Are we witnessing a re-build by stealth

[Salems Lot 2,406]

With AMW making his debut this week, we will have 

AMW, JVR, Knuckles McVee, Caleb, Jake Bowey, Blake Howes, Riv, Kolt, Taj, Doggie, Disco either playing or very close. 

11 players 22y.o. and under and Matt Jefferson and Will Verrall yet to debut makes for a very youthful team profile.  No guarantee that they will all become stars but to see them coming through in this way is heartening.  I have not included #16 because he does not seem to be cutting the mustard.

Healthy signs for the future and a possible reason we seem to not be running out games the way we were last year.

 

[DistrACTION Jackson 6,882]

It's not really stealth, we all know about it!

 

[adonski 9,454]

By round 20 odd maybe it won't be 'stealth', but promising to see we've got a decent crop coming through

Gonna be an interesting trade period

[Hardley Benial 470]

4 minutes ago, DistrACTION Jackson said:

It's not really stealth, we all know about it!

 

I hope it's not the word starting with "T"

[seventyfour 533]

Not really. We traded away all of our depth, and/or lost it to injury / retirements.

The depth we kept, or traded in, sucks.

It's not a rebuild, it's just the list we have.

[DubDee 21,955]

17 minutes ago, seventyfour said:

Not really. We traded away all of our depth, and/or lost it to injury / retirements.

The depth we kept, or traded in, sucks.

It's not a rebuild, it's just the list we have.

yeah with Jordon and Harmes we’d be flag favs i reckon 😂

both free agents who left btw. we didn’t look to trade them

[loges 6,366]

10 players 22 or under we're definitely planning for the future yet some of the experts can't see it.

[SPC 3,059]

We became [censored] by stealth 

[Lord Travis 10,327]

I hope not because the elite young talent isn't there. There's no Petracca, Oliver, Brayshaw, Kozzie level talents outside of perhaps Windsor.

[Roost it far 6,442]

2 minutes ago, Lord Travis said:

I hope not because the elite young talent isn't there. There's no Petracca, Oliver, Brayshaw, Kozzie level talents outside of perhaps Windsor.

Doesn’t need to be yet because bar Brayshaw they’re all still playing. On top of that you add Rivers, McVee, Windsor, JVR and potentially another top end draft pick and a good trade period and just maybe we’ve got the bones of the next Flag.

Edited Thursday at 09:13 by Roost it far

[rpfc 27,692]

What stealth? 
 

I think we will be ‘on the radar’ for the rebuild tomorrow night around 10.45…

[Lord Travis 10,327]

1 minute ago, Roost it far said:

Doesn’t need to be yet because bat Brayshaw they’re all still playing. 

No worries. We'll just wait until they all retire to draft the next batch of guns!

[Roost it far 6,442]

Just now, Lord Travis said:

No worries. We'll just wait until they all retire to draft the next batch of guns!

Not at all, I’ve listed the young talent and we’re likely headed for another top ender this year. We’ve been unlucky to lose Brayshaw, have Oliver have a down year and then lose Petracca all at the same time. I think we’re going better than many realise and I was leaning toward pessimism at the start of this year. 

[Pirlo 590]

Technically. But it doesn't actually make stack up when you look at the quality of player.

Windsor, McVee and Roo are the three that look really good.

Howes has looked solid at times, but now been dropped twice (not that this means much given who picks the team).

Turner has shown the ability to kick goals but he has a lot to do to become an AFL level player long term.

AMW is an unknown. Taj and Kynan too late-pick kids who could be okay.

Tholstrup has been bright in two first quarters and then faded fast. Found some real form at Casey recently though.

AMW we will see.

There might be a place in the team for many of these guys going forward, but they don't strike me as absolute elite talents aside from the first three who could get there. They could be ANB or they could be Stretch, to give a recent example of two late picks.

 

 

[Colm 1,555]

No we are not. We have taken about all we have at Casey and there’s bugger all left. If we had the quality there then Casey would be winning a lot more games this year. 
We have a lot of work to do to if we are to get both lists in better shape. 
If we don’t get out trading and picks spot on over the next couple of windows we will be in the familiar territory of being bottom dwellers when an expansion team comes in. 

[Little Goffy 13,006]

A debut every week since the bye and 8 players with less than 50 games, we're a whole year younger on average than our opponent, and our entire emergency list has 10 games experience between them.

Stealthy...

 

[Binmans PA 26,714]

Ideally we wouldn't have so much youth in the 23 at once, but with Gus, Trac and other injuries, I think it's been inevitable.

We don't need 23 stars, we need 5 or 6 stars (Trac, Clarry, May, Lever and Gawn) surrounded by good role players.

Trac will be fine in 2025, Clarry will hopefully get a full pre season, Lever will enter 2025 29 years of age (enough time still on his side), it's really just May and Gawn we'll have to replace in the next 2-3 years. And it's possible Max lasts even longer.

And JVR is trending in a star direction and Kozzy probably already is.

If we can land a star FA like (for example) LDU to add to the midfield or even a Callaghan; and then when Max and May go, address the Max issue by trading in a competent mature aged ruckman (does not have to be a star) and hitting the FA market for a May replacement in 2027-2028, we're not a world away.

Would be nice to add the likes of Bowey and McVee's ball use higher up the field, we also need Jefferson to take hold of the second key position spot next to JVR.

Whilst it's been a disappointing season, we could bounce back quickly next year.

Edited Thursday at 10:43 by Binmans PA

[PaulRB 6,103]

2 hours ago, rpfc said:

What stealth? 
 

I think we will be ‘on the radar’ for the rebuild tomorrow night around 10.45…

Tomorrow around 10.45… “Next gen Demon's maul Lions at the Gabba!”

😉😃❤️💙

[layzie 30,400]

We just need some good and preferably living players. 

[rpfc 27,692]

1 minute ago, layzie said:

We just need some good and preferably living players. 

[bing181 8,357]

3 hours ago, Roost it far said:

We’ve been unlucky to lose Brayshaw

Whose leadership and experience we won't be replacing in the short term at least ...

[Moonshadow 16,609]

3 hours ago, Lord Travis said:

I hope not because the elite young talent isn't there. There's no Petracca, Oliver, Brayshaw, Kozzie level talents outside of perhaps Windsor.

Kossie is only just 23 and Petty is 24. They're not too shabby and still very young

 

[Fromgotowoewodin 1,153]

Less than 7months older on average than the Roos team we played last week and they’re in full rebuild mode. 

I had us probably 6-8th preseason, losing to the eagles and getting flogged by the dockers derailed that a bit and now Trac going out for the year probably has us 7-12th now with more turnover of the best 23 than was planned preseason. I think it’ll stand us in good stead for next year with some games under the belt of the kids and hopefully add a couple of guns through draft and free agency.

It’s a reset and refresh year not a burn it down and start again year. 

[deanox 8,978]

4 hours ago, Lord Travis said:

I hope not because the elite young talent isn't there. There's no Petracca, Oliver, Brayshaw, Kozzie level talents outside of perhaps Windsor.

Petty is 24, Kozzie is 23.

JVR, Windsor, Rivers and Tholstrup all have potential to be top flight players.

We are missing an under 25 centre circle mid star (unless Tholstrup morphs into that, but I suspect he'll be more like Petracca as a mid/forward). But that's not unreasonable, we haven't wanted to spend capital on that area of the list when we've have Clarry, Viney, Oliver holding those positions down.

Imagine if we'd drafted more young inside mids who couldn't get a game so left instead of drafting Windsor, Tholstrup, Jefferson, JVR, Bowey, Laurie, Luke Jackson (who left but gave us Jefferson and Windsor) or Pickett, or trading for Lever or May. That's every first round pick since we drafted Clayton Oliver in 2015...

Also the only one out of that batch who I think it a bust is Laurie.

 

[Left Foot Snap 2,123]

5 hours ago, rpfc said:

What stealth? 
 

I think we will be ‘on the radar’ for the rebuild tomorrow night around 10.45…

Ahhh, I see you are assuming the lights will stay on this time!!