can't get a game with Geelong at the moment.

Maybe they know something we don't and think by playing him there just developing him for Sydney.

[Charlie]

That has crossed my mind... but it has a good side as well. Geelong fans on Bigfooty said that they can't understand, going on his VFL results, why he hasn't played in the seniors yet. That means that he does have some potential. If he doesn't play, he can't appreciate in value. At the moment, he's the equivalent of a low, speculative pick. Of course, the longer he is stifled at Geelong, the more likely he is going to be dissatisfied there as well.

I think we could get him for Buchanan and Ablett.

[penga]

they discussed playfair on fox footy league teams last night, and they were saying how much they cant believe he hasnt had a game yet... maybe geelong know something we dont and dont wanna waste any game time with him knowing that he'll be ours next season

when i saw that geelong had signed key 8, i was praying that one of these wasnt playfair, and it was such a relief when it wasnt

they showed some footage of playfair on league teams as well and boy-oh-boy was he strong overhead, they showed him taking 3 tough pack marks, they were all in the same game of course... from that brief package he definitely looked the goods

[Charlie]

Hmm.... HE'S OURS!