2014 Free Agency Players

[AFC979810]

Totally agree, not to mention I've never been a huge Davis fan. Over-rated in my view

I don't like idea of Talia & Davis in same backline - no run

As opposed to the lightning paced backline of Talia, Rutten, Otten we carried through 2013?

I would be ecstatic to get Davis in 2014. Immediately move Talia to fullback and put Davis as CHB. We can carry two tall elite lockdown defenders who aren't great offensive weapons if we surround them with rebounding defenders (like we did in 2012).

We are then just one piece away from, arguably, the best spine in the AFL.

Talia - Davis - Dangerfield - MISSING PIECE *cough wish it was Tippet* - Walker.

Take Phil Davis away from the kids he is surrounded by, where the ball is getting pumped inside the defensive 50 over SIXTY times a game and put him into a normal team and you will see what an exceptional player he is.

 

[GROTTO]

Is Phil Davis on the table?

 

[Sanders]

As opposed to the lightning paced backline of Talia, Rutten, Otten we carried through 2013?

Exactly!

We sucked in 2013, and this didn't help

Rutten as a stay at home, Bock providing run, and McLeod providing the drive - that was an optimal situation. Particularly when you have someone like truck. Great at lots of things, but needs help with some others

Talia & Rutten is a problem, not something you hope for.

as good as they are individually its not a well balanced setup to have 2 Easter Island statues down back

And Rutten provides a lot more run than Philthy ever did.

 

[skoobydoo]

Exactly!

We sucked in 2013, and this didn't help

Rutten as a stay at home, Bock providing run, and McLeod providing the drive - that was an optimal situation. Particularly when you have someone like truck. Great at lots of things, but needs help with some others

Talia & Rutten is a problem, not something you hope for.

as good as they are individually its not a well balanced setup to have 2 Easter Island statues down back

And Rutten provides a lot more run than Philthy ever did.

Creative analogy!

 

[Bacon8]

Ummmm......Walker??

He's a ruckman?

 

[Elder van Berlo]

A Bock-type running KPD is a rarity and a luxury that the vast majority of clubs don't have. Our problem last year (particularly early) was not that Rutten and Talia were not rebounding, it was that they had Otten and Reilly back there also not rebounding and Brown/Laird were quite defensive minded while finding their feet at AFL level.

Come the end of the season, with Reilly out, Otten down the other end, and Henderson, Smith and Brown all streaming freely out of defence, it didn't matter that Rutten and Talia were not attacking from defence.

If Davis was availabe (and I'm not sure there's any suggestion that he is), I wouldn't say no just because he doesn't provide enough run.

 

[DangerSloane]

Agreed. Often arrogance can be backed up with intellect, inside information, track record or special insights that others can't see. And then there are these other sort of posters who exhibit none of the above....

And thats The Crows Truth.

Also, how do you tag people with more than 1 word in their name?

 

[DangerSloane]

Eddie put off contract negotiations. It was a bluff. He didn't return calls from Mick and kept putting off meetings with us to discuss his contract. Eddie has a father who lives in SA who is ill, Gibbs doesn't.

Most free agents re-sign during the year. The only ones who don't are the ones who want to leave.

Difference between Eddie and Gibbs is - the club refused to overpay Eddie as he is replaceable and we have a surplus of younger small forwards. Gibbs is already on more money than you'd expect as GWS chased him strongly and he has openly stated he won't move back to SA even when he retires

I understand you have much more information than most on here, however you cant deny that people lie through their teeth about this kind of thing.

Tippett/Clark/Buddy etc etc. and thats just the big names.

I doubt we'll hvae hte money to pay Gibbs, but I'm not sure we'd wanna pay upwards of 700-800k for a player thats probably never going to be top 3 at the club (yours or ours).

 

[DangerSloane]

Would say 95% of people are stoked we picked up Crouch. Gibbs is a gun if we can afford him go for him, he has proven himself to be a consistant AFL player and will play in excess of 200 AFL games, only a select number of players will play 200 games.

Yeah but are you willing to pay him 800k+?

Not me, doesnt produce enough.

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

Dale Thomas got 700-750K and so will Gibbs

Hopefully not at AFC.

If Gibbs was at AFC, would be lucky to be in our top-10.

How would Sloane, Douglas, Talia, etc feel about Gibbs earning more than them?

Would prefer to target a player of need/better value ... & put some $'s into our young guns like Danger et al & sign them up to long-term deals.

 

[fabs33]

A Bock-type running KPD is a rarity and a luxury that the vast majority of clubs don't have. Our problem last year (particularly early) was not that Rutten and Talia were not rebounding, it was that they had Otten and Reilly back there also not rebounding and Brown/Laird were quite defensive minded while finding their feet at AFL level.

Come the end of the season, with Reilly out, Otten down the other end, and Henderson, Smith and Brown all streaming freely out of defence, it didn't matter that Rutten and Talia were not attacking from defence.

If Davis was availabe (and I'm not sure there's any suggestion that he is), I wouldn't say no just because he doesn't provide enough run.

We had one player only in the top 70 for rebound 50s, who was Smith at 37th, next best was Brown at 72nd and Douglas (a midfielder) at 98th. Collectively we stunk in that area, which is why I'm not surprised that Talia and Rutten would be under some scrutiny for their lack of offensive run when really the responsibility should fall primarily on the small defenders.

Still if we could unearth a tall defender that can both negate his opponent and generate attack it will be a massive bonus.

 

[Elder van Berlo]

I'd like to know where Hendo ranked in the second half of the season.

Anyway, I'm not sure I like rebound 50s as a measure of attack from defence. Doesn't every inside 50 end as either a goal conceded or a rebound 50? If you have a strong midfield and don't conceded inside 50s, you won't rebound often. If you've got a leaky defence, you won't rebound often either. Neither of those things are a reflection on your rebound from defence.

I think that there are many qualitative factors about how you move the ball out of defence than are more important than quantifying how often you do it.

 

[fabs33]

I'd like to know where Hendo ranked in the second half of the season.

Anyway, I'm not sure I like rebound 50s as a measure of attack from defence. Doesn't every inside 50 end as either a goal conceded or a rebound 50? If you have a strong midfield and don't conceded inside 50s, you won't rebound often. If you've got a leaky defence, you won't rebound often either. Neither of those things are a reflection on your rebound from defence.

I think that there are many qualitative factors about how you move the ball out of defence than are more important than quantifying how often you do it.

True, perhaps a better measure would take into account the total amount of times the ball enters the team's defensive 50 relative to the player's own rebounding statistics. Still having had a look I noticed that some of the better teams have multiple players featuring prominently on the list so there might be some correlation between rebound 50s and overall team performance.

 

[Elder van Berlo]

Also perhaps the better teams are able to get the ball into the hands of the right people coming out of defence, which results in a significant concentration through those players rather than being spread with a larger number of players getting a smaller number of R50s. Interesting. Certainly not being critical of your stats.

 

[fabs33]

Certainly not being critical of your stats.

No problems, I new it wasn't a fool proof stat right from the start when I saw guys like McKenzie (Gold Coast) in fifth and Mohr (GWS) in seventh.

Yet I thought it was a statistic worth mentioning since some clubs that did well last year had multiple players listed before we even had our first. For example;

Sydney: Malceski, McVeigh, Richards, Rampe, and Grundy
Geelong: Taylor, Enright, Bartel, and Mackie
Hawthorn: Gibson, Mitchell, and Lake (equal 37th with our own Smith)
Fremantle: Johnson, Duffield, and McPharlin
Richmond: Rance, Houli, and Deledio

So all in all it's not a perfect measure but I still think there is something that can be learnt from it.

 

[androidtommy]

We had one player only in the top 70 for rebound 50s, who was Smith at 37th, next best was Brown at 72nd and Douglas (a midfielder) at 98th. Collectively we stunk in that area, which is why I'm not surprised that Talia and Rutten would be under some scrutiny for their lack of offensive run when really the responsibility should fall primarily on the small defenders.

Still if we could unearth a tall defender that can both negate his opponent and generate attack it will be a massive bonus.

Isn't siggins meant to have a bit of run and attack in him? I seem to recall his draft highlights showed a bit of that but he is obviously not quite there yet

 

[The Sloane Ranger]

As opposed to the lightning paced backline of Talia, Rutten, Otten we carried through 2013?

I would be ecstatic to get Davis in 2014. Immediately move Talia to fullback and put Davis as CHB. We can carry two tall elite lockdown defenders who aren't great offensive weapons if we surround them with rebounding defenders (like we did in 2012).

We are then just one piece away from, arguably, the best spine in the AFL.

Talia - Davis - Dangerfield - MISSING PIECE *cough wish it was Tippet* - Walker.

Take Phil Davis away from the kids he is surrounded by, where the ball is getting pumped inside the defensive 50 over SIXTY times a game and put him into a normal team and you will see what an exceptional player he is.

My views has nothing to do with his lack of run, IMO he is a clumsy defender who not only lacks real body strength in a contest but also makes dome real howlers under pressure

Playing in a developing team is not the only contributing factor on why Davis has son the reverse Coleman on couple of occasions, he is also an average defender

All hype not much else

 

[fabs33]

Isn't siggins meant to have a bit of run and attack in him? I seem to recall his draft highlights showed a bit of that but he is obviously not quite there yet

I saw those highlights as well and I must admit he reminded me a little of Bock for that same reason.

He looked very skinny though so even if he does have the talent we'll still need to be patient.

 

[Cleric]

Lindsey Thomas is tne one to watch. He is a free agent this year, he is out of contract this year, wouldnt sign a bigger term contract last extention that would take him past his first fre agency year. He is an SA guy whos best mate is Eddie Betts and he has always wanted to play in the same side as him. Norf are worried about him.

 

[The Sloane Ranger]

Lindsey Thomas is tne one to watch. He is a free agent this year, he is out of contract this year, wouldnt sign a bigger term contract last extention that would take him past his first fre agency year. He is an SA guy whos best mate is Eddie Betts and he has always wanted to play in the same side as him. Norf are worried about him.

I thought he recently signed a new deal

 

[Elder van Berlo]

I thought he recently signed a new deal

Correct.

 

[GROTTO]

Lindsey Thomas is tne one to watch. He is a free agent this year, he is out of contract this year, wouldnt sign a bigger term contract last extention that would take him past his first fre agency year. He is an SA guy whos best mate is Eddie Betts and he has always wanted to play in the same side as him. Norf are worried about him.

If we happened to get this guy, it would be curtains for Pets and Porps.

 

[alex_is_on_fire]

If we happened to get this guy, it would be curtains for Pets and Porps.

Read above.

We're not getting him. Signed a week or two before the finals last year.

 

[Elite Crow]

Lindsey Thomas is tne one to watch. He is a free agent this year, he is out of contract this year, wouldnt sign a bigger term contract last extention that would take him past his first fre agency year. He is an SA guy whos best mate is Eddie Betts and he has always wanted to play in the same side as him. Norf are worried about him.

Seriously? It was announced at last years B&F he re-signed until end of 2016, so where do you get your info North are worried?

 

[Elite Crow]

I reckon Cleric might be Rowie