2020 trading, drafting and list management: players and personnel

[707]

Languish in high draft pick territory means languishing in bottom four territory. Time for this rebuild to start netting a profit, preferably in results, not high draft picks. Another season like last year and many, myself included, will have every right to question if this rebuild is going anywhere.

That's if we get more footy this year!

Fitness and mindset will be all over the place for clubs, teams and individuals IF footy resumes. May not be a lot to take out of this year for anybody.

[Auntie.Gerald]

Kirky
The message map whisperer will rise up

[Aprilbr]

Given our urgent need like all Clubs to significantly reduce the soft cap for coaching and football operations it will be interesting to see who survives the inevitable cull.

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[bloodspirit]

Given our urgent need like all Clubs to significantly reduce the soft cap for coaching and football operations it will be interesting to see who survives the inevitable cull.

Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

Short term or long term? In the short term they haven't been very transparent. I suppose that, like other clubs, we have let 80% of our staff go already but I can only guess who.

I would imagine the core will be Harley, Gardiner, Longmire, Beatson & Dalrymple from the football side of things, both short and long term. Maybe the CFO and Rob Spurrs (in charge of high performance) too. Long term I have very little clue.

[707]

We've got into this position financially because of the off field arms race initially started by the Pies who have far too much spare cash. When the AFL said they were going to tax the Footy Department spending on a $ for $ basis over the prescribed amount, Fat Face Maguire strong armed them into putting a maximum tax cap of $500k. That meant that you could spend millions over the Soft Cap and only pay $500k tax. I'm fairly sure those are the facts.

Why have a soft cap that only advantages the wealthy clubs, Pies, WCE, Tigers, Injectors? Maybe now is the time to make Footy Dept spending a hard cap at a much reduced level to the current Soft Cap. The images of the Essendon coaching box on game day are mind boggling, time to stop?

Anyway, probably the wrong thread for this!

[barry]

Good post. ^^^



Especially at GWS. ????

We know Eddie will be working furiously behind the scenes to make it happen.

[bloodspirit]

Beatson confident in scouts

Reports that Gillon McLachlan is confident this year's draft will go ahead.

Kinnear says scouts will be ready to go even if they don't get to see draftees play a game this year. Interestingly he also mentions "if" the draft age remains 18. He is also quoted as saying: "There's a lot of water to go under the bridge in terms of list sizes, there's a lot of player contracts in place so we have to know what happens with them, what the total player payments looks like, whether there's rookies, what the domestic leagues look like, where your other players outside of the senior team will be playing – all of those are questions yet to be answered,".

Some other clubs, particularly those who have invested more heavily in the 2020 National Draft, are less sanguine: https://www.afl.com.au/news/390572/f...aft-investment.

[707]

Some players who did little as under agers suddenly "explode" as 18yo and vice versa. Could end up a draft where players picked are a bit of a lottery.

Also the spectre of reduced lists means clubs may not want to use picks unless they are confident of the talent but would prefer to hold onto players already on their list instead.

Future picks, what a nightmare, no more play this year to set a draft pick order, what a nightmare. I reckon they would be better biting the bullet and move the draft age up to 19 and cancel this years draft. But the AFL do like the show piece of the draft!

Whatever they decide, Campbell and Gulden are ours.

[bloodspirit]

Another thought on the topic of list management: perhaps the likely possibility of having to renegotiate contracts will give Papley the opportunity to depart that he has been craving. While I don't doubt his commitment to the team during the season, I do doubt that his desire to return to Victoria has altogether dissipated. Fortunately, between Gray and Taylor and Ronke and Wicks and the incoming Gulden and Campbell it would be a loss we will be fairly well placed to cover. Will we still want, and be able to afford, JD? Impossible to tell at this stage. So much left to play out.

[i'm-uninformed2]

Paps is a large margin ahead of the first four mentioned there and for all their promise, the two academy kids are unproven.

I’m so pleased we held firm on him last year and hope we do so again.

He’s very much top half dozen on our list.

[bloodspirit]

Paps is a large margin ahead of the first four mentioned there and for all their promise, the two academy kids are unproven.

I’m so pleased we held firm on him last year and hope we do so again.

He’s very much top half dozen on our list.

Too true. That's why we were insisting on someone of Daniher's ilk to replace him. And I hope so too.

However, the point I'm making is that if the radically changed financial landscape affects salary caps and requires player contracts to be renegotiated, that may give Paps the opening he's been looking for to leave the club, whether we like it or not.

[Auntie.Gerald]

Paps is a machine we dont want to let go of unless we received two significant picks minimum or a traded player 2 way or 3 way that is equivalent in team value that meets our needs

[Ralph Dawg]

We need to keep Paps. If contracts get re-negotiated, he would have to be upgraded, even if the new financial climate dictates most cop a pay cut.

[Mark26]

I wholeheartedly agree that Paps needs to stay. He's one of our elite players. We can't let him walk unless we get adequate return. If he nominates the Blues again, then one of their elite players should make their way north, or a set of very handy picks. The Blues would surely baulk at letting Cripps or Walsh go. We should do the same with Tom.

[KSAS]

IMO, I don't think high profile contracted players will be changing clubs this year due to the extraordinary season (if we do get to complete one) and on top of AFL not approving any new contracts for the foreseeable future.