Lachie Neale wants to come home to fremantle [or does he?!?]

[Snuffaluphagus]

I'm taking this chance to encourage everyone to vote in the two threads that are more important than spitballing about Neale

If you havent already please vote for the Board MVP and Post Of The year

Board MVP:

Toast - Fremantle Board MVP - Congrats Dale147

Hi Everybody We are excited to officially establish a Freo Board Most Valuable Poster award for the 2021 season. It's something we endeavour to continue as a tradition moving forward as we feel excellent contributions to the board should be celebrated and valued. Winner will get a shiny badge...

www.bigfooty.com

Post of the Year

Win Prizes - Game Previews Are Back - Congratulations Square Peg!!!

Hi all, I'll ask you to cast your minds back to 2017. It was a simpler time back then. Travel was a thing, border closures weren't. There was no Covid and no covfefe, while closer to home the Great Purple Reset had begun. A young Nathan Fyfe assumed captaincy of a club that was Pavlichless...

www.bigfooty.com

 

[StingBitten]

Some balanced views but not heaps.

Neale is an excellent player who will give us possibly 4-5 more great seasons. We've lost Cerra and as others have said Mundy has a year left and Fyfe is ageing and broken. That leaves Brayshaw and Serong as our pure silk. We need to draft more mids anyway and if we can get Neale at the right price we should.

We just shouldn't 'sell the farm' as people worry about. Need to get a couple of decent picks for Cerra and then figure out where we're at.

 

[wakojako]

Some balanced views but not heaps.

Neale is an excellent player who will give us possibly 4-5 more great seasons. We've lost Cerra and as others have said Mundy has a year left and Fyfe is ageing and broken. That leaves Brayshaw and Serong as our pure silk. We need to draft more mids anyway and if we can get Neale at the right price we should.

We just shouldn't 'sell the farm' as people worry about. Need to get a couple of decent picks for Cerra and then figure out where we're at.

Why not take picks to the draft this season and grab Neale next season?

 

[apuchar]

Why not take picks to the draft this season and grab Neale next season?

Would we take him next year?

 

[Wally Walpamur]

I’m hearing he’s putting his trade request in next week.

Bookmark this post.

 

[wakojako]

Would we take him next year?

If he plays the full season than yes.

 

[wakojako]

I’m hearing he’s putting his trade request in next week.

Bookmark this post.

Can you unhear it please?

 

[Snuffaluphagus]

I’m hearing he’s putting his trade request in next week.

Bookmark this post.

Pfft, I posted that a couple of days ago Sandra

 

[Snuffaluphagus]

Didn't Caro say that his end of season exit meeting was tomorrow. Plus there's all that social media abuse directed to him and his partner that his dad has spoken out about.

So glad we could hear the story from all three sides. Brisbane, Brisbane and Brisbane

 

[stax on the mull]

Why not take picks to the draft this season and grab Neale next season?

I don't find it compelling that we should get him now or at all, but the indications are from the club we would have Neale back. He will still be contracted to Brisbane at the end of next season.

I have seen our best 22 thread for 2022, and based on the players currently on our list its a very young side most people are putting up. I think Neale would make some difference to the number of games we win next year and alleviate the immediate loss of Cerra , but I also think he's not a fix for our midfield long term as it looks slow and lacks size and grunt - which is why we should draft as much as we can now.

This is where using our future picks to buy more into this year could work. We might be able to sort out some short term and long term issues.

 

[wakojako]

All we have to do is put a future first on the table and walk away. Block their email address until the last day of trade week.

 

[Freomaniac]

There is risk in everything. The upside on grouped picks around 7 and 8 is Serong and Young (two of the comps best 30 players in picked in one draft with a non top 3 pick) to a median of Coffield and Clark (solid afl players) to a downside risk of Petrevski-Seton and Scrimshaw (uguh).

Neale takes us closer to finals but further from premiership is pithy, but really it's nonsense. Setting aside giving up multiple first and or second rounders which would be stupid, whether we take Neale or an early mid first round pick is not going to make or break our premiership window.

In fact I don't even subscribe to the view that our list is that unbalanced. Add a full seasons experience onto our best players under 23 (and Logue) and I think we're top 4 already if some of the supporting cast was better (bottom six! I know I keep harping on about it).

That sounds about right.....

Neale does take us closer to finals, and possibly a finals win or 2, In which this current team needs right now or very soon. This is our 6th season in a row and no finals.

Had freo been more lucky with drafting and trading in that 2016-18 period, I assure you not only would freo of made finals in 2020 and 2021, we probably would of got a finals win in either 2020 or 2021 as well.

Still, a midfield of Fyfe, Mundy, Neale, Brayshaw and Serong...... That has to make us good enough to win games and become a finals side surely?

Eh? Scrimshaw is a good player now but that's not a massive deal.

What I take severe objection to is our list balance. Our forward options are bottom 8 standard at best. That is probably being generous given the talent in some of the bottom teams forward lines, even if unrealised.

The only thing we need less than inside mids is defenders.

I also object to the idea of 1 player not being able to make a difference. That would totally depend on the player and the team. For example, stick any B+ or better KPF in Freo 2012-2015 and we could easily snatch a flag.

Now we are no guarantee to pick that player in the draft but I am all but 100% certain Neale isn't that player either and he only gets 50-100 games to be it. The other guy gets potentially a whole 200-300 game career.

Agreed. We just needed that one B graded KPF and Freo would of got a flag in 2012-15.

We got Tabs and Lobb, both are capable of kicking 30-35 goals each. Those 3 have 2-3 solid years left before they decline or just retire. Hence why I said, Need to make finals in 2022 and 2023. Also hoping to get an Elim final win or 2 for the younger guys like Brayshaw, serong and western.

More i sleep on it, more I don't want to play!
Always ends badly for us, but the Fletcher and Power comparison is a furphy in the podcast.
We were trying to build a team at that time, Brizzy had a 10% higher salary cap (bullshit), and Fletcher was a great servant of Freo
Actually in 2003, Brisbane spent $8 mill on player salaries, when the basic cap was $5.92 million.
No wonder they had a great team

Yeah but in 2003, Brisbane got 3rd with 14 and a half wins. Freo got 5th with 14 wins. Crazy to think about that. 2 million dollar difference and half a win seperated Brisbane and freo in 2003.

Do you want great servants or flags?

Given the chance, I would love Freo to win at least one premiership in my lifetime. At least one.

 

[dropbear101]

I’m hearing he’s putting his trade request in next week.

Bookmark this post.

 

[Freomaniac]

The quality of our side in 2025 is going to virtually entirely depend on how good the best 12 or 15 players we have under 23 now turn out to be, I.e. the ones we have collected in the 2016 to 2020 drafts, because they are the ones that are going to be the backbone of the side. The players we have now that will decide whether we are good enough as team to win that first flag. Not Lachie Neale and one draft pick between 8 and 10 or two more draft picks between 8 and 10. They are cream.

Looking at the 2016 draft: Logue, Cox, Darcy, Ryan

2017 draft got us Brayshaw, Banfield, Cerra, Crowden and Switkowski.

2019 draft gor freo young, serong and henry.

If you get 3-4 solid B or C graders per year, its not bad. You are gradually building up the side.

 

[freo1997]

I’m hearing he’s putting his trade request in next week.

Bookmark this post.

Any other trade news you know of?

You are the Senior Journalist on the bigfooty board atm after all.

 

[Madas]

It's bit hard to answer if you call people depth at best and then disregard them as options. That is the definition of depth. To come in if there are injuries to your first choice mids.

Tucker, Crowden, Blakely, Banfield are midfield depth. Ais Acres have played mid in pre-seasons previously. Valente, O'Driscoll and Western are developing. Walters is a possibility. Switta is a left field option to rotate in as well.

And then you have the myriad of defenders people on here would love to try out as mids.

There are options. Some might say none of them are good but that's how depth is described at every club. If they were better than depth, they wouldn't be depth.

I think what Farmer is trying to say is that there is a big gap between the Best 22 and depth and also 2 very big holes to fill .
I tend to agree but Not at the cost of the forward line . In

Why not take picks to the draft this season and grab Neale next season?

Happy wife happy life .
Get it done now , get some finals experience into the youf a bit earlier

 

[Megalon]

I think because he is a double bell-ended campaigner is why he is called creg.

Urban Dictionary: creg

A condom with an opening at either end so that two bellends meet in the middle.

www.urbandictionary.com

Reminded me of this Mighty Boosh character

 

[Parasite]

I think because he is a double bell-ended campaigner is why he is called creg.

Urban Dictionary: creg

A condom with an opening at either end so that two bellends meet in the middle.

www.urbandictionary.com

This one could be it too from that page:
creg
The area on either side of your nutsack where the skin gets thick because crotch meets leg
God, my cregs get so sweaty in the summer.

 

[Daddoo]

Now that it's been a couple days and I've probably heard about 400 different trade scenarios, my detailed and deep analysis on whether or not we should trade for Neale is...



Stock up on draft picks from the Cerra deal and go to the draft. Get some WA talls and mids in. We should be in the best position to know what these kids can do. I would imagine that the other non-WA recruiting teams have had a hard time traveling with covid restrictions. A 29 year old with (maybe) 5 years left is only a band-aid for the next couple years. I'd love to have Neale back (we could use him for sure!), but not for what Brissy will want for him. I don't see why Brissy let's him go for cheap and I don't see why we'd overpay for him.

We have been really solid at the pointy end of the draft for the last few years (Brayshaw, Serong, Cerra, Darcy, Ryan, Young, Henry, Cox, Logue, etc...). I hope we take a long term look at things and don't give up too much to bring Neale back.

Dear Bell,

 

[PurpleEyes]

If I were in Lachie Neale

9

Lachie Neale

Age

31

Ht

178cm

Wt

84kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

27.0

5star

K

11.5

4star

HB

15.5

5star

M

4.0

4star

T

3.7

5star

CL

5.9

5star

D

28.3

5star

K

13.9

5star

HB

14.4

5star

M

4.6

4star

T

4.0

5star

CL

5.9

5star

D

12.0

3star

K

4.6

2star

HB

7.4

5star

M

2.0

3star

T

1.0

3star

CL

0.4

3star

's position, with a pregnant wife who wishes to be back in Perth for her expected child, I would have first spoken to Freo to find out if this was a possibility before annoying my current club with any surprise news of wanting to go back to WA.
That is, I think this deal has virtually already been done and what we will see between now and trade time will simply be theatre.
While the media are talking tough about how Brisbane should make Neale stay, I think the AFL, the Players association, player managers, clubs and lawyers would be all well aware of the fact that the current Covid-19 restrictions on players opens up a can of worms if a club doesn't make every attempt to facilitate any trade requests, especially for players who had their contracts written prior to the pandemic.

(EDIT: Well I got that totally wrong. Nothing like making a bold prediction to have the footy gods come and crap all over you within hours. Anyways, fair bump and play on.)

 

[Dockeroo]

What if we gave brisbane one of hamling or Pearce as part of the trade?
Is that an option to protect our draft capital?

 

[Purple Jesus]

I think because he is a double bell-ended campaigner is why he is called creg.

Urban Dictionary: creg

A condom with an opening at either end so that two bellends meet in the middle.

www.urbandictionary.com

Isn’t that just what Americans call Craig?

 

[eastfreo75]

Looking at the 2016 draft: Logue, Cox, Darcy, Ryan

2017 draft got us Brayshaw, Banfield, Cerra, Crowden and Switkowski.

2019 draft gor freo young, serong and henry.

If you get 3-4 solid B or C graders per year, its not bad. You are gradually building up the side.

I would add 2020 as well.

Chapman looked pretty good before his shoulder injury, Walker held his spot in the 22 and Treacy has been very good. That's three best 22 payers in 5 years time if not sooner.

2019 Add Frederick as well.

Our drafting has been very good.

That strong drafting will bring success.

We just need to keep going with it and not take short cuts.

 

[Dockeroo]

I’d leave Neale till next year. Trade out our 2022 first rounder then into this years draft and load up.
Then next year we will have minimal draft capital and can’t be screwed on any deal to bring Neale back.

 

[Hogwild]

What if we gave brisbane one of hamling or Pearce as part of the trade?
Is that an option to protect our draft capital?

Pearce? You have got to be joking!!!!!!

 

[go_the_dockers]

Snuffaluphagus - can we add a commit to rebuild option in votes??