I hadn't seen that.
How on earth could he land on a D+?
His 'rationale' is ridiculously flawed.
Part of it is based on the fact we didn't get a top 10 pick in the Jackson trade. Sure we only got Freo's first round pick next season, and they are likely to finish inside the 8, so its not likely to be a top 10 pick.
But they are not going to finish top 2 either, so if they don't make top 4 we'll still get a pick inside the top 15.
In a supposedly rich draft (though surely that has to be the biggest myth in footy - the so called super drafts), in reality how different would say a pick 9 and pick 14 be? Particularly given that we will still be in the premiership window, in that draft range we will likely be looking to fill specific needs as opposed to best available.
Hell, it's possible that even if we had a top 10 pick we will get the same player we have identified at 15. Taylor has shown that he doesn't follow the herd when it comes to draft order.
The same logic applies to our pick 13 in this year's draft. We are every chance of picking a player at 13 that draft watchers have say outside the top 20.
And he completely ignores the fact we got the deal done early, which cleared the way to get the Grundy, and to a lesser extent the Hunter, deals done - and done in a way advantageous to us.
Compare our approach to say that of the Pies, a club now paying part of the salary of two former players, with henry, which just created unnecessary angst.
Or even Freo, who, for the second year in a row, jerked Lobb around before caving late and letting him go. How is jerking players around good for the current players, or for future trading?
He gives the Hunter trade short thrift. The best thing he can say is we didn't have to offer much up to get him. But he completely ignores the fact that Hunter fills a clear need - an aerobic beast with good kicking skills who can play on the opposite wing to langers. Surely filling such a specific need deserves recognition - i mean doing so would be Lamb's KPI.
He also gives short thrift to the fact that part of Hunter's salary will be covered, as will Grundy's.
Bu the biggest flaw in his argument relates to Grundy. He reckons:
'Brodie Grundy who comes in while undoubtedly a star ruckman, is also an ill-fitting piece and will likely relegate Max Gawn to playing predominantly as a key forward next season. The positive for Melbourne is Grundy only required pick 27 to acquire which is a bargain on paper. Collingwood will pay a portion of his contract which also helps, though with the size and length of his contract, it's a list flexibility killer that will make retaining existing talent and adding rival talent within the constraints of the salary cap in future years more challenging than would otherwise be the case.'
So much nonsense in that palaver its hard to know where to start, but here goes :
With Jackson bailing, we desperately needed a second ruck - and not just any sort of ruck; an athletic beast who can run all day. We snared a dual all Australian who has probably 5-6 years of top footy ahead of him and is probably one of the best athletes in the AFL. Given the market, how could we have possibly done better than Grundy?
An ill fitting piece? Huh? See above
Relegate Max to 'playing predominantly as a key forward next season'. Bollocks. It depends bit on what he means by 'predominately' i guess, but the club want to engineer a scenario where Maxy does less grunt work in the ruck and more time up forward (no doubt as part of a strategy to extend his career).
Wasn't he watching this season? That is exactly how we played Jackson and Maxy all season! Still, i'd be surprised if Maxy doesn't take at least 40% of ruck time
We are in the premiership window right now and Grundy increases our chance of winning a flag in the next 2-3 years - arguably even more so than Jackson
Which makes the comment about the size and length of his contract being a 'list flexibility killer' bizarre - we are paying Grundy less than we would have had to pay Jackson and we would have had to probably offer Jackson an even longer contract. And Grundy make it more likely we win a flag in the next two years to boot, IMO.
Grundy's deal makes retaining 'existing talent' harder? Really?
Did he miss the memo that we have long terms deals signed with Tracc, Oliver, Gus, Salem, Viney and (i think) Maxy. Who else is realistically going to be hard to fit under our salary cap in the next 3 years or so? Kozzie perhaps, but i'd be shocked if we don't have the salary cap space to offer him a long term deal on competitive coin
'adding rival talent within the constraints of the salary cap in future years more challenging than would otherwise be the case"? - isn't that true of any quality player traded into a new club?
I mean, just one example is Jackson. I firmly believe he will be super star of the competition. But no-one could argue that he is at the moment. And it is very unlikely he will be for at least another 2-3 years (he has just turned 21 after all). Yet Freo have locked him in on a long term contract on serious coin. How are they going to go renegotiating Darcy's contract? Or Frederick's? How are they going to go next trading period bringing in a star with so much of their cap tied up with Jackson?
Freo are paying Jackson more that we are paying for Grundy. It's pretty clear in my mind who will be represent better value for money in the next 2-3 years - and it ain't the unicorn messiah!
D+?
Sheesh.