Trading this year comes down to this

PiePower

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Thread starter #1
Are we a couple of quality midfielders away from a premiership?

Or is an entire, from the ground up rebuild required?

Those questions have to be answered first.

There is a case for both, our list is essentially unchanged from the 02/03 grand final years, but are too many scarred? old? burnt out?

If it's the latter then forget trading for players and just see who we can offload for draft picks

But if we are close then the Bartels have to be aggressively chased
 

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MarkT

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#3
In this age of AFL socialism not many teams are far off being a contender. Winning it, as Collingwood supporters should know only too well, is another matter again. Looking at what we have and what we don't have, I'd say we are a good ruckman, two or three quick, skilled, hard midfielders (where the hell do you find them?) and a good injury run away from serious contention.

Unless we can get what we need very soon we may as well be a million miles away though because we have Buckley, Burns and Wakelin to replace on top of what we need and then we'll have to worry about the likes of Clement, Rocca, Presti and Licuria. On top of that we have no depth at all and we lack youngsters that look like they will be real top line players. There are a couple of potentials but not nearly enough.

The problem with our list at present is that unless we win an unlikely flag in the next few years we will go another 2 to 3 years drafting players to tread water and that supposes we far and away out perform our drafting history.

Being optimistic, we need to get Gardiner (trade), M. Lappin (PSD), Brent Harvey or similar (trade) and draft two gun midfielders at 2 and 5. Don’t ask me what we give up in the trades. On top of that Rusling and Travis Cloke have to kick on and Swan has to be the answer as a small defender while we get barely an injury. That would give us a shot next year and a chance at maintaining a midfield with continued good drafting. We have a good enough defense and forward set up.

Now I'm depressed.

In any case IMO we should have an all out crack next year and hope for the best. If it backfires we will fall and stay down for a while but frankly short of that we won't see a flag for a long time anyway. The one thing I don't want to do is wallow mid table for a couple of years and then be RS when a few of our only real quality players are gone.
 

Jimbeam

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#6
We are at least 1 decent A grade midfielder away, maybe 2 if didak cannot cut it in there, but if dids can run mid we are already going in the right direction.. We have picks 2,5,23 and 2nd psd, so we should be able to cover our midfield crisis with some decent drafting... fingers crossed.

Our next problem as Mark has outlined is ruck, we do have enough stocks but no real standout tap ruckman, i believe if Richards can get a full pre-season and run out next year we are OK, but if its a flag Josh would have to step up in a big way.. So i would say our rucks are going to be average.. If we could get gardner and he was fit enough to ruck again we are defiantly going to make waves.. for gardner it would take at least pick 23 and lokyer or cole.. even then its unlikely and we cannot afford to loose our pick 2,5, but rumors are MM west coast connection has gardner ready to leave as they want him out of perth for off field reasons, sounds bs to me though..

So if we can get dids on ball, Richards up and running and Josh firing we are looking at the 8.. but we also need a fully fit tarrent(hasnt been for 2years) and roccer.. T.cloke has to be able to hold down half back or half forward somtimes and jimmy should get some runs in the center, bucks to play forward and go onto the ball for small burst, wakes to play another good year alongside holland and licca..

So I think we should aim for the 8.. 07 should be the year we make a big run at the flag again.. but 06 anything can happen as we still dont know how good the side is, when we get a full list available well know for sure..
 

Stan.

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#8
We need 4 mids minimum from this years draft and add that to such names as-

didak, johnson, rowe, davies,yakka,cole, egan etc then we may be a chance in 2007 to make the eight.
 

magpies42

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#9
teams that win premierships have 4 quality mids that can play in any team if they wanted and kpp's. we are lacking 2 quality mids at the moment so picking up hurn and ellis will sort that out! But by the time they develop we are going to need to fill the void left by presti and wakes and dont forget clement tore his groin in the last minutes of our final game! that could be a hint for things to come! hopefully not, touch wood!
 

Jabso

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#10
The formula is usually 4 very good mids that are in near AA form. In 2002/2003 we might not have been the most star studded midfield but we had a wide mix who all filled a role.
We had:
Buckley - AA
Burns - Near AA
Licuria - Near AA
Woewodin (2003) - Played an important role in 2003.
Holland (2002 was poor) - Was one of the best taggers that year and had superb 2nd half of the year form. Was BOG in the prelim.
Scotland - His 2003 second half was great as a player who got under the radar of oppositions.
O'Bree, Lockyer, Steinfort, Betheras played lesser roles.
Now when you look at it Buckley has gone forward (and rightly so), Burns is tiring and can only play in bursts, Woewodin has declined alot, Licuria and Holland had to share the load and did solid jobs at it (although some would say Holland was much better than Lica). This means the likes of O'Bree, Lockyer and Morrison, who should only be playing minor, very minor roles (3rd stringers), have to become our top liners.

If we could land 2 of Ellis, Murphy or Hurn it would be great, but that is unlikely (although depending on Carlton and Hawthorns need for KPPs we might be lucky to escape with Ellis and Hurn).
 
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