Rumour 2024 Hypothetical trade and FA Thread

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Sam a few times this year has said he doesn’t want to rely on an individual midfielder to get it 30 times a week ……. would prefer a number of mids that contribute in the low 20’s each week which is essentially what has been happening over the last few months.

Re Smith he seems to be leaving the Dogs due to a lack of midfield opportunity. Not sure if this is aligned to Sam’s team ethos and unless Smith is willing to play a role for what’s best for the team 🤔
Cough cough Ginnivan cough..
 

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Thanks hawkheart any other revelations on the night. I didn't get there
Bigmaxi, TBH it was a slightly disappointing night. Listed as running 6.30 - 8.30, only went for an hour from 7-8. (Temper Trap rehearsing on the ground for NRL was the supposed reason). Nat Edwards hosted.

Andy Gowers was first up and updated us on Dingley with some impressive drone vision of the work so far (available on the Hawks app apparently) and announced we're over 80k membership.

Rob McCartney and Sam spoke next. A slide went up of all he negative media articles from last year / earlier this year (tanking etc.) then was contrasted with all the feel-good media articles and headlines of late. Essentially Rob was saying that we have a plan and we know where we're going and anything outside the club (positive or negative) is just noise. I always find Rob a hugely impressive speaker.
Sam mentioned Wardy (see earlier post) with no prompting - seems top of mind - and said that this year we're beyond the pure development stage - but still developing nevertheless. Focus is more on being in winning positions / consistency.

A slide went up of the debutants for this year. Sam talked up Mass as a quality person and the surprise of Calsher coming on so quickly.

Players interviewed very briefly on stage were Sic, Newk, Worps and Gunner. Laughs from the attendees when someone asked about how we'd fit Bailey Smith into the midfield. I think Newk chuckled and said something along the lines of "we'll find a way".
Worps mentioned that all players have a long list of things they've been working on but as far as him personally, he mentioned his kicking in particular. Gunners joked that he enjoyed his 'year holiday'. Sic mentioned the boys would have been happy to keep going without the bye.

AFLW women were next up - thought new coach Dan Webster spoke very well.

Canapes were not up to standard of previous years.
 
I think Smith was projecting to be on a similar level to a lot of those players, yes his kicking isn't great but you could say the same about a lot of stars over the years. He looked like he could be come that damaging inside/out line breaking mid that could hit the scoreboard. He stagnated at the Dogs and has since been injured. So i think it somewhat depends if you give him any slack in the act i think the Dogs have slightly misused him and i genuinely believe Bevo is a hack of a coach.

Whether Smith ends up hitting top 10 i don't know but i do think he could have seasons where he plays at that level at a minimum.

His kicking could improve with us look at Worpel’s and Nash’s kicking.
 

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No negativity

But Ward aint going anywhere
re Ward, is a talented player but doesn't quite have the height or speed to hurt teams at AFL level, the offset to this is amazing hands/disposal/evasive skills which the coach had, so hopefully this can develop but I'm just not sure it's there.
 
Barrass would be a bold move. He’s 29 (but 9 months younger than Sicily) so would put a pretty defined say 3 or so year window on winning a flag (before our backline starts to look old). But he’s a gun and that centrepiece key defender our backline is missing. I imagine he’s not going to come cheap to prise him out of WCE.
I'm afraid it's a no from me. Purely on age.
 
re Ward, is a talented player but doesn't quite have the height or speed to hurt teams at AFL level, the offset to this is amazing hands/disposal/evasive skills which the coach had, so hopefully this can develop but I'm just not sure it's there.
Ward is 20 years old.

This idea that we just have to make some sort of move with him because he’s not currently in the senior side is ridiculous.
 

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Rumour 2024 Hypothetical trade and FA Thread

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