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List Mgmt. What to do with Josh Bruce?

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JimmyMann

JimmyMann

Goal Kicking Coach
Nov 19, 2017
250
619
Melbourne
AFL Club
St Kilda
With Josh Bruce missing the rest of the 2018 season with a broken leg and Battle, Membrey and McCartin headlining the St Kilda forward line for years to come, what will we do with Josh Bruce?

I posed a situation in the Collingwood thread regarding a possible trade to harbour a second round pick back to St Kilda involving Josh Bruce, which seems like I may be jumping the gun but is there a spot for this bloke in our best 22 anymore?

Bruce is 26 when compared to Membrey (24), McCartin (22) and Battle (19) and I struggle to see him stealing a spot from any of these blokes next season. And with teams like Richmond, Collingwood and Hawthorn all in pursuit of Tom Lynch with the notion that at least 2 will miss out on his service, could he be used to either gain the services of a young, fast and polished midfielder or work our way back into the second round of this year's draft?

Note: I love watching Brucey and I will miss him if we do get rid of him but it could be in the best interests of the club to get something for him now while his price is still up and key forwards are in high-demand.
 
I’m going to go with the boring option of keep him for depth and competition for spots, unless something comes along that’s too good to pass up.
 
You're not going to get a second round pick for somebody who has broken his leg and has missed most of 2018. Not to mention he was playing VFL.

If pick 30 was offered, I would take it.
 

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JimmyMann said:
With Josh Bruce missing the rest of the 2018 season with a broken leg and Battle, Membrey and McCartin headlining the St Kilda forward line for years to come, what will we do with Josh Bruce?

I posed a situation in the Collingwood thread regarding a possible trade to harbour a second round pick back to St Kilda involving Josh Bruce, which seems like I may be jumping the gun but is there a spot for this bloke in our best 22 anymore?

Bruce is 26 when compared to Membrey (24), McCartin (22) and Battle (19) and I struggle to see him stealing a spot from any of these blokes next season. And with teams like Richmond, Collingwood and Hawthorn all in pursuit of Tom Lynch with the notion that at least 2 will miss out on his service, could he be used to either gain the services of a young, fast and polished midfielder or work our way back into the second round of this year's draft?

Note: I love watching Brucey and I will miss him if we do get rid of him but it could be in the best interests of the club to get something for him now while his price is still up and key forwards are in high-demand.
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I'd say it's too early to put Battle and Paddy in the definite column yet. Both are looking promising but we have a heap of those that haven't gone that next step. I'd keep him as at least back up if all we got was a second rounder.
 
Membrey: Has shown enough consistency and high level performance to justify keeping him, not to mention his unique status as a smaller, more mobile tall. Keep.

Battle: Very promising early signs. He could certainly improve, but could also fail to progress. Far too early to tell, and any trade would not yield a decent enough return to justify the move, especially given the promising signs. Keep.

McCartin: A combination of concussion issues, fitness concerns, and inconsistent performances means that any trade involving Paddy would be (rightfully) unders. Based on that, persevering with Paddy is the best option. Keep (unless an absurd offer is made).

Bruce: My initial hope for this trade period was to get some games under Bruce's belt after his back injury so as to try him out one last time, or at least prove fitness to bolster his trade value. I feel that Bruce's one amazing season is fading from memory so it will be hard to leverage that in trade negotiations, let alone after a broken leg. On one hand, the club should be looking to trade surplus players ASAP so as to draft now and start the development, or on trade the picks for existing players. But on the other hand, trading Bruce at the end of the season would yield the lowest possible return. There may be one situation where a trade could work out: if a contending team comes knocking for a KPF to finish off their side, and St Kilda trade him whilst paying a majority (essentially the most that we are allowed to pay) of his wages. That club's gamble will then be minimised from a salary cap perspective, although won't mitigate the gamble with respect to the trade value; having said that, contending clubs would value cap space more than mid-tier pick. Trade?

After seeing how Battle, Membrey and McCartin worked together, I really feel like this forwardline could work. Watching Membrey, McCartin, Bruce together didn't instil me with a lot of confidence, but I really feel like Battle over Bruce acts to facilitates Paddy's game, since the mobility of both Josh and Tim helps to draw defenders away from the forward 50, thus allowing Paddy to be more stay at home and play to his strengths.
 
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V disappointing about the broken leg . I was just thinking and would be surprised if the club wasn’t thinking the same thing that it was perfect timing with battles injury to bring Bruce in . Nobody actually gets dropped and Bruce improves his currency in the market.
I would be very comfortable going forward with the other 3 .

Now we Should keep him for another year to prove himself and compete for a spot as he’s probably dropped too much value.
 
If he didn’t get injured and played out the year I’d be more inclined to trade him.. but he’s our most experienced forward and we won’t get anything worthwhile for him.
We’re better off keeping him and getting him to compete for his spot back in the team next year... competition for spots will be the best thing for ensuring our forwards grow and get better.
Plus, worst case he becomes cover in case we have bad luck with injury.
 

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kernelT said:
We need quality mids a lot more than we need a back-up forward in the VFL on 500K.

Bruce is a great athlete, but not a natural footballer for mine… so if we could get back into the second round of this draft I would take a serious look.
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Yes but if he is contracted at $500k pa then that's what he will be getting. Will the other club pay it? Or will we have to pay some? If we are paying I'd rather keep unless we get overs for a trade.
 
Strahany said:
After seeing how Battle, Membrey and McCartin worked together, I really feel like this forwardline could work. Watching Membrey, McCartin, Bruce together didn't instil me with a lot of confidence, but I really feel like Battle over Bruce acts to facilitates Paddy's game, since the mobility of both Josh and Tim helps to draw defenders away from the forward 50, thus allowing Paddy to be more stay at home and play to his strengths.
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Yes.
 
It's a tough one, but I think more the question is, what's the least you would trade him for. As they'd certainly entertain offers I would think.

Sucks about the fibula, but I get the impression from this wording: "The injury is likely to keep him sidelined for the remainder of the season." That it wasn't a terrible one.

For mine, anything under pick 30 is a trade.
 
I would think if we get rid of Bruce in the trade period then we would looking at drafting one of the King boys

Having only 3 genuine marking forwards in the squad is a risk - not counting Marshall as a forward

I think Bruce stays unless an offer too good comes along

Contracted to the end of 2020
 

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AFLOnline said:
I'd entertain trading him and try get an early second

Gotta make changes boys. Cant sit still and die wondering.
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I just can’t see anyone with an early second giving it up for Bruce.

Adelaide are set for key forwards, Carlton will likely take Lukosius, Port and West Coast have better key forwards. One of the QLD clubs might but he has to want to go there. Only possible one is going back to the Giants after the Patton injury but that’s be unlikely.

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bird_man said:
I think we need depth. Bruce is at his lowest value right now unfortunately.

No point trading players for the sake of it. Trade players when you get offered a Stanley like deal.

Collingwood have pick 35 as it stands. That would likely fall back to a pick in the 40’s after academy and father sons.
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Bill/Hicks and Juicy, for Grundy and a 4th/Mayne
 
Coconut_twirl said:
Ideally it would be good if we can get at least one 25-40 pick in this super draft. Swapping this year's second round was madness
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Giving a 50 a goal season forward away for a second round pick? that’s madness.. Out of Battle, Bruce, Membrey and Mccartin, only Bruce and Membrey has proved themselves with 50+ goal seasons, so the answer is keep Bruce and play the 3 that are in form.
 
Jade Buddha said:
Unless we get a brilliant offer, pick #20 or lower and that aint happening, I'd say keep him. You don't give away 50 goal forwards.
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Bruce should be worth a first round pick. I know he has injuries now. But between him and Membrey, has been our best forwards by far both kicking 50+, everyone’s favourite Paddy kicked 14 in his best season in 2016. Are we over rating Mccartin much and under rating proven warrior in Bruce? trade someone as soon as they are injured? what a family club we are.
 

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List Mgmt. What to do with Josh Bruce?

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