Strategy Improvement?

[John Smith92]

Not sure if this should go under list management, happy to see it merged if mods believe so.
I'm just going to come out and say I didn't see that coming, and now that I'm sober enough to think again I'm wondering how/why it happened. I definitely hoped for a premiership in the next few years, but thought it would come when bont/libba/macrae/stringer etc hit 23-26, so maybe 2018/19.
Obviously I was a terrible pessimist, because WE JUST WON THE ******* PREMIERSHIP (sorry). In the first two games it seemed we destroyed the opposition with our clearly superior midfield, in the last two it took longer but we still managed to grind them down with superior depth - depth and skill which should keep improving for 3/4 years even with no additions. Now I'm seriously questioning every preconception I've ever had about football, because that finals series just defied all conventional wisdom.
These are just my (uneducated) thoughts which are open for expansion/debate/ridicule:
No longer think we need a new ruck - as long as campbell stays we have a great combo + backup, maybe try again in rookie draft.
No longer think we need a new kpd, we just destroyed most of the best forwards/forward lines in the afl with smart, mobile undersized defenders, midfield pressure and a great system.
Key forward - biggest question, hoping someone can answer it. All finals series we were somewhat inefficient going forward, and defenders took far too many contested/uncontested intercept marks despite Zaine's best efforts. However, every time the ball hit the ground it seemed we either locked it in or scored. Adding a key forward would hopefully eliminate the first problem, but would it destroy that forward pressure? I think not, but with crameri coming back, boyd/rough still resting forward it would reduce mobility and potentially midfield depth as there'd be less room for them to rest forward.
Midfield - massive strength, imagine if we could add do it? A burst midfielder with skill would be awesome, but for obvious reasons such players go early in the draft. Would still go harder at finding one than any other position, wondering if others agree...

tl;dr - can we become better by adding a certain type of player? If so, how will it effect game plan?

 

[Unorth]

We didn't smash any teams by 100 points because we didn't have the firepower to score enough. We often dominated portions/entire quarters while kicking something like ridiculously embarrassing like 1.7. We didn't have any forwards marking the ball consistently for the entire season. A lot of the time our forward entries were crap- just blazing away and bombing it high. So pretty much very little offensive structure (again, just to clarify, in terms of scoring efficiently)

Adding to the problem was that we entered the season with only four genuine forwards- Dickson, Stringer, Boyd and Redpath. Dickson had a pretty shaky patch returning from injury, but obviously returned to form at the right time. Stringer has had, relatively speaking, a pretty disappointing season. Boyd had a very up and down, injury riddled early part of the season, and when he got back he had to spend a lot of time in the ruck anyway. Redpath ended up doing his ACL. So our forward line just had an assortment of issues, both structurally and personnel wise.

...But we just won a premiership. With a forward line that was usually at best dysfunctional. I don't want to get too ahead of myself...But I mean s**t if we can win a premiership with glaring offensive liabilities...and we've got a trade period coming up...with Crameri coming back....

Basically here's the unfiltered version of what I'm trying to say: HOLY s**t WE WON A PREMIERSHIP WITH THAT FORWARD LINE IMAGINE WHAT WE CAN DO WHEN WE IMPROVE IT AND SCORE WAY MORE POINTS AHHHH

 

[Substance]

I'm really worried about a possible decline of Moyd and Moz. They both turn 35 next year, and are Hammer and Fletch going to be able to do what they did with just Wood there?

I've got a lot more to say than that, just cbf right now so don't accuse me of being too negative. Just think that success is so hard for this club, and we have a real oppotunity to sustain it for a few years and we shouldn't waste it.

And also agree if we can win a premiership with a dysfunctional fwd line, imagine what we can do when we get crameri and cloke in. Remember all that waffle about needing a dominant KPF to win a flag? Well turns out all we need to do is bring the ball to ground because we destroy teams when the ball hits the deck.

 

[Optimistic Dog]

As tough as it is I think Matthew Boyd may retire. Bad in a way after a premiership, AA but we do not want Murphy, MOZ and Matty to retire at the same time and have North situation.

Perfect in another way played his last game in the greatest flag of all time. He is already a Bulldog legend.

If one needs to go it was maybe fate that Murphy got injured and deserves a chance for a flag and MOZ has already signed.

Who would want to be a list manager we love Matty but the club is bigger than the individual and we have Williams, Webb and Dale that need to play more footy next year or we may lose them.

 

[dogzrule]

As tough as it is I think Matthew Boyd may retire. Bad in a way after a premiership, AA but we do not want Murphy, MOZ and Matty to retire at the same time and have North situation.

Perfect in another way played his last game in the greatest flag of all time. He is already a Bulldog legend.

If one needs to go it was maybe fate that Murphy got injured and deserves a chance for a flag and MOZ has already signed.

Who would want to be a list manager we love Matty but the club is bigger than the individual and we have Williams, Webb and Dale that need to play more footy next year or we may lose them.

Much more relaxed about Moyd, Moz and Murph retiring at the same time, not sure if it is to do with winning the Premiership or not but I am nore concerned re forward line.

Murph and Moyd can be replaced with a few half backs we have on our list at the moment that show potential being Smith, Williams and Lynch ably supported by our Premiership Captain, a Norm smith medallist and another 2 time premiership player from Hawthorn. We have a fair bit of strength at half back for the next 4-5 years

Moz on the other hand, several times this year we would have lost without him being there, he is much harder to replace and however Hamling and Roberts appear to finally be turning the corner, as they should they are entering their prime playing age 24-29, however we need backup
Enter Zordy and Collins in 2018, they will be ready to take the next step by then, Zory's confidence will be flying at the moment
(EDIT : I forgot Adams - wow we do have a strong list)

We are in a very fortunate position with such a young list, if the injury curse stays away.

My view is to bank up draft picks and trade away to get the highest picks we can, particularly first round and try and snag a high end mobile tall forward while trading in the best available otherwise