News OFFICIAL: Gary Ablett traded to Geelong

How many games will Ablett play for Geelong in his second stint


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Norm Smith Medallist
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Murdoch paid the price for the first final. That's all. He has pace. Can mark. A raking left kick and honestly this year he was hard and tackled like a demon. His improvement this year was amazing now .

But forgetting all Of that. When looking at a footballer you have to ask yourself.

"What does this bloke offer that is a grade? either now or potentially?"

Murdoch has elite pace. He has height. He can kick it 65 meters. Now I agree he is inconsistent - but as far as what he brings. He has that as a starting point.

Lang - he's a Collingwood 6 footer. He's not exceptionally quick. He doesn't have elite skills. Or decision making. He isn't a genius around the goals. He's not selwood crazy hard at it. He's just a good solid 6.5/7 out of 10. He's a good honest citizen.

So if forced to choose between 2 players who have yet to have a complete breakout year, I'll take the one with the pace and height and booming left foot.
First final they both played this year:

Murdoch - 8 disposals
Lang - 24 (and in our best 4-5 on the night).

Argument Sort of breaks down there.
 

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BUSTER29

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First final they both played this year:

Murdoch - 8 disposals
Lang - 24 (and in our best 4-5 on the night).

Argument Sort of breaks down there.
Wasn't Langs first final v Swans?
Murdoch was dropped after the Richmond debacle if I recall correctly
 

RegHickeyStand

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Murdoch paid the price for the first final. That's all. He has pace. Can mark. A raking left kick and honestly this year he was hard and tackled like a demon. His improvement this year was amazing now .

But forgetting all Of that. When looking at a footballer you have to ask yourself.

"What does this bloke offer that is a grade? either now or potentially?"

Murdoch has elite pace. He has height. He can kick it 65 meters. Now I agree he is inconsistent - but as far as what he brings. He has that as a starting point.

Lang - he's a Collingwood 6 footer. He's not exceptionally quick. He doesn't have elite skills. Or decision making. He isn't a genius around the goals. He's not selwood crazy hard at it. He's just a good solid 6.5/7 out of 10. He's a good honest citizen.

So if forced to choose between 2 players who have yet to have a complete breakout year, I'll take the one with the pace and height and booming left foot.
Fair enough. But he still isn't best 22, and at his age that is a negative.
 

Footy Smarts

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I'd like to see Lang play well in a losing side. Haven't seen much of it so far.
Well one of his best games was against Port where we won in the last minute. He was also one of the few players that I'd give a pass mark to for the final in Adelaide where he did a couple of nice things including a great goal at an important moment in a game that really wasn't suited to a half forward flanker. It wouldn't be much fun seeing the ball constantly kicked everywhere where you aren't and then disappearing down the other end for a goal. I wouldn't be worried about him being a downhill skier.
 

Partridge

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You would hope so, given he was a first round draft selection. Not sure if 'already' is the right word either, because he's been there four years. Cowan was given a ridiculous amount of time.

I'd like to see Lang play well in a losing side. Haven't seen much of it so far.

Still, I agree we should persevere with Lang and also Thurlow. Our first round picks are getting thin on the ground, especially if Menzel departs.
Round 9 versus Collingwood last year. 23 disposals in a game we were never in. Only Duncan had more possessions.
 

Footy Smarts

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Murdoch paid the price for the first final. That's all. He has pace. Can mark. A raking left kick and honestly this year he was hard and tackled like a demon. His improvement this year was amazing now .

But forgetting all Of that. When looking at a footballer you have to ask yourself.

"What does this bloke offer that is a grade? either now or potentially?"

Murdoch has elite pace. He has height. He can kick it 65 meters. Now I agree he is inconsistent - but as far as what he brings. He has that as a starting point.

Lang - he's a Collingwood 6 footer. He's not exceptionally quick. He doesn't have elite skills. Or decision making. He isn't a genius around the goals. He's not selwood crazy hard at it. He's just a good solid 6.5/7 out of 10. He's a good honest citizen.

So if forced to choose between 2 players who have yet to have a complete breakout year, I'll take the one with the pace and height and booming left foot.
I reckon you're underrating Lang here. His skills particularly by foot are very good and possibly elite. His ability to find space in traffic, like when he appears as a link man through the middle of the ground is excellent and he's pretty good around goals. As a number of our guns in the previous decade has shown, being well above average in a lot of areas without being elite in any can make you a really good and really valuable player.

With Murdoch though it looks like he'll never really get past his weaknesses (lack of composure, fumbles and poor skills when he has to finesse a pass). He had a pretty good year but even then he was probably never in our best 16 players. I doubt from here he'll ever be anything but a bottom 6 player whereas Lang is at about the same level now and could improve significantly.
 

Footy Smarts

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Round 9 versus Collingwood last year. 23 disposals in a game we were never in. Only Duncan had more possessions.
From memory at the start of last year he was very good against Hawthorn in round 1 where we ran away from them late and then was one of our few good performers against GWS in Canberra in round 2 as well.
 

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Footy Smarts

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If Lang wants to stay then I wouldn't be trading Lang. I'd be more open to trading someone like Menegola who's got good trade value but is in a position we have ample coverage in (mid/forward who wins a lot of ball but with questionable defense) than a guy who has a higher ceiling and is a more all-round player. We don't have many clean ball users who are also defensively strong. It sounds like Lang doesn't want to hang around though which is a bit worrying.
 
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How can this not be a Hawk sockpuppet troll? Even forgot to mention Scott this time. Now it's, Geelong is a shit-truck club not worth joining. Can anyone now not say this is so?

I tell you, I've read a few Whorek Bay 13 posters, and some of them seem to know an unusual lot about some of our threads here. They let it slip from time to time.
I never said Geelong is a shit-truck club not worth joining but if it gets your rocks off and helps get cheap likes go ahead and say whatever you want cause everyone can see what i actually said.
 

Stoney

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Like I've said in other threads, we won't be saved by the Messiah, or any other super-duper stars coming in. In fact it will have an unsettling effect on the team. We just need to play better with what we have.
It's a nice sentiment. But we'd be stupid to not take on some "super-duper" helpers if they're available, and requesting to play for the club.

I'm not sure how many prelim exits we need before we can unanimously accept that we're a few cattle short of a flag.
 

Vdubs

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First final they both played this year:

Murdoch - 8 disposals
Lang - 24 (and in our best 4-5 on the night).

Argument Sort of breaks down there.
Wasn't Langs first final v Swans?
Murdoch was dropped after the Richmond debacle if I recall correctly
Disagree
Agree
Can't compare those 2 games.
Better comparison maybe is Lang v Swans then Lang v Crows
 

Pure_Ownage

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If Lang wants to stay then I wouldn't be trading Lang. I'd be more open to trading someone like Menegola who's got good trade value but is in a position we have ample coverage in (mid/forward who wins a lot of ball but with questionable defense) than a guy who has a higher ceiling and is a more all-round player. We don't have many clean ball users who are also defensively strong. It sounds like Lang doesn't want to hang around though which is a bit worrying.
Why do people keep suggesting guys in trades who re-signed a couple of months ago? Menegola kolo etc wouldn't have done that if they wanted to go. Lang hasn't re-signed for a reason i'd say.
 

crocsta

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It will never happen but I wish we could trade Scooter. He would actually be a good get for GC for leadership and we could probably cover for him.


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Stoney

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It will never happen but I wish we could trade Scooter. He would actually be a good get for GC for leadership and we could probably cover for him.


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I actually believe Scooter's work around the contest is very underrated. He's easily our best tackler, and a top 3 contested possession player at the club. Makes no sense to trade him given we'd be investing so heavily into the next 2-4 year window.
 

RegHickeyStand

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It's a nice sentiment. But we'd be stupid to not take on some "super-duper" helpers if they're available, and requesting to play for the club.

I'm not sure how many prelim exits we need before we can unanimously accept that we're a few cattle short of a flag.
We weren't short a few cattle. We had the players to do it. They type of game we play is hard to pick apart, except for the best teams. And that is why people say that our team is not trained up to play finals. Neither Adlelaide nor Richmond are what you call star studded teams.
 

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Why do people keep suggesting guys in trades who re-signed a couple of months ago? Menegola kolo etc wouldn't have done that if they wanted to go. Lang hasn't re-signed for a reason i'd say.
I'm not saying we'll set out to trade Menegola. Just I'd prefer to lose him than Lang. Of course that doesn't seem to matter much since Lang looks like he doesn't want too hang around.
 

crocsta

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I actually believe Scooter's work around the contest is very underrated. He's easily our best tackler, and a top 3 contested possession player at the club. Makes no sense to trade him given we'd be investing so heavily into the next 2-4 year window.
It gets down to a question of whether Scooter would be more vale to us or GC. I think they require a player like him more than we need him. I'm not saying he's a poor player but trading is about relative value to teams.

If Blitz is tagging then harder for Scooter to play defensive mid. We then have Ablett, Danger, Duncan, Joel, Parfitt, Cocky, Guthrie, Menegola, Smith? Stringer? all with capability to play as inside midfielders and likely to spend time in centre square.

We need pace and skill. I just think we have Scooter covered. He's 27 and I expect he has 3 years left so not like trading out a 23 year old.

He's potentially more valuable to GC than Geelong so would be smart to trade as get good deal.


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Claude Balls

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Wasn't Langs first final v Swans?
Murdoch was dropped after the Richmond debacle if I recall correctly
Yep - but don't let the truth mess his one eyes bias up
The fact they played their respective first finals in different games doesn't detract from the point made one iota. They were, respectively, still the first finals played by those players this year. And Lang's performance was vastly superior to Murdoch's. Murdoch is fast becoming the league's worst finals performer, in fact.
 

Pure_Ownage

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I'm not saying we'll set out to trade Menegola. Just I'd prefer to lose him than Lang. Of course that doesn't seem to matter much since Lang looks like he doesn't want too hang around.
I understand that. I just hope people don't realistically think that's going to happen though.
 

Pure_Ownage

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It gets down to a question of whether Scooter would be more vale to us or GC. I think they require a player like him more than we need him. I'm not saying he's a poor player but trading is about relative value to teams.

If Blitz is tagging then harder for Scooter to play defensive mid. We then have Ablett, Danger, Duncan, Joel, Parfitt, Cocky, Guthrie, Menegola, Smith? Stringer? all with capability to play as inside midfielders and likely to spend time in centre square.

We need pace and skill. I just think we have Scooter covered. He's 27 and I expect he has 3 years left so not like trading out a 23 year old.

He's potentially more valuable to GC than Geelong so would be smart to trade as get good deal.


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He came here to play with his two brothers who work here, he is contracted and won't agree to go anywhere so us trying to trade him would be pretty silly.
 
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