I am obsessed with winning a flag, and the player could make the difference.
I highly doubt Sandi will, and placing Kersten and Bennell on the LTI is a no brainer.
Let's through a dart at the dart board, and hope we find something good.
Mid season draft
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I highly doubt Sandi will, and placing Kersten and Bennell on the LTI is a no brainer.
Let's through a dart at the dart board, and hope we find something good.
First of all, super disrespectful to Sandi, it is not "stupid" to retire a Fremantle legend for minimal gain.
Second of all, who would we even pickup? we have a lot competition for limited spots.
and lastly, we can just put a player on the LTI and use the midseason draft anyway, literally no reason to retire Sandi here.
Who is this magical player you seem to keep referring too?
Hell, even if there is such a player, another team would take him before us...
not disrespectful, he offered to retire.
As I said, you have a shot.
It could be the next Laird, Kelly, or it could be a flop. Who knows, but you give it a shot and see what happens.
The stupid part came off disrespectful IMO
or it could be someone who does nothing whereas Aaron could be back for finals.
Aaron Sandilands that is... The best ruckman the game has seen...
Which one gets us closer to a flag.
If you think Sandi is that person, then you keep him. I don't
Purple Jesus
not jess
Then you have a very short memory.
Could play finals though, and then anything could happen, especially if we have our full compliment.
Wally Walpamur
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I would prefer Kersten to retire and not pick anyone up in the mid season draft than retire Sandi.
It’s not not being ruthless, it’s being respectful to one of the club greats for his 15+ years of service.
It’s not not being ruthless, it’s being respectful to one of the club greats for his 15+ years of service.
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What? A pick for a player who wasnt good enough to get drafted has more value then keeping a ruckman who if he gets fit could still help us out this year in a major way. The mid season pick is highly unlikely to help us out in a significant way. Strange logic indeed.
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Like I said I wasn't sure of the rules for mid season draft
So anyways... How much of an absolute champion is Sandilands? Yet another amazingly 'strong' character to come out of our supposed "toxic" culture.
It is players like him which is why I will always be a Freo supporter. I really hope he gets on the park again this season and we get to give him a suitable send off. Will be every bit as special as Mundy's 300th or MJ's last game last year. You treat your champions right and it goes a long way to impressing and retaining quality on the list.
It is players like him which is why I will always be a Freo supporter. I really hope he gets on the park again this season and we get to give him a suitable send off. Will be every bit as special as Mundy's 300th or MJ's last game last year. You treat your champions right and it goes a long way to impressing and retaining quality on the list.
How is O'Reilly travelling?
Nailed it .
I like the idea of the midsesson draft and it can serve a purpose but people really have got stars in their eyes looking at it when they keep harping on about the next Kelly etc
Yes he was mature age but that doesn’t mean there’s a mature age eqivilant of him (or even a Tom Stewart/bayley fritsch every year either.
Just like no two ND are the same.
It’s been said but Unless someone , in right age bracket is tearing it up , this year serves absolutely no purpose for us to take someone.
Doubly so in retiring off club legends (in sandis case an absolute ornament to the club) just to do so
Bennell would be our only option and considering we’ve come this far with him we may as well see it through to the end, which unfortunately will be this year
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Only way I see us being real active in the mid season draft is if a KPD looks good OR one of our current 3 goes down (Including Logue). Literally no back-up down there, Cox is a forward and sending him back means we all of a sudden lack depth up forward.
It's an obvious need and if somebody goes down one we'll NEED to fix (depends a bit on Kersten too tbh)
It's an obvious need and if somebody goes down one we'll NEED to fix (depends a bit on Kersten too tbh)
Great call. Also I’m sure the offer from Sandi still stands but Bell has made the right call. If in another 3-4 weeks Sandi has made zero progress or had further relapse then there may well be a mutual decision. But it is very important that we look after our club legends. I got goose bumps watching all the Mundy family stuff. Players like Conca and Brayshaw getting down to Mundy’s kids and getting them involved in the club song. RTB onfield after GWS win embracing the players. Seems to be a good feel around the club.
Bennell’s calf injuries are always two weeks. That journalist must have been speaking to Colin Young with his std response “yeh nah he is fine just a two-weeker”.
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no probs, just clarifying.
Tim Kelly was not good enough to get drafted.
Either was Matthew Pavlich.
Michael Barlow, Sam Mitchell, and there are 50 more.
I agree it is unlikely, but it is still a greater chance of helping us win a flag than Sandi
Taylor
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I don't think they are.
Not this season, Darcy is still young.
Sandilands in the centre bounce might give us the sort of dominance Brisbane will bring when we play them here and they smash us in the ruck.
We need a ruckman to make us better, we already have one. There is nobody playing outside the AFL who would offer us as much as Sandilands in a position we need a mature body to compete as much as Sandilands.
I'd even try and keep Sandi for next season just in case as long as he can get back in the second half of this season. Knowing he is backup to Darcy, but if we are playing well enough to get close to finals or better then it would be a hell of a shame to fall down and miss out because we had one ruckman, one forward ruck and then the standard fell off a cliff.
Sandi could end up playing like Steven King at Geelong in 2007 who played 6 games all year, including the grand final.
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If Sandilands retired one of the positions we would look at in the mid-season draft is ruck. Given the lack of outstanding options available, our best path is to keep developing Darcy for the future, and to try to get Sandilands up and available on the off chance we get to the finals.
Monument Hills
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I love Sandi, highly respect him, dockers legend, love what we has done for the club, etc. etc.
However, while the club would obviously love to have him out there playing, available for finals should we make it, or at least give him a well deserved send-off game, maybe Sandi after nearly 20y of playing and knowing his body, has a fair idea of whether he will play again and his offer suggests he thinks his time is probably over and his body has given up the ghost.
I personally don't think he made that offer thinking that he is taking up space that a state level player could take which the club has a major need for and wants to make room for them. We have enough players including Bennell and Ballas who may not make next years' cut and he knows that. I think he just knows it's his time, as sad as that is, and he is giving the club the option to at least get another player in rather than just retire mid-season as players in the past would, leaving the club a player short.
I think that the assumption or hope that Sandi will just recover from his calf inj in time to slot in to our finals team and help us win the cup is as much unlikely now as assumptions that Bennell will take the field again.
So to address malpaso's direct question, I think Sandi wants to call time and also wants to let the club benefit from the timing (because he's that kind of guy) so I would suggest if the club takes him up on the offer, a KPD would be ideal as back up if Pearce or Hamling go down. That is my greatest concern for this year. I don't know the state level comps very well and are happy for the experts to suggest actual names. Dillon O'Reilly has been suggested by those that know more than me. There are likely others like Sam Collins excelling around the country in the VFL or elsewhere. Logue and Kersten have been plagued by inj and should Pearce and/or Hamling go down, our stellar defense becomes significantly less stellar.
Couple of names I’ll throw up for discussion that have a little AFL experience:
Kade Stewart (22 years, 181cm, 7 games with Hawthorn) - He dominated in the Upper Great Southern league in 2018 following his shock de-listing by the Hawks in 2017 after seven appearances in two seasons. Has had a good start to 2019 and in the WA state squad.
Josh Deluca (22 years, 181cm, 4 games with Fremantle) - If not for a three game suspension early in the 2018 season, Deluca would have been in the running to take out Subiaco’s best and fairest, having an equal votes per game output to eventual winner Kyal Horsley, highlighting how good his season was. Has had a good start to 2019 and in the WA state squad.
I suppose it’s fair to imply that this will be Sandilands last season.
This season, being able to win the clearance is big. So far, we’ve dominated play when we win the clearance, and fell behind when we don’t. Winning more clearance means better chance of winning the match.
Sandi is much better than Lobb in terms of ruck work. Lobb is better around the ground, much like another midfielder.
IF (big if) we do make the finals, the club will want to be able to choose the best option (better clearance or all roundedness) to win a finals game.
Also as others said, he deserve a proper farewell. And he is still one of the best when fit. It’s not like we’ll be gifting games to him for his farewell or anything.
This season, being able to win the clearance is big. So far, we’ve dominated play when we win the clearance, and fell behind when we don’t. Winning more clearance means better chance of winning the match.
Sandi is much better than Lobb in terms of ruck work. Lobb is better around the ground, much like another midfielder.
IF (big if) we do make the finals, the club will want to be able to choose the best option (better clearance or all roundedness) to win a finals game.
Also as others said, he deserve a proper farewell. And he is still one of the best when fit. It’s not like we’ll be gifting games to him for his farewell or anything.
Well reasoned response Monument Hills, but I have a different take on it.
Sandi has had a long time on the sidelines training and rehabbing for no game time, and that does take a toll on players. Alex Pearce said he was ready to walk away from the game in 2017 because he felt he wouldn't be able to get back. Glad he rethought it. In the same vein, it's only a quarter of the way through the season, and we have no insight into when Sandi might get back. While it is a very noble gesture from the great man, I would certainly discourage him from retiring unless he felt he was no chance, and it does not appear that is the case, otherwise he would have just retired - not "offered" to retire.
Currently our ruck stock are Lobb and Darcy with Jones and Meek as backup. If we do go deep into the season and have some injuries I would be pretty confident in saying both Jones and Meek would be liabilities at their current stages of development. If there is ANY chance that Sandi can get himself back to a reasonable level of fitness we have the best backup ruckman in the competition, even if we don't need to play him.
If anyone thinks we are going to gain any benefit this season from bringing someone in through the mid-season draft I think that is pretty fanciful. We picked the eyes out of what was available in last year's draft and I don't see anyone at WAFL level (can't comment on SANFL or VFL) who is going to be a better option than Logue, Cox or Watson as a KPD. Anyone we bring in will have zero knowledge of our team and game plan, so will be behind the eight ball from the start. I think the reason we struggled so much last year was bringing in so many new guys and having no synergy or connection - this year we have kept a stable list and the results are starting to come.
So short answer from me - keep Sandi on the list for this season provided he is any chance of playing at all, and if we do go to the mid-season draft treat it as a head start on next year's drafting, not a fix for this year.
