Hooker & Zaka contracts up this year. I reckon Hooker chooses whether he goes on or not, not us. We'd surely want him playing again, even as a reserve forward optionI thought that was a pretty darn entertaining game of footy.
Blues clearly further advanced in their progression and had a little more poise and petrol at the end. Trending upwards which is great. How good is Walsh?
Can't fault the Bombers endeavours - their kids were great but their leaders poor.
I think the time's up for Hepp, Hooksy (maybe 1 more year?), Hurls and Zaka so need some blokes to come in in that 23-26 yo bracket. But that's prob 3m $ to spend wisely keeping the kids and Zerrett and Parish long term and trying to get Dunks and Billings for next year.
Heppell and Hurley both have a contract to next year, and i imagine are our two highest paid players (depending how deals were structured back in 2016)
Not sure all 4 account for 3m, but it would be a fair chunk. Add to that we had good deals on the table for Saad & Daniher, lost McKenna & who knows what Raz would have been on.
Got some key re-signs we need to land (Merrett, Parish, Stringer, Jones, Bryan, Laverde & Redman), but i imagine there will be a decent chest of $$$ to work with after that
It would be an absolute dream scenario to keep Merrett & co, get Billings via FA & trade into Dunkley whilst keeping what will be a top 5 pick this year.
Year was never about wins and losses for us.
I keep going back to the Lions rebuild. The year before they shot up they lost so many games by under 3-4 goals. Seeing a lot of that in us.