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DeathlyAccurate
Club Legend
- Mar 28, 2023
- 1,341
- 3,322
- AFL Club
- Sydney
One could say that was the finish to the season that we deserved. At our best we can be breathtaking but this season we barely showed enough flashes of brilliance to scrape in to the finals. Injuries took their toll early but in the end they weren’t to blame.
Where do we improve? How big is our premiership window? My view is we have 4 seasons to seriously challenge and what happens after that will depend on how we draft/trade etc.
Forwards: McLean, McDonald and Papley form the nucleus. Heeney, Hayward and Wicks can contribute but one of McLean or McDonald needs to be kicking 40-plus goals by next season if we’re to challenge. I excluded Amartey because I am curious as to where others see him next season? Can his body hold up? Will he be overtaken by Buller? We need another goal scoring forward but those are very difficult to trade in.
Backs: Tom and Melican were rock solid tonight and they’re young. I wouldn’t be against adding McKay at a cheap price but I don’t necessarily think we need him. This also depends on how quickly Rampe drops off, if he faces a rapid decline then too much could be left to too few.
Midfield: Too much weight is on the hope that Sheldrick kicks on. I believe in him, but next season? It might be too soon to expect him to be what we’re looking for and the load gets even heavier if Parker can’t regain form. The likes of McInerney, Campbell and Warner must take another step in 2024 unless someone becomes available to draft this year but that is looking increasingly unlikely. Gulden is already a gun and will hold us together but he alone isn’t enough to lift us in to the top 4.
Ruck: If Grundy hasn’t verbally agreed to go to Port, we must chase him and chase hard. Yes he’s turning 30 soon but our ruck situation is dire and we don’t want McLean shouldering too much of it while we need him clunking marks up forward. Maybe Sweet is another option? We saw tonight, yet again, that a good ruckman matters. Hickey was terrific and we’d have lost by more without his presence.
Aside from the obvious areas, one of our best chances to climb up comes from within. It rests on our big name players performing to expectation. A lot rests with Heeney and Papley, they both have potential to be match winners up forward and in the middle, and are in the age bracket where we should still be expecting their absolute best. To a lesser extent, but just as crucial, is the role of Mills next season. He almost looked lost at times this year and far from his best. Which one of them are we relying on the most next year?
There’s so much to think about and tinker with. It’s exciting, because we have enough talent to be very optimistic, but it’s critical we don’t waste this window.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Where do we improve? How big is our premiership window? My view is we have 4 seasons to seriously challenge and what happens after that will depend on how we draft/trade etc.
Forwards: McLean, McDonald and Papley form the nucleus. Heeney, Hayward and Wicks can contribute but one of McLean or McDonald needs to be kicking 40-plus goals by next season if we’re to challenge. I excluded Amartey because I am curious as to where others see him next season? Can his body hold up? Will he be overtaken by Buller? We need another goal scoring forward but those are very difficult to trade in.
Backs: Tom and Melican were rock solid tonight and they’re young. I wouldn’t be against adding McKay at a cheap price but I don’t necessarily think we need him. This also depends on how quickly Rampe drops off, if he faces a rapid decline then too much could be left to too few.
Midfield: Too much weight is on the hope that Sheldrick kicks on. I believe in him, but next season? It might be too soon to expect him to be what we’re looking for and the load gets even heavier if Parker can’t regain form. The likes of McInerney, Campbell and Warner must take another step in 2024 unless someone becomes available to draft this year but that is looking increasingly unlikely. Gulden is already a gun and will hold us together but he alone isn’t enough to lift us in to the top 4.
Ruck: If Grundy hasn’t verbally agreed to go to Port, we must chase him and chase hard. Yes he’s turning 30 soon but our ruck situation is dire and we don’t want McLean shouldering too much of it while we need him clunking marks up forward. Maybe Sweet is another option? We saw tonight, yet again, that a good ruckman matters. Hickey was terrific and we’d have lost by more without his presence.
Aside from the obvious areas, one of our best chances to climb up comes from within. It rests on our big name players performing to expectation. A lot rests with Heeney and Papley, they both have potential to be match winners up forward and in the middle, and are in the age bracket where we should still be expecting their absolute best. To a lesser extent, but just as crucial, is the role of Mills next season. He almost looked lost at times this year and far from his best. Which one of them are we relying on the most next year?
There’s so much to think about and tinker with. It’s exciting, because we have enough talent to be very optimistic, but it’s critical we don’t waste this window.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk