List Mgmt. Contracts, trades, draft - 2021 offseason edition

[Keys]

So the 2021 season is officially done and dusted.

It’s time now to fully turn our attention to the off season and what we can do through the trade period/draft to chase down Melbourne in 2022.

List and personnel changes have already been made and I’ll update this OP as and when any further changes are made.

As it stands these are our official list changes :

Out -
• Venables (R) - retired
• Vardy - retired
• Hutchings (R) - delisted
• Ah Chee (R) - delisted
• Ainsworth - delisted
• Johnson - delisted
• Collins (R) - delisted
• Brander - cluster*
• Cameron - retired/delisted not that it was officially acknowledged by the club
• Sheppard - retired

Inactive listed -
• Cole
• Chesser

In -
• Petrevski-Seton - traded for pick 52
• Chesser - Pick 14
• Hough - Pick 31
• Bazzo - Pick 37
• Williams (Jack) - Pick 57
• Clark - Pick 62
• Dixon - SSP
• Joyce - SSP
• Strnadica - SSP
• Naish - SSP

Players on main list - 37 (Including 2 inactive)
Players on rookie list - 7

Future trade picks :
In - Port Adelaide future 2nd
Out - Future 4th

Assistant Coaches :
• Out - Graham, Hickmott
• In - Schofield (Strategy and Stoppage), Knights (Midfield), Wiley (WAFL coach), Brennan (development)

Link to contract status of all players -

The Contracts Thread

Updated (20/3/24) the status of all contracts for people’s reference : Overall List - 44 Players : Main List(37), Rookie List(5), Cat B(2) Contracted until the end of 2027 (2) : Tom Barrass (8/10/95) - Signed a 5 year extension (2023,2024,2025,2026,2027) on an existing contract set to...

www.bigfooty.com

 

[Bacchus]

the south Australian team was rubbish, but still BOG is BOG. MJ performance at WAFL reserves maybe carries some weight. He is also an outside mid. I would argue his athletic capabilities and kicking are not as good as CC and that’s important when you’re looking at transition to AFL. Not wanting to inflame the anything, but WAFL u’18s and Perth school boy football isn’t the on par with Victorian under 18 system.

So you are saying Chesser is the better player? Fair enough. The recruiting team seem to think so. He may be, time will tell. On the face of it, from my admittedly superficial exposure, Johnson is the better player, perhaps more rounded, a key rather than role playing midfielder. This was the opinion of most/all phantom drafts, and Fremantle were pretty keen to snap up Johnson when he fell into their lap. Most pre-draft experts did not agree with your position, they may be wrong, we will see.

 

[AsterixTheGaul]

Tackling is a teachable skill - it's a matter of having the right teachers & the will to want to teach it.

Enter Schofield & Knights

Let’s also hope that it Simmons priority - his game plan and accountability at the MC have not shown the importance of tackling.

I also think tackling is suffering from players not trusting each other. We too often went for 2 tacklers against 1 opponent leaving the outlet hand pass.

Proof will hopefully be there game day.

 

[BOND 007]

While the proof will be in the 2022 pudding, you will send this board into a frenzy if you keep this up

Anything to help the masses of which it appeared a large majority appeared to be lemmings off a cliff Wed night

 

[Monocle]

For the board experts, how would you rank Elijah Hewitt as a talent??
I REALLY like what Ive seen of him thus far (which isn't that much)

We are due for a generational midfielder

Will be a top 10 pick.

Another good crop of mids available again next year, he is but one of a few that have impressed.

 

[Eastcoasteagle]

BOND 007 is that rumour true about Dittmar being a train on with us?

I agree RE Chesser vs Sinn, Chesser will be awesome for us.

 

[WCErevival]

The same thing happens every year. The board obsesses about some player/s and then melts when we dont get them. Think SPP, Constable, Valente, Blakely etc and now Johnson. There haven't been too many of them that have turned out as stars so far so we can only wait and see what happens in a few years.

 

[Eastcoasteagle]

Will be a top 10 pick.

Another good crop of mids available again next year, he is but one of a few that have impressed.

Haven't seen the Vic guys yet, but I reckon he could be top 5.
Colts grand final coverage they said Hewett ran the best beeper test in the entire colts. Not bad for a contested mid. Love him

 

[Obeanie1]

Ok my take on our Draft and my emotional rollercoaster as it unfolded.

Night 1.

I went in with high expectations that at around our first pick we would be able to pick up an A Grade midfielder, my reasoning was that IF three tall's were taken prior to our pick ( as I expected ), then we were in pole position to finally nab a quality midfielder ( by the way I didn't even factor in Dacios and Darcy in my calculations as they were already accounted for ), so things were tracking well when Andrew, Amiss and Gibcus were all taken before our pick, I was also further delighted when NWM was taken by the Saints as that removed the one mid that I didn't want with our pick.

The stars were staring to align as I was really chipper that we get one of the following and this was my preferred order:

Hobbs
MJ
Sinn

Then news comes through that we have traded back two spots with Port....... ok we can still get one of my " wish list three" .
Port take Sinn.... I am happy two still left.
Essendon take Hobbs ......... *#^* a few choice words were hurled across the room...... ok so we now take MJ

Pick # 14.

Then Campbell Chesser is called out.
Initial reaction was deflation and dejected and the computer screen almost became a one punch victim.

I really like Chesser as a player and like the skill set that he brings, as his speed, his run and carry is a thing we very much need, plus his kicking is top notch.
The kid has a very smart footy brain and reads the play so well.
From a needs perspective he does address some of the things that our list lacks so he very much fits the bill.
I had him projecting as a wingman at the next level.

I rated him in the 15-25 range depending on the Clubs needs that took him, I thought he was Brisbane or Sydney bound.

We took him at 14 so not a reach in my white board thinking.

The problem I had was that, I had my heart set on a quality inside mid.
Hobbs IMO would have been a perfect fit, I call him "Joel Selwood Lite", but alas that was not to be.

That said the deal that we did with Port, gaining their future second rounder was a very smart and opportunistic piece of work. Well done

Really like the player but I was pissed with the pick.

Went to bed in a really shitty mood and rather sulky..... yes I know grow up.... I was indeed being a petulant child.

But I was also optimistic that with our two second rounders, the following night that we could get a couple of B - B+ Mids so all was not lost

Night 2.

Pick # 31.

Did not have give a flying **** who we picked up in regards to the name with this pick, rather I just wanted at least one genuine midfielder and there was a deep list of players that I would have been very happy with, Hough was on that list so when we selected him I was really pleased.

I had only seen him play three times, all of which were predominantly as a HFF ...... BUT ....... in all three of those games he showed glimpses and strong signs that he had midfielder skills.
What or rather who he reminded me of was Mark Le Cras pre his knee injury.
I like that he reads the play so well, plays taller than his 189 cm and he does have really sticky hands.
Also I was impressed that he is a one touch player, with really good hand and foot skills.
What I noticed about him ( and this is why I can see him as a genuine mid ) is that he has absolutely no trouble finding his own football in heavy traffic.... things happen when he is around the ball.

Very happy with this pick.

Pick # 37.

A short wait and then next pick we call Bazzo's name out, now this I was almost expecting as he was still on the board and in fact I thought we may well have taken him with our previous pick. He is the sort of player that just had RO'B name written all over him.
Given RO'B history, I new that at some stage, at the right point in the draft, we would take another tall, well here it was and a quality pick it was too.

I had a draft range 20 - 30 on Bazzo so the fact that he fell a few more spots represented excellent value.

What I had seen of Bazzo I liked - here are a few things:

Reads the ball well in flight.
Great intercept mark.
Can play either end.
Can play on smalls and talls.
I viewed him as a Will Schofield with better skills and more attacking.

Again happy with the pick.

Pick # 57.

I still had a few mids that I liked on my white board:
Browne
Dittmar
Rankin ( although no a pure mid yet )

Note at this point in time I was thinking, well hoping actually, that we would rookie list either one of Greg Clark or Bailey Rogers as the pair are IMO plug in ready to go, in a position of need, in an age bracket that we are short on - so I wasn't considering them with this pick

We called out Jack Williams which given the state of our list, was for me a bit of a head scratcher, as I though we had already got our tall in Bazzo, after which I was thinking ........ then back to plan A and resume bolstering our midfield.

Now let me be clear I don't dislike the pick, as I felt Jack was real value so late in the draft and at the end of the day, too many quality talls on a list is a good problem to have, because if you need to trade one out then as a general rule - they garner you better value in trade capital than mids and flankers, its just a supply and demand thing.

Good player, good value here with the pick ........... Just that I questioned the need for another tall.

OK I was about ready to call it a night and wait and see what we would do in the way of rookies the next day.

Then hold on...... hold on .... news filters through that we have traded back into the draft with a late pick with a pick swap with Port, us acquiring Pick # 62 in exchange for a future fourth ........ another good piece of business as that's a nothing pick swap.
So with bated breath I am waiting and thinking just WTF did we have in mind.

Pick # 62.


Greg Clark............ yeee farking haaaaaaa.



Rapt for several reasons.

Thrilled for Clark, he finally gets rewarded for the work he has put in remodelling his game from an outside receiver into a BULL inside mid contested beast.
We got us " FINALLY " a genuine inside mid.
He is plug in ready to go and plays right away.
His selection gave our whole draft haul a lot more balance.

Loved this pick.


Day 3.

Pretty much expected the PASS.
I actually prefer this, as it now allows us to have a good close look at a few train on kids or keep a list spot open for the mid season draft.


So in Summary.

While not quite the manner, or sequence in which I would have drafted the players, the end result is a mix of players that will assist us going into the future.

I believe our list refresh will need three drafts to complete and this draft was a very good start.

As has been well stated by me, ad nauseam, I am not The Pieman's greatest fan, however I think he and his band of Merry Men did a good job this year.
Got a balanced group, addressed SOME real needs and also strengthened our draft hand for next year.

If we add in SPS, who we traded in, to the new players we took these past three days I think we made a good start to our list refresh, for the pursuit of our fifth Cup.

8.5 / 10.

Great summary mate.

You obviously have a wiser head on your shoulders than I. Sit back and wait to see how the entire draft does panout before passing final judgement and engaging in the draft thread.

Hough I also thought Le cra when he was playing forward and marking. But with more intent on getting the ground ball and tackling. See him with 10kgs of muscle and another cm or two and I starting to imagine a Fyfe like role but better kicking. He and Chesser will be very interesting to watch develo.

And yes passing in the rookie draft with one spot left was a smart move. Who will be our train on players?

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

Anything to help the masses of which it appeared a large majority appeared to be lemmings off a cliff Wed night

You know us too well

 

[Dark Sharks]

Tackling is a teachable skill - it's a matter of having the right teachers & the will to want to teach it.

Enter Schofield & Knights

Saving this to drop into the gameday thread next time we travel to Kardinya park.

 

[BOND 007]

Let’s also hope that it Simmons priority - his game plan and accountability at the MC have not shown the importance of tackling.

I also think tackling is suffering from players not trusting each other. We too often went for 2 tacklers against 1 opponent leaving the outlet hand pass.

Proof will hopefully be there game day.

Don't expect WC to suddenly become Sydney circa 2005 - but Simmo's no fool

 

[BOND 007]

BOND 007 is that rumour true about Dittmar being a train on with us?

I agree RE Chesser vs Sinn, Chesser will be awesome for us.

Actually not sure

 

[DanWCE]

Brb, loading up on us for the flag after BOND 007 posts

 

[Suma Magic]

Great stuff BOND 007

Any insights into the nepotism in the recruiting team?

 

[squashface]

Tackling is a teachable skill - it's a matter of having the right teachers & the will to want to teach it.

Enter Dom Sheed

 

[dkalphy]

I've said this before. But can this forum have a christmas break or something. Posters need a recharge before entering into the new season. It's not healthy to be on here 24/7. Go be with your family or start a family and come back at the start of the year.

First to four year posters: Return 22/12/21
Seniors (5 years +): Return 6/1/22

 

[Hillsy13]

Chesser will become a marquee player for us. He’s good looking enough to be a west coast Bailey smith

6

Bailey Smith

Age

23

Ht

185cm

Wt

86kg

Pos.

M/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

18.3

5star

K

8.5

3star

HB

9.8

5star

M

2.3

2star

T

3.8

5star

CL

2.7

4star

D

19.8

5star

K

9.6

4star

HB

10.2

5star

M

1.8

2star

T

3.2

4star

CL

3.2

4star

D

14.8

4star

K

7.6

3star

HB

7.2

5star

M

2.0

3star

T

3.4

5star

CL

1.6

4star

Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

 

[squashface]

Chesser will become a marquee player for us. He’s good looking enough to be a west coast Bailey smith


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

would need to up his dickhead level considerably to be a West Coast Bailey Smith

 

[flamingEMBERS]

Great summary mate.

You obviously have a wiser head on your shoulders than I. Sit back and wait to see how the entire draft does panout before passing final judgement and engaging in the draft thread.

Hough I also thought Le cra when he was playing forward and marking. But with more intent on getting the ground ball and tackling. See him with 10kgs of muscle and another cm or two and I starting to imagine a Fyfe like role but better kicking. He and Chesser will be very interesting to watch develo.

And yes passing in the rookie draft with one spot left was a smart move. Who will be our train on players?

The more I watch Houghs highlights The more I like. His long arms give me confidence he’ll fill out similar to Fyfe. But I really like that he played SWFL against men and then colts last year. There’s definitely something about playing against men especially at a pretty high level at a young age.

 

[boondy]

This mob mentality is irritating about our priority is an inside bull . We have 3 . Nic Nat , Yeo , Kelly. Redden Shuey and Sheed can also step up . How many of those have speedy outside run ? So leg speed and precise kicking had to be a priority to move it quick once our bulls get it out .
Our team was stuck in its back half all year . Our best part of our game was the centre bounce . We couldn't keep it in our fwd half and we couldn't run it out of our defensive half .
Players who can take the game on from d50 , wing were our needs . Good marking big men at both ends helps as well .

 

[bzparkes]

would need to up his dickhead level considerably to be a West Coast Bailey Smith

Better looking kid so don't don't surprised when someone offers him 100k for a late night rendezvous on Insta...

 

[Obeanie1]

Tackling is a teachable skill - it's a matter of having the right teachers & the will to want to teach it.

Enter Schofield & Knights

Does this indicate we weren't adequately teaching our players to tackle p

Comparing our defensive style for 2018 v 2020 and 21 it was polar opposites. Standing rule came in 2021 but that did not stop the top teams keeping up the tackling pressure.

Game plan and intent just seemed totally off the pace in recent seasons and yes player availability was a factor however other sides bring in kids who pressure and tackle like demons.

Understand it not one thing but 2, 3 or 4 factors but our defensive set up doesnt compete against the top sides atm.

 

[Hai_Newman]

Actually not sure

How is this possible?

 

[Cornelius Roy]

BOND 007 was there any satisfaction in the west coast recruiting office when hawthorn selected Jai Serong?

 

[FKASC]

Well Schofield has been employed & trust me it's not for his good looks