Knightmare
Brownlow Medallist
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2010
- Posts
- 19,533
- Reaction score
- 19,542
- AFL Club
- Collingwood
- Other Teams
- Chicago Bulls
- Banned
- #26
The expectation while some of the free agents would be a great fit is that we won't make any major plays at any of the major free agents.
My sense is the priority for Collingwood is in the retention of current senior listed players and go for lower end free agents when one pops up who doesn't cost the world and fits a defined need as we saw with Young and Lynch a couple of years back.
Free agency is a dangerous game in the sense that while you're getting a guy for free (not needing to trade a player or pick to acquire them) you're also if you're getting a big time talent really overpaying heavily and throwing a large portion of the salary cap at a guy to get him into your club which in future seasons will impact on ability to retain current senior listed players. So it takes careful salary cap management.
A team such as Fremantle with a large portion of their list nearing the end and nearing retirement can go all out in free agency as they did last year with Sylvia because this time right now is their best premiership opportunity and after each season they'll have multiple high earners retire (Sandilands/Pavlich/McPharlin) and it's a similar situation in Hawthorn (Lake/Burgoyne/Hodge/Mitchell/Sewell). Neither team is likely to be relevant once their star veterans retire so this approach is appropriate.
In Collingwood's situation the practical application for free agency feels at this stage like with those 15-25 ranked guys on our list can be traded for picks allowing salary cap space to sign an equivalent player if available and interested in Collingwood for profit (specifically picks) as we've seen with Lynch and Young to replace Dawes and Wellingham.
It doesn't mean we can't use free agency in other methods. There may be a big time talent who we feel the market undervalues in which case we may be able to take a shot. But those top 100 in the competition type talents (your Bryce Gibbs/Shannon Hurn among others) feel like in a free agency setting in the most part that they'll be over-payed with Adelaide and Port Adelaide seemingly prepared to throw moneybags at Bryce Gibbs with the loser quite possibly to turn their attention quickly to Hurn who is another South Australian born and bred talent.
My sense is the priority for Collingwood is in the retention of current senior listed players and go for lower end free agents when one pops up who doesn't cost the world and fits a defined need as we saw with Young and Lynch a couple of years back.
Free agency is a dangerous game in the sense that while you're getting a guy for free (not needing to trade a player or pick to acquire them) you're also if you're getting a big time talent really overpaying heavily and throwing a large portion of the salary cap at a guy to get him into your club which in future seasons will impact on ability to retain current senior listed players. So it takes careful salary cap management.
A team such as Fremantle with a large portion of their list nearing the end and nearing retirement can go all out in free agency as they did last year with Sylvia because this time right now is their best premiership opportunity and after each season they'll have multiple high earners retire (Sandilands/Pavlich/McPharlin) and it's a similar situation in Hawthorn (Lake/Burgoyne/Hodge/Mitchell/Sewell). Neither team is likely to be relevant once their star veterans retire so this approach is appropriate.
In Collingwood's situation the practical application for free agency feels at this stage like with those 15-25 ranked guys on our list can be traded for picks allowing salary cap space to sign an equivalent player if available and interested in Collingwood for profit (specifically picks) as we've seen with Lynch and Young to replace Dawes and Wellingham.
It doesn't mean we can't use free agency in other methods. There may be a big time talent who we feel the market undervalues in which case we may be able to take a shot. But those top 100 in the competition type talents (your Bryce Gibbs/Shannon Hurn among others) feel like in a free agency setting in the most part that they'll be over-payed with Adelaide and Port Adelaide seemingly prepared to throw moneybags at Bryce Gibbs with the loser quite possibly to turn their attention quickly to Hurn who is another South Australian born and bred talent.
