not an advocate for massive changes.
automatic no questions asked delistings:
chambers
davies
longmuir
smith
guys with 10 rounds to save themselves:
many could realistically be retained
sporn
bryan
prenda
bannister
carlos
batson
livingston
saddington
trades:
would only trade for picks.
if anything could be gained from offloading
teague, deluca then jump at it - I'm talking our 3rd rounder and teague for someone's 2nd rounder.
would also like to see sporn and livo shopped around but i believe both are out of contract and most clubs would be confident of picking them up in the psd if they wanted them.
Lance poses an interesting problem: he's at the peak of his form - which is the best time to get value for a player - but the game is getting faster and Lance ceratinly aint, and I'm worried that he still struggles to kick it 50m and over. He would defintely command a top 1st round pick but the teams that would benefit from his services ie. Melb, WCE, stkilda aren't likely to have these picks. The biggest downside to the whole scenario however, would be losing his onfield direction and leadership - he offers nothing in the way of club promotion but it is clear that whilst kouta is the first call to model the muscle tops for the club shop, it is Lance who captains the team on the field. To lose him could be damaging as leadership is something we appear to lack in our playing group.
also, would genuinely like goddard at carlton
Draft:
go cap in hand to AFL and plead with them to reinstate pre-first round pp's
need a big inside mid, CHB/CHF, ruckman and at least another two mids
the championships/DC will decide who goes where
existing players:
betts: back to the forward pocket, he may have midfield aspirations, but he's a garden gnome at 173cm and 75kegs, give me a break. We target Fev with 80% of our kicks forward and he usually goes for the mark with 2-3 defenders with him, Betts needs to be front and square at every one of these contests.
bower: needs to come into the seniors and take the role that walker is playing at the moment, running hbf. There's a good chance the guy will end up the size of mal michael in which case he could be a chb down the line, but right now (when he recovers) he could easily run with guys like burton and the like and work on rebounding through the midfield.
walker: come 07 he needs to go into the midfield because we need big blokes fighting for the pil. Needs to work on his positioning and clearances and, of course, his kicking - just needs to slow down IMHO.
kouta: would love the bloke to give up the captaincy, he seems to want to play next year, if so id like to see him as a permenent back pocket or flank, he can't do much but he is clever with his disposal, would like to see him aim to lay 10 tackles a game.
bentick: should play to his strengths, needs to become more of an extractor like sam mitchell - is currently getting about 4-5 clearences a game, on par with stevens - mitchell gets about 7-9 i think.
simmo & murph: I personally believe there is nothing harder in football than being a small bloke playing in the midfield of a team that is struggling - these two are shockingly good. People on this site complained about campo being a downhill skier, well simmo would have to be an uphill skier. When the shit hits the fan and stevo and scottland lose their bundles, simmo just goes in harder and takes on teams by himself. These two just need time to physically develop and need to be thrown a few media interviews because we could be looking at our future c and vc.
Russell: is big enough and performing well enough at vfl level to get another shot in the seniors, after sporn proves yet again that he can't perform at afl level, JR should come in and stay in for another block of 3-4 games.
Whitnall: if he is retained I'd like to see him at CHF, he's too slow to play anything but lose in defense - in the forward line he commands a good defender and knows where to position himself so as not to get in the road of Fevola, and his biggest weapon is his contested marking - not chasing and punching. We need to play with a full forward line
Waite: CHF is going to fall to either him or Whitnall or JK. I'd love to see him at CHB - but the experiment could be a little late as he's been groomed as a forward and is at the age where he is required to deliver rather than show potential. Is super hard and very mobile so a high leading flanker is prob his best possie, but it depends on whits and Jk.
JK: I can't see him playing any position but CHF, we've invested a high pick in him which is an indication that he's being given every opportunity to make the possie his own. He has the body to mix it at Afl, i think his biggest obstacle will be learning to play CHF with a dominant leading forward behind him, playing at the bullants will not teach him this. He needs to play full time seniors, learn the ropes and suck for awhile.
Hartlett: needs to get fit and play FB, personally don't think he has the smarts to make it, but he's fortunate that he's at a club with a lack of key defenders so he has time to develop his game.
Thornton: needs to address his onfield demenour, rarely gives high fives always looks like he's pissed off with himself and his team mates. Def can play but not as the main man down back, needs to play a brett voss type role, third backman but still a genuine key back.
Lappin: Looked great in the forward line yesterday but fisher is a better contested mark so he should play hbf when fish returns, hopefully betts can emulate what lappin does at grounf level in the forward line.
Midfield rotation vs youth policy.
it seems that pagan is being forced to play guys like blackwell and russell because whenever they're named they spend most of their time on the pine essentially placing us a man down. We need to get a group of 6-7 mids who genuinely rotate staying fresh and effective.
a rotation will need to come out of this lot initially, at least 50% of them need to seriously address their field kicking, if they can't then they have no future at the cfc and should be replaced.
definates at the moment:
stevens
murphy
scotland
bentick
walker - has the talent, has the physique, needs the opportunity
hoops - there is room for an outside mid with top skills
possibles:
carrazzo - 51 touches yesterday!? needs to improve field and goal kicking
wiggins - can he be the long kicking hard inside mid that we need? here's hoping.
prenda - had him written off until yesterday, could he raise his game and play an adam goodes type game? he's still written off, just written in pencil
needs time:
blackwell - think he's like simo, shows plenty at vfl level, should make it but needs time to get physically ready, playing for the ants shouldnt be seen as a negative as i honestly think we can only carry two of murph, simmo and blackers at this stage of their development and murph and simmo are above him.
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