Wooden Spoon 2023

[Psicosis]

It's a catch 22.

We all want Reid, as he looks like a generational alpha type that you can plonk across any line.

Some teams will tank extremely hard for him just 5-6 games in if the writing is on the wall. Just as West Coast did last year, you probably need 2-3 wins next year to secure it.

I think West Coast, Hawthorn and Essendon are all monty's to go for him at some point. Particularly Hawthorn, they haven't won a spoon in almost 60 years, Mitchell is in a grace period, they stripped all their senior players, they will view it as something that isn't great, but worth it for Reid and can ride out the supporters given their success of the last 30 years.

If we win the spoon - Clarko's first year has been a failure and some players have likely regressed and given it will be 3 spoons in a row, some promising young players are likely at the end of the line as some are at make or break years. We are also unlikely to get some major instant improvements under Clarko that we think might happen if we win the spoon.

The only scenario in which we show major improvement and still win the spoon is probably if we face an injury crisis and still perform to an extent. Given our injury record with especially younger players the last 405 years, I don't really want that either.

I guess another scenario is if Goldstein/Cunners/Ziebell/Hall all absolutely fall off a cliff this season performance wise and the younger players make some strides but the senior players regress.

I've very much been in the "don't really care if we win the spoon" the last 3-4 years, as it is a means to an ends of getting better.

But we are at the point now we have PLENTY of young talent and further spoons may just mean the players we did draft aren't good enough.

There's plenty of good players at the bottom next year that we can still get with a welcome improvement of 5-7 wins, which would mean we are moving in the right direction.

You are still probably securing a Nick Watson and Caddy/Reid combination with picks 5 and 10-12 next year. which is still another massive injection of elite talent.

Best case would be West Coast spoon & we offer our two firsts so that they can take the two WA guns Curtin & Tholstropp, whilst we get Reid.

 

[Sphynx]

Best case would be West Coast spoon & we offer our two firsts so that they can take the two WA guns Curtin & Tholstropp, whilst we get Reid.

We will likely be one of the few sides that will have the ammo to trade for Reid if possible, as you said, it's only likely if a Non-Vic side win the spoon.

IF Hawthorn or Essendon win the spoon, forget it, they will build their list around Reid.

It will really depend on where our first pick is, I can't see West Coast dropping from #1 to #5 in a hypothetical, like we did, you probably wan't to drop down into the top 3 or 4 still and pickup another first rounder.

Not only will we likely have a top 5 2023 pick, but likely another pick in the first dozen.

We will be able to trade our F1 2024 also given the picks we have taken to the draft the last few years.

So 3 potential top 10 picks in our arsenal going into next years trade period.

 

[Psicosis]

Their supporters are delusional, but this is worth posting in here...

Hawks won 8 games in 2022.

Gunston played in 5 of those wins, kicking 19 goals in the 5 games.

3, 3, 3, 5 & 5.

 

[Roogal]

Hawthorn has got it in the bag.

It could be either Essendon, Hawthorn or West Coast seems to be the consensus (my money's on the latter). Personally, I reckon we'll place around 15th this year winning seven games. Anything above that is a bonus. Let's face it, it's going to be a long hard slog for us to rise back up from the depths that we'd sunk to over the last two seasons

 

[DuckYeah]

It could be either Essendon, Hawthorn or West Coast seems to be the consensus (my money's on the latter). Personally, I reckon we'll place around 15th this year winning seven games. Anything above that is a bonus. Let's face it, it's going to be a long hard slog for us to rise back up from the depths that we'd sunk to over the last two seasons

I like to think we will crawl out from the bottom 3/4 this year. I totally can see it happening if we are injury free to key personnel. If we have a horrid year and we lose key back, cunners and another mid and a key forward.. its going to be a hard year.

Otherwise Essendope are my red hot favourite with Hawforn and west coke to fill in the bottom 4