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Strategy Trade and List Management Thread Part 7 (opposition supporters - READ posting rules before posting)

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Given our luck so far this off-season. Why would any supporter be so disparaging about giving Ugle-Hagan another chance? Contracted. Not worth any capital. We can't sell the guy to any other club.

Imagine if we could genuinely turn this around. What a great story it could make. However, the caveat would be that if he doesn't like his rightful place in our weakest line down back, he can get lost. No more symbolic gestures to your tummy unless it's after punching the Sherrin into the stratosphere.
 
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It wasn't Marra's onfield failures so much as the fact that we were lacking in our usual single-minded determination. Our heads simply weren't in it which is why they dominated us from the opening bounce.

We need to ask ourselves why that was. And whether the senior players (allegedly) telling Bevo 24 hours before the game that they didn't want Marra to play, but (allegedly) being overruled, had anything to do with it. If that story is true we were never a chance.

Who to blame is a separate matter. There are at least three options.
Thought it was the opposite, the senior players argued for Marra to play.
 
The more I think about Merrett, I think a deal should be very doable, as he wants out.

Premiership-winning, battle hardened and proven talent Josh Dunkley was only 23 when they offered a 1st & 2nd round pick.

By their metrics, a 30-year old (in a few weeks) that hasn’t even won a final is probably worth a couple of 2nd round picks, or maybe a first with change back our way if we want to be generous.
 
Given our luck so far this off-season. Why would any supporter be so disparaging about giving Ugle-Hagan another chance? Contracted, not worth any capital. We can't sell the guy to any other club.

Imagine if we could genuinely turn this around. What a great story it could make. However, the caveat would be that if he doesn't like his rightful place in our weakest line down back, he can get lost. No more symbolic gestures to your tummy unless it's after punching the Sherrin into the stratosphere.
The big issues with Marra now are trust, and distraction.

Can the club and players trust him to come back and work hard week after week for a full season?

Plus have confidence that even if he doesn’t get back to playing all that well, that he at least won’t just become the distracting media sideshow that kept bubbling along all throughout this season.

If they have reasonable confidence that they can get there with him next year or perhaps even if it might take a bit longer, then fine take a chance.
But if not they are better off cutting their losses, then everyone can just move on, including Marra. We don’t want a repeat of the 2025 soap opera.
 

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Given our luck so far this off-season. Why would any supporter be so disparaging about giving Ugle-Hagan another chance? Contracted. Not worth any capital. We can't sell the guy to any other club.

Imagine if we could genuinely turn this around. What a great story it could make. However, the caveat would be that if he doesn't like his rightful place in our weakest line down back, he can get lost. No more symbolic gestures to your tummy unless it's after punching the Sherrin into the stratosphere.
I am not sure that he isn’t worth any capital at all. For all all we know his “gap year” was similar in a sence to Bailey Smith’s where he knew he was playing for the cats a long way before it was publicly released. I would think there be a few teams very interested into his service as they don’t have Bevo’s same ethical mantra and just recruit good players and turn a blind eye again just like Geelong and Sydney to name a few.
 
The more I think about Merrett, I think a deal should be very doable, as he wants out.

Premiership-winning, battle hardened and proven talent Josh Dunkley was only 23 when they offered a 1st & 2nd round pick.

By their metrics, a 30-year old (in a few weeks) that hasn’t even won a final is probably worth a couple of 2nd round picks, or maybe a first with change back our way if we want to be generous.

Of course. What exactly are the Hawks going to offer that's going to blow everyone out of the water? Mrs Mitchell's cooking? What is it? Their draft hand is pretty much identical to ours and they're hardly giving up decent players given they're right in the window.

Pull on Merrett's heartstrings his childhood love of the club, playing in our midfield next to Bont and delivering the ball to Naughton and Darcy. Pressure off and finals.

Give it a crack, nothing to lose.
 
Essendon refusing to trade two first rounders for Dunkley, who ended up being Nik Cox and Archie Perkins, is one of the bigger **** ups you’ll ever see. He’d be the best leader at that shithole by so much it isn’t funny.

Dunks must wake up every day and thank every God there is that he ended up at Brisbane instead.
 
whether the senior players (allegedly) telling Bevo 24 hours before the game that they didn't want Marra to play, but (allegedly) being overruled
I heard the opposite. Bevo wasn’t going to play him but the senior players opted to let him. He then showed his gratitude to them 🙄. There’s a very low chance of coming back from that betrayal of his teammates, imo.
 
Essendon refusing to trade two first rounders for Dunkley, who ended up being Nik Cox and Archie Perkins, is one of the bigger **** ups you’ll ever see. He’d be the best leader at that shithole by so much it isn’t funny.

Dunks must wake up every day and thank every God there is that he ended up at Brisbane instead.
Essendon would have won a final had they traded in Dunkley.

But then again we may not have made the GF in 2021. After sitting through 7 losing prelims, making the big dance again was at least something.
 
I would still like us to be in the first round to have a crack at Dovaston, fits our needs perfectly

Yeah I was rewatching the highlights of our VFL match vs Box Hill and he was such an eye catching player as the 23rd man. He'd bring a ton of energy to our front half and the combination of him and Dolan would be real scary.
 
Yeah I was rewatching the highlights of our VFL match vs Box Hill and he was such an eye catching player as the 23rd man. He'd bring a ton of energy to our front half and the combination of him and Dolan would be real scary.
We’d be set for small forwards if we happen to draft Dovaston. We’d officially be stacked if we still have access to El Souki next year as well.

Great mix of marking, pressure, goal sense & ability to get involved higher up the field in this combination; Weightman, West, Dolan, Jones, Dovaston & El Souki
 

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Yeah I was rewatching the highlights of our VFL match vs Box Hill and he was such an eye catching player as the 23rd man. He'd bring a ton of energy to our front half and the combination of him and Dolan would be real scary.
He's lit out up this year.
There's a little bit of Dahlhaus in how he played champs, in a good way. Just stays involved.

If you mixed Watson and Dahl you'd get pretty close to Dovaston.

Greeves as a mid would be a decent pick in that range too
 
Essendon refusing to trade two first rounders for Dunkley, who ended up being Nik Cox and Archie Perkins, is one of the bigger **** ups you’ll ever see. He’d be the best leader at that shithole by so much it isn’t funny.

Dunks must wake up every day and thank every God there is that he ended up at Brisbane instead.
Add in their refusal to even consider trading their future first.... Ben Hobbs
 
Essendon would have won a final had they traded in Dunkley.

But then again we may not have made the GF in 2021. After sitting through 7 losing prelims, making the big dance again was at least something.
Oh, if only we had of traded him and missed the 2021 GF! Bevo would be long gone, the club would have moved into a new era with a modern coach and we'd have a chance to bring this talented list out of its current morass of mediocrity. Sliding doors.
 
Essendon would have won a final had they traded in Dunkley.

But then again we may not have made the GF in 2021. After sitting through 7 losing prelims, making the big dance again was at least something.
I sometimes wonder if Dunkley would still have tried to get to Brisbane when he did if the Essendon move came off
 
It wasn't Marra's onfield failures so much as the fact that we were lacking in our usual single-minded determination. Our heads simply weren't in it which is why they dominated us from the opening bounce.

We need to ask ourselves why that was. And whether the senior players (allegedly) telling Bevo 24 hours before the game that they didn't want Marra to play, but (allegedly) being overruled, had anything to do with it. If that story is true we were never a chance.

Who to blame is a separate matter. There are at least three options.
Im pretty sure that the apocryphal story goes that it was the players who pushed for Jamarras inclusion.

Even in the context of Jamarras future. Im not sure why people are still arguing over yesterdays war and looking about for a scapegoat for a game that is a year in the past. A game that was lost for an infinite number of reasons all of which are being applied post facto. My favourite one is the one in which Rylee West would've made the difference, something that just ignores the indifferent form that saw him dropped from the side for the two games previous to the final. Yet here we are.

Trapped in yet another endless post season doom loop.
 
I sometimes wonder if Dunkley would still have tried to get to Brisbane when he did if the Essendon move came off
If not previously, he'd certainly be looking to get away from the current dumpster fire there.

It's so bad there I almost feel bad for them. Almost.
 

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Essendon would have won a final had they traded in Dunkley.

But then again we may not have made the GF in 2021. After sitting through 7 losing prelims, making the big dance again was at least something.
Which final would they have won? It didn’t matter which side Dunkley played for that day, they got pumped. They didn’t kick a goal in the 2nd half. It was glorious.
 
Im pretty sure that the apocryphal story goes that it was the players who pushed for Jamarras inclusion.

Even in the context of Jamarras future. Im not sure why people are still arguing over yesterdays war and looking about for a scapegoat for a game that is a year in the past. A game that was lost for an infinite number of reasons all of which are being applied post facto. My favourite one is the one in which Rylee West would've made the difference, something that just ignores the indifferent form that saw him dropped from the side for the two games previous to the final. Yet here we are.

Trapped in yet another endless post season doom loop.
Didn’t West have a broken jaw which put him out then only played VFL after that? (Though his VFL form was ordinary as you say)
 
I heard the opposite. Bevo wasn’t going to play him but the senior players opted to let him. He then showed his gratitude to them 🙄. There’s a very low chance of coming back from that betrayal of his teammates, imo.
Yes a few people have said this, so I presume I got it arse about. Wouldn't be the first time!

However it's incidental. My point is the players and coach weren't single-minded on the day. They weren't even on the same page. Not a good way to enter a final.
 
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