Strategy Trade and List Management Thread Part 8 (opposition supporters - READ posting rules before posting)

[_Mike_]

Opposition supporters coming to troll , you have been warned

 

[threenewpadlocks]

Lobb only lost 13% of his defensive 1v1s in 2024. He’s not as bad as many make out.

I'm more worried about Lobb's decline as a player that's possible given his age and the lack of depth to replace him if he falls off a cliff (like Jones) than I am as much as play-style or whtaever.

 

[Smiley Boy]

Good riddance

 

[Foxman98]

I'm more worried about Lobb's decline as a player that's possible given his age and the lack of depth to replace him if he falls off a cliff (like Jones) than I am as much as play-style or whtaever.

Lobb was far too agressive this year but I think that was coaching,

I remember in 1 of the Saints game they burst out of the middle and he lead to the left as his opponent lead to the right and took and uncontested mark,

Get him to play 1 on 1 and he wins more often then not due to his size and length

 

[Doggy]

I'm more worried about Lobb's decline as a player that's possible given his age and the lack of depth to replace him if he falls off a cliff (like Jones) than I am as much as play-style or whtaever.

Depth? Nah, we don't need it.

Just hope for the best, she'll be right.

 

[threenewpadlocks]

Not sure why people are taking on frontloading contracts as a win, it's a last resort step.

At some point you have to make that salary cap room into other players otherwise you go into a cycle of constantly frontloading players to free up cap room that is used to frontload other players to free up cap room...

We already created the cap room by moving on Macrae and Daniel. While I don't think they would have added much to our best 22 I'm not so sure it's a "win" when we didn't have to create the cap room because we already did by moving on those two.

 

[Foxman98]

Not sure why people are taking on frontloading contracts as a win, it's a last resort step.

At some point you have to make that salary cap room into other players otherwise you go into a cycle of constantly frontloading players to free up cap room that is used to frontload other players to free up cap room...

We already created the cap room by moving on Macrae and Daniel. While I don't think they would have added much to our best 22 I'm not so sure it's a "win" when we didn't have to create the cap room because we already did by moving on those two.

We just Re-signed Richards/Darcy/Bont will have to re-sign West/Freijah/Sanders

 

[threenewpadlocks]

Depth? Nah, we don't need it.

Just hope for the best, she'll be right.

We're almost certainly going to take another key defender to the list whether it's a draftee or mature aged player, we can't go into a list with 4 key defenders if for no other reason for VFL team balance to make the team competitive and make players play in their natural condition.

 

[Lindsay_Gilbee]

Thanks for nothing Jamarrah. Don’t think I’ve seen a bloke inside our four walls disrespect us like he has. Hope he never laces up a footy boot again.

 

[Dav1d]

Depth? Nah, we don't need it.

Just hope for the best, she'll be right.

I’m curious who you’d go for because it seems like Jordan Butts or nothing after missing out on Wilkie & Silvagni

 

[Hobdog]

Was pick 1 and we traded up to get him. What an absolute failure that was. What did we miss from our research on him?

Nothing. Once in the AFL system his network expanded and he got dragged into a scene that has seemingly sucked him in further and further. Went from training with and idolising Bont to hanging out with a whole different crowd.

 

[Unorth]

imagine going back to the end of 2021 and saying in the next 4 seasons we’ll miss the top 8 twice, not win a single final, and Dunkley, Bailey Smith

3

Bailey Smith

Age

24

Ht

185cm

Wt

86kg

Pos.

M/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

18.3

5star

K

8.5

3star

HB

9.8

5star

M

2.3

2star

T

3.8

5star

CL

2.7

4star

D

19.8

5star

K

9.6

4star

HB

10.2

5star

M

1.8

2star

T

3.2

4star

CL

3.2

4star

D

14.8

4star

K

7.6

3star

HB

7.2

5star

M

2.0

3star

T

3.4

5star

CL

1.6

4star

and Jamarra are playing for other clubs.

What has panned out in that time should have pushed for more urgency from the club. Particularly given the service we’ve received from Bont and Libba; four of the best years of their careers and nothing to show for it. Repeated, unaddressed failings that let them down every year.

I was disappointed last year we didn’t address the small forwards, it bit us this year when our paper thin depth in that area was exposed with Cody going down.

This year, all season, the talk was yeah the flat track press won’t work against good teams but we have no choice because our defenders are awful deep.

So now that we’ve again chosen to neglect an area of need, do we expect Bevo to make significant changes to his structure to adjust to the weaknesses that emerged in 2025? (Not likely). Where does our improvement come from other than praying Bont and Darcy play every game? (We aren’t the only club with good young prospects that will get better). How are we looking to get over the top of better sides next year, and sides we finished above this year that have been more aggressive in short term improvements? And god help us if Lobbs age decline outweighs improvement from JoD or Buss.

It’s been discussed but there’s a very risk averse approach from the club now. As long as we finish 9th, and aren’t bottoming out hence risking financials, everyone that matters seems to be very safe and too comfortable.

when you look at where we were at in 2019/2020, and the moves we made to have a mostly successful 2021, beggars belief that we’ve chosen to go the opposite way and be content losing talent without being aggressive in even bringing in B graders back…

The Sam Darcy father son gift might carry a few jobs at WO over the years as he keeps us from bottoming out like Bont has.

The stars might align with health and injuries next season but that kind of luck is the only way I see us improving. Puts the fate of the team in very unpredictable hands.

 

[threenewpadlocks]

We just Re-signed Richards/Darcy/Bont will have to re-sign West/Freijah/Sanders

All things that were made possible by moving on the two worst contracts we had (but still could afford) in Macrae and Sanders with provision to offer Butts more money.

Sanders isn't a star, he's not going to demand big money yet. West is just a role-playing best 22 player, his couple of hundred thousand dollars more on the next contract is a drop in the entire salary cap.

 

[Dogsman16]

He’s already posted on Insta. Just empty with how he conducted himself.

We move forward.

 

[Mojorisin]

We're almost certainly going to take another key defender to the list whether it's a draftee or mature aged player, we can't go into a list with 4 key defenders if for no other reason for VFL team balance to make the team competitive and make players play in their natural condition.

We will be taking Darcy as a draftee but we need someone closer to an AFL game aswell.

 

[Ash1337]

Buller deal done for F3 with a F4 back.

 

[Foxman98]

Leaving trade period with Gardner and Coffield as our KPD depth.

Best case it’s Frost/Gardner/Coffield

Hmmm

Lobb/JOD/Buss

Gards/Walker/Coffield/W.Darcy*

 

[JTCWBFC]

Members deserve an explanation of why we’ve done **** all, we won’t get it though.

 

[Doggy]

I’m curious who you’d go for because it seems like Jordan Butts or nothing after missing out on Wilkie & Silvagni

People say contracts mean nothing these days so we could have had a crack at literally anyone. I am not paid to identify and secure players for the club.

Others have pointed out we do not necessarily need a big name. It's yet to be seen whether Busslinger (who might not even be at the club beyond next year) and JOD can be key pillars. They are tall, but neither has shown great one on one capability. They would seriously need to get on the protein bars.

 

[Mofra]

We're almost certainly going to take another key defender to the list whether it's a draftee or mature aged player, we can't go into a list with 4 key defenders if for no other reason for VFL team balance to make the team competitive and make players play in their natural condition.

We took Walker at the MSD and are tied to Will Darcy this draft.

Developing KPDs aren't the issue, it's how we'll line up in round 1 2026.

 

[doggie dog]

I can’t believe how badly we’ve handled this trade period.

We finished 9th with one of the most unbalanced lists in the comp. Defence has been our biggest issue and we’ve done nothing through trading to fix it.

We had one job.....bring in support down back. Gardner is depth at best and we still don’t have a genuine interceptor or key defender. We threw everything at Wilkie, missed, and that was apparently the whole plan. No backup target, no creative move, nothing.

We didn’t get aggressive with picks, didn’t use futures and didn’t move fringe players. We’re rolling into another season with the exact same defensive problems that cost us games all year and hoping something magically improves.

Every year we talk about the backline being the issue and every year we pretend internal development will fix it. It hasn’t and it won’t.

This trade period should’ve been about fixing the spine and balancing the list. Instead, we’ve come out of it without a key defensive upgrade. No intercept marking, no lockdown size, no extra rebound.....I'm ignoring Budarick as he's a direct replacement for doc...

I don't know how any of our supporter base can be remotely happy with this.

Im indecisive.
I believe there has been communication between Butters and the dogs in 1 form or the other.
If Butters has let it be known he is keen to move to the dogs, to ensure mutual understanding, the dogs cannot trade future F1/F2 picks that maybe required to satisfy Port.
So with our current draft, 14/33, can we get a 1st choice Full back.....nope.
Our defensive structure needs fixing more that spending heaps of assets on any defenders that aren't 1st choice 22.

We also can't trade anyone from our team that doesn't weaken us, so who would get us a 1st round pick who not best 22.
Maybe Sanders, but Sanders could be really good in 2 years or is a guaranteed 2 top 10 1st round picks from tassie.

Positives
One thing we did well was the MSD.
Sellwood/Walker could have been 2nd/3rd round picks in this year's draft. Both defenders. Sellwood might be best 22 ahead of JJ/Clearly with a full preseason if some of the reports on BF are accurate.
Budarick is best 22, Doc was not best 22.

If we don't get Butter's next year, we will have 3 1st round picks and heaps of salary cap to trade, to get more best 22 players to get The Bont another premmie. That should be our main objective.

 

[JTCWBFC]

Lobb/JOD/Buss

Gards/Walker/Coffield/W.Darcy*

I’m sorry but none of those 4 are even depth. Gardiner and Coffield are horrendous and shouldn’t even be on the list, walker is tiny and Darcy hasn’t even been drafted yet with some pretty mild numbers this year.

 

[weltschmerz]

I’m sorry but none of those 4 are even depth. Gardiner and Coffield are horrendous and shouldn’t even be on the list, walker is tiny and Darcy hasn’t even been drafted yet with some pretty mild numbers this year.

Walker is somewhere around 194cm

 

[Mofra]

I’m sorry but none of those 4 are even depth. Gardiner and Coffield are horrendous and shouldn’t even be on the list, walker is tiny and Darcy hasn’t even been drafted yet with some pretty mild numbers this year.

Walker tiny?
Don't believe his draft height

 

[Foxman98]

I’m sorry but none of those 4 are even depth. Gardiner and Coffield are horrendous and shouldn’t even be on the list, walker is tiny and Darcy hasn’t even been drafted yet with some pretty mild numbers this year.

Yes the VFL team of the year FB is awful depth but we should be chasing Sam Frost and Steven May then as depth

Walker isn't tiny at all you clearly have never seen him play

 

[Mojorisin]

Members deserve an explanation of why we’ve done **** all, we won’t get it though.

They've given one. We aren't going to trade for the sake of it, if they aren't viewed as improvements on what we have we won't pursue it.