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List Mgmt. End of Year List Changes

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Thought it would be interesting to have a look at our depth chart now that the season has ended and we have a good idea of what positions Yze is looking at using players in.

One thing that stands out is just how little overall experience we have now with only 8 players with 150+ games to their names, which kind of explains why we have had a midfield unit built around Taranto Hopper & Prestia as the midfield & back line are the 2 areas where we have the most experience.

I do believe that ins 2026 we're going to see a major change in the midfield mix especially when we have Lalor Smillie Hotton Campbell & McAuliffe being added to the mix, while I also expect a bit of a changing of the guard in the back line given Yzes comments about wanting to have Balta Gibcus & Trainor all part of the defensive unit long term

This is why I'm so strong on trading in someone like Alex Davies for minimal trade capital and mid-range money.

Might only have 37 AFL games, but has shown more in those 37 games as an inside mid than someone like Dow (in terms of being the number 1 or 2 inside mid for a club), and can help bridge the gap between TT/Hopper whilst they are still in their absolute prime.
 

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This is why I'm so strong on trading in someone like Alex Davies for minimal trade capital and mid-range money.

Might only have 37 AFL games, but has shown more in those 37 games as an inside mid than someone like Dow (in terms of being the number 1 or 2 inside mid for a club), and can help bridge the gap between TT/Hopper whilst they are still in their absolute prime.
Alex Davies is an overpriced and overhyped 🥔.

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View attachment 2405302

Thought it would be interesting to have a look at our depth chart now that the season has ended and we have a good idea of what positions Yze is looking at using players in.

One thing that stands out is just how little overall experience we have now with only 8 players with 150+ games to their names, which kind of explains why we have had a midfield unit built around Taranto Hopper & Prestia as the midfield & back line are the 2 areas where we have the most experience.

I do believe that ins 2026 we're going to see a major change in the midfield mix especially when we have Lalor Smillie Hotton Campbell & McAuliffe being added to the mix, while I also expect a bit of a changing of the guard in the back line given Yzes comments about wanting to have Balta Gibcus & Trainor all part of the defensive unit long term
Great summation ... though based on how Yze played them the second half of the year ... Balta is a second ruck ... Trainor is a wingman ... which I both like how this fits our list ......

and one from me ... keep coming back to MRJ being the speed we are missing in the centre bounces ... with so many small forwards it makes sense and his VFL form in the middle reflected it
 
We won't go any further in 26 with the same midfield, simple as that. Taranto, Hopper and Prestia will get slower, which is where we get stung.

We have another year of Lynch, who by the end of the year showed what value he still is. Vlastuin is still playing well, Broad good and Nank is doing what Nank has always done.

It frustrates me when posters are saying 2027 we will start to come good, but that is two more years of the type of crap we put up with over the season at times, and our senior players by then will be Taranto and Hopper!

Cannot fault the attitude, but unless we add some dynamism to the mix next season, the moral will plummet. Lalor has to be trained correctly over summer so that he is ready to go. Smillie the same. Hotton needs to be given much more time in the midfield. We should be aiming for McAuliffe to be our main mid next season. Hopefully MRJ comes back in great shape because he potentially has more to give. If our young players tire, then throw Mansell and Campbell in there. We need to match it with the mid table teams in the midfield next year., so we need to be bold and set lofty plans.

The flanks and key forwards and backs look pretty good going forward, but that is no use unless we fast track our weakest spot the midfield. I would love to see Taranto and Hopper minor players in the side by the end of the year. Prestia I doubt will be much of a factor.

Draft a wingman, Duursma if he falls which is unlikely, then Grlj. He has great aggression and good speed with a bit of Mansell's hardness but better in the traffic.

Look at North's midfield. McKercher is in his second year, Wardlaw 3rd. Sure they have some quality mids around them but they are still key players. Ashcroft at Brisbane has plenty of midfield time. Reid from WC their main mid at 20.

I would rather see us play up and down next season relying on youth in the midfield, than another season where we go okay against Essendon and WC but any higher and we are 3 goals to 12 at 3/4 time.
 
We won't go any further in 26 with the same midfield, simple as that. Taranto, Hopper and Prestia will get slower, which is where we get stung.

We have another year of Lynch, who by the end of the year showed what value he still is. Vlastuin is still playing well, Broad good and Nank is doing what Nank has always done.

It frustrates me when posters are saying 2027 we will start to come good, but that is two more years of the type of crap we put up with over the season at times, and our senior players by then will be Taranto and Hopper!

Cannot fault the attitude, but unless we add some dynamism to the mix next season, the moral will plummet. Lalor has to be trained correctly over summer so that he is ready to go. Smillie the same. Hotton needs to be given much more time in the midfield. We should be aiming for McAuliffe to be our main mid next season. Hopefully MRJ comes back in great shape because he potentially has more to give. If our young players tire, then throw Mansell and Campbell in there. We need to match it with the mid table teams in the midfield next year., so we need to be bold and set lofty plans.

The flanks and key forwards and backs look pretty good going forward, but that is no use unless we fast track our weakest spot the midfield. I would love to see Taranto and Hopper minor players in the side by the end of the year. Prestia I doubt will be much of a factor.

Draft a wingman, Duursma if he falls which is unlikely, then Grlj. He has great aggression and good speed with a bit of Mansell's hardness but better in the traffic.

Look at North's midfield. McKercher is in his second year, Wardlaw 3rd. Sure they have some quality mids around them but they are still key players. Ashcroft at Brisbane has plenty of midfield time. Reid from WC their main mid at 20.

I would rather see us play up and down next season relying on youth in the midfield, than another season where we go okay against Essendon and WC but any higher and we are 3 goals to 12 at 3/4 time.

Agree. I would say that we can add in a trade/FA this year of B grade transition mid.

And we definitely need to add speed and dynamism to the midfield. Definitely started to happen end of this season. I would add Sonsie to the list of possible mids. But we have to play him in the role he is good at.

And I hope we pick up Sharp if he is available. Then I like Grilj, but also Cumming, Phillipou etc are good. A nice crop of quick skilled mids this year for our pick4.
 
Agree. I would say that we can add in a trade/FA this year of B grade transition mid.

And we definitely need to add speed and dynamism to the midfield. Definitely started to happen end of this season. I would add Sonsie to the list of possible mids. But we have to play him in the role he is good at.

And I hope we pick up Sharp if he is available. Then I like Grilj, but also Cumming, Phillipou etc are good. A nice crop of quick skilled mids this year for our pick4.
The problem with adding senior players is that they need to be good and quick, and that they will be the ones pushing Hopper and Taranto away rather than the youngsters. You still want McAuliffe and one of Smillie, Lalor and Hopper running through the middle at any time, which may not happen if we grab another established player. But they need to be quality additions like Bailey Smith or Treloar.
 
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The problem with adding senior players is that they need to be good and quick, and that they will be the ones pushing Hopper and Taranto away rather than the youngsters. You still want McAuliffe and one of Smillie, Lalor and Hopper running through the middle at any time, which may not happen if we grab another established player. But they need quality additions like Bailey Smith or Treloar.

If we pick up a B grade mid they have to be able to add some speed and defensive pressure to the team. I can get chasing a small pressure forward. But for our midfield we need to make space for the young guys to play - both the new draftees and the guys with 4ish seasons.

On the other hand if we get a couple of injuries to mature mids then we are putting the younger guys into a problematic space. However, I wouldn't be against placing Sonsie, KMac2 and Dow in to show whether they can do the midfield. Doesn't matter too much if they aren't that good as long as we overall are relatively competitive. Winning games is not the point in 2026, development is.

2027 is when we need to start regularly competing with all bar the top 4 teams. After that we could go bang! So how to manage the squad to get faster and better development, prevent damage to young bodies, and still end up with a deep high quality team?
 
Hopper had a great year let’s not forget that, but he can only play as a mid. Prestia can only play as a mid too. Taranto can play half forward and mid and I’d like to see more half forward. I would prefer McAullife, Lalor, Smillie spending more time in there with Hopper.

If they’re all fit we’ll have to mix it up. I think Prestia will mostly be a form/injury reserve but is potentially a good sub when Smillie is starting out.
 

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Hopper had a great year let’s not forget that, but he can only play as a mid. Prestia can only play as a mid too. Taranto can play half forward and mid and I’d like to see more half forward. I would prefer McAullife, Lalor, Smillie spending more time in there with Hopper.
Hopper has had a great year for his ability. He gets it but he doesn't used it well. His kicking would be amongst the worst mids in the league, only marginally better than Taranto's. He has one trick, the side-step which does buy him some time, but it also leaves him pretty much stationary, so hard to kick it well when you don't have forward momemtum.

He has been consistent and our best mid at running out games, but his lack of pace means he (and Taranto) are witches hats when chasing any outside ball. Against poor sides he is okay because we have the ball a lot, against good sides where they have it more, he offers very little.

Hopper can still be off value if he has McAuliffe, and some pacy kids around compensating for his lack of chase, but that means the kids are covering for you, not an ideal set-up. Most sides it is the senior mids who do the grunt work not the other way round.
 
Yes but if we look at our younger players, we are only missing a few positions…

1. Number 1 ruck. Could be CDT to rotate with Sims but do we chase a 23-24 year old instead?

2. Transition mids - a quick mid that is an even balance of inside and outside but has speed after the clearance disposal. 1 that’s more outside than inside and the other that’s more inside than outside. Sharp would be good here to fill the latter role.

3. Small goal kicking crumbing forward. Perhaps this is the role Rosas will play. Frees up Campbell to play off HF where he’s more dangerous.

4. A defensive midfield stopper in the Jack Graham / George Hewitt mould. Ross is being tried here but I don’t know he’s the solution long term. Could Kellaway be this player?

5. A hard running wingman that transitions between the arcs. Hugo and Banks have these roles at the moment but do we think Hugo gives enough defensively? Darcy Wilson would be really nice here. Would Tsatsas, Chesser or Philips be seen as a low risk punt given what they would cost but knowing their limitations and hope they can improve? Don’t shoot me on these suggestions. I’m not sure there is one of these at the pointy end of this draft.

6. A running defender who’s a key distributor. Who is our Rioli replacement? Could this be Lindsay or Grjl?

With Duursma likely off the board I think one of CDT and Sharp would be ideal, preferably the latter.

On talent, Sam Cumming is the one for us and hope he turns into a mid.

Although if Lindsay and Grjl have good ends to the year, there’s probably good reason to put them up for consideration too. I’d love to see Grjl win more of his own ball in the middle. He looks best as a running half back right now.
Banks hasn't played wing all year, he's our Rioli replacement
 
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Richmond could delist any of the players listed here and we'd only improve. I'll come under fire for some of those listed, however there is a reason we are 17th and we need to accept the state of our list is diabolical.

Bauer - not up to standard
blight - surplus to need
Colina - failed
Dow - just plain ordinary. Not up to standard
Fawcett - other younger KPFs look better.
Kozi - not good enough
Lefau - wrong age, better playing younger KPFs
Prestia - sadly past it
Ralphsmith - bog ordinary. Soft
MRJ - Does not get enough possession. Poor skills
Ross - just disappointing
Ryan - laughable
Smith - hasn't shown enough
Sonsie - scared of his own shadow

Be honest, could you really see a competitive club wanting these types.
If we do not move on at least 6 - 7 of these our rebuild will be painfully slow.

 

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Richmond could delist any of the players listed here and we'd only improve. I'll come under fire for some of those listed, however there is a reason we are 17th and we need to accept the state of our list is diabolical.

Bauer - not up to standard
blight - surplus to need
Colina - failed
Dow - just plain ordinary. Not up to standard
Fawcett - other younger KPFs look better.
Kozi - not good enough
Lefau - wrong age, better playing younger KPFs
Prestia - sadly past it
Ralphsmith - bog ordinary. Soft
MRJ - Does not get enough possession. Poor skills
Ross - just disappointing
Ryan - laughable
Smith - hasn't shown enough
Sonsie - scared of his own shadow

Be honest, could you really see a competitive club wanting these types.
If we do not move on at least 6 - 7 of these our rebuild will be painfully slow.

We only have two draft picks at this stage so we will have to do a bit of footwork and get another couple of picks but can't see more than that. Rookies also, but getting rid of players in our bottom 6 like Hugo/Sonsie/Dow is probably not going to happen.

The ones most in the spotlight:
Bauer - not up to standard - Gone you'd think
blight - surplus to need - Gone you'd think
Colina - failed - Gone you'd think
Smith - hasn't shown enough - Gone you'd think - might scrape in

Fawcett - other younger KPFs look better - might be lucky but coming from a fair way back
Kozi - not good enough - if not contracted Gone you'd think
Lefau - wrong age, better playing younger KPFs - might be lucky because he has shown he can play at the level
Ryan - laughable - has been superseded by a bloke that has hardly played football before two years ago. He is contracted however.

Reckon the top 4 are gone, the next 4 have some merit, or are contracted or a bit unknown.
 
Port Adelaide, who were already fielding a team younger than ours at the end of the season, have delisted 5 as they're embarking upon a rebuild.
 
We only have two draft picks at this stage so we will have to do a bit of footwork and get another couple of picks but can't see more than that. Rookies also, but getting rid of players in our bottom 6 like Hugo/Sonsie/Dow is probably not going to happen.

The ones most in the spotlight:
Bauer - not up to standard - Gone you'd think
blight - surplus to need - Gone you'd think
Colina - failed - Gone you'd think
Smith - hasn't shown enough - Gone you'd think - might scrape in

Fawcett - other younger KPFs look better - might be lucky but coming from a fair way back
Kozi - not good enough - if not contracted Gone you'd think
Lefau - wrong age, better playing younger KPFs - might be lucky because he has shown he can play at the level
Ryan - laughable - has been superseded by a bloke that has hardly played football before two years ago. He is contracted however.

Reckon the top 4 are gone, the next 4 have some merit, or are contracted or a bit unknown.
Sampson Ryan will be a good player
 
This is why I'm so strong on trading in someone like Alex Davies for minimal trade capital and mid-range money.

Might only have 37 AFL games, but has shown more in those 37 games as an inside mid than someone like Dow (in terms of being the number 1 or 2 inside mid for a club), and can help bridge the gap between TT/Hopper whilst they are still in their absolute prime.

Davies who only got over 20 touches once because it was downpour and reduced the speed of the game is exactly the player we don’t need.

He’s just a road block between Lalor, McAullife and Smillie and midfield minutes.

The only additions to our midfield should be a fast mid, Flanders is the most likely type.

Richmond could delist any of the players listed here and we'd only improve. I'll come under fire for some of those listed, however there is a reason we are 17th and we need to accept the state of our list is diabolical.

Bauer - not up to standard
blight - surplus to need
Colina - failed
Dow - just plain ordinary. Not up to standard
Fawcett - other younger KPFs look better.
Kozi - not good enough
Lefau - wrong age, better playing younger KPFs
Prestia - sadly past it
Ralphsmith - bog ordinary. Soft
MRJ - Does not get enough possession. Poor skills
Ross - just disappointing
Ryan - laughable
Smith - hasn't shown enough
Sonsie - scared of his own shadow

Be honest, could you really see a competitive club wanting these types.
If we do not move on at least 6 - 7 of these our rebuild will be painfully slow.


Pretty much agree that all those guys need to be moved on. Not convinced smith makes it but happy for him to get 3-4 years, he was a rookie pick because he needed development. The rest need to go over next 2 off seasons.


Port Adelaide, who were already fielding a team younger than ours at the end of the season, have delisted 5 as they're embarking upon a rebuild.

And I’m sure if Lalor, Smillie, Faull, McAullife, Juddy Clarke, Gray etc… weren’t injured we’d have had a younger team than them.
 
No he not strong enough against VFL rucks much less AFL. Rucks target his midrift and he folds like a deck of cards.

You should be in your physical peak at 24, but he only gets marginally stronger each year.

It’s incredible how big he is and how easy he is to move off his spot.
 

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