Hi there robert. Haven't seen you post for a while. Going to Gather round this year? Thirsty? Barossa games are on

WE had nothing in the cupboard end of 2002, and no draft picks for 2 years. We did land Simmo, and that's it.
2004 we topped up with Pagan's retread army to make us competitive. Worked for half a year, then faded.
2008 we get Judd and won the Kreuzer Cup the year before, and our core was a bunch of First rounders....got us to Finals...ripped off by umpires v Weagles
2015 we worked out we needed to blow up the place and do it properly to build a team with a good age profile. But we added kids and more kids and had to wait till they grew up
2023 we got to a Prelim and had a good list with plenty of top end talent expected to give us success.
2025 we have too many kids not enough depth to cover 7 injured players

Nah... can't agree with you robbie. We don't need more kids. We have 17 developing players on our list. IMO too many kids not enough talented role players.

Naturally, with 14 contracts coming to an end this year, and no idea what TDK is going to do, we will be turning over players and will have possibly a $3M-$4M warchest . You and I don't even know what Austin has planned to do. No one does. We have to wait and see.

As for kids, we will be launching Smith next year, and possibly FS Dean, Allan and NGS Ison and Gresham.

Enough with the kids.

Need good users of the ball and a bit of outside speed to support the Top end players we already have: bird in the hand.

_________________
Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Agree Bondi. Hence why L Campo has gone ahead of Binns who is a chip kicker v a long penetrating left foot.

I’m still yet to see a long penetrating kick from Lucas? Are we watching the same kid?

He marks. Stops. Takes 30 seconds to analyse his options. And then chips it into a 3 on 1 against us.

I am sure there are examples if you go back and watch the games. However as a first year player he needs to practice and get better hence I have no issue with him going back to the two's to do just that.

I think Lucas' kicking is being compared to Binns.

Lucas doesn't "woof" the ball 50-60m, but at GWS I saw him drop a couple big kicks into forwardline about 45-50m. Right in front of me, I posted he really punches the ball hard when he kicks. Not many make that punchy sound when kicking. He kicks OK as far as distance is concerned.

He does pause, at times, but I also see him run to space to give him time to evaluate (Hawks like), usually sideways (Hawks like) and at times gets around players then kicks to a team mate or to a pack (in hope). Typical Carlton bombing. Its obvious its by design. ie instructed to do so when around HF.

_________________
Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

I would love to know what Graeme Wright is thinking of our list management. As someone who worked in that area he won't be bluffed.

We let go of Kennedy and Owies

We pick up Haynes and Evans

Make it make sense


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

_________________

We got rid of Kennedy Owies Carroll Martin Marchbank Cunningham Durdin

2 of that list should have been kept

We should have Houston on the list as well
And going back a few years Papley.

Austin has killed this team and will eventually kill the coach

Sent from my SM-F956B using Tapatalk

_________________
If you allow the Government to change the Laws in an emergency
They will create an Emergency to change the Laws

Buckley summed it up last night.
We have a handful of absolute stars and the rest are just role players.
Basically no depth.
Putting all our eggs in the 18 yo kid Jagga basket to fix our midfield instead of getting in a readymade top player from another team, speaks volumes on our cap, position and drafting.

Salary cap? Or was it just for the minimal draft capital they brought in?

As others have mentioned, our list age profile is starting to look a bit imbalanced; where a couple of years ago we had much of our core hitting its prime together, now we have several key players looking post-peak and a whole lot of kids, half of whom show little promise. I'd like to think we have some big 2026 moves in the pipeline but there's not much substance to those hopes.

Can you imagine the pressure that is going to come on Jagga when he fronts up next year.
The Stocker trade was diabolical if Jagga doesn't rip the comp apart the pressure will mount

Sent from my SM-F956B using Tapatalk

_________________
If you allow the Government to change the Laws in an emergency
They will create an Emergency to change the Laws

Having said that, Houston would presumably have commanded a big contract, so we'd have expanded our star base by one player but left ourselves with even more minimum salary list cloggers. At least, that's what I'd guess... others with knowledge of our contracts and finances can confirm or deny.

It'll be huge, supporters are already saying he was going to fix our midfield.
A lot of pressure on the kid.

I had to refresh my memory on that one. Effectively we ended up trading pick 4 in the 2019 draft for Brodie Kemp. After last night, and given that we probably would have picked Fischer McAsey (the #6 pick who played 10 games for Adelaide), maybe it wasn't that bad after all. Lachlan Ash went at #4 and I'd say he's merely OK.

I don't disagree.
But at least Houston was ready to go, would make a difference and is what we needed.
He also wanted to come to us and we failed him, that sends a message.

Our drafting policy has been.
1. Top tier players.
2. Injured players that could be top tier.
3. Kids
4. Or recycled players that might come around.

The only quality mid tier players we've targeted would be Hewett, Newman, Haynes, Fogarty, Acres and McLovin.
And it's debatable on 4 of them if they are even that.
Then you look at teams like Geelong.............worlds apart.

Yup agree it’s poor list management, furthermore compounding our woes is the loss of Elijah and Harry to unfortunate and delicate personal issues. That’s four quality contributors vanished, unsustainable disruption to team balance.

_________________
Go Blue Boys

I’ve been thrashing about this forum for 20 years or thereabouts, yet see only the wilderness yonder too.
Go Blues.

_________________
Go Blue Boys

Looking at the list, the answer is clear: poach Sydney players. And maybe Geelong (although we did take some duds from them, Smedts and someone else I've forgotten...)

More so Sydney for me.
Geelong will only trade us the ones that don't work.

Yeah, agreed. I just wanted to be generous to Fog, who was pivotal to our "success" for a while. With Sydney you get the go-home factor that may make wanted players available. Geelong not so much.