Gibbs to play forward for most of the year.
Out of interest why would you think he would be better suited playing forward most of the year rather than playing mid most of the year and resting up forward?
I think adding that one extra elite player to our midfield brigade will take us to the next level. Gibbs has been used as a gap filler (mostly in defence) and the guy has too much talent to keep doing that for the rest of his career.
We say it a lot on here Judd, Murphy & Gibbs. We need to actually make it happen, run with it and see what they can do together. Good luck to anyone who wants/thinks they can tag all 3 of them and if one of them doesn't get tagged you're almost guaranteed they'll have a big impact on the game.
I expect Russell to return to his best and he can fill in the role that Gibbs did in defence for us. Russell has some courage and can take a mark going back with the flight, just needs to improve is kicking and decision making. He's more of a Scotland replacement than Lucas is as far as I'm concerned. Let's also not forget Touhy who makes good decisions, is courageous and has an accurate kick. I think we'll have Gibbs' defensive role covered next year with those 2.
Lucas is another though, that I'd like to see cement his spot in our midfield. There's been a lot of talk about how good he is, time for him to prove himself at AFL level. If Lucas can become the A grade player we all believe he'll be our midfield will be unstoppable.
As far as our forward line is concerned, I think we will potentially have the most dynamic forward line in the AFL. Walker, Betts and Garlett combined this year to produce 30 more goals than Cloke, Dawes and Krakeour. You add Waite in who was missing for the second half of the season and a fit and firing Kreuzer as well as Hampson who will hopefully come along then that forward line is deadly.
We all know that Walker, Betts and Garlett apply tremendous amounts of pressure, we know that Kruze will as well, as will Waite and with Hammer's speed and mobility he will learn very quickly that he needs to chase non-stop when he hasn't got the ball. That will be an intimidating and relentless forward line. Gibbs can rotate a pos in there with Kruze, but I wouldn't have him playing more primarily as a forward than a mid based on the above reasons.