Colm

Interesting stat. Most of the current top ranked players are about the same age as Trac and Clarry would have been when we won the flag. I guess the demands of the modern game catches up on players quicker these days. On the plus side we don’t have to wait as long to have the likes of Kolt, Windsor, XL, Langford and JVR hitting their peak.

100% agree. Forget about Butters, LDU and Allen types for now. We’re no chance. We need to be looking at players that struggle to get a game elsewhere. Like Bedford and JJ when they left is. Hawks failed to bring in the majority of players they targeted for years instead took whoever they could get and developed them. Get that part right and then you can target quality free agents.

I was thinking this as well. We looked a level below the Cats all night. So many tackles didn’t stick, they seem to be far more agile than us and be able to side step tackles at will. Our last quarters have been poor in every game. Geelong looked fitter, stronger and faster.

Sounds to me like Tom Morris has been reading Demonland again.

No I don’t think we will be in the running. But 3 of those club are big Victorian clubs that must have the cap space and capital to make it happen. Worth noting if we are willing to part with Trac. I had been wondering about the Bombers as a destination for him should he want out again this year.

I’m not completely on the “Goody must go” bandwagon just yet but I’m having a good look to see if there room for one more there. I like Goody and will always be grateful for the flag and will always have happy memories of him. What I will say is that I’m not in favour of him seeing the season out if he’s not going to be here at the start of next season. If we are going to make the call I would rather we do it around the bye. I know it will probably be harder to recruit a new coach mid season as most will be involved with other clubs but I think it would be better than waiting until the end of season. It would give us the jump on other clubs who will be looking for coaches, it would allow the new coach to have a proper look at the cattle he has to work with and how the club runs. Would also allow him to have input into player comings and goings and who might be best suited to the game plan he will implement. At this stage I would be saying to Goody you have until round 10 to turn it around. He deserves the fans and clubs respect but at some stage we will have to make a call if things don’t improve.

I wouldn’t get rid of both and would probably rather Trac went before Clarry. It’s not a matter of them getting back to 100% or not. It’s a matter of us needing capital to rebuild. We have to move quickly and try to rebuild before Tasmania comes in.

Yep my thoughts exactly. Go to the draft the next two years before Tassie comes in. Bring in a new coaching staff with a new game plan and hopefully be in a position to attract the best players again in a couple of years. Picks for Kossie and Trac with a fair chance of a high pick next year would be a great starting point and we would then have future picks to trade for players.

The problem we have if we are trying to turn our list around quickly is I just don’t see us being a destination club for the next couple of season. Does anybody really think the likes of Butters will choose us over other Vic teams when our game style is depressing to watch, our stars want out and we are getting poor grounds and very few prime time games? Hawks were able to do it by developing players from other clubs that nobody else wanted. I’m not sure we are good enough at either trading players in, or at developing them once we get them in for this method to work for us.

I like others feel that we are already a couple of years into our rebuild. After thinking it over and starting to come to terms with our current situation I am now somewhat optimistic we can turn things around relatively quickly. We already have a quality group of youngster that seem well suited to the modern game. I agree with others that Kossie and Trac are the most likely to be traded out to help speed things up. Both have made it clear they want out. I’m not Tim Lambs biggest fan but at least we have both these players on decent contracts and any deal will have to be in our favour. Also I thought the Tassie team would be given picks in the 2026 draft but it seems that they may just be trying to get access to any Tasmanian players in 2026 before they receive their big draft hand in 2027. So we have two drafts before they are a big factor. Considering we have had 4 top end players out of the last two drafts topping this up over the next two years should leave us with enough young talent. We will struggle to attract quality mature players over the next couple of years anyways and our recent player trading has been poor. So the way is see it we have this year and next to top up with more young talent and hopefully in that time frame we will have an improved game style and coaching to make us a more attractive option for quality mature players.

This was the case with Max last year from memory. Hopefully we have the same outcome. 🤞

Why worry about missing out on Houston. If we had got him we wouldn’t have drafted XL.

Spewing to not get the points after that performance. A lot to like though, XL, AJ and Pettys performances impressed me.

I don’t think Freo fans will mind the talk of Jackson leaving if it allows them to get Kossie and Chad Warner.

Yeah I think he plays the role we had Petty playing last year. Works hard, brings ball to ground and knows where the goals are. Hopefully will be able to have a bigger impact than Petty last year both around the ground and on the scoreboard.

22 behinds. It doesn’t really matter what your tactics are or what you do around the ground if you kick that many behinds. Make that 24

The more I think about it, I think you’re right. Maybe a bit foolish to put a price on things. Freo can now say to Kossie that they are willing to offer 3 first round picks and come trade time offer us their first picks in the next 3 drafts which will probably be late picks in super compromised drafts. I’d imagine they’d also like a second rounder back. Would be a terrible deal for us but meets the 3 first round picks we have now set.

I’d rather we hold onto him for another year as well but I wonder if there was a gentleman’s agreement when he signed his contract that we’d let him go if a trade satisfied us. The rumours of him wanting a move were fairly strong before he signed that deal.

Agree, not all drafts are equal either. I feel the Shay Bolton deal has sort of set the price. Problem is that last years draft was very strong to the end of the first round and this years has less talent and is more compromised by NGA and F/S.

So we gave a future 2nd round pick for McAdam. Got that pick back from the Crows for ANB and now bring in a player in via SSP to replace both McAdam and ANB. Strange the way things work out sometimes.

Just wondering if Lurker would be on steroids to help him recover from his illness?! I know my sister was when she was recovering from the same thing. Think they give the best chance of lungs fully recovering. Would these steroids then mean he wouldn’t be allowed to play?! I don’t know- just putting it out there to see if anybody else does.

No I don’t think that would be a great match up for him. I don’t think he will play in the middle all game or every game but against the quicker more agile midfields I think he could do very well. He be more likely to play on a Connor Rooze type than Tom Green I think.

This is about right I think. The Bolton deal should set the price I think. He went for 10,11 and 18 with 14 coming back the other way. If future picks come into play while Tassie team enters it may muddy the picks value a bit though.

Agree with others that if he’s home sick then WC should definitely be part of any talks, much like ANB this year. However a big factor in any Kossie deal with be the Chad Warner deal. Looks very likely that he will be going west at the end of this season. Neither club could afford to get him and Kossie. If WC get Warner then it leaves Freo with a as the only option out west for Kossie this year. We also don’t need to panic- our handling of the Trac situation this year will have shown our players that we are willing to stick to our guns and won’t be forced into a trade.

I think it’s certainly a factor and if two players can’t be spilt on talent and a number of other factors then it should come into play. For my money it’s probably about a 5% factor of the overall equation. If for arguments sake you had ranking system that equalled 100 points I’d say the come home factor is worth about 5 and if the player interviewed well and you thought it unlikely that he would request a trade home you might give him a 3 out of 5. So he would only be 2% below a local lad. If however he interviewed very poorly and made it obvious he wished to remain in his home state I would also probably mark him down in other areas.