2 hours ago, Lord Travis said:

Gold Coast are in for a world of pain next season. They may be the first team in decades to go winless. It's a realistic possibility IMO.

I don't think they are that bad. From their side that beat Sydney last year their outs are May (who was best on), Lyons, KK and Lonergan (delisted). They won't be able to replace May or Lynch but everyone else they've let go weren't huge losses.

They have far more skilled flankers and young players than we did when we were rubbish in 2013. The question is can a spine scraped together with Witts, Hombsch, Day, Wright, Thompson and 3 state league players do the job and can a midfield led by Swallow, Miller, Miles and Brodie be better than terrible. David Swallow has very much reached the Nath Jones last man on the sinking ship type of player.

Suns to pickup Murdoch

Hawks to pickup Minchington

Giants to pickup Sheridan 

Swans to pickup Menzel?

Dees to pickup?????????

5 hours ago, Lord Travis said:

Gold Coast are in for a world of pain next season. They may be the first team in decades to go winless. It's a realistic possibility IMO.

I posted in the fixture thread over the week that I rang Bet Easy for the odds of that happening. They wouldn’t do it then, told me to ring them back in the new year. Will roll that up with a few certainties a whack $100 on it.

36 minutes ago, Bombay Airconditioning said:

I posted in the fixture thread over the week that I rang Bet Easy for the odds of that happening. They wouldn’t do it then, told me to ring them back in the new year. Will roll that up with a few certainties a whack $100 on it.

I'll be laying the same bet then!

They've got a few skilled flankers, and Jack Martin is a talent, but their midfield is the worst in living memory. Miller, Swallow and... Rischitelli? They can't even field a midfield at this point! They're worse than us at our lowest. Miller is average, Swallow is average and can't stay on the park, Rischi may as well have retired. After further movements this off-season, I struggle to see more than 5 players who would get a game at other AFL clubs. I actually can't see how they can survive. They're proper cooked!

Doesn't look look we'll be picking up any delisted players. If we did have any interest in any, nothing has leaked. The club is in good hands these days  

Edited November 1, 20186 yr by Lord Travis

Gold Coast will win at least 2 games, more likely 3.

11 hours ago, Bombay Airconditioning said:

I posted in the fixture thread over the week that I rang Bet Easy for the odds of that happening. They wouldn’t do it then, told me to ring them back in the new year. Will roll that up with a few certainties a whack $100 on it.

 

11 hours ago, Lord Travis said:

I'll be laying the same bet then!

They've got a few skilled flankers, and Jack Martin is a talent, but their midfield is the worst in living memory. Miller, Swallow and... Rischitelli? They can't even field a midfield at this point! They're worse than us at our lowest. Miller is average, Swallow is average and can't stay on the park, Rischi may as well have retired. After further movements this off-season, I struggle to see more than 5 players who would get a game at other AFL clubs. I actually can't see how they can survive. They're proper cooked!

Doesn't look look we'll be picking up any delisted players. If we did have any interest in any, nothing has leaked. The club is in good hands these days  

Fitzroy in 1964 were the last team to go through a whole season winless, and before that it was Hawthorn in 1950. As we know all too well, there have been some terribly awful teams in that time, but even Fitzroy in 1996 won a game while in their death throes. There will always be awful teams, but the AFL as a competition is still even enough that they only have to play out of their skins once, or have some bunch of hacks coast and drop their game, and the awful teams will get their one win at least.

It won't happen. Have fun flushing your $100 down the toilet lads!

If you want to lose the money another way you could take your $100 and back the GC opposition each week cumulatively.  Yeah some weeks it will be $1.01 but some weeks you will see double figures in the cents.

4 hours ago, Fifty-5 said:

If you want to lose the money another way you could take your $100 and back the GC opposition each week cumulatively.  Yeah some weeks it will be $1.01 but some weeks you will see double figures in the cents.

You could also just set fire to it; at least there’s a much lower chance of it ending up in the hands of crooks.

The bottom six last year were :

Bulldogs, Freo, Lions, Saints, Carlton and the Suns.

Last season they somehow upset Sydney in Sydney, I can’t see that happening again. All but the Bulldogs have signed experienced player/s. Bulldogs have a better list anyway. Suns have lost Lynch, May and Lyons. 

Suns first 4 games :

Saints away

Freo home

Bulldogs away 

Carlton home

Catlton is their best chance and I can’t see them beating them. 

There’s also the cash out option should the losses start to stack up but I think I’ll just let it run.

Who’s their forward option? 

Peter Wright 

Mids 

Martin, Swallow, Miller

Defender

I honestly can’t name a Suns defender right now. It’s been a long hot day in Sydney and I’m drawing a blank.

They got pummeled in the last few week of the season, no doubt a few players had already checked out but they are effectively a mess. Bolton and Richardson need to perform next season or they’re gone, they would be viewing the Suns not only a guaranteed win but a percentage booster as well.

Defenders

Thompson. Harbrow.  Day. Hanley.  

then just fillers. 

Sam Day is an A grade type key forward/back and must be wondering why he is left at the Suns  

 

IMO we will be looking at another ruck back up, plus another key forward, quick outside mid and a Garlett type. Whether taken as rookies, or main list, they seem to be the type of players we need atm.

While Preuss will help, we lost Pedo and the 2 young rucks and Bradtke will be a couple of years off being considered. IMO 2 rucks on the list leaves us vulnerable. With Jesse gone, I don’t see them risking Tom or Sam in the ruck. Frost could be an outside chance to assist, for a season, if we don’t take another experienced ruck. He is hard at it, can jump and would actually be another mid around the ball.

Baker, Billy and Hunt could be the answer to the outside mid spot , but JKH won’t be the answer to the Garlett role, though we probably have Bedford who might develop into that role with his pressure an asset.

But then again what do I know?

23 hours ago, Redleg said:

IMO we will be looking at another ruck back up, plus another key forward, quick outside mid and a Garlett type. Whether taken as rookies, or main list, they seem to be the type of players we need atm.

While Preuss will help, we lost Pedo and the 2 young rucks and Bradtke will be a couple of years off being considered. IMO 2 rucks on the list leaves us vulnerable. With Jesse gone, I don’t see them risking Tom or Sam in the ruck. Frost could be an outside chance to assist, for a season, if we don’t take another experienced ruck. He is hard at it, can jump and would actually be another mid around the ball.

Baker, Billy and Hunt could be the answer to the outside mid spot , but JKH won’t be the answer to the Garlett role, though we probably have Bedford who might develop into that role with his pressure an asset.

But then again what do I know?

I reckon the challenge is how do you develop another ruck without interfering with the development of your existing rucks? If Preuss ends up in the VFL a bit, if Bradtke is also in the side, another ruckman is only going to get slim pickings as far as actual ruck time goes.

Whether we take another ruckman depends on our view about whether Preuss will mainly play for Melbourne or Casey, which is highly speculative at this point. If Preuss plays VFL but we take another ruck, we end up crowding Casey with developing rucks. If Preuss plays AFL and we didn’t take another ruck, Casey only has one ruck and it’s a development opportunity lost. Tricky call.

37 minutes ago, Nasher said:

I reckon the challenge is how do you develop another ruck without interfering with the development of your existing rucks? If Preuss ends up in the VFL a bit, if Bradtke is also in the side, another ruckman is only going to get slim pickings as far as actual ruck time goes.

Whether we take another ruckman depends on our view about whether Preuss will mainly play for Melbourne or Casey, which is highly speculative at this point. If Preuss plays VFL but we take another ruck, we end up crowding Casey with developing rucks. If Preuss plays AFL and we didn’t take another ruck, Casey only has one ruck and it’s a development opportunity lost. Tricky call.

I agree Nash, and it's why Tom Campbell is a possibility as he can play permanent forward I think.

 

On 11/2/2018 at 9:44 PM, spirit of norm smith said:

Defenders

Thompson. Harbrow.  Day. Hanley.  

then just fillers. 

Sam Day is an A grade type key forward/back and must be wondering why he is left at the Suns  

 

Sam Day is no where near A grade type at all. Even when he has ma aged to get on the park, he's shown nothing to suggest he was worth z top 2 pick.

Average player.

For some reason I hope we pick up Jake Neade. Another small forward that creates pressure 

Is there a mid season draft happening for state league players? Maybe we could wait until then, to see if we actually need another back up ruck.

2 hours ago, Good Lord George said:

Is there a mid season draft happening for state league players? Maybe we could wait until then, to see if we actually need another back up ruck.

Just until mid March and only to replace an injured/retired player

Clubs will also be able to sign players via the rookie list between December 1 and March 15 to replace retired or seriously injured players.  

AFL brings in mid-season rookie draft for 2019

17 hours ago, The Lobster Effect said:

Just until mid March and only to replace an injured/retired player

Clubs will also be able to sign players via the rookie list between December 1 and March 15 to replace retired or seriously injured players.  

AFL brings in mid-season rookie draft for 2019

There's a mid season draft too - dates to be announced.  Read to the bottom of the article.

We've got 34 + 2 rookies (+2 Cat B) at present.

We not rushing to sign any DFA.

Makes sense to just take 4 at the ND and go with a senior list of 38.  There's a small salary cap saving there too.

Then add just 2 in the RD and go with 38 + 4 + 2.  Leave 2 Rookie spots open for those 2 new sign-ups/drafts mentioned in that article and take a ruck there like @Good Lord George says if disaster hits.

Edited November 4, 20186 yr by Fifty-5

"SYDNEY has delisted Kurt Tippett, but the former ruckman will be placed on the club's rookie list next year as part of his retirement settlement with the Swans."

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-11-09/contract-quirk-sees-swans-delist-retired-ruck-then-rookie-him

Must have something to do with salary cap or he could be trying to average his tax. Fascinating but one has to ask if it's within the spirit of the game.

Not a big issue. Retirement through injury does seem  to be a very murky area.

On 11/1/2018 at 6:39 PM, spirit of norm smith said:

Suns to pickup Murdoch

Hawks to pickup Minchington

Giants to pickup Sheridan 

Swans to pickup Menzel?

Dees to pickup?????????

Dees to pick up someone better in the draft, than the others named.

It’s does appear to be all clubs shifting to the notion of loading up in the super draft 

'Super draft.'

On 10/17/2018 at 9:14 PM, Lord Neville X Flash said:

If we had publicly stated that we were trying to get May without selling hogan, or at least made no comment the narrative around the situation would have been very different. Would freo have bought it? Who knows. But surely worth a try imo.

Winning a flag is that hard, we need to maximise every area of the club, including dealing hard at the trade table. 

No-one would have bought it. Everyone would have seen straight through it, laughed, and continued on.

Just as everyone did when Freo stated that categorically they were no longer chasing Hogan. No-one bought it and Freo just looked like D*cks.