We saw on the weekend the precise reason we should be targetting 1 of 2 players. Lachie Whitfield, or Josh Kelly. If we have the ball being delivered to our forwards like on the weekend consistently, we would be playing finals. We have a lot of very ordinary kicks in the side, whether that be because of age, youth, confidence or ability. Those two blokes are absolutely Elite inside 50 kicks, Whitfield could just about serve me my dinner with his deliveries by foot. We have ball winners for years to come with stocker, kennedy, dow and setterfield developing under cripps... we have tall forwards, we have defenders of all shapes and sizes... but we have 1 BLOKE who i genuinely trust to deliver the ball inside 50, Samo. Walsh will no doubt be one too, at his rate of development who knows when, could be next week with this bloke.
Whitfield is possibly the best kick in the comp at this stage, and Kelly has been hampered by injury, but his 2017 form will forever go down to show at his best he may just be the most damaging kick in the game. And even better, both are absolutely elite runners and can win the ball themselves.
Our best game in probably 3 years, just so happened to be the day that Samo had 35 touches delivering absolute gems all over the ground, and if we had 1 or 2 more of him consistently playing like he did on the weekend, we would be having 20 marks inside 50 a game. Walsh will no doubt end up being absolute class on the inside and out, but if we had 3 players that could deliver inside 50 and win their own ball, we would dominate.
We basically have the 2nd coming of Jesus in Cripps, sent to save this club from mediocrity. But when you have the best contested animal in the comp you need to surround him with blokes to dish it out to, he had 32 handballs on the weekend, and arguably tore the bulldogs a new one with 83 metres gained in 37 touches... If you surround him with elite users of the ball, theres no knowing how good we could be. Right now we don't have consistent users aside from Samo who doesn't find the ball enough at this stage, and Cripps ends up trying to improvise and break lines and deliver it himself, which is not viable when he's got 3 blokes hanging off him at stoppages. Someone like Kelly commands attention at a stoppage which relieves pressure on Cripps, and if he gets into space he destroys teams for fun. Whitfield is more of an outside player, but hes just stupidly good at kicking footballs. These two should be at the absolute top of every supporters list.
We also need a small frwd... but really we can go to the draft and pick up a young fella, they may not end up elite but we just need some pressure down there with some goal sense, also clubs like richmond and the saints have plenty laying around. Plenty of the best small forwards in the game came from well outside the first round of the draft and can help lock the ball in.