Draft wise, depends who is there, someone who is going to impact fairly early as we are in our window now. Trade wise, it's strictly about upgrades on who we have.
Depends on the level of talent big time as to what types we pick up. Looking at our list, we could be short a strong bodied inside mid. Kennedy and Hewett out, this may be a problem going forward, it's weakened us a bit. Dow is not that sort of player, Setterfield has to step up in this role for us. Carrol not this sort of player yet. Kemp possibly develops into this. It's hard but I would love a hard hitting, powerful inside mid who has the mindset for the defensive stuff. Unless we think we have players coming on this is a need for us. We probably won't go for a mid as it's not high on our list but it's up there IMO.
Then there is the small defender role. Docherty, Williams and Saad are our cream but lose one and we drop off. Williamson gone, no doubt he would have got games in the second half of the season. Stocker is going ok but does not strike me as that damaging two way running small defender you have to be. Could that change? Boyd showed some potential but in my eyes is unproven still. The small defender who can run both ways, hurt opposition on the overlap but also lock down is gold, can't win it without them and IMO 3 is the magic number. We have 3 but lose one and we have issues.
Winger is a big one for us. We are developing some and they are going ok. We have some potential there, Cuningham next season maybe, but it's a position of need for us. No certainty's there yet. With our best 22 on the park, wing is probably the weakest link for us. A winger who is an elite runner, good in the contests, good with pressure and can deliver the ball is what we would want.
It's a tough one, we still have plenty of needs. A mature ruckman and backup tall forward depth would be handy for us as well.
Really does come down to quality, we need to bring in players who will displace who we already have. I have wingman as number one IMO. You look at how Melbourne just went out and got Langford, that's what we need to do.
Mature ruck on the cheap for a year or two would be another priority for me. A tall utility is up there, someone who can go forward and back and potentially be best 22. For us he is already on the list, that's McDonald, what he is is an important need for us but can we get him going again? He had an operation, plenty of players have and have come back from that but it takes time, Ange Christou for example. I'd love to bring in a lower set, quick and strong inside mid, it's not a massive need but with injuries it becomes one.
It really becomes about quality, if there are not quality wingers available then we leave it for another year.
I think Dow is the obvious trade option but what may put a hold on that is that we need to have something worth while coming back the other way. Who else goes out depends who else is coming in. If we pick up a winger then O'Brien or Cottrell would options however I don't think they would return enough to warrant us doing that and it weakens our depth. If we bring in a quality smaller defender then Stocker becomes a trade option. Apart from that I don't see us trading anyone else out.
Ideal situation is that we turn Dow into the wingman that we need (trade wise), pick up someone like Goldstein for a couple of years who gives us another best 22 ruckman, use our first pick in the draft to take a best available type, maybe an attacking smaller defender or strong bodied onballer.
We are certainly not he finished product by a long way. Durdin if good defensive backup. DeKoning will be tall forward backup, I think he will develop this side of his game. If we can get McDonald going this is huge for us because he's exactly what we need on our list.
