With a hand like this we'd be silly not to hit the Draft, it'll fast track our next wave &keep us contending for longer. The opposite way the Dawks have gone about it. It also frees up cap space in the instance we get a retirement or 2 & fringe players again looking for game time elsewhere.
Agreed.
Yeah genuine A graders slot straight into the firsts. I remember both Cotchin and Dusty went straight into the firsts and didnt look out of place playing AFL footy. Its been a while since we've had a draft pick low enough to get a player like that. I think Dusty was the last one.
For every Cotchin & Dusty you also have a basket full of Brodie , Dow , LDU , Rayner etc
Scientists are working on it but still haven’t come to a conclusion yet
We are going for a 3peat and they’ll be doing everything to achieve it
First and foremost the 3 peat remains the number 1 aim, however I'd like to think the club would also have an eye to the future and rather than chasing established types we target the draft to bring in a group of kids to replace some of the players who have been here for a while but haven't really come on as expected.
Vlas was the last one.
If multiple teams go past our best 22 in this years finals the club will have some interesting choices to make. One option I would love the club to consider is along these lines:
Keep the best leaders, and a good group of mature players. But see if there are 1-2 players with currency who can be traded out. Vlastuin to Cats given he already has a residence down there might be one, as unthinkable as it is. 2022 first rounder for him has to be a possibility. No fire sales, no players forced out against their will, just if you can find a situation like this where both the club and player are happy with it, then do it. Who knows, someone like Prestia may be happy to play out his remaining years at a contending club, again, you might get upgraded to a late first round pick for someone like Prestia, especially if we pay some salary.
How I see this type of strategy playing out:
1. We can maximise the leadership skills of guys like Cotchin, Riewoldt, Astbury, Grimes, Houli etc and allow them to play out their careers with complete dignity. The new draftees should benefit from playing their early careers with those guys who know what it takes to be successful.
2. You plummet down the ladder by fielding a team of mainly ageing stars and good draft picks - potential stars of the future, though not necessarily bottoming right out. This should bring in some very valuable high end draft picks over the course of 3 seasons or so. It should also allow us to get into a better salary cap position to set up for our next tilt at success.
3. Use the inevitable top 10 picks to draft at least one high end key back, key forward and at least 2 high end inside mids and perhaps a really good winger. These players hopefully join the likes of Graham, Balta, Bolton, Short, Baker, and the best of our current youngsters to form the basis of our next premiership team. Where we miss at the draft for whatever reason, then and only then you get the shopping trolley out and look at expensive trades or free agents.
We have a fantastic draft hand this year to kickstart this process. All we need to do now is not make the schoolboy error of winning the flag agin.
I stopped reading at “if multiple teams go past our best 22...” yeah rightI stopped reading when I came to the hackneyed web trope “stopped reading.” What did you say after that?
