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What we need are options that can win enough contests inside 50 to get enough shots on goal to win, on average. We also need to engineer enough inside 50s, and prevent as many inside 50s and scores as we can from the opposition.
Walker, Everitt, Menzel, Casboult and Bell do this for us. There's sufficient variety in the ways in which they accomplish this. The clear weakness amongst that collective skillset is some speed at ground level. I don't think Lamb will adequately address this, and see better alternatives in Boekhorst, Buckley, Sumner, Smith and Armfield. What you can also spot is that Casboult is fairly unique, which is why Josh Walker is being looked at.
Buckley is probably the most capable of having an impact aerially, whether that be marking the ball or bringing it to ground in a reasonably fair contest; Boekhorst similarly.
So while losing Bell is a negative in the short term, I think our forward line is capable on all fronts if we use the right players and give them the right support. The fact that we have guys like Gibbs and Cripps who can go forward and provide a very good lead option, Murphy and Graham who can crumb well, and Thomas - who can do a bit of everything when fit - is a good support crew from midfield.
That we have Tuohy and Docherty who can realistically directly contribute goal or two a game each between assists and shots is sensational. Kreuzer is also handy when his tail is up.
What's not great is our depth in forward talls, which we're clearly seeking to improve over the trade period both directly and indirectly, as well as our depth of talent when it comes to delivering inside the 50. A firing Yarran would have been great to address this but it seems he's gone. From the aforementioned names that are currently on our list, Casboult, Walker, Everitt, Bell, Kreuzer, Thomas and Smith are inconsistent to AFL average in this regard. They can improve, but we need to cultivate more options in case they don't, because Dick, Whiley, Curnow and Tutt do not fill the opposition with dread and the opposition will sag off them and try to force a kick to intercept.
The good news is we've moved and are favourable to moving on players who don't do this, namely Ellard, Carrazzo, White, Johnson and Russell. Hopefully we bring in some players who are more functional in this regard than Lamb, who while a clean kick is not great on the run in terms of field passing, and continue to fast track names like Sheehan, Byrne, Holman and DVR.
If the following list of names are shuffled back to the bottom 25% of our list for 2016, we're going to significantly improve through consistency of performance alone:
Jones
Rowe
Tutt
Armfield
Dick
Walsh
Smith
That's not to say some of those names won't improve or can't make valuable contributions, just that the less of these players that are needed in the team at their current level of output, the better off we're going to be. Hopefully some or all of Tomlinson, Plowman, Sumner, Mayes, Silvagni, Weitering and Rice will all add to these areas of need both directly and indirectly, but those are at best 7 names out of what could be up to 12 list spots up for grabs.
Hopefully we'll have at least one good draft pick to tidy that up further, as well as a good PSD pool and maybe a low-key free agency signing like Grimley, rounding it out with a couple of live rookie picks.
TL;DR version: process good, structure needs to improve alongside personnel and good options are being sounded out, Casboult unique but not irreplaceable.
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