A great team is only as good as its bottom six or eight. We need depth and if Hoops is in our bottom six/eight in 3 years time, then the team will be looking a lot healthier.

I say keep him for sure.

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Number 17 - come on down!

Keep him.

If over the next 2-3 years he is in our bottom 6 players of our 20, then he's in the team. So he's in the team!! It takes 22 different players to make a team. We're on the way up. He has upside.

I'm with Mr Sherrin. At pick 73, he's good value.

As for tradebait....prefer not to but....for a first round pick, a genuine ruckmen, or for Judd yeah...but that aint gonna happen...maybe a ruckman? Where is he though?

Why was Melb seriously interested in him (if he is a soft player)? Because in a team with a good mix of hard nuts, runners, and genuine ruckmen, there's a role for him. If only we were in that position, he would probably be kicking goals in the forwardline.

I suspect that in 2-3 years , if our kids and draft picks are as good as we hope, then I'll be more than happy having him in the BP releasing Russell (or Carrazzo) on the ball, and he'd be better than McGrath there, in terms of size, and skills. On the otherhand, given Betts has shown potential, he hasn't proven himself for mine, and having Houla as a FP, in an attacking team would be more preferable to me.

His improvement and development is pointing in the right direction. At present, we all agree that we need a dozen midfielders to be competitive and / or dominant, and until we have a dozen quality midfielders that we can rotate on the ball I say "Keep him".

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Why were Melb interested in him?...they like soft players?...eg Green, Johnstone...improvement/development in the right direction?....
Pulled out of contests again in recent games, hows that improving.?
When he is 30 am I still going to hear he is improving and heading in the right direction?
I'd have Eddie Betts over Ryan Houlihan....Eddie lays it on the line , tackles well and has a go...ditto for McGrath..Corey aint pretty like Ryan with his skills but at least he isnt trying to win the Edward Beale medal for most hair tucks behind the ear.....

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"When you have the attitude of a champion, you see adversity as your
training partner."
- Conor Gillen

Personally I don't criticise Ryan for being an outside player. You do need all types in a football team. We all understand that. We don't want him in fighting for the ball with Bentick, we want him running past to receive so Bentick has someone to give the ball off too. We want him running downfield with the ball, delivering to Fev and the other forwards. The problem is that even outside players need to take a hit when its their turn and this is where Houla rightly draws criticism.

There wasn't a more outside player than Craig Bradley, but one thing you can say about him is that he always put his body on the line when he had too. Never afraid to back into a pack, lay a tackle or be the last guy getting up from a pack.

Campo complained a lot and later on ran around the HBF collecting kicks, but when opposition teams used to target him he always came back for more, kept putting himself where the ball was.

When Houla starts doing that then he'll be a more valuable member of the team and everyone can focus solely on his skills.

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"The ability to speak doesn't make you intelligent." Qui-Gon Jinn 15-05-2005

"there’s more chance of me becoming the full forward for the [Western Bulldogs] than there is of any change in the Labor Party." Julia Gillard 18-05-2010

Our thinking is very similar Teddy...you must have some kind of genius bloodlines or something.

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Mens sana in corpore sano.

Bring back the laurel wreath logo!!!

The thing is; sides must improve. You can’t always hope to improve to the required level with the draft picks you are given each year, especially if you don’t do anything all that adventurous with them. You have to be proactive.

So then, if you identify the need to improve your list what do you do? You trade, that's what you do. You can't go trading your draft picks indiscriminately because that is trading away your future. You can't trade away the 'hacks' you want to get rid of because no club will come to the party. So the next and only option is to trade a player (or players) that might cause a little short term pain but will be better of for the club long term. We are supposed to be a professional football club. It is not about 'worthiness', it is about what will best suite your club. Of course this doesn’t mean that any trade for Houlihan is a good trade but it is the responsibility of the club to see what is on offer.

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Just because I'm offended, doesn't mean I'm wrong.