Recruiting Trade & Free Agency VII

[Lore]

We can't trade our first without bringing another first in.

 

[Seb78]

He’s got more power and burst speed through the hips than those two.

I'll take your word on that. I have seen a bit of him, but not that much. You might be underrating Hibbo a bit though. Look at some of his clearance & contested work for Williamstown last year. Very strong in the hips. Unfortunately we dont play him in the guts enough to see it.

 

[andleanback]

I'll take your word on that. I have seen a bit of him, but not that much. You might be underrating Hibbo a bit though. Look at some of his clearance & contested work for Williamstown last year. Very strong in the hips. Unfortunately we dont play him in the guts enough to see it.

Yeah I know hibbo is strong through the hips, I watched him a few times for willy last year. He hasn’t really show the ability to take the ball a burst/ break through tackles in stoppage situations at afl level yet. Confidence or just stronger bodies at afl level, I’m not sure. All I’ve seen him do is take the tackle/ be tackled.

 

[ant555]

Yeah I know hibbo is strong through the hips, I watched him a few times for willy last year. He hasn’t really show the ability to take the ball a burst/ break through tackles in stoppage situations at afl level yet. Confidence or just stronger bodies at afl level, I’m not sure. All I’ve seen him do is take the tackle/ be tackled.

I always thought the best part of his game for Willy was his ability to spread. He was big and strong but he was not a battering ram. He could win inside ball but he had a balance in his game and won just as much footy on the outside.

 

[CBombers17]

I always thought the best part of his game for Willy was his ability to spread. He was big and strong but he was not a battering ram. He could win inside ball but he had a balance in his game and won just as much footy on the outside.

Can you pinpoint why it hasn't converted at AFL level, or is it because we haven't played him in the middle enough to find out?

 

[Milanista28]

Zaharakis will be in our round 1 side in 2021, how does that make you feel?

 

[andleanback]

I always thought the best part of his game for Willy was his ability to spread. He was big and strong but he was not a battering ram. He could win inside ball but he had a balance in his game and won just as much footy on the outside.

Yeah that’s what I’m saying, he hasn’t show the ability to bring that to afl level yet.

 

[Kyptastic]

It's not all about size, which may appear like I am contradicting myself. Neale is a natural inside mid who is very strong. About 10 kg heavier than Parish. Give me him over most big bodied mids. If you look at Brisbane's midfield, their big bodies allow for Neale and Zorko to get some separation to clear the ball with purpose. They do the blocking and shepherding then run in waves to provide options down the line. They play as a team.

McGrath goes in to get the ball with 4 opposition players charging at him. No one to block for him. It's no wonder blind kicks have become a feature in his game. Shiel gets tagged out of the game with no one to help him. We play as individuals rather than a team. Clarke and Hibberd may not get 10 clearances each, but it helps players like Shiel and McGrath play to their potential. Both Clarke and Hibberd run both ways and give us a hard edge in contests. It'll help us play as a team.

It's almost like we lost our big bodied midfielder in Myers who didn't always get heaps of touches, but the midfield functioned well when he was there to block for players like Merrett to get the ball out and haven't replaced him in the side, even though Hibberd has taken his spot on the list.

 

[ant555]

Can you pinpoint why it hasn't converted at AFL level, or is it because we haven't played him in the middle enough to find out?

This time around not enough sample size to really say either way yet plus the fact he has not played a lot of midfield minutes.

 

[Kakkle]

Hibbo did a damn good job when given midfield minutes vs the crows in the 1st quarter. Everyone looks below their best when played out of position. Which seems to be the EFC MO.
Clarke's kicking is also greatly improved this year. And although he has an odd ball drop, it was never as bad as some VFL watchers on here made it out to be.

Nah it is/was ******* terrible. Still remember a game against North in the VFL he was lining up for a set shot and lobbed it to the man on the mark with a soft kick. It's bad. Also not sure you can say his kicking has 'greatly' improved this year when he is basically playing park cricket this season.



Also re: Hibberd. Put anyone with his frame in the VFL and they are going to do good. We're too easily seduced by VFL form.

 

[Duckworth]

Nah it is/was ******* terrible. Still remember a game against North in the VFL he was lining up for a set shot and lobbed it to the man on the mark with a soft kick. It's bad. Also not sure you can say his kicking has 'greatly' improved this year when he is basically playing park cricket this season.



Also re: Hibberd. Put anyone with his frame in the VFL and they are going to do good. We're too easily seduced by VFL form.

That's one example, I've seen him enough times. I'm not saying his kicking is great, because it's not. I'm saying the posting about it on this board is over-exaggerated. Even look at his exposed form when he had some AFL games last year it was not 'f'ing terrible'. His kicking does look to have improved (albeit in lower pressure situations this year). edit: I think I may have given him credit for a kick was actually Guelfi's, but a quick kick out of the centre (definitely him) on the highlights travelled 50 metres.

On Hibberd, when he got some midfield time vs Adelaide shows that his VFL form translated. So there is exposed form at AFL level to support the idea he has the tools to persist with.

 

[Yoda_]

That's one example, I've seen him enough times. I'm not saying his kicking is great, because it's not. I'm saying the posting about it on this board is over-exaggerated. Even look at his exposed form when he had some AFL games last year it was not 'f'ing terrible'. AND I can say that his kicking is greatly improved because it is (albeit in lower pressure situations this year).

On Hibberd, when he got some midfield time vs Adelaide shows that his VFL form translated. So there is exposed form at AFL level to support the idea he has the tools to persist with.

The thig that strikes me with our midfielders is the lack of trust in the untested guys. Even natural midfielders like Parish are being overlooked in favour of more mature heads like Tippa ans Smith.

It feels like in drafting where you focus on what a player cant do rather than what they can do.

 

[BrunoV]

There is no reason for Clarke not to play if it's not his kicking.

He's a better mid than everyone we play other than Shiel.

If he could kick at Redman's level he'd have been gone well before our second pick in 2016.

He was All Australian in 2016. He was a dominant midfielder of the VFL in 18 and 19 (second and third year player).

We're not dealing with the caricature of the coaching panel that has been created in the last month.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Can you pinpoint why it hasn't converted at AFL level, or is it because we haven't played him in the middle enough to find out?

Just be patient. 20-30 more games on the half-forward flank and we'll see what he has!

 

[CBombers17]

I think this is the part where Clarke says something something "I can't feel my feet" and we tell him to close his eyes and it's all going to be ok...

 

[Duckworth]

The thig that strikes me with our midfielders is the lack of trust in the untested guys. Even natural midfielders like Parish are being overlooked in favour of more mature heads like Tippa ans Smith.

It feels like in drafting where you focus on what a player cant do rather than what they can do.

Guys like Smith, Tippa and Langford don't need to be given midfield minutes at the expense of guys like Parish. If Tippa needs to get his hands on the ball he should move to half back.

 

[Cup_o_Jobe]

It's a bit of a "can't fight city hall" vibe when we complain about everything now being about systems, but one of the key fall outs of systems-based coaching has been the inability of players to specialize at their "natural game". Utilities and dual position types are now at a premium because the idea is that a player should be able to slot into a role rather than play to what they're best at, so the first thing we do with a good midfielder is put him on a flank, or a good developing ruckman is slotted into the back pocket, etc. It's how we end up with our best extractor in Parish spending most of his minutes languishing in the forward 50, or a big-framed mid like Hibberd huffing and puffing on a wing, or Francis with his solid dukes and line-breaking kicks wrestling one-on-one with Jeremy Cameron. Hard to be too critical of blokes who are being told they can't play the style of footy that made them special as juniors.

 

[owen87]

Brodie if he runs both ways would be well worth a trade for us, though the perennial problem we have is that we take guys who fill a need, then play them out of position.

It's like the selection panel looks at the player names, and go "oh Shiel, Merrett, Smith, Parish, McGrath and Tipungwuti should all play midfield minutes" without taking any account of their size or mix of attributes. We lack diversity in the middle, it's OK to play someone like Tipungwuti in there sometimes, but he's currently in there alongside two other guys who are about 6'0" and 80kg which makes no sense.

I'd argue that McGrath is the only naturally defensive player we play on-ball, and he doesn't have the size to just beast his way along dominating contested work.

We'd likely be better served by playing a 'lesser' player in Clarke or Hibberd on-ball, because it provides better balance to our midfield, and push someone like Smith to a HFF - especially given our decimated forward-line - than play yet another medium sized offensively minded player on-ball, no matter how they rank on our nominal list of talent.

 

[TheGrizz]

Suggested this ages ago but Levi Casboult is out of contract and is exactly the sort of player we should be going after. I would offer 3 years at 500k front ended.

WIth Curnow coming back i imagine they would happily take the compensation pick they would get from a UFA on a decent deal.

 

[owen87]

Suggested this ages ago but Levi Casboult is out of contract and is exactly the sort of player we should be going after. I would offer 3 years at 500k front ended.

WIth Curnow coming back i imagine they would happily take the compensation pick they would get from a UFA on a decent deal.

Think they'd be keen to keep Casboult given the injury issues they've had with KPP's.

Kruezer, Jones, Curnow, even McKay have all missed time with injury. Casboult basically fills FWD / RUC / DEF for them as needed.

He'll also be 31 to start the 2021 season, so not sure offering 3 years is the appropriate call. I'd be looking at whether we could grab Wright and Brodie from GCS in a trade, think they'd fit our list profile well.

 

[eth-dog]

Suggested this ages ago but Levi Casboult is out of contract and is exactly the sort of player we should be going after. I would offer 3 years at 500k front ended.

WIth Curnow coming back i imagine they would happily take the compensation pick they would get from a UFA on a decent deal.

Happy to grab him, not sure about the 3 years.

 

[CalebChicken690]

Suggested this ages ago but Levi Casboult is out of contract and is exactly the sort of player we should be going after. I would offer 3 years at 500k front ended.

WIth Curnow coming back i imagine they would happily take the compensation pick they would get from a UFA on a decent deal.

Would be quite happy to take him good mark and way better kick then Smack

 

[owen87]

way better kick

What a first post.

 

[TheGrizz]

Happy to grab him, not sure about the 3 years.

Your not prying him away for 2 years, as that is what Carlton will offer. At 30 he probably has 2 good years left and maybe one as an older backup.

Its why you front end it (with Joe and McKenna possibly off your books) so later on if he doesnt play he is a good backup on backup money.

 

[eth-dog]

Your not prying him away for 2 years, as that is what Carlton will offer. At 30 he probably has 2 good years left and maybe one as an older backup.

Its why you front end it (with Joe and McKenna possibly off your books) so later on if he doesnt play he is a good backup on backup money.

Still not sure I'd give him 3. 2 with a games and goals (25 games, 40 goals over the two?) trigger for a 3rd I'd do

 

[Tazdog]

This is what we've come to. Justifying why Levi Casboult would be a good addition to our forward line.
Levi. Casboult.