Roast Our List Management - Neglecting our forward line

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If you look at where our list was at then end of 2018, the following players are capable of playing or developing into that small/medium rebounding defender role:

Matt Suckling
Hayden Crozier
Lukas Webb
Ed Richards
Bailey Williams
Caleb Daniel
Brad Lynch
Jason Johannisen
Roarke Smith

and that's not including Easton Wood, who at his best, was pretty good at rebounding.

That's 9 AFL standard rebounding defenders (some cases only potentially), which most teams would already deem more than required, after all, this is a role where quality is far more important than quantity. We have 10 list spots open for the trade/draft period, plenty of problems that need fixing, and what do we do? Give four of those spots to more rebounding defenders: Taylor Duryea, Laitham Vandermeer, Buku Khamis and Lachie Young. Four more of those spots on the midfield/ruck: Bailey Smith, Rhylee West, Will Hayes and Jordon Sweet. Only TWO(2) new forwards: Sam Lloyd and Ben Cavarra. What the hell is going on?

It's kind of hard to argue this point at times because a lot of these players we've picked up have been really good for us. Crozier is a gun, Duryea has been very solid so far, Suckling is always reliable, but at what point does team balance come into consideration for our list management? I mean, our top goalscorer last year was Billy Gowers with 26, followed by Bontempelli who played a lot of midfield and had his appendix out furing the year. And the year before that, our joint top goalscorers were Stringer and Picken, who aren't even at the club anymore. Does it not occur to these guys that our forward line is the worst in the competition by a mile?

I don't want to hear dribble like "we tried to get Wingard" or "there weren't any good enough players available". We live in an era where it's possible to get a player like Ben Brown with pick 47 in the draft, or a Tim Membrey/Josh Jenkins for a bag of chips in a trade. I know they're not the A-grade superstars everyone wants, but would they improve our crappy forward line? Absolutely. We're desperate for anyone who can consistently create any kind of contest.

I know we picked up Sam Lloyd and Ben Cavarra, but they're second/third banana type forwards at best, not key pivots you build your entire forward line around. Last year, Gowers was our main man, and it showed we have some serious issues.

Why are we so obsessed with picking up rebounding defenders? Why are we so ill-inclined to pick up forwards? Do we really think it's a better idea to put a natural gun defender like Naughton into the forward line, where he'll probably never get the best out of himself? Does Beveridge still believe guys like Johannisen and Richards can become high quality forwards based on a few good games? Sorry, but for me, our list management in the last few years has been terrible, and demonstrates a complete lack of understanding when it comes to team balance and addressing glaring weaknesses.
 

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GreatSouthWest

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#2
This is what happens when 80-90% of your drafting and recruiting mantra revolves around versatility - e.g. buying low and hopefully getting x return for the investment in the future.

A total football approach to recruiting at the expense of excitement, creativity and positional knowledge. Stringer is the only player, who fits the aforementioned traditional type of player we grew up with, i can recall us drafting in recent years. Maybe, at a pinch, Fergus Greene? But you can see any forward craft being beaten out of him to become a floating defender or suchlike. All others have elements of versatility in there reasoning for being drafted.

We sell the farm for (what should be) a generational forward. Played a handful of great games but is injury prone and now suffers from mental health issues.

I dont think we could draft a natural, high performing 10 year forward if we had all the selections in the first round :D
 

Yojimbo

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#4
Tom Boyd
Josh Schache
Jake Stringer
Jarrad Grant
Patrick Veszpremi
Matthew Panos
Liam Jones
Zephaniah Skinner
Andrew Hooper
Tom Hill
Ayce Cordy
Jason Tutt
Luke Dahlhaus
Shaun Higgins
Stewart Crameri
Andrejs Everitt
Clay Smith
Jack Redpath
Will Minson
Declan Hamilton
Mitch Honey-Church
Nathan Hrovat
Tristan Tweedie
Nathan Mullenger-McHugh
Liam Picken
Koby Stevens

(Plus all the forwards still on the list)
Lukas Webb
Mitch Wallis
Toby McLean
Brad Lynch
Patrick Lipinski
Lin Jong
Fergus Greene
Billy Gowers
Tory Dickson
Josh Dunkley
Bailey Dale
Sam Lloyd
Ben Cavarra

Probably missed a few as well, seems a lot of names to me.
 
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#5
Antares, list management has been poor.

Look at the turnover of talls from 2018 to 2019 - Redpath, Roughead, Collins, Mullenger-McHugh, Campbell, Adams

The only in with any height is Jordan Sweet. What does that tell you, too many talls in 2018 and not enough in 2019, poor list management. I just hope they pick on Gardiner from Footscray.
 
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Thread starter #6
Tom Boyd
Josh Schache
Jake Stringer
Jarrad Grant
Patrick Veszpremi
Matthew Panos
Liam Jones
Zephaniah Skinner
Andrew Hooper
Tom Hill
Ayce Cordy
Jason Tutt
Luke Dahlhaus
Shaun Higgins
Stewart Crameri
Andrejs Everitt
Clay Smith
Jack Redpath
Will Minson
Declan Hamilton
Mitch Honey-Church
Nathan Hrovat
Tristan Tweedie
Nathan Mullenger-McHugh
Liam Picken
Koby Stevens

(Plus all the forwards still on the list)
Lukas Webb
Mitch Wallis
Toby McLean
Brad Lynch
Patrick Lipinski
Lin Jong
Fergus Greene
Billy Gowers
Tory Dickson
Josh Dunkley
Bailey Dale
Sam Lloyd
Ben Cavarra

Probably missed a few as well, seems a lot of names to me.
Why are you looking back like 10 years when the context of my thread is obviously pointing to the last 3? More specifically Beveridge's tenure.

Jason Tutt? You realize he was drafted as a rebounding defender? Nathan Hrovat? Mitch Honeychurch? Will Minson? :drunk::drunk::drunk:
 

Yojimbo

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#7
Why are you looking back like 10 years when the context of my thread is obviously pointing to the last 3? More specifically Beveridge's tenure.

Jason Tutt? You realize he was drafted as a rebounding defender? Nathan Hrovat? Mitch Honeychurch? Will Minson? :drunk::drunk::drunk:
Will Minson was drafted as a key forward and Jason Tutt kicked Four Goals on debut, Mitch
Honeychurch kicked five goals against Port Melbourne and Nathan Hrovat's surname starts
with the letter H. This problem goes back years and it's relevant to go back to 2012 as
those players could still be expected to be on the list if they were any good.
 
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