Analysis 2021 trade thread

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Fullarton, Ballenden and Archie Smith are not AFL quality. I have serious doubts on Cockatoo as well. We need another strong built ruck to push the big O or even allow him to play deep forward while Hipwood is out.

Also really need a small quick line breaking defender. What also worries me is the age of our starting midfield in Zorko, Neale and Lyons. I know we have Dev but another young midfielder coming through would be good.
 

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Wilbur23 said:
Fullarton, Ballenden and Archie Smith are not AFL quality. I have serious doubts on Cockatoo as well. We need another strong built ruck to push the big O or even allow him to play deep forward while Hipwood is out.

Also really need a small quick line breaking defender. What also worries me is the age of our starting midfield in Zorko, Neale and Lyons. I know we have Dev but another young midfielder coming through would be good.
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Lyons is only 29, Lachie Neale is only 28 and Zorko is the concern at 32. Still have 4-5 years of Neale and Lyons running rampant, Zorks is probably running out of time a bit.
 
Wilbur23 said:
Fullarton, Ballenden and Archie Smith are not AFL quality. I have serious doubts on Cockatoo as well. We need another strong built ruck to push the big O or even allow him to play deep forward while Hipwood is out.

Also really need a small quick line breaking defender. What also worries me is the age of our starting midfield in Zorko, Neale and Lyons. I know we have Dev but another young midfielder coming through would be good.
Click to expand...

Fullarton has shown enough for me to believe he has a future in AFL. He's just not ready to play the role he's currently doing consistently and especially in finals but we've been forced to play him ahead of schedule. He's done about as well as can be expected.

Ballenden will likely be delisted and if Archie isn't it's purely because we need a mature ruckman in case of emergency. I'd probably be leaning towards keeping Archie one more year just in case but will understand completely if he is delisted.

Not sure what's caused to you doubt Cocky. He's shown some glimpses of the talent he's got and I think we should all be excited about what he's capable of doing after a full pre-season and stringing more games together. He struggled in the finals but that's to be expected with the jump in pressure. Remember, he has missed a lot of footy.

We need a line breaking defender but we have one on the list in Madden and two first rounders to get at least one more should we choose to.

Age of our midfield isn't really an issue imo. It's been stated by both Fages and Zorko that he was flagged to spend more time up forward. Rayner's injury threw a spanner in the cogs of that plan. Neale and Lyons will still be under 30 then there's McCluggage, Berry, Rayner and Bailey (Maybe Starce too?) all under 25. Throw in Dev, Aschcroft and perhaps another first rounder this year to round out the group. No need to worry.
 
Creating space one way or another I have Birchall, Ely Smith, Brock Smith, Archie Smith, Connor McFadyen, Cam Ellis-Yolmen and Connor Ballenden in the exit lounge. That's not a lot of salary space to save Birchall and CEY might give us some.

I know many posters want a running back, I think we have one between Keidean Coleman, Answerth or Madden.

I'm looking for a back up ruckman, a more defensive minded one AND a defensive mid fielder, a simple tackling machine. Both may not play every game, they are there for certain opposition and maybe on 1 or 2 years contracts. It's the money ball placements. So it's not top shelf, not even the second shelf. Given our record with rehabilitation it could be a second/third chance or it could be a, close to retirement, have 2 years in the sun my good man and your closer to that sunset you will ride off into.

Not Mumford but one like him. Not Jack Steele, high tackle count, but one like him.

I'm taking our draft picks to the draft, as in or traded for other picks. The team as it is will play finals for the next 3 years, we need good draftees that can develop in that time and be banging on the door then, not right now. Bottom agers like we did last year. Probably, as normal, some mids and key positions, still available.
 
Who would you keep out of Ballenden and Archie? Archie provides maturity as a back up but Ballenden has shown some promise in the 2s. Or do you just cut both and risk no real back up if Oscar goes down?
 
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RU_ said:
Lyons is only 29, Lachie Neale is only 28 and Zorko is the concern at 32. Still have 4-5 years of Neale and Lyons running rampant, Zorks is probably running out of time a bit.
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If Cockatoo's body is right next year, I kind of hope we transition Zorko into the forwards and Cockatoo up the field. Zorko has a fantastic goal sense, especially from stoppages, and can pressure well so could easily play another handful of years there.
 
ForzaRoma said:
If Neale leaves, our finals window is over.
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The good news is that Neale isn't leaving - but even if he did, I couldn't disagree more with that. He's a vital player, but we didn't fall apart without him this year. Shuffle Hugh full-time on ball and bring Ah Chee in on a wing and I think we'd still absolutely be a real chance.

I don't really think we have anyone on our list with that kind of generational importance (in the same way as the Demons do with Petracca & the Bulldogs with Bontempelli), which is perhaps both a good and a bad thing.
 
dlanod said:
If Cockatoo's body is right next year, I kind of hope we transition Zorko into the forwards and Cockatoo up the field. Zorko has a fantastic goal sense, especially from stoppages, and can pressure well so could easily play another handful of years there.
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Completely agree.
 
Sproj said:
Who would you keep out of Ballenden and Archie? Archie provides maturity as a back up but Ballenden has shown some promise in the 2s. Or do you just cut both and risk no real back up if Oscar goes down?
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Ballenden is probably never going to be best 22, Archie is certainly never going to be best 22. If it were up to me, I'd cut both and look for a cheap veteran forward/ruck if there's a list spot available. Probably necessitates both Brock Smith and Birchall also departing though.
 

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marooned said:
I would seriously think about trading out a best 22 player like the swans did with Allir this year.
This could give us a chance to attack an area we need to be better at the midfield. Yes it would hurt seeing one of our better players running around for someone else but might give us better balance as a team. Any thoughts on this?
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I wouldn't want to weaken our defence any further, because it's the area that's holding us back. With midfield I think Neale, Lyons, Bailey, Rayner and McCluggage would give us the right combination of accumulation and pace, with Zorko moving to the forward line. That leaves Berry but I doubt anyone's going to pay much for him, we'd be selling pretty low. So I think if anyone went, it'd have to be from the forward line. We're so good at scoring that we could probably lose someone in order to gain elsewhere.

When all our talls were fit earlier in the season, I think we suffered a little by having Daniher be the backup ruck, because it didn't get the best out of him. But playing two rucks and three tall forwards is a structural problem too. If we were to correct this, then we'd have to replace Hipwood or McStay with a genuine ruck/forward. Of the two, McStay is less vital and has less improvement left in him, so he's more expendable.

Zorko moving to the forward line and the emergence of Cockatoo may also lead to a logjam in our small/medium forwards. I don't want to lose Charlie, Rayner or Bailey, they're all pretty vital or have a lot of improvement left in them. If anyone can be considered a clear best 22 player who doesn't have a lot of improvement left and isn't vital to how we play, it'd be McCarthy.

Personally, I'd rather just keep both McStay and McCarthy. We've persisted with them and turned them into good players, and it's time to reap the rewards of that. It's a bit suboptimal to push Joe into the ruck every week, but we'd really have to be sure we can find someone else who can perform McStay's role and also ruck.
 
We might need another thread …


Breaking.

Lachie Neale is weighing up his playing future - and looks set to request a trade from the brisbanelions back to the freodockers.

It’s understood Neale and wife Jules are keen to raise their family in WA.

@7AFL @7NewsPerth
 
FWIW these are my thoughts on the potential Neale trade which I posted on the main trading board. I do reiterate I don’t want to see him leave but it sounds like it’s happening.


As much as I don’t want him to leave I don’t think it would be the end of the world for us, although it could set us back a year or two perhaps.

I’m resigned to the fact there probably isn’t a flag in a Lachie/Lyons/Zorks starting midfield but more chance once the likes of McCluggage/Berry/Rayner/Bailey/Starc etc hit their prime in 2-3 years. It’ll be around that time that Hipwood/Harris are around that mid-late 20s as well which is prime age for KPP’s.

If he does choose to leave and we can somehow get 3-4 top 20 picks in this draft it sets us up for those guys to come in behind the players mentioned above, with Ashcroft to then come in at the end of next season as well.
 
Would be very disappointing if true but if so turn Lachie into a high draft pick or two and bring in Luke Parker as a free agent for the 4 years at $750k he wants
 

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Analysis 2021 trade thread

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