2020 trading, drafting and list management: players and personnel

[Melbourne_Blood]

2020 trading, drafting and list management: players and personnel

According to SEN, we & GWS are showing interest in Pruess. Not sure of their sources.

Well obviously they’ve gleaned our interest from reading RWO, perhaps they’ve infiltrated orange, grey and white online also ?


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[gloveski]

A counterexample: Jason Ball to Nick Davis, 2005 Semi Final. Jason Ball to Amon Buchanan, 2005 Grand Final.

Has the "modern game" changed that much that a good tap from a ruckman is now worthless?

To right we had to good ruckman that year in Jolly and Ball


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[Nico]

Ross Lyon also said we should be into Cameron.

I was actually thinking that the other day as well.

We should be throwing the kitchen sink at him!

I think we sold all the kitchen sinks in Sydney for Buddy.

[Legs Akimbo]

And so tired of waiting for Godot.

I hear that we are into him this year. Tap ruckman of the highest calibre

[dejavoodoo44]

Agree with all of this.

And so tired of waiting for Godot.

And we might be in for a bit of a nervous wait on draft night. Though I think that depends on how Adelaide view their KPF situation. It should be okay, if they think they already have enough, with Walker, Fogarty, Himmelberg, and possibly Frampton and Lynch. If not, it's easy to imagine a scenario where the three gun KPFs go before our pick.

That is, if Adelaide decide they want a KPF, they first bid on Ugle-Hagan; because he's touted as the best player in the draft and to keep the Bulldogs honest. Assuming that the Bulldogs match, Adelaide could then take local lad, Thilthorpe. Since North are shopping around Brown and have culled Wood (deadwood?), they might be planning on taking a KPF at the draft; so they take McDonald. Which might leave many of us feeling disappointed.

Although that scenario, does rely on North making, what I perceive as the most rational decision. So, maybe we'll be okay?

[Ludwig]

With GWS, Geelong and us all looking for a ruckman, it's not going to be easy to get someone we're happy with. A lot hangs on what happens with Daniher, as he's one of the better stand in ruckman for a forward. So if he comes to us, Joe, Sinclair, Reid and Aliir can all do reasonable jobs pretending to be ruckmen. We might be able to get by. Maybe we can get Thilthorpe in the draft. There are some options around other than Preuss, who I don't see as a good long term solution. We still want someone quick in the middle.

[Melbourne_Blood]

With GWS, Geelong and us all looking for a ruckman, it's not going to be easy to get someone we're happy with. A lot hangs on what happens with Daniher, as he's one of the better stand in ruckman for a forward. So if he comes to us, Joe, Sinclair, Reid and Aliir can all do reasonable jobs pretending to be ruckmen. We might be able to get by. Maybe we can get Thilthorpe in the draft. There are some options around other than Preuss, who I don't see as a good long term solution. We still want someone quick in the middle.

Hmmm A quick ruckman, and a fleet of rabbits. Hope we don’t play too many wet games !


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[Blood Fever]

And steal is a good description of most NGA selections. I suspect that the Victorian clubs pre-draft involvement, is along the lines of checking the promising kids in their zones, to see if any of them have ethnic sounding names or look a bit dark. Then perhaps running a workshop or hosting a tour of the premises, as a bit of a bonding exercise. Et voila, go to the top of the draft.

But anyway, definitely agree that our midfield has plenty of promising depth and that we should prioritize other areas. In regards to young mids, we have a few that you haven't mentioned. Warner was recruited as a hard at it, inside mid. He impressed enough to get a debut, and did a few good things, despite being played out of position. With another preseason and some game time in the VFL, he'll probably be repaying the investment by the second half of next season. Ling was signed as a mid, and is skilful enough to still make a name for himself there. Wicks and Bell are excellent tacklers and both are combative enough to spend time inside. Florent of course. And at a slightly higher age bracket, Heeney, Papley and Mills/Godot, can all rotate into our centre set up, for a bit of variation. So, no real need to recruit a midfielder.

In contrast, there seems a real need for a KPF. Buddy might come good, or he might not. Reid isn't quite good enough to lead the attack. McCartin now looks like he's going to become a gun defender and Blakey looks like he is going to develop as an exciting and hard to match up on, hybrid player. Something like, one half outside mid, one quarter inside mid and one quarter forward flanker; but not a KPF. Which leaves McLean and Amartey: who while promising, are both more second ruck and deep forward types. I'm not sure if either have the running power to be dominant KPFs (hmmm, I wonder if my deranged predictive text was agreeing with me? It just changed KPFs to Logs).

So, I definitely think either McDonald or Thilthorpe with our pick 3. The vision of both does look encouraging. McDonald can clunk a mark, kick straight and long, and seems to have footy smarts. While Thilthorpe reminds me a bit of the King brothers. At 200cm he can spend time in the ruck, but he's quick and has strong hands. Would be very happy with either.

Quality analysis

[Ralph Dawg]

I'm not convinced about Preuss. Someone asked whether anyone has seen him play a good game and the answer from me is a no.

I wonder with Aliir potentially playing as a ruck / forward full-time, his ruck work will improve, allowing him to share more of the ruck load with Sinclair (or Naismith, not holding my breath!). This, could lead to an improved output from our on ballers, who should be getting better anyway, without having to find a new ruckman.

[dejavoodoo44]

Quality analysis

Wouldn't go that far.

[Markwebbos]

I'm not convinced about Preuss. Someone asked whether anyone has seen him play a good game and the answer from me is a no.

I wonder with Aliir potentially playing as a ruck / forward full-time, his ruck work will improve, allowing him to share more of the ruck load with Sinclair (or Naismith, not holding my breath!). This, could lead to an improved output from our on ballers, who should be getting better anyway, without having to find a new ruckman.

I think, outside of Sam N, AA has the potential to be our best ruckman and to offer the most outside of winning hitouts. And I don't think he has a spot in the backline with the move of McCartin down back. But I think he's not quite tall enough to be the main man. Happy to be proved wrong.

[Thunder Shaker]

And we might be in for a bit of a nervous wait on draft night. Though I think that depends on how Adelaide view their KPF situation. It should be okay, if they think they already have enough, with Walker, Fogarty, Himmelberg, and possibly Frampton and Lynch. If not, it's easy to imagine a scenario where the three gun KPFs go before our pick.

That is, if Adelaide decide they want a KPF, they first bid on Ugle-Hagan; because he's touted as the best player in the draft and to keep the Bulldogs honest. Assuming that the Bulldogs match, Adelaide could then take local lad, Thilthorpe. Since North are shopping around Brown and have culled Wood (deadwood?), they might be planning on taking a KPF at the draft; so they take McDonald. Which might leave many of us feeling disappointed.

Although that scenario, does rely on North making, what I perceive as the most rational decision. So, maybe we'll be okay?

Maybe Norf or the Crows have other needs they want to fill? I doubt they would be in any rush, though. Both clubs have a second draft pick before pick 10, so they may well be deciding to use their first pick on whom they consider to be the best available player and their second pick to fill a specific need. (I expect Norf will split pick 9, they need a fistful of picks to draft replacements for the 11 players they delisted.)

Sydney has the third live pick, so we only need to shortlist three players for consideration. For talls, that would be Thilthorpe, McDonald, and one other.

I have said before that Sydney may end up splitting pick 3 for two later first-round picks (eg: Geelong's provisional picks 15 and 16). This would maximise the chances of drafting both Campbell and Gulden. I hope we don't split pick 3 and instead trade for the additional picks we need. Last year, it was speculated that Melbourne would split their pick 3, but they ended up taking it to the draft and picking Luke Jackson.

[Melbourne_Blood]

I'm not convinced about Preuss. Someone asked whether anyone has seen him play a good game and the answer from me is a no.

I wonder with Aliir potentially playing as a ruck / forward full-time, his ruck work will improve, allowing him to share more of the ruck load with Sinclair (or Naismith, not holding my breath!). This, could lead to an improved output from our on ballers, who should be getting better anyway, without having to find a new ruckman.

He’s played about 18 games over the past 4 years, mainly due to being second fiddle behind an elite ruckman. There’s been glimpses but it’s very hard to tell how good or average he really is.


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[MattW]

Has anyone seen Preuss actually play a good game? I know I haven't.

I know he looks like a ruckman, but I haven't seen him play like an AFL standard ruck. And I'm not talking Nic Nat or Gawn level; just an ability to win some taps, make space for the mids, take the odd grab around the ground, and kick an occasional goal.

Agreed.

[Blood Fever]

Wouldn't go that far.

It's all relative I know but it made a lot of sense. Lot of strange stuff on here lately!