I reckon we should maybe draft every year, forever, but that's just me.

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29 different attributes,
And only 7 that you like;
20 ways to see the world,
Or 20 ways to start a fight.

We don't have many good players that we could trade out to give us draft picks where we can expect to get another Cripps or Weitering. Outside of Murphy and Gibbs I'm not sure anyone demands a first round draft pick.
I think there's a balance of trading out some experienced players, probably for mid range picks, and then trying to upgrade our picks and work our way into a strong position. It'll take some manoeuvring by SOS though.

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@cecil_anderson

Don't worry ... we are good at giving away our better players.

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I am as mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more!!!

Hypothetical for the draft experts.

Is this one of those drafts where 2 top 10s, or 3 top 15s, may be of more use than a 1-2 pick?

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WADA medical director Dr Alan Vernec describes Essendon* FC drug case as biggest scandal in team sport the world of sport has seen. #WC2WB

#GUILTY

The current talk is the former, and they usually understate it if the last few years are any guide, so top 40 picks will be gold this year.

EDIT: fixed post

_________________
29 different attributes,
And only 7 that you like;
20 ways to see the world,
Or 20 ways to start a fight.

no - just cash in all the assets load up on number 1 picks and go bang

1st rd for gibbs
1st rd for murphy
1st for finishing bottom
trade a 2nd for someone and a player - to a low 1st rd

melbourne 2.0

We are a wooden spoon side now

Throw in a priority pick for not winning a game in a whole season.

I think we can end up with 4 picks across the first 2 rounds just by looking at offloading a Buckley or Everitt type. Achievable, gets us into the top end of the draft again and doesn't set back our current on-field product in any way.

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@cecil_anderson

No. you offload currency. Move on gibbs murphy. Kruezer is not worth much now. Everritt and buckley are steak knives...we have no time..murphy gibbs are not in our next premiership ...

posting something a dozen times doesn't make it more powerful than posting it once

I don't mind that you disagree with my opinion, an argument can certainly be made for trading out Murphy and/or Gibbs, but your lack of consistency confuses me. I've read your comments where you suggest that we've mishandled McKay and should be wrapping our draftees in cotton wool for their first 3 years. Now you suggest that 'we have no time' and must load up on more kids and get rid of all older players with currency.
My question to you is quite an obvious one; who exactly do you suggest we put on the field next season?

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@cecil_anderson

The clubs with academy kids will have to trade players to get high picks as they did last year. In a sense it is a good time to be looking to trade players from those clubs and that is exactly why the AFL gave them so many picks. We got several players from GWS for not much in return and if one or two of them work out, it's a win for us. Plowman looks like he can play. Sumner? The trades with Adeade that were part of the Menzel deal might net us a couple of decent players.

We need to be active traders trying to trade into the top twenty as we did last year. Whether we trade Gibbs or Kreuzer or Everitt or Touhy will be decided much later in the year by SOS and Bolton. Gibbs at Geelong or Hawthorn or even Adelaide would possibly win a flag and that's OK by me if we can use his worth and a later pick to trade up to a top ten pick. It didn't even slow Geelong dwon to lose Ablett. Hawks haven't even missed Franklin. Adelaide are already better than they were with Dangerfield in the team. You can and should consider trading your best player if you can get a long term player in return. But Murphy shouldn't go. You don't trade your captain. He might walk but you don't offer him up. Touhy is a good average player but not hard to replace. If he goes we should get something for him. The important thing is to trade for value and draft picks and maybe try for a big fish in the free agency in a year or so.

It's equally important to retain players. It's all very well to get them in the draft but it isn't worth much if they come to a place with a shit culture and no hope of ever winning. That's Bolton's job. Create the culture and start to win a few games. Otherwise we get players like Gibbs who are potential superstars but look as though they are playing only for the money and not for their team mates.

If we get good value from some of our current crop and pick and trade well, I am a little more optimistic than Jimmae. I would like to think that we can jump pretty quickly as did WCE. Time is running out for some of us!

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

Does anyone know McGovern's contract status from the crows?

He has had some injuries in the past but seems to be on top of them now.

In a team with a settled forward line we might pry him loose. Not sure what it would take though.

Perhaps Trigg could pull a few tricks and bring across Grigg as well.

Agree. Bulldogs look better once they lost Griffen and Cooney.

Gibbs would be great playing across HB for the Crows.

If we can get a first round pick for him then we should trade.

Google says: McGovern signed a contract extension to 2017 in March.

As far as small forwards go, we should be drafting our own, because there's so many to be found late. In terms of talls, we should be prying genuine talent if we want senior reinforcements, so someone starved of opportunity at a club (GWS and daylight really), or someone who could be a #1 forward but is playing second fiddle in a good team, or a free agent we can entice with a good (and fair) contract deal.

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29 different attributes,
And only 7 that you like;
20 ways to see the world,
Or 20 ways to start a fight.

Thanks Jimmae, thought they might of had him wrapped up. Looks like a player so far.

Who is the best target from GWS in your opinion and who do you like from other clubs?

Stewart, Patton and Tomlinson are a good starting point at GWS: they're talented and they're going to be relatively cheap compared to any projected return.

In terms of number #2 forward, you can pretty much rule out any team that looks like a top 8 chance at present, as well as anyone in a clear rebuild phase, and that leaves pretty slim pickings, notably Melbourne, Richmond, Collingwood and Fremantle.

You can put a line through Collingwood and Fremantle straight away because this is something both teams have been trying to address for at least 2 off-seasons, so they're not going to hand over anything of quality unless they see it as a lost cause.

It's not a great strength of Richmond's either, but they scooped up Callum Moore and Mabior Chol to work on as project players in last year's rookie draft, so they have diversified their options quite a bit, and Chol looked pretty good for them through the pre-season, as well as being a handful for our defenders in the VFL trial match prior to round 1. That said, they're a delusional bunch down at Tiger land so right now the asking price would be at a premium for anyone they'd be willing to part with, and most of those aren't senior types so don't really fill the gap we're looking to address.

This leaves Melbourne, the perennial nursery for young talent.

Put a line through Hogan and Weideman straight away; not going to happen.

Frost, Pedersen and Dawes aren't worth bothering about due to injuries, form and age, and they just drafted Hulett, King and King.

That leaves Watts, who is a head case, but he's an option.

So it's fairly slim pickings unless we can make a head turn in a contender that turns pretender through the season. Aside from GWS, some good candidates are Sydney (Sam Reid), West Coast (Lycett, McInnes, Lamb), North (Brown, Durdin, Daw, Wood), then maybe some less likely/likeable options in Adelaide (Jenkins, Lynch) and Hawthorn (O'Brien, Willsmore).

Might be able to squeeze one out of Brisbane too after their big haul of tall forwards last year; Freeman and McStay would be looking for more opportunities.

That's about all I can spot right now, but it's a nice shortlist.

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29 different attributes,
And only 7 that you like;
20 ways to see the world,
Or 20 ways to start a fight.

i agree that there may be inconsistency. thats the state of our list as its a mess atm...

Unfortunately, murphy and gibbs are not the right leaders for our group now - too many years of failure will result in poor examples to the young recruits. they need to be moved on compared to Hodge and lewis as leaders. After 3 games there has been more leadership from No 23 and Cripps than no 3 and no 4. Yes , young recruits are a problem putting them on the park. That is why I said we need to cash in to get a real true A grade defender 23 or 24 (Talia type) years to support JW. Mckay is an exception - he is effectively a 17 yr old not 18yr old as I understand it, if he was born a week later he would have been in the 2017 ND. you offload the currency to get a bag of 1st round picks and we go bang again. murphy and gibbs do not provide the hard protection for our young kids in any event - murphy and gibbs are the ones that presently need protection.