we are the champions ?

[StrengthThroughLoyalty]

now that the so called 'season proper' has finished i'm looking forward to another spectacular off season from our boys at moorabbin. whilst the players didn't live up to their end of the bargain in the 'season proper' we have a good chance of once again being labelled the all important off season champions.

if last seasons form is any guide i believe we have a good chance of going back to back and taking this prestigious title.

ok what do we have to do.

* get a coach (thomas will get the job and whether we like it or not we have to blindly hope that he is the great communicator and leader of men he has been described as)
* cut the dead wood out. bye bye to at least 8-12 players. we know who the culprits are hopefully our administrators do the right thing.
* keep barry hall or trade for high draft picks.
* trade everitt for high draft picks
* maybe a combination trade to get a replacement ruckman and high draft picks.
* get a sponsor
* pick the two best kids in victoria and hope our new coach can start building a team around youth. kosi, reiwoldt, moyle, beetham, milne, oliver, begley, blake, baker etc etc
* imho the only road to onfield success for us is to develop a team of young blokes who will all hit their peak together in 3-4 years time.

if this draft is as strong as everyone is touting then we need to trade blokes that won't be around in 3-4 years time for kids that will be. lets take a long term view and try to build a premiership side rather that just keep filling gaps.

if we can achieve all the above the off season premiership will surely be ours once again. :D

[sainter]

I agree with pretty much all you have said.

Time to defend our off season championship :).

I've got to say I'm not looking forward to the trading period as much as I would have wanted. The potential loss of Hall and Spider is worrying me and I'm also a little worried that we might let go one or two of our promising youngsters.

I've noticed you want to trade Spider. The last thing I want is someone who is not 100% committed to our football club. If he wants to leave, it's in our best interest to trade him and we are in an ideal position to drive a hard bargain. I hope we keep him. After a good season this year, he is more than capable of going on to become the number one ruckman in the league. And if we were to trade him, we would have to arrange another trade to get a ruckman from elsewhere. The consequences of trading Everitt and not being able to secure another ruckman would be disasterous. We'd have to rely on Capuano and Oliver to carry the ruck division.

You've summed it up well. We know who the deadwood are and its up to the club to be savage.

I have no problem with Thomas being appointed coach. I've said it a few times and I don't want to sound like a broken record but we finished off the season with a lot more spirit than we had shown earlier in the season. What Thomas needs is an experienced coaching panel assisting him. Much in the same vein as Danny Frawley having David Wheadon and Greg Hutchison alongside him. Needless to say we'll need to have the footy's out early and work on our poor skills.

What do you reckon about picking up Adrian Fletcher. Obviously he only has a few years left in him but he's a proven player that could prove invaluable to the likes of Hayes, Beetham, Baker, Moyle, etc. Not likely that we'd be interested but I wouldn't mind if we picked him up. We shouldn't have got rid of him in the first place

[Savatage]

Originally posted by sainter
I agree with pretty much all you have said.

Time to defend our off season championship :).

I've got to say I'm not looking forward to the trading period as much as I would have wanted. The potential loss of Hall and Spider is worrying me and I'm also a little worried that we might let go one or two of our promising youngsters.

I've noticed you want to trade Spider. The last thing I want is someone who is not 100% committed to our football club. If he wants to leave, it's in our best interest to trade him and we are in an ideal position to drive a hard bargain. I hope we keep him. After a good season this year, he is more than capable of going on to become the number one ruckman in the league. And if we were to trade him, we would have to arrange another trade to get a ruckman from elsewhere. The consequences of trading Everitt and not being able to secure another ruckman would be disasterous. We'd have to rely on Capuano and Oliver to carry the ruck division.

You've summed it up well. We know who the deadwood are and its up to the club to be savage.

I have no problem with Thomas being appointed coach. I've said it a few times and I don't want to sound like a broken record but we finished off the season with a lot more spirit than we had shown earlier in the season. What Thomas needs is an experienced coaching panel assisting him. Much in the same vein as Danny Frawley having David Wheadon and Greg Hutchison alongside him. Needless to say we'll need to have the footy's out early and work on our poor skills.

What do you reckon about picking up Adrian Fletcher. Obviously he only has a few years left in him but he's a proven player that could prove invaluable to the likes of Hayes, Beetham, Baker, Moyle, etc. Not likely that we'd be interested but I wouldn't mind if we picked him up. We shouldn't have got rid of him in the first place

Ken Sheldon & Peter Hudson screwed us over again by getting rid of him in the first place, but if we were to get him now then I would be totally against at. Surely we have learnt our lesson with patch quilt solutions. We need to build a side of youth, not on 32/33 year old veterans with 1 or 2 years left MAX.

The names Francis, Monkhorst, Fred Campbell, Sean Charles, Tony Delaney, Damien Ryan, Jacob Anstey are all attributed to Tim Watsons two year reign. We could've had at least FIVE developing youngsters now playing solid football- instead they bled our football club dry, that is who I blame for our down fall!

No more hacks!

[Vaul Darkhour]

Hey everybody... yes it seems that this years trading period will be as scary as exciting.. it's funny that only months ago we could not contemplate trading spider and hall and now that one of them is an ongoing possibility, we do..


SPIDER
I for one see Spider as a major influence (bad you could say) on our young membership which could drop if spider is traded.. Although it could have positive affects considering spiders reluctance to play football and at which club.

His ability is unquestionable and a goalkicker as well. He can and will dominate for years to come. He wants to play for about another 4 years. With another ruckman to fully back him up I can see us in a very strong position.

My thought also... If he really still wants to play football and give it all he's got at ST KILDA then keep him.. any other decision, trade him.. We've got Oliver waiting in the wings for the future.
Although then we'd need a capable stand in ruckman, so either Capuano steps and high draft picks or recruit another ruckman.

I personally want him to stay..

HALL
This guy really has got everything against him, for him and chasing him.. This guy has really matured and he's got the best years ahead of him. Capable of tearing matches apart.. Needs to handball a bit more and set up play. His strongman image is unbearable (2001 - 2 reports and 3 match suspension, anyone else (Lloyd, Carey) 1 match) but the more goals he kicks, the more people will forget.. everyone loves a champion. With no other deffinite FF, we really do nee him.

Once again.. if he really wants to go.. trade him for high draft picks and keep stewie on for another year.

I personally want him to stay..

COACHING STAFF
I dont have a real problem with Thomas getting the job as long as he's backed up with good assistant coaches... what about Ken Sheldon back into the fold?.. Banfield again?..

[sainter]

Savatage,

I reckon it's a little more complex than that. I mean why don't we just draft 8 kids at every draft? The fact is invariably at least half will not make it at the top level.

I'm not saying we should give up a draft pick or anything like that. If Fletch was available in the pre-season draft I think he's worth thinking about. He's certainly not in the same class as the players you mentioned. He had a good year and is not injury prone. And like I said, I reckon the younger players would learn heaps from him, Harvey and Burke in the midfield.

Still, that wasn't really the intention of my post. Just thought I'd throw it in at the bottom. ;)

That's the key Vaul, if either of them want to leave it will be in our best interest to organise a trade that would bleed the opposition dry. :D

[karnaby]

Well it seems that hall has decided he wants greener pasturtes.

If we really want to emulate last off-season his departure will provide as good a starting point as any. In one step he's gone from loved son to bargaining chip, so be it.

The challenge now is to play that chip to it's maximum. The options as I see them are:
* straight swap (I haven't got a clue who for)
* high draft pick plus 1 extra player - I think we'd be expecting too much if we thought we'd get too good a player & a first round pick
* #25 plus someone/thing for a real top flight player - this might have the potential to create future salary cap problems but if we have to pay a bit more to get a young gun maybe it could be worthwhile.

Savatage, re the essendon bloke: I clearly remember the moment I first heard of his appointment & time still doesn't seem to heal the wound for me. :-(

[StrengthThroughLoyalty]

we have come out all guns a blazing in our title defence and can really make an impact with some clever trading. ;)

i believe the best long term result for us would be to manipulate a trade of both hall and everitt so that we receive a replacement ruckman and 3 more picks in the draft under pick 20. this would give us 5 picks in the national draft. i know i'm basing my theory on what i've heard about the draft being extremely deep this year but the experts have got the depth right in the last 4 years so why should this year be any different.

i know our hand has been forced by hall and everitt wanting to leave but it is now an ideal time to launch a youth policy. we have 2 players that other clubs want so we are in the driving seat to bargain hard and effectively.

sainter, if fletcher is available with our last pick in the pre season draft then i would pick him up.

vaul, your right in saying if they want to go then lets get what we can for them. we don't need players that don't want to play for the club. <-- that fullstop means fullstop.

i have enjoyed watching and barracking for spider and hall but they are both liabilities and have been been part of the off field problems at the club.

i have no idea who the assistant coaches might be, maybe micky mcguane is a chance, he is supposed to be a good tactition and has just coached a side in tassie to a flag. after all bush premierships seem to be the main criteria in our selection process for choosing a coach. ;)