Thanks for the analysis CE
Seems similar to a few years ago where we had a lack of quality players in the 26 - 29 age gap and that went back to the 2007 - 2009 drafts. We addressed those issues at the time by hitting the FA & trade table in 2015 where we targeted Danger, Henderson, Scooter & Smith - those 4 players are all born between Dec 89 & April 90, so surely not a coincidence they were all bought in during the same period
Now our gap is with the younger age bracket, so it will be interesting to see how the club tries to address that issue - will they look at fringe players from other clubs who are in that age bracket, or do they also look at using later draft picks to target VFL (and equivalent leagues) players?
There has been noise they need 3 picks in draft for cap reasons.. but would it surprise if they would like to solve the ruck issue with a player in that 23-25 range rather than a draft pick? Danger is a win but how often is someone in the AA side want to specifically come to gee... Henderson has been average to slight loss.. 50 games..not ideal for a r1..but how does it compare to Lang for eg. SS ..FA but a fail. Smith much the same but low cost..
The Pods type are rare .....
Imo ..if we look at the easiest way to solve this issue is next year... several good FA type next year ..in the right age group.. ..and we just suck it up in 2020..draft as good as we can and plan for a FA attack in 12 months time..