ThePsychologist wrote:
I am actually really concerned about the direction we are heading. I think our List Management is reactive and archaic.
It is obvious to most we have not turned over enough players or recruited well enough.
This year we get Thomas and pay overs for him. At his best he is a top class player but he is 27 next season and hasn't played much in the last 2 years. We will get Docherty for around pick 33 and will be handy and is the right age but is no star.
We also lost Betts for nothing because we got Thomas for nothing and handed Collingwood Pick 11.
We have been shopping around Lucas, Casboult, Laidler, Bootsma, Garlett & Yarran with little or no interest. Pick 32 for Hampson was a fair deal IMO. Unless we can move one of these we wont be doing much else.
Look at some of the other clubs and how they top up or re generate.
Collingwood will lose Thomas & Shaw but get pick 11 and Adams. They will also get White & Karnezis with later picks. For the second year in a row they will have two picks inside the Top 20. They are gold. Last year they got Grundy & Kennedy. This year will be just as good plus Adams is a star with 10 years ahead of him.
Hawthorn after winning a Premiership go out and trade Pick 17 and Savage for McEvoy. He is a top flight ruckman for the next 10 years and coming into his prime. He will be supported by Hale & Ceglar, both recruited from other clubs!
Sydney go and get Buddy. Smart from several angles.
Freo will go and get Sylvia & Gumbleton.
The difference is these clubs plan and do deals and they can afford them!!
Even St Kilda, realising they are crap trade good players (McEvoy, Dal Santo through FA) to get picks because they need depth and class. A bit like us. They are targeting 4-5 picks in the top 25 in this years draft. They will also get Bruce & Delaney with late picks. IMO that is smart.
North have been stockpiling for 3-4 years and will now add Dal Santo. Watch out in 2014.
I am told GWS are keen to trade Pick 2, even after they got Mumford with pick 35!
If I was us I would be trying to get it. Trade Kruezer or Gibbs. Both very good players but neither is Elite and are in their prime. No one should be off limits. Even a deal incorporating a few of Walker, Jamison, Warnock, Garlett, Bootsma or Yarran should be considered.
We have pick 13 at the moment. Our next is around 32? That is a lottery. We need early picks. If we could get pick 2 and maybe another inside 20 that would be a win. I hope we can.
Things need to change or we will be stuck in no mans land for a while. I have tried to be positive but what I see worries me as a supporter.
I share some of your general concern, but this is laughably negative. It's just the old "the grass is always greener on the other side" and the idea that another club's rubbish has to be better than our club's rubbish. Your opinions on the general outlook of the club appear to vacillate with each win or loss. One week the future looks bright, the next you are concerned about the general direction of the club.
Another way you could look at the Thomas transaction is that we have added one of the better midfielders in the competition, one who appears to be over his ankle issues and who should just be coming into his prime. If he is fit (and you have to assume that he is, or the club would not have risked it) then we have bolstered the midfield significantly. You have to pay overs to attract top players, or they would just stay at their current club. We identified a perceived gap and have tried to fill it with Thomas, a player who provides exactly what we need.
Another way you could look at the (proposed) Docherty transaction is that we are getting a pick 12 with two years' development and who wants to move to us for a pick in the 30s in what is considered to be a weak draft after the early going. A potential 10-year player for a relatively cheap price. You can be sure that if he was going to Collingwood instead of us, it would be considered some massive coup; but because he is going to us then it is an underwhelming deal.
You are happy to downplay Docherty but on the other hand, praise St Kilda for their potential recruitment of an inferior player in Luke Delaney? The same Luke Delaney who, if he were heading to Carlton, most on here would probably dismiss as a hack? You praise Freo for getting Gumbleton, a bloke who has played something like 20 games in the seven years in which he has been in the AFL system and who most on here would not want, but on the other hand, you are concerned about Thomas' injury record?
How on Earth do you propose we were supposed to go after Franklin? Do you not think that we would have tried if it were at all possible?
Ben McEvoy overall has been a disappointment so far and certainly not the "top flight ruckman" he was touted to be pre-draft. Ruckmen do take longer than most to develop, but I know St Kilda fans who were not at all unhappy to lose him, particular for what they got in return. Let's just wait and see on that one.
Another way you could look at the Betts transaction is that he was simply asking for too much money and that it would have been irresponsible of us to match Adelaide's offer. Betts was and is a quality player on his day but we identified a surplus of similar types and a list imbalance and with Adelaide willing to pay huge money, he was deemed expendable. You can also bet London to a brick that had we matched it, the next time Betts would have undergone a form slump, you would have had people on here complaining that we didn't just let him go to Adelaide. The club can't win either way.
It is also not our problem that the AFL's draft pick compensation system is a joke - are we supposed to not follow through with our trades out of fear that the AFL will consequently strengthen the opposition? There should be NO compensation at all for lost free agents. But because there is, this should stop us from going about our business? That we operate under a ridiculous system is the AFL's fault, not our own.
But I get it, Carlton are a complete rabble and everyone other club does things better than us because they are not Carlton!
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