Where from here?

[DeadlyAkkuret]

Sorry but trading Jude is silly, we wont get anything decent and he's having his best season in years. If you want to lose some "toilers" then dump Crouch, Ablett, Buchanan or even Bevan.

Bolton needs to be there with McVeigh and O'Keefe in the middle next year, hopefully making things easier for Meredith and Bird in what should be big seasons for the both of them.

[BSA5]

Shovel work does not cut it any more especially when your disposal is 2nd rate. We have too many shovel players in Kirk, Jude, Ablett, Bucky, Schmidtt and Moore. Only one attacking in McVeigh. Major imbalance.

Schmidt, Buchy and Moore shovel players? Schmidt is an outside runner, a distributor, and Buchy and Moore are pack-breakers. Kirk, Jude and Ablett are obviously shovel players, but Ablett isn't in the side at the moment, and will probably be trade bait at the end of the year.

[barry fu u]

Shovel work does not cut it any more especially when your disposal is 2nd rate. We have too many shovel players in Kirk, Jude, Ablett, Bucky, Schmidtt and Moore. Only one attacking in McVeigh. Major imbalance.

Ablett and Buchanan should never be compaired to Kirk and J Bolton.Tim Schmidt is certainly not 2nd rate, disposal wise his kicking top rate he just needs to get on the park.

[sWAns63]

First we have to keep getting games into the youngsters and also we need to clear all the dead wood at the end of the season Playfair, Crouch, Ablett, Leo etc.

[connolly]

Shovel work does not cut it any more especially when your disposal is 2nd rate. We have too many shovel players in Kirk, Jude, Ablett, Bucky, Schmidtt and Moore. Only one attacking in McVeigh. Major imbalance.

I know you are excited but we have a dual brownlow medallist and one of the most skillful players in the comp. Get a grip.

[sfan]

I know you are excited but we have a dual brownlow medallist and one of the most skillful players in the comp. Get a grip.

Goodes is not is the same group as the others - he won a brownlow as a ruckman for god's sake. Get a grip. He is 6ft 4in. The others are mid fielders is the traditional sense/

[connolly]

Goodes is not is the same group as the others - he won a brownlow as a ruckman for god's sake. Get a grip. He is 6ft 4in. The others are mid fielders is the traditional sense/

He plays as a midfielder. He is actually a dual medallist. He won one brownlow as a ruckman. He won one as a midfielder/ ruck rover.

[Bas]

Unfortunately most of the young players we saw today are from the Barham era of recruitment. The Kinnear Beatson era will be much better as this man is a top talent scout.

I missed this news. Who is recruiting for us now? Where's Ricky gone? and are the new blokes any good?

[ugg]

Beatson joined us about 2 years ago IIRC. He used to work with the Lions. I'm pretty sure Barham is still working with us and he, Beatson and Maxfield are in charge of scouting, drafting, development etc. Not sure of their exact titles.

[Bas]

thanks.

[Young Blood]

Dead wood

As recently posted elsewhere, we have way too much dead wood on our list:
* 3 players aged 31-32 who will surely retire at year's end: MO'L, Crouch, Barry
* 2 former members of the best 22 who have not performed regularly at senior level for some time: Ablett, Buchanan
* 5 players now aged 22-23 who are yet to show they have what it takes: Moore, Grundy, Barlow, Brabazon, Laidlaw
* 2 players with apparently chronic injury problems: Playfair, Schmidt
* 1 very good player who sadly cannot control his behaviour: Hall

That's 13 out of a senior list of 38, and I haven't counted our oldest player, or the 5 unknown quantities who are yet to play a game.

I would like to see at least half of these gone at year's end, with the remainder to go at end 2010 if they don't start appearing in the list of best players with some regularity.

We must cut the dead wood to promote new growth.

[Hartijon]

one elite player short

Massive wholesale changes are not the answer anymore than just continuing on the same.Today's game and the Collingwood game were both very winnable for us if we had a polished finisher in the forward line.A Didak,davis or Porplecia could have won us the last 3 games.Imagine if Porplecia played for us?? 4 touches 4 goals..that would make a difference.We will never get a perfect team but what we clearly lack now is CLASS.The endeavour,attitude ,effort is good.we lack skills,polish,and finishing ability and that is the only thing beating us right now. I think the cheque book has to come out and we buy it! A lot of suggestions for delisting etc are obvious and will happen but relying on the draft,rookie list will not necessarily get us what we need. I Would hate to see us like Carlton..all lights and no Xmas tree.

[doctor swan]

already gone ... tadgh,fossie
last season and will go, micky o and leo
should go crouch and yes bbbh
throw in ablett, buchanan, grundy not sure where their contracts are at so trade or delist or be stuck with then there is o dwyer , and possibly laidlaw as well so we looking at 10 off our list.
taking the first 6-8 names thats a fair bit of money off the salary cap, who deserves a upgrade not many id say so who do we make a play for bearing in mind we ll have a bit of money to throw around come trade week. not many players i d want our next generation to learn off barring rok , goodesy , captain , b1 and b2. i d rather johnston learn the hard way than learn to be a thug aka bbbh.
so who is out there we need a tall at the back to give b2 a hand what about matt maguire, a speedy midfielder not getting a go at his club in kane tenace, a half fwd not playing at the watch out we're coming club in brad fisher who is more than useful, and then top the list with younger kids.
maybe all isnt lost but the sooner the dead/old wood goes the better and again we can be onward to victory.

[Legs Akimbo]

already gone ... Tadhg,fossie
last season and will go, micky o and leo
should go crouch and yes bbbh
throw in ablett, buchanan, grundy not sure where their contracts are at so trade or delist or be stuck with then there is o dwyer , and possibly laidlaw as well so we looking at 10 off our list.
taking the first 6-8 names thats a fair bit of money off the salary cap, who deserves a upgrade not many id say so who do we make a play for bearing in mind we ll have a bit of money to throw around come trade week. not many players i d want our next generation to learn off barring rok , goodesy , captain , b1 and b2. i d rather johnston learn the hard way than learn to be a thug aka bbbh.
so who is out there we need a tall at the back to give b2 a hand what about matt maguire, a speedy midfielder not getting a go at his club in kane tenace, a half fwd not playing at the watch out we're coming club in brad fisher who is more than useful, and then top the list with younger kids.
maybe all isnt lost but the sooner the dead/old wood goes the better and again we can be onward to victory.

Good prescription Dr. The only problem is many of the 'franchise' players will be holding out to the coasters in 2010.

I and some other posters saw this train wreck coming a few years back. Interesting to watch people's reactions as it unfolds (many having been naysayers).

[Nico]

Good prescription Dr. The only problem is many of the 'franchise' players will be holding out to the coasters in 2010.

I and some other posters saw this train wreck coming a few years back. Interesting to watch people's reactions as it unfolds (many having been naysayers).

Good call Legs. I for one was worried in 2007 that we were going down the same path as other premiers of previous times. Essendon, Collingwood, Hawthorn and Carlton hung on to their premiership players for far too long and suffered the consequences and recruited top up players adnausium.

You would think a club that had been so progressive for a long time, would have seen this coming and turned over the list more and had greater scrutiny and accountabilty put upon their olds and bolds. The writing was on the wall after 2007 that it was too much to expect those players to take us to another premiership, yet they cut 2 players who were approaching their prime in favour of others.