Strategy Trade and List management Thread Part 5 (opposition supporters - READ posting rules before posting)

[Norm De Guerre]

I think he can fill a role somewhere on the ground when he is not on ball.

Maybe in the back half ala Matthew Boyd?

He's not defensive nor strong enough overhead to play that role.

Boyd was able to constantly reinvent his game from gun mid to tagger to hbf because of the maniacal approach that was fundamental to him grinding his way onto an AFL list after being overlooked early in his career.

Can he really slow down if he was never really that quick to begin with? It screams injury to me.

Playing 21 out of a possible 21 games screams a guy who is fit enough to play to me.

Macraes issues aren't that he can't get the ball, they're when he doesn't.

Smith needs a spell.
I know this board tends to blame every loss on the 22nd player picked each game, but he was the single fumbliest player in our side for 2 weeks running now (quite the feat when VDM is running around).
He is a very good run with player but has Crozier's disposal - low vision so hits up long kicks at the first sign of congestion.

His head just isn't in the game right now. His workrate is still top notch but I'd give him another holiday to get his head right.

He's playing like an under 9's kid. Running around a lot without any real sense of purpose or idea of what he's doing. I dont know if he's playing to instruction or just low on confidence. But if he was the likes of VDM, Poulter or Baker. This board would be calling for him to be loaded into rocket and fired into Uranus. One thing is certain. As it stands he has no business attending centre bounces right now. And that is a massive problem for him and for a team that is desperate for some genuine pace around the ball.

Duggan would be great for much needed mongrel and can kick more than 40m coming out of defence. Unrestricted at the end of 2024 I believe so Eagles need to trade him if he tells them he ain’t re-signing.

Duggan.

He's angling to be West Coasts next captain.

 

[Bald]

Playing 21 out of a possible 21 games screams a guy who is fit enough to play to me.

Macraes issues aren't that he can't get the ball, they're when he doesn't.

Players can both be fit enough to play but not fit enough to be at their best.

 

[VitalDread]

Buss has been hurt all year??? Hes played 16 VFL games.

Sorry for Buss meant to say was hurt all pre-season

So the whole season is conditioning for him

 

[PocketRocket08]

Buss has been hurt all year??? Hes played 16 VFL games.

Yeah that was a ridiculous comment. Buss and Clarke missed a fair chunk of pre season. Gallagher injured towards the start of season and has had a couple of minor issues through the season a hand a tight hammy and glandular fever. All three have showed good signs considering and the main thing is a big pre season from all 3 to put pressure on our AFL team. All 3 should play some senior footy next year.

 

[Norm De Guerre]

Players can both be fit enough to play but not fit enough to be at their best.

How's that work?

If as suggested he's been playing every game injured then the club is a bigger rabble than it appears.

Im not buying that. It sounds like an excuse that fans would make for a favourite who can no longer play the role that made him a 3x All Australian.

 

[stefoid]

What baffles me, is how we went from the best at defending defensive coast to coast transition against opposing teams, and teams not getting big runs of goals against us, instead we kicked a few in a row ourselves routinely in 2021. To a massive fall off the cliff only a year later, and still struggling this season. Our team is hardly much different, Dunks and Hunter the only big names missing off the top of my head. The same midfield are at their peak age now. Like what happened?

You could argue our forward line is probably not as dominant in the air as the 2021 team, but probably have better small players now. Defense is marginally better now with Jones and Richards. Midfield has mostly the same players. How can we suddenly forget how to play football over night? Went from being able to move the ball well and have a dominant and open forward line, and a team that could defend the field well. To suddenly being horrible at all? Just can't put my finger on it.

It could be that other (good) teams are doing things differently when they move the ball.

Footy is alway changing - defences adapt to attacks which adapt to the new defence which....

If you are just staying the same, you are going backwards.

 

[manutd/dogs]

It could be that other (good) teams are doing things differently when they move the ball.

Footy is alway changing - defences adapt to attacks which adapt to the new defence which....

If you are just staying the same, you are going backwards.

Perfect summation of Bevo's tactics. Thanks for the belly laugh; I needed it.

 

[Mojorisin]

If King came back as coach I'm sure guys like Flanders and Hollands who are getting more minutes since he has taken over would be open to coming with him.

 

[Bald]

How's that work?

If as suggested he's been playing every game injured then the club is a bigger rabble than it appears.

Im not buying that. It sounds like an excuse that fans would make for a favourite who can no longer play the role that made him a 3x All Australian.

You don't have to buy it.

Marcus Bontempelli last year was hampered all year.

 

[Norm De Guerre]

You don't have to buy it.

Marcus Bontempelli last year was hampered for periods of the season.

EFA.

 

[Munnez]

In hindsight (and I was surprised we weren't interested at the time) Isaac Smith would have been brilliant for us....

I seem to remember that we did have a nibble but of course Smith chose the Cats. And that's nearly always how it plays out for us.

We show interest in acquiring players but almost in every case we lose out to the bigger clubs with more cachet

 

[Munnez]

We don’t really need to add much to improve I don’t reckon.
A winger with pace would be ideal, and key defence depth.
Outside of that, we play such a bland style of footy. Our next coach I think could change that, get us to move the footy quicker and give our forwards a better chance.

What I want to know is when are we going to work on our goal kicking?? As badly as we played yesterday if we were league average at goal kicking we win that match.

We created enough opportunities just once again didn't capitalise on it!

 

[Bald]

EFA.

That's great - Jackson has also not been hampered all year, he has had good games scattered throughout an otherwise average season, again, likely because he is fit enough to get out on the park but doesn't have the ability to play to his best whilst having ailments as others do.

He MAY be slowing down, I'm not disputing that, but to suggest it's more likely that than him being hampered is disrespectful.

 

[Munnez]

According to the HS Article

Gold Coast offering pick 4 for back end picks for Academy
Keen to re-sign Sam Flanders
Will listen to offers for Hollands

Hollands should be a priority to try and prise out of the Suns. Plonk him on a wing initially with a view to moving into inside mid. Would also go hard for pick 4 need more elite talent our midfield is aging.

 

[Bald]

Another observation.

Recently, Vice Captaincy at the Western Bulldogs is the place where careers potentially turn to shizen.

 

[Dogs 13]

Got naughton, Jamarra, Darcy, Lobb and now Croft. . . Let's play Gardner forward.

So he can spoil them too

 

[Struggle]

I would not be shocked if hes moves to a forward role in the off season

Forward coach replacing Spangher?

 

[Doggies_13]

We need a decent turn over club wise players and coaches this off season there needs to be change. I don’t think our list is that bad, clearly there are holes but some of the issues are the use of the same players constantly and when we do give guys a chance we are quick to throw them straight back out.

We need a second KPD unless Buss is ready to go next season.

We need a wingman with speed and skill.

We need a small forward speed, pressure, tackling and creative

We need a mid with burst speed.

Probably not going to address all of that in a single off season but need to address at least 2-3 of those things.

I’d been getting moving the following off the list/they are likely to leave:
Sweet - strongly suggested he’s leaving
McComb - not good enough
Crozier - has massively regressed
Hannan - regressed
Duryea - likely retire
Bruce - based on form and now injury time to go
O’Brien - please no more
Roarke smith

37

Roarke Smith

Age

29

Ht

184cm

Wt

82kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

11.7

3star

K

5.6

2star

HB

6.1

4star

M

2.4

3star

T

1.7

4star

CL

0.4

2star

No current season stats available

D

12.0

3star

K

5.8

3star

HB

6.2

4star

M

3.0

3star

T

1.6

4star

CL

0.2

2star

- can’t get on the park
Khamis - behind all our forwards and Croft coming in just don’t see the need

I’d keep the following:
Williams - has something to offer even as depth
Bendendo - has shown signs deserves a 1 year contract, scope to improve.
McNiel - as a rookie wouldn’t hurt as depth
Raak - has shown signs keep as a rookie
JOD - definitely a keep if out of contract
McLean -worth a year as depth
Poulter - would sign him up.

 

[yebach]

How's that work?

If as suggested he's been playing every game injured then the club is a bigger rabble than it appears.

Im not buying that. It sounds like an excuse that fans would make for a favourite who can no longer play the role that made him a 3x All Australian.

What evidence did we have last year that he could no longer play the role that made him a 3x All Australian?
What evidence to warrant not playing him in his natural position this year?

 

[doggiesin08]

Pretty disappointing that we gave Gardner a 3 year deal and he’s already been jumped by a 21 year old who was playing cricket only recently (not slighting JoD at all in this comp).

The club pumped him up a lot in response to the criticisms he received, gave him three years (who on earth were we bidding against there?), and he’s gone backwards at an alarming rate.

He could be reasonable injury insurance, but not how you want a player to respond to what we did for him.

Ideally Keath and Gardner both are backup to Jones and JoD. I’d rather sacrifice height defensively than watch Keath/gards kill our run every time they touch it. And dear god do I hope we let ToB go.

This would be where we need a gun intercept type to provide support to Jones and JoD without negating our run out of the backline. Hopefully Buss can be that guy in 2024 - he has been really neat by foot at vfl level all year too. Ditto Cleary. Helps in that regard.

We gave Gardy a 3 year extension in February on top of his 2023 contract so it was basically a 4 year. I also wonder who we were bidding against / what the dynamic was for needing to extend to 2026 not just 2024 or at most 2025.

 

[Sentinel]

Another observation.

Recently, Vice Captaincy at the Western Bulldogs is the place where careers potentially turn to shizen.

Vice Captain and Leading Goalkicker are both poisoned chalices at the club. At least Naughton has finally bucked the trend this year after winning the goalkicking award last season.

 

[cherrypie]

According to the HS Article

Gold Coast offering pick 4 for back end picks for Academy
Keen to re-sign Sam Flanders
Will listen to offers for Hollands

Predictable trade incoming. Geelong receive Pick 4 and Hollands, Gold Coast receive Bowes

 

[Dogs Rule]

Which hack who had a belter of a game against us this year will we pay way over the odds for and give a long list clogging contract to this year?

 

[Nat Fyfe]

Which hack who had a belter of a game against us this year will we pay way over the odds for and give a long contract list clogging contact to this year?

A few of us called it prior to the Freo game - Henry had 33 touches

 

[Rookie]

Cost would be huge, he's under contract.
I'd rookie Sullivan from our VFL program as he knows how to play defensively. It's what we need right now. If he plays 4 games per year as a specialist tagger and that's it, that's still above average for a lot of rookie picks.

I'd even consider - perhaps sit down for this - Luke Dunstan. Far too good for VFL and he's hard, by god we need some hardness in our side.

Hard to argue with these suggestions - either one could add hardness. I'd give Sullivan a crack for sure - reckon he's quicker than Dunstan and wouldn't worsen our speed problem.

Real possibility Sullivan can do a Menegola and really add something to our lineup.