Totally agree, the Dunkley ship has sailed, with the Parish meteoric rise due to the Shiel injury and the final touches put on the Stringer "Dusty" role has put Dunkely too far down the pecking order to go and pay a bunch of draft picks and 800K a year for him. We already have Shiel on that sort of money as the 5th midfield option.Unfortunately, I think the Dunkley ship has sailed. Although if you use him as an index point, for where he sits in our midfield vs where he sits with the Bulldogs (or Melbourne) gives an indication of where we need to focus our improvement. He is second rotation for the Bulldogs so 4+ above him, and perhaps in the top few for us. Maybe 1-2 above him at Essendon?
Go get Dunston as a depth inside mid, keep the draft picks and get some more kids, keep the money and front load some contracts(Rids!?!) so we have flexibility in the years to come.