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The James Worpel Thread

adonski
adonski
in Melbourne Demons

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  On 08/04/2025 at 00:24, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Is a key cog in the league leader's midfield, despite missing the last few games with injury. A yes from me.

Not sure why he'd leave Hawthorn when they're on the cusp of potential premierships.

A bunch of Hawks like Watson, Meek, maybe even Day are coming out of contact in 25/26. One or two of there best players will be pushed out or be low balled.

Edit: they be gunning to land a free agent like Allen or trade for Harley as well.

Edited by MrFreeze

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    The question is why have Hawthorn not prioritised signing him?

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    If he bring an assistant coach (to be senior coach for us) and the game plan it's a yes from me

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      On 08/04/2025 at 02:51, DubDee said:

    The question is why have Hawthorn not prioritised signing him?

    Injurie aside, as others have mentioned they have a lot of players outperforming their contract values, so probably a wise decision from Hawthorn to hold back a little here

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      On 08/04/2025 at 02:51, DubDee said:

    The question is why have Hawthorn not prioritised signing him?

    I'll hazard a guess because well managed clubs don't sign players until they have to.

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      On 08/04/2025 at 07:23, Ethan Tremblay said:

    Who says they’re not?

    The alternative is he wants out

    Seems unlikely

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      On 08/04/2025 at 00:24, Bring-Back-Powell said:

    Is a key cog in the league leader's midfield, despite missing the last few games with injury. A yes from me.

    Not sure why he'd leave Hawthorn when they're on the cusp of potential premierships.

    The bigger question for me is

    Why would he want to come to us?

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    Will Day out for 3-4 month. Does that change things? Job satisfaction factor maybe, more time in middle, they might up there offer to keep him

    Edited by John Demonic

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      On 08/04/2025 at 02:51, DubDee said:

    The question is why have Hawthorn not prioritised signing him?

    because he can't kick.

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    Whether we are looking into Worpel or not (or even whether we should), my bigger question, and the most important one is:

    Why would he want to come here?

    What's the sell?

    We are 2nd last on the ladder (thanks to %), an absolute shambles on the ground, which you think might and should improve, but based on what metric, I don't know. Most of our guys are on the park right now. And we're not exactly destination material for a CEO either.

    This is the problem with letting a potential dynasty not only pass by, but almost being stomped on.

    It took us DECADES to be relevant again, because of the cyclical problem of being [censored], and therefore it being harder to attract people who want to win (not sit in the doldrums for their career), and also losing the quality we do have.

    It doesn't mean we don't have young talent around, we do. But we need senior talent, and it will be hard to keep them, and attract other senior talent to guide the younguns if the don't fix whatever is going on.... NOW, with some hard-nosed, respectable footy so that others look at us and say hey, I want some of that.

    Because that's not happening right now. This isn't the 60s, we're not a marque club anymore. We're being passed, again, by the Hawks, the Pies (with the oldest list going around), even the Saints look respectable. The Roos will pass us soon, if not already, as shown by the way they completely embarrassed us (to the extent we didn't already embarrass ourselves).

    I love a trade target chat, but geez I really am not sure who'd be looking at us at the moment. 'Potential' ain't cutting it anymore.

    Anyway, rant over. Sorry, today is a 'mostly blue' day.

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    Yes from me assuming he can get his body sound and doesn't command too high of a salary.

    Our midfield is a mess and we've lost depth this past few seasons without replacing it. While we've got great young talent and good senior players, the middle age bracket of our list is where we fall down. We drafted well, but recruited poorly.

    Worpel is a proven AFL level player and has shown seriously good clearance ability. Not the best ball user, but he's an upgrade on the next rung down in our midfield (Sparrow, Laurie, Woewodin types). At his peak in 2023, he was top 10 in the league for clearances and top 5 in the league for centre clearances. He was also pretty handy last year in a strong Hawks team.

    We've got no high draft picks and limited lower draft this year due to poor trading, so we'd be mad not to target him as a free agent if he doesn't command a big salary. He's a decent midfielder IMO.

    The big question is why would he want to come to us? We stink on field and off field. Hawks are flying on field and off field. Other than getting squeezed out for salary reasons, surely there's better options for him.

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    How can we have threads like "Recruiting - where did it all go wrong", while at the same have people looking for reasons to not look at someone like Worpel, who we'd get for free, would make a demonstrable improvement to our list and is exactly the sort of guy Hawthorn would be chasing, if they didn't already have him?

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      On 09/04/2025 at 01:10, JTR said:

    How can we have threads like "Recruiting - where did it all go wrong", while at the same have people looking for reasons to not look at someone like Worpel, who we'd get for free, would make a demonstrable improvement to our list and is exactly the sort of guy Hawthorn would be chasing, if they didn't already have him?

    why don't they sign him then?

    They can't be having salary cap issues already with such a young team

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      On 09/04/2025 at 01:43, DubDee said:

    why don't they sign him then?

    They can't be having salary cap issues already with such a young team

    Maybe the same reason we didn't re-sign guys like Bedford or Jordan?

    Good players, but we saw them as depth and lower priority signings to young guns and bigger name players coming off contract.

    Worpel is much better than most of our depth and in a year where we don't have a first round pick (and I assume would be packaging up any early picks for the Father Son/NGA guys anyway), then good quality free agents is what we should be after.

    Imo...

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    • 3 weeks later...

    Would have Warp Speed anyday!!

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      On 29/04/2025 at 10:26, adonski said:

    Of course he'd wind up at Geelong. They somehow endlessly get players go to them and keep under the salary cap. Free agent too, so costs them nothing as no trade required. That would suck.

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      On 29/04/2025 at 11:43, Lord Travis said:

    Of course he'd wind up at Geelong. They somehow endlessly get players go to them and keep under the salary cap. Free agent too, so costs them nothing as no trade required. That would suck.

    it's how they roll

    let others develop, then top up with uncontracted and disaffected players and maintain a stop in the 8 where they can challenge every year

    i envy them

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    Got a lot of Hawthorn supporting mates and not one of them are remotely upset about the prospect of losing him.

    Has gone backwards at a rate of knots from his first couple of years.

    Not quick, not a great kick, not a great decision maker. No thanks.

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