Oppo Camp Discussion on other club's trade/draft decisions

TN25

Premiership Player
Suspended
Sep 8, 2014
3,349
1,737
Melbourne
AFL Club
St Kilda
Other Teams
Scorchers, Glory, Southampton
First year: Dunstan>>>>>>>Cripps
End of careers: Dunstan>Cripps
 

Periphery

Cancelled
Jul 25, 2013
6,688
9,911
AFL Club
St Kilda
No what I mean is say Saints have these 4 players... Cripps, Petracca, Dunstan & Acres in the same midfield

Those 4 in the same team look strong, dominant and mean. Would make excellent combination in 4-5 year developing together

Billings will be a midfielder in a few years when his body develops a bit more.

Billings, Petracca, Dunstan and Acres will be a better combination than anything involving Cripps.
 

12Chill

Norm Smith Medallist
Jun 13, 2014
5,270
12,395
AFL Club
St Kilda
Hard to say maybe Cripps in long term. Don't get me wrong think Billings is exceptional talent and will be good once matures more and gets more game time however feel Saints need key depth in the midfield moving forward

Petracca, Dunstan, Arces, Cripps looks like a mean strong combination in 4 years time you have to agree

Billings IS going to become a midfielder/half forward. He's starting up in a pocket or on the half forward flank atm because in his first year lacked endurance and the big body and wasn;t developed enough to spend extended periods of times in there, point is Billings won't always be a forward flanker... Petracca, Dunstan, Billings and Acres looks a better combination in the midfield...
 
Jun 2, 2012
1,358
1,377
Melbourne
AFL Club
St Kilda
Sigh, I'm so offended by the notion that this bloke reckons Cripps is comparable to our 3 draftees, I don't have words.

I guess you could argue that Acres has shown about as much as Cripps, but at least he's got some elite athletic traits, not to mention a huge size.

But to compare Cripps to Dunstan (who I did notice was pretty sluggish in terms of covering the ground this past year - which should be now cleared up) and the x-factor machine Billings...

Like actually... No words fellas. No words.
 

gillo94

Norm Smith Medallist
Oct 17, 2014
5,956
1,867
Hoppers Crossing
AFL Club
Carlton
Other Teams
LA Lakers
Sigh, I'm so offended by the notion that this bloke reckons Cripps is comparable to our 3 draftees, I don't have words.

I guess you could argue that Acres has shown about as much as Cripps, but at least he's got some elite athletic traits, not to mention a huge size.

But to compare Cripps to Dunstan (who I did notice was pretty sluggish in terms of covering the ground this past year - which should be now cleared up) and the x-factor machine Billings...

Like actually... No words fellas. No words.

What about in the long term?
 
Jan 7, 2011
35,108
71,501
Heaven. I mean Victoria.
AFL Club
St Kilda
Why did Blues recruit Cripps ahead of Dunstan? Think more long term development decision?

What areas do you think Dunstan and Cripps need to improve to get to the next level
My mail during the 2013 season was that initially we rated Dunstan extremely highly and earlier in the season many on Bigfooty who follow the juniors also had him well and truly in top 5 calculations, due to his consistently high level performances, but that as the season wore on he started to drop down in many ratings because it became known that clubs had some real concerns about his body-shape and running ability. Had it not been for those concerns, he could have well and truly gone in the top dozen and maybe even as high as top 5 or 6, as he had been extremely well and consistently performed for at least the previous two years and also of course had extremely good leadership potential as well. So it was apparently just those body shape and running ability concerns that resulted in his not going much higher. Even so, we still apparently thought he was going to be gone in the top 13 or so on the day of the draft and that you guys in fact were going to take him, and not Cripps.

As I was talking about earlier though, it has turned out that his wheat intolerance could have been the cause of the excess bulk/weight and in him not having as much energy as he otherwise could have and not as big a tank and running ability as he could have, so now there is every chance that he becomes the "top 6 pick" that many initially thought he would be. And all of that of course doesn't even take into account how well he performed at senior AFL level last year, which already put him as a top 10 or so talent from his draft class. There isn't really that much else that he needs to fix up about his game from what I've seen.

I would have been OK with us drafting Cripps last year if we rated him that highly, as I was impressed with what I saw of him in the guts at the champs that year, but I haven't seen him play since, so I'm not one to answer any of those sort of questions on him.
 
Jun 2, 2012
1,358
1,377
Melbourne
AFL Club
St Kilda
What about in the long term?

Mate, I don't want to be harsh. But I don't think Cripps has as high a ceiling as you think. Handy extractor, maybe in the Brad Sewell vein is best case scenario for Cripps IMO.

The thing about our kids, and maybe a bit of bias talking here, their ceilings just looking at physical traits are pretty damn high. Billings will make it as a genuine midfielder in 2-3 years time, he can kick better on his right (non-preferred) than most of our list I would think, not to mention has shown the ability to take a couple of sneaky grabs at u18 level. Dunstan will be a high volume inside midfielder, is quicker than Cripps, and should be able to cover ground far better after the discovery of the wheat-intolerance, which pushed his weight up to 86kgs, when it appears 82kg or so is better for his running. Acres could have the highest ceiling of them all, looks a bit like Nat Fyfe when he first started up, has plenty of work to do, but in reality could be anything.

Cripps doesn't appear to have the physical traits to become a damaging mid. I can see him potentially being a good ball winner, but that is probably it.

And out of the 4 you highlighted before in terms of long-term potential.

Aish, Dunstan with Lew Taylor and Cripps behind by a fair margin.
 

gillo94

Norm Smith Medallist
Oct 17, 2014
5,956
1,867
Hoppers Crossing
AFL Club
Carlton
Other Teams
LA Lakers
My mail during the 2013 season was that initially we rated Dunstan extremely highly and earlier in the season many on Bigfooty who follow the juniors also had him well and truly in top 5 calculations, due to his consistently high level performances, but that as the season wore on he started to drop down in many ratings because it became known that clubs had some real concerns about his body-shape and running ability. Had it not been for those concerns, he could have well and truly gone in the top dozen and maybe even as high as top 5 or 6, as he had been extremely well and consistently performed for at least the previous two years and also of course had extremely good leadership potential as well. So it was apparently just those body shape and running ability concerns that resulted in his not going much higher. Even so, we still apparently thought he was going to be gone in the top 13 or so on the day of the draft and that you guys in fact were going to take him, and not Cripps.

As I was talking about earlier though, it has turned out that his wheat intolerance could have been the cause of the excess bulk/weight and in him not having as much energy as he otherwise could have and not as big a tank and running ability as he could have, so now there is every chance that he becomes the "top 6 pick" that many initially thought he would be. And all of that of course doesn't even take into account how well he performed at senior AFL level last year, which already put him as a top 10 or so talent from his draft class. There isn't really that much else that he needs to fix up about his game from what I've seen.

I def saw Dunstan as a top draftee last season. From my reviews still hard make a call on the better mid as if you go on Blues page Cripps rated highly

Hence why came here get 2nd opinion
 
Dec 4, 2000
51,665
125,136
The Bay
AFL Club
St Kilda
Other Teams
NO Saints LUFC
I def saw Dunstan as a top draftee last season. From my reviews still hard make a call on the better mid as if you go on Blues page Cripps rated highly

Hence why came here get 2nd opinion

Well you got it. Cripps may well one day make a good seniors player, but to try and compare him to Dunstan or Billings (or even Acres) is foolhardy.

What response did you expect on the Saints forum.

Lost me when you said you would have Cripps over Billings who, as Rahaul said, would go No.1 (Heeney not an option).
 
Back