As much as the last 2 weeks have need pretty ordinary, i actually thought Tuesday night we competed, we fought for most of the night. I honestly believe its a confidence thing and that can change.

But thinking longer term i really believe we need to find a way to get back into R1 of this years draft, i think its critical actually and we must do whatever it takes, as what is being shown up at the moment is that we still lack a genuine game breaking mid, Oliver is a beauty and Petracca may get there, Viney is obviously a gun, but we need better class.  So how do we do it?

Suggestions welcome...

Brayshaw used as part of the RFA deal to snag Gaff.

We shouldn't try and get back into the first round - that time has past.

Need Gaff.

I think in 5 years time we will regret not having a pick in this years draft, the quality runs deep. 

Gaff would be great though and feel Angus might be part of a few potential deals.

The only way getting back into Round 1 is trading a player that is worth a Round 1 pick.  Really we have Hogan/Oliver/Petracca/Gawn that should get us a top 10 pick, Lever cost us 2 first round picks but we would struggle to get 1 back for him.  Out side that we don't even have players that would fetch us a first round pick

Agree with the above sentiments.  

We need to look to lure a free agent or trade rather than a speculative 18 year old.  We wouldn't be willing to give up someone that would net us a top ten pick and our efforts would be better spent on retaining the young quality that we have and look to build upon it with a 25-28 yo free agent.

There is a rather large number of Unrestricted free agents available this year.

Unrestricted

Richard Douglas (Adelaide); David Mackay (Adelaide); Andy Otten (Adelaide); Rohan Bewick (Brisbane); Ryan Lester (Brisbane); Marc Murphy (Carlton); Kade Simpson (Carlton); Jarryd Blair (Collingwood); Alex Fasolo (Collingwood); Tyson Goldsack (Collingwod); Ben Reid (Collingwood); Tom Bellchambers (Essendon); Hayden Ballantyne (Fremantle); Michael Johnson (Fremantle); David Mundy (Fremantle); Aaron Sandilands (Fremantle); George Horlin-Smith (Geelong); Daniel Menzel (Geelong); Jarrod Harbrow (Gold Coast); Michael Rischitelli (Gold Coast); Shaun Burgoyne (Hawthorn), Taylor Duryea (Hawthorn); Paul Puopolo (Hawthorn); Ryan Schoenmakers (Hawthorn); Brendan Whitecross (Hawthorn); Neville Jetta (Melbourne); Scott Thompson (North Melbourne); Sam Wright (North Melbourne); Justin Westhoff (Port Adelaide); Reece Conca (Richmond); Shaun Grigg (Richmond); Sam Gilbert (St Kilda); Heath Grundy (Sydney); Jarrad McVeigh (Sydney); Nick Smith (Sydney); Mark Le Cras (West Coast); Eric Mackenzie (West Coast); Luke Dahlhaus (Western Bulldogs); Tom Liberatore (Western Bulldogs); Dale Morris (Western Bulldogs)

 

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-03-22/official-afl-releases-list-of-2018-free-agents

Edited April 26, 20187 yr by Diamond_Jim

None of those seem to be what we need though

Of that list, i’d only be interested in Dahlhouse, but he wants to stay at the kennel.

RFA with Gaff available should be our focus, as we need someone who runs all day (tick) is a good disposer (tick) and can get a fair bit of it (tick). Not only that he’d push out one of our poorer mids, and his spread would be valuable to us both offensively and defensively.

Having said all that, one player isn’t going to change the way we play at the moment. If anything, we’d be making him more likely to sign with WCE atm.

Edited April 26, 20187 yr by Demon Disciple

Wouldn't even want Dahlhouse.

 

By trading Hogan to WA. Pure and simple.

Petracca and Oliver are our only other commodities that would be worth a first rounder but they are under contract for 3 or so years each.

Gawn and Viney are also worth first rounders but both players will play out their careers at MFC.

 

Out of the above list I'd have a nibble at Menzel.

 

 

By trading Hogan to WA. Pure and simple.

That better not happen

 

 

 

 

Out of the above list I'd have a nibble at Menzel.

 

Could have got him last year.  No clubs even had a nibble.

Personally, I think he’s a lazy player, but he just keeps kicking plenty of goals.

Heaps of behinds too. He doesn’t run towards the goals when having a set shot. Fix that and he’d have many more goals so far this year.

1 hour ago, McQueen said:

Brayshaw used as part of the RFA deal to snag Gaff.

We shouldn't try and get back into the first round - that time has past.

Need Gaff.

Why the need to use Brayshaw for Free Agents?  Is it to "encourage" West Coast not to match our bid?

Foolish if so.

24 minutes ago, The Chazz said:

Why the need to use Brayshaw for Free Agents?  Is it to "encourage" West Coast not to match our bid?

Foolish if so.

agree...

If we trade we will have to pay whatever any other club moneywise offers for Gaff ( he gets that practically as an RFA) plus whatever we offer up in a trade... strange unless you want to free up salary cap.

Brayshaw is out of contract at year's end which complicates things as well.

Edited April 26, 20187 yr by Diamond_Jim

3 minutes ago, Diamond_Jim said:

agree...

If we trade we will have to pay whatever any other club moneywise offers for Gaff ( he gets that practically as an RFA) plus whatever we offer up in a trade... strange unless you want to free up salary cap.

Brayshaw is out of contract at year's end which complicates things as well.

Add to that, that Brayshaw isn't a player that I would want to lose.  He has already shown that he is capable, and, providing he can continue to get continuity in games played, he will be a very valuable piece of our midfield in the next 6-18 months.

David Mackay and Marc Murphy would provide some of the run we so desperately need.

Menzel would provide some of the smart finishing we so desperately need.

We need to be involved when players like Saad and Impey request trades. We seemed to put all our eggs in the Lever basket.

I think the reputations of Gawn, Petracca and Hogan far outweigh what they produce on the field for us. I think there is no point in having a "quality" ruckman or key forward when the midfield has no pace or class, so I'd certainly see what you can get for them.

Gaff will be useless sitting out there on a wing when we don't have the kicking skills or pace off half back or in the midfield to break a line or switch the play and get it to him. 

Priority pick???

If the rumours re Brayshaw are true and Meth Coke finish top 6 - as looks likely - then we should be requesting their first round pick for Brayshaw; I think they’d laugh at us and offer a third round pick

We have zero commodities worth a first round pick that we’d want to give up - i.e. Gawn, Petracca, Hogan, and Oliver - so it is a very, very difficult task to get back into this year’s first rounder

Unless we offer up NEXT year’s first rounder as part of it as a package

2 hours ago, Demon Disciple said:

Of that list, i’d only be interested in Dahlhouse, but he wants to stay at the kennel.

RFA with Gaff available should be our focus, as we need someone who runs all day (tick) is a good disposer (tick) and can get a fair bit of it (tick). Not only that he’d push out one of our poorer mids, and his spread would be valuable to us both offensively and defensively.

Having said all that, one player isn’t going to change the way we play at the moment. If anything, we’d be making him more likely to sign with WCE atm.

We won't want Dahlhouse. 

11 minutes ago, whatwhatsaywhat said:

If the rumours re Brayshaw are true and Meth Coke finish top 6 - as looks likely - then we should be requesting their first round pick for Brayshaw; I think they’d laugh at us and offer a third round pick

We have zero commodities worth a first round pick that we’d want to give up - i.e. Gawn, Petracca, Hogan, and Oliver - so it is a very, very difficult task to get back into this year’s first rounder

Unless we offer up NEXT year’s first rounder as part of it as a package

Correct me if i am wrong but i think we have dont this.. 2 first round picks for Lever  wasnt it?

1 hour ago, The Chazz said:

Why the need to use Brayshaw for Free Agents?  Is it to "encourage" West Coast not to match our bid?

Foolish if so.

It’s a show of good faith if anything particularly for a very good RFA.

Geelong and Adelaide with Dangerfield is what prompted me to think of this scenario, chazz.

15 minutes ago, McQueen said:

It’s a show of good faith if anything particularly for a very good RFA.

Geelong and Adelaide with Dangerfield is what prompted me to think of this scenario, chazz.

Dangerfield wanted to go to Geelong so that deal was different. It was a genuine trading situation.

I suspect Gaff will have a few offers and I can't really see why he would favour any one club over another except for their premiership potential which doesn't exactly bode well for us at present.

The elephant in the room is the re-signing of Tom Mac. If he goes and the Weid fails to impress .... well that would be interesting... At least we would get a decent draft pick that we could use or trade.

2 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

None of those seem to be what we need though

There’s plenty who are better than what we’ve got too