Adam The God

This is what I'd do. Some of it absolute fantasy and other bits... no, most of it is fantasy, but let's see how we go. FANTASY LIST CHANGES I’d trade Gus to Fremantle for Cerra. I’d trade Viney to Carlton for Weitering. I’d trade pick 3 ideally for Ben King, but that’s too fantastical it seems, so take it to the draft if we can’t trade it for a 19-23 year old like Taranto. Add Langdon and Tomlinson’s run to our midfield and the likes of Elliott to our forward line. The bolded players below would be my 22 for Round 1. KEY BACKS May (full back), Lever (third tall/interceptor), Weitering (second tall), Oscar McDonald MEDIUM/SMALL BACKS Hibberd, Hore, Jetta, Jones, Sparrow, Josh Wagner, Jordon MIDS Gawn, Oliver, Harmes, Petracca, Salem, Cerra, PICK #3, Langdon (wing), Tomlinson (wing), Neal-Bullen (wing/half forward), Kolodjashnij (wing) SMALL/MID FORWARDS Melksham, Fritsch, Hannan, Elliott, Vandenberg, Lockhart, Hunt, Spargo, Smith (defensive forward), Corey Wagner, Oskar Baker (defensive forward), Nietschke (half forward/half back), Bedford KEY FORWARDS Tom McDonald, Petty (swing forward or back), Weideman, Preuss THE THINKING THE BACKS The idea here with these changes would be to have composure and good kickers on the last line of defence (May, Lever and Weitering are all good kicks with composure). I think a player like Weitering would flourish in the system that I think we're going to try and play. I think it was @rjay who suggested today trying Sparrow in the back half. I like that idea. I'd use Jones as our kicker from half back (see early 2017 for this - it worked well on grounds like Marvel), Jetta as the lock down small, while Hibberd and Sparrow are the run-and-guns off half back. Cover provided behind them by our zone defence lead by May and Lever. THE MIDS There's more balance to this midfield with dynamism (Oliver), toughness and accountability (Harmes), x factor (Petracca), good ball use (Salem and Cerra) and gut running (Langdon and Tomlinson). Pick #3 should add speed to this mix and hopefully ball use. A far less predictable mix this and with a strong pre season, we can really build our game around this group. THE FORWARDS I'd be going quite a bit smaller next year. Buck the trend of Richmond this year, we use what they used against the rest of the competition in 2017 and what Collingwood used in 2018, and to a lesser extent Geelong used in early 2019 . Out of necessity, I think we mostly play a brigade of mid-sized players across the arc and rotating deep forward (Melksham, Fritsch and Hannan). All of whom play taller. McDonald plays as the self-less tall (Riewoldt of 2017 role), he runs hard to create space and ensures the forwardline is open, but he presents an option when necessary and he will kick goals. Elliott provides a bit of unpredictable x-factor to compliment Hannan and Fritsch, as well as the likely resting Petracca. Vandenberg is the defensive forward that creates havoc between 35 metres and the arcs with his tackling and pressure game. Petty is the swing man between forward and back, where necessary, depending on the opposition's talls. Make some bold moves like the above, demand hard work right across the field (the forward pressure game & the gut running defensive game) and get our defensive zonal structures right, as well as our stoppage structures, and this side (with a good run with injuries - like Richmond in 2017) can go deep in 2020.

I reckon he'll play better as an interceptor, but with a bit more bulk, he could easily play the Astbury role in time.

Viney should be traded first, but I wouldn't say no to trading Gus if we got the right deal back. We need to balance our midfield a bit more. If we traded Gus to Freo for Cerra (shout out to @Pennant St Dee), we'd have Oliver, Harmes, Petracca, Cerra and Salem supported by the outside run of Langdon and Tomlinson.

Shows how much these guys are paid if he's managed to buy a place in Balmain at the age of 26.

I think this will be Petty, but would not have minded landing Keath.

Thanks mate. So it's a puff-piece that he has to answer.

What's the source for this? I haven't heard anywhere that GCS are willing to part with their top two picks...

My eyes light up every time someone posts something new in this thread. And then I’m constantly disappointed.

Yep, probably. I view him as depth in a similar way to how I see/saw Frost. He's a fringe player but can fill a role if we're injury-ravaged. I could never understand the hype surrounding him coming into 2017 and I've been waiting to see anything in the games he's played in and I've never seen it. Hope he can take a step up in 2020.

I know you've liked him from his draft year. Has he transitioned to the top level how you expected? I see he wants to play more midfield minutes next year... https://www.fremantlefc.com.au/news/2019-09-03/cerra-aims-to-build-on-strengths

We have different opinions. I wouldn't say it's a snap judgement. I was sceptical in his first game or two and nothing I've seen in the following 10 or so has changed my thinking. He's a good athlete with some exciting characteristics, but that's not enough.

Apart from an excellent first name, what does Cerra, with an additional injury-riddled history, provide our list that fills a great need and diversifies our list? I'm sold on the GWS trade though.

Good post mate and confirms my own suspicions about the club pushing Frost out the door.

You needlessly antagonised with the comment about taking a bex and having a lie down. If you throw that sort of thing out there you need to be able to cop it.

Despite ANB turning it over and being a fumbler, he does have the capacity to play a role in a team defence and defence is everything these days. Comparing Frost's value to ANB's is pointless IMO. They're different players and bring different attributes. When ANB is playing well he's doing a lot of hard running that goes unnoticed.

I'd just do the deal. Second round pick seems fair, unless exactly what @Mach5 said went down last year and they wanted a first rounder for him. If that's the case, I'd offer a third rounder and say he's uncontracted and we have the whip hand.

Ordinary decision maker and average kick. Frost 2.0.

Haha, I apologise, clearly 9 employee.

Agree with all this although as I've said earlier in this thread, pretty clear Frost was told to explore his options. So it's not that he is asking too much. We want to try and play some welcome AFL level defence next year.

It seems like a bit of a no brainer to try and trade our future first rounder this year, and see who bites. We must improve in 2020 and we can't wait until 2021. We need to back ourselves to improve next year and if we don't, we'll need to trade players out anyway, which should enable us to trade back into the first round in 2020.

I wonder if Hunt will be moved back to half back?

We got Mitch Hannan in exchange for Dunn, so I'd say the trade is about even.

If, and I know it's a big 'if', but, if we took the punt on Bennell and he got back to his early career form, he is exactly the sort of player we are lacking from our midfield. X factor, speed, ball use and goal kicking. Would immediately improve our side when on the park.

I hope we go after Bennell, but as others have said, I doubt we will.

I think if we can get a few early wins next year we'll get buy in. There were a few whispers of discontent during last season too, but they dissipated as the season progressed and we went deep in September. That to me suggests our culture still has a bit of a way to go. The fact that it can be undone so easily. I really hope players like Gawn have a pull with the players, because when he spoke of getting down to work at the BnF last year, it must have fallen on deaf ears. To paraphrase Keating, let's hope 2019 was the year we had to have and our players learn that they can't take anything for granted, and the show won't keep rolling on without continued hard work.