very sticky hands apparently

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"I had to eat"

Sweet!

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#DonTheStash

Pitonett has already replaced Kreuzer and as long as he keeps it up, Kreuzer will have to watch on from the sidelines
Betts will just play on until his son joins the club.

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Let slip the Blues of war (with apologies to William Shakespeare) (and Sir Francis Bacon, just in case)

SOS has left a terrible legacy in terms of the club's midfield.

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"You are being watched. The government has a secret system. A machine that spies on you every hour of every day. I know because I built it." - Finch

agree, way too many talls

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"I had to eat"

Don’t like what I am seeing

Don’t think this rebuild will get us to the promised land

Not enough speed and depth in the midfield

Our second tier players aren’t really coming through

And the ones he has recruited have so many question marks.

SPS - brain farts, dinky kicks, doesn't win his own ball, consistency

Dow - disposal, goal kicking, mental strength

O'Brien - hard enough and consistent enough?

Setterfield - slowish, immobile, consistency

Kennedy - see Setterfield but even slower

Cuningham - doesn't win anywhere near enough ball

Gibbons - kicking and decision making

Fisher - size

Walsh - disposal (harsh admittedly)

Literally every single one of them other than Walsh and Fish could easily turn out to be busts. Lord help us if multiple are given how much draft capital we have tied up in this lot.

Here we go again.
Most of them haven't started shaving yet.
Not his fault Fisher is injured.
Walsh is a star
Cunningham is just starting to string games together. Setterfield played well tonight
Philp isn't ready but will go ok.
Kennedy can play and will do so when Murphy retires.
Kemp is apparently OK.
Gibbons can play
Martin can play

Tonight wasn't the mids fault. It was the game plan and the fact we couldn't hit a target or kick straight.

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Let slip the Blues of war (with apologies to William Shakespeare) (and Sir Francis Bacon, just in case)

We need a couple of top-end mids and a small forward in the upcoming trade period.

Martin is a jet but list probably needs a small clean up and probably trade a couple of players out to get some players in we need.

Trading SPS to Fremantle for example for a draft pick or Cerra will balance the list as he was meant to play through the midfield.

Time for some thought on where our list is at.
Simpson, Betts, Murphy, Jones, Newnes, Ed Curnow, Casboult, Kreuzer arn’ t going to get any better.
The former three will most likely not be there so can the list improve given we clearly are still a bottom six team. Tag Cripps and Docherty out of the game and where done and dusted.
Let’s look at some of players the club has invested in given their ages but also what they have shown and what their ceiling may be
JOS
Probably best suited in a tagging roll with oppositions number one mid. Too slow and lacks height to play forward.
Dow
Still contracted till 2022 hasn’t shown enough. Time is on his side but his lack of awareness and game sense is a concern. Kicking is below standard and like many on our list lacks size.
SPS
Major disappointment. His body shape has not changed. Gets rag dolled too often. Kicking lacks depth.
Fantastic game awareness but he is been wasted in the back half. How much better can he get. Too me he doesn’t seem to want it enough. For a top 10 pick has been average so far
Kennedy
Simply hasn’t been fit enough until this year where he looks in great shape.
Shown a bit up forward but brought to the club as an inside mid which he has to be because he is so slow. For a pick 28 his output has been ordinary. Not a lot of upside
Cripps
Absolute champ but no player should have the burden of carrying the weight of a team on his shoulders given his age. More on him later.
McKay
Injuries and development aside( big guys take time) McKay needs to learn to play elsewhere. Defence is an option. He has the tools but to me his career is going nowhere as a deep forward. Certainly intensity seems an issue so get him involved more in the game
McGovern
Yep gave up a lot for mid sized power forward whose best is very good but worst is the worst and very little in between. The problem is his best is not often enough. At 25 should be better
DeKoning
I would play this bloke for an extended period in the seniors. One of the few players that seems to have a big upsize. McKay needs to drop down a level to re invent himself.
Stocker
What I saw of him I liked. Actually has some size about him unlike many on our list. Needs to show some continuity in his development. We gave up a lot to get him.
LOB
Gave up a top 10 pick and can’t get a game in an ordinary side in his third year. Not looking good.
Lang
Has been horrible. A good junior injuries have sapped his confidence and his development. Some guys develop too early. He definitely looks like one of those players playing forward . Was brought to the club as a mature mid and to my recollection hasn’t played there.
Setterfield
A bit like Lang. Definitely better but what is the upside. Looks not strong enough to play inside mid. Slow lacks depth in kicking. Has some footy smarts. As I have said repeatedly we gave two picks including a top 20 for him. So far not enough bang for the buck.
Walsh
Having the second year blues which is not uncommon. The question I have is how much better can he get. He isn’t big and isn’t quick. Good recruiting involves some luck but also a Crystal ball approach.
I for one would have entertained the notion of trading pick one for Ports first 2 picks. Duursma and Butters look to have more upside. Given the way the game is played these days the more quality mids who can hit the scoreboard the better you are. Don’t get me wrong. Walsh is obviously very good but the option was there and we didn’t take it. Given the state of our list at the time I believe SOS should have done it
Plowman
Lacks pace. Kicking is average. Like many on our list he seems to have lost weight and doesn’t seem to be as strong in the marking contests. His roll is that last man in defence. To me he provides little positivity to the team. An ordinary player at best and he has been around a while.
Cuningham
His best is elite. Doesn’t happen near enough for a fifth year player
Weitering
Excellent key defender. The question is do you use your number one pick on that type of player.
You would like to think that in the future he can go forward and impose himself on games.
Williamson
I’ll cut him some slack because of he has missed so much footy. Unlike most in our team he does take the game on. Has a lot of upside.
C Curnow
To me our most important player because he is the one bloke who win a game of his own boot. Sadly missed.
Pittonet
Looks an honest toiler Actually needs to bulk up a bit. Being a young big bloke has upside
Fisher
Been pretty good. Only concern for me has been his lack of size. Has upside with a decent run at it.
Marchbank
Lacks core strength. Another player who seems to have been at his best compared to his opponents as a junior.

The rest of the list are in two categories.
Simply not good enough or too early to tell.

With Austin at the helm and Brodie’s roll reduced how will Austin assess the list and will he deliver the goods.
To me the list has more holes in it than a piece of Swiss cheese.
Would you trade Cripps before he becomes a free agent and his contract is up in 2021.
That will obviously depend on the performance of the team in 2020. So far it’s not looking great.
Our recruiting has been our major issue over the last 20 years which has lead to such poor performances.
The AFL is a reasonably level playing field. We have a salary cap, a soft cap, all the clubs have great facilities Coaches have to do a course to be a possible AFL coach but recruiting varies in its quality from club to club. We have a system where recruiters predominantly recruit 18 year olds.
Good recruiters seem to be able to have a better crystal ball than the ordinary recruiters in which ones become successful AFL footballers in their mid 20s
And whilst it’s fairly irrelevant in 2020 Austin and his team need to look more closely at the VFL WAFL SANFL etc than their predecessors.
Weitering was a number one pick
Sam Collins was running around at Werribee when GC picked him at 55.
They are similar quality players playing the same position.
Don’t get me wrong.
Weitering is one of our best players
To some degree you can say that these leagues are like the college system that exists in USA
All these decisions add up to a successful team

1 question would ask is .Cripps love the bloke but,he turns 27 next year wears a kilo of bandages per game , if we demand 2 first rd picks and a player of our choice do we pull the trigger ? WA club .

Looking at Brodie, he wont be happy with that.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

Sausage roll

All depends how you replace him. I’ll assume this is still the most compromised draft in history? Not sure 2 first round picks, one in this draft and a lottery pick in the next, is enough to warrant such a risk. Also, I’m prettt sure the Eagles offloaded this years for Kelly last year

I’d rather trade this years pick, next years pick for established players and maybe McKay for Papley

He turns 27 in 2022 and no

No we are not rebuilding need to add class around Cripps.

EFA

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If I want your opinion, I'll give it to you!

I'll give you two under our noses...Kennedy and Gibbons (may not have the class of Wines et al but will compete and make Cripps' job a hellavu lot easier)

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If I want your opinion, I'll give it to you!

SOS missing out on landing a few of those A grade mids has held us back I reckon with Brisbane and StKilda going past us.

We can catch up though if Dow Kemp Philp can break out.

Has been going well if reports are accurate. Who is replacing Jones when he retires? Goddard? We don’t have much depth in key defenders, so he makes my trimmed list.