Review 2017 trade period

[Elite Crow]

You don't want Port drafting any of those SA guns. Let them make the top 4 and then go out in straight sets

Nah, 5th

 

[Pea Nut]

This year they have pick 19 to strike gold with.

No they don't. They traded it to the Suns.

 

[Bicks]

 

[mistylake]

Cover for Smith? Who would have thought this would be an option.
Get Gibbs? Who would have thought we would get Gibbs.
Keep an eye out today? Yeah watch us miss a player.

What you posted was hardly not expected and yet with your cryptic posts you tried to allude you knew something. You loved the attention for if you didn’t you would actually post what you meant in your original posts rather than being asked.

Oh and I’m still at the airport waiting.

Maybe Shakyladder was trying to be Nostradamus with his indecipherable quatrains.

 

[Stiffy_18]

No they don't. They traded it to the Suns.

20?

 

[baldandbroke]

20?

22.

Use this:

https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/2017-nominal-afl-draft-order.1160828/

 

[spenze]

Not convinced that GAJ will play many games.

Can see people tackling Ablett real hard every chance they get and at 34 you lose a step of pace each year. Geelong are going to need him to do some of the heavy lifting through the midfield and because of that I can see him retiring at seasons end, his body won't cope.

Guy is an absolute champ and he nearly dragged a SANFL+ standard side into top 8 calculations but the end comes quick, even for champs like him.

 

[WaynesWorld19]

I have been saying that about Geelong since Dangerfield went there. Seriously, their best chance at success was in Dangerfield's first season there given their list profile. Every year since then, they have been losing high quality players and replacing them with less talented player that are in their prime, foregoing their early picks.

This year they have pick 19 to strike gold with. Its a list with wrong age profile and not enough quality youth coming through. I actually think that they are no better than they were last year. Not convinced that GAJ will play many games.

Again Geelong are replicating the strategies Brisbane employed as their star players aged .....kept topping up with trades to have another shot at a flag ......they failed, as Geelong will

Again more players out .....Lonnergan, Mackie, Motlop, Lang out ....in Ablett who hasn't been able to get on the ground regularly the last 2 years & at 34, maybe is the romance of his return than the reality of what he'll contrbute ......fact is Geelong has an issue with list depth & that's been exasperated this year again

2017 No first rnd Draft Picks ....Geelong are rolling the dice

 

[WaynesWorld19]

The Bookies would have stopped taking bets on who'll finish last in season 2018

 

[Elite Crow]

Mate we had a go. There is not much control that you have of where the player wants to go. All you can do is do your best.

In terms of Gibson, he might be a stop gap but he is someone who releases someone else to do more damage. Ideally, I would have absolutely LOVED to get both Motlop and Gibbs but at a minimum we needed to bring in one quality player which we did.

Gibson will play a lot of games for us. He will have a specific role to play in the midfield. That releases someone else to play another more damaging role. If Gibson can produce the sort of numbers that he produced this year for North, that is a very under-rated signing.

Knight all of a sudden does not have to tag. He can play more of an attacking game rotating between forward line and wing. Atkins, Douglas and even Gibbs get freed up to rotate across the HBF to cover for Smith.

We still have a lot of improvement from our best 22 to come. Our development program is second to none. People ripped us a new one this time last year and mocked the organic growth line but by the end of the season we played off in a GF. As disappointing as it is to not win it, you could argue that we didn't have Smith for just about all of our finals campaign. We lost McGovern for the PF and GF. Lever's last 6-8 weeks has been nothing to write home about plus he missed 5 games during the season.

Players generally get to that consistently good level once they hit the 80 game mark. Even from our best 22 last year, there are a number of players who can go up another level. Crouch brothers, Greenwood, McGovern, Milera etc... all have improvement left in the tank. Some more than others.

I think the club has proven that we are right up there as one of the best teams in developing talent. We played off in a GF without having a single top 10 pick on the list.

It would have been a disaster if we didn't recruit Gibbs. We did, plus we added a player in Gibson who comes in for a specific role, adds depth to the midfield and releases other, more talented players to fill in other, more attacking roles.

I am very comfortable that after another strong pre-season, some of those younger players will improve even more and make us a better team next year. Our midfield now days is genuinely A grade. We can roll out 4 proven guns in Gibbs, Sloane and Crouch brothers. Geelong might be their only other team who can rival that but even their star recruit is 34 years old and has not played more than 15 games in any of the last 3 seasons. Plus he us getting soft tissue injuries lately. A sign of old age.

Not saying we didn’t have a go, but in the end we are 3 quality players down including Smith and brought in one and an ok player.

Our list has gone backwards.

Yes we may get some more improvement but our opponents will also improve.

 

[WaynesWorld19]

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

I'm just surprised no one is lumping shit on Geelong, a team that is criticized for lacking depth, and has no 1st rounder for the 3rd year running. And just brought in an expensive 34 year old who hasn't played a full season since 2013 due to injury. And in the process got rid of 3 starting 22 players in Menzel (who came 3rd in their goal kicking in 2017), Darcy Lang (who was their 2013 1st round draft pick) and Steven Motlop (who the AFL adjudged worth a 1st round compo pick).

Is no-one seeing the obvious faults in this strategy? I feel like i'm taking crazy pills?

I have been guilty of writing the Cats off in previous years & have had vigorous discussion on their board.

My issue has been that they have had many older players to replace over the past few years. They have topped up with some very useful trades, but their depth appears to be getting thinner by the year. Also, the trading has meant they have had hardly any 1st round picks to bring in talent. Cockatoo & who else?

This year they gain an older gun in Ablett... but they lose Mackie, Lonergan, Motlop, Lang & Cowan. That's a net loss of 2 best 22 players & fringe depth player.

They still have plenty of top end to make the finals with a decent injury run, but their bottom end may see them slide into 5th-8th zone.

 

[Elite Crow]

I have been guilty of writing the Cats off in previous years & have had vigorous discussion on their board.

My issue has been that they have had many older players to replace over the past few years. They have topped up with some very useful trades, but their depth appears to be getting thinner by the year. Also, the trading has meant they have had hardly any 1st round picks to bring in talent. Cockatoo & who else?

This year they gain an older gun in Ablett... but they lose Mackie, Lonergan, Motlop, Lang & Cowan. That's a net loss of 2 best 22 players & fringe depth player.

They still have plenty of top end to make the finals with a decent injury run, but their bottom end may see them slide into 5th-8th zone.

Plus Ablett isn’t the most durable player these days

 

[Elite Crow]

I wonder how Danger will go sharing the spotlight with Ablett

 

[Thetrader15]

I would hope not. Motlop's offer was obviously the money saved from Lever, rather than raiding the "war chest".

The 'war chest' is great. But if you never open it, it's not much use

 

[Thetrader15]

I wonder how Danger will go sharing the spotlight with Ablett

#Awkward

 

[Runnin Blue]

Plus Ablett isn’t the most durable player these days

I’ll take the bet that he miraculously plays close to 23 games next year.

A lot of his absences for Gold Coast were due to being a massive sook. Didn’t want to be there. Put in minimal effort in the last 2 years.

I can already see the AFL360 wankfest of “Ablett’s BACK!” after 3-4 rounds.

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

Not saying we didn’t have a go, but in the end we are 3 quality players down including Smith and brought in one and an ok player.

Our list has gone backwards.

Yes we may get some more improvement but our opponents will also improve.

Defence appears weaker, but midfield stronger on paper.

Compared to Grand Final team:
- Doedee v Lever
0 Milera v Mackay (- v Smith)
+ McGovern v Otten
+ Gibbs v Atkins
0 Hampton v Seedsman
- Gallucci v Cameron

Looking at differently with my best 22:

On the decline
- (2) Douglas, Betts

Similar output
0 Brown, Talia, Hartigan, Laird, Kelly, Sloane, Mrouch, Walker, Lynch, Jenkins, Jacobs

On the rise
++ (4) Brouch, McGovern
+ (6) Greenwood, Hampton, Knight, Milera, Gallucci, Doedee

New
++++ (4) Gibbs

Trades out
---- (4) Lever
--- (3) Cameron

Injured
---- (4) Smith

 

[Elite Crow]

Defence appears weaker, but midfield stronger on paper.

Compared to Grand Final team:
- Doedee v Lever
0 Milera v Mackay (- v Smith)
+ McGovern v Otten
+ Gibbs v Atkins
0 Hampton v Seedsman
- Gallucci v Cameron

Looking at differently with my best 22:

On the decline
- (2) Douglas, Betts

Similar output
0 Brown, Talia, Hartigan, Laird, Kelly, Sloane, Mrouch, Walker, Lynch, Jenkins, Jacobs

On the rise
++ (4) Brouch, McGovern
+ (6) Greenwood, Hampton, Knight, Milera, Gallucci, Doedee

New
++++ (4) Gibbs

Trades out
---- (4) Lever
--- (3) Cameron

Injured
---- (4) Smith

Midfielder definitely stronger and now one of the best in the comp.

I’m not stressed by the loss of Lever, its Smith who will be a big loss as we don’t have a like for like replacement. I’m hoping though if we can give Milera a go there he could bring his own strengths to the position.

Whilst Cameron was down on form, his speed was unique. Need Gallucci to step up.

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

Midfielder definitely stronger and now one of the best in the comp.

I’m not stressed by the loss of Lever, its Smith who will be a big loss as we don’t have a like for like replacement. I’m hoping though if we can give Milera a go there he could bring his own strengths to the position.

Whilst Cameron was down on form, his speed was unique. Need Gallucci to step up.

Agree, Smith is the biggest concern, as he is our best attacking weapon. Hopefully someone steps up in his absence. Like you, I would like Milera to have 1st crack, but also rotate some of our midfielders like Douglas, Gibbs & Sloane through HBF at times.

 

[Stiffy_18]

People worrying about the backline should stress too much. Those are the easiest positions to fill and Pyke will adjust to have a bit more of a different set up there.

Lever became a great intercept defender this season. Prior to this year, he has been OK so how did we set up before this year. If you remember in Pyke’s first season the first thing he did was encourage his back 6 or 7 to back themselves in. End result was players like Talia, Hartigan etc started going for the mark rather than spoils. I think we will see a lot of something similar next season.

In terms of run, again remember in 2016 how much of that run and carry, accurate, long kicking Paul Seedsman was providing before his injury? Smith and Seedsman were our biggest meter gainers that year. Seedsman practically did not have a preseason this year, meaning that he was always behind the eight ball this year. If he can have a big preseason Seedsman will go a long way in softening the loss of Smith. Towards the end of the season we have seen Pyke roll Atkins and Mackay back.

Plan was to play Douglas off HBF this season but our need in the midfield shelved that. Point is that adding Gibbs and Gibson provides us with flexibility to bring others back to cover Smith’s loss. We couldn’t have recruited anyone that would do what Smith did. Adds a bit of pace, massive kick off one step and his ability to kick accurately across the body is almost unrivaled in the AFL. Point is we have a number of players who we can rotate through that position. Milera would be really interesting one to play there. I would love to see that but I think we might be pencilling him in to fill Charlie’s position.

I think we have a lot of depth and a lot of organic growth on the list. There are spots to fill which means it will create competition amongst players to fill it. Someone will step up and play the role well. They won’t play it in the same manner as Smith but they will do the job.

Our forward line is still potent and best in the competition. Our midfield now is really good and deep. Our backline is also very good. We played practically 3 finals without Smith and won two pretty comfortably. The strength of our team is the weight of numbers. We don’t rely on one player. We will be fine. Added an A grade midfielder. Added a solid B grader and still a LOT of improvement left in the younger players.

I am hoping that Hampton, Milera, Seedsman and Gallucci can have huge preseason and there are your options. They all also add pace which I think if the biggest thing that we lack. Charlie’s pace is electric and he has genuine X factor. That will be really missed and hard to replace. The rest we can cover.

Better midfield will protect the backline a bit.

 

[Stiffy_18]

Forgot to add that there will be the delisted free agent period where we can pick up a useful player if we think he would add something. For example, if Trent McKenzie is delisted by Gold Coast, we might think that he might be worth the risk and back ourselves in to get him up and running to fill the role for us.

 

[Danger in Texas]

Forgot to add that there will be the delisted free agent period where we can pick up a useful player if we think he would add something. For example, if Trent McKenzie is delisted by Gold Coast, we might think that he might be worth the risk and back ourselves in to get him up and running to fill the role for us.

Think we might have used the trade period for these types of pick-ups. We could have waited to pick up Gibson as a DFA, but traded for him instead. I reckon we pin-pointed our targets, and got them early

 

[Redleg Crow]

A good trade period.

I had wanted Rockliff... until I heard about his... errr behaviour. Seems toxic as all hell.

Was never sold on Motlop and let’s be honest he’s a Port player in the same way Gibbs was always going to be a Crow.

Watts. Wut???? Lulz

Love our work with Lever - everyone here (inc me) was sure we’d get reamed. Love the pick 12 for CC.

Gibbs was costly, but mostly so if you focus on what we gave and not got back - heat is on though to do well next year to maximise the value of the pick swap. He is not worth 2 first round picks, but with the swaps it is more like we paid a pick 6 or so. Still overs but blame him for signing a 5 yr contract when he should have come home as a FA!!!

I think we needed Gibbs once Smith did his knee. Not a like for like replacement, but we needed a long kick and class. I am pretty confident Gibbs will have a great year playing in a top side for once.

Smart work with Gibson - maybe he can spend the off season training Sloane how to beat the tag.

Next year’s draft is the big win though for us. We clearly wanted to set ourselves up for that, and to know be seen as the 3rd best placed in that draft even though we’ve just played a GF is top work

 

[Grenville]

I think the club has proven that we are right up there as one of the best teams in developing talent. We played off in a GF without having a single top 10 pick on the list..

Has definitely been true, but have wondered how much Alan Stewart had to do with that? Any thoughts on how much of our success has been system Vs personnel?