List Mgmt. Contract, Trade and Draft Discussions - 2024 Post Season

Remove this Banner Ad

  • Thread starter
  • Moderator
  • #2


Quick links:
Player contract status
Draft prospect video highlights (thanks to noobermensch)
AFL retirements and delistings



Latest news and rumours:

  • List Manager Matt Clarke appeared on Gettable - Click spoiler below for summary
    On the draft: "We predicted that the draft was strong, but it's probably gotten stronger during the year."

    On top end of draft: "You could probably make five or six different choices and get it right."

    On Pick 3: "I reckon there's five (players) around that mark."

    On splitting: "I think you want to hold an early selection if you can. The depth of this group allows you to maybe have some movement there, and see what you can do to bring in more talent in the first 20-25 picks. Easier said than done, and I think most clubs would be saying the same thing. We'll see what we can do."

    On Liam Baker: "He's still yet to make a decision. They're still weighing up a few things. We'd love to get Liam on board from what he offers from a talent and leadership point of view. We understand where we're at as a group, we're rebuilding our group, we need to add some guys in the middle tier to support our young group."

    On Jack Graham: "We've got a number of players that we're speaking to. A bit of a wait and see on that one as well. We'll talk to a number of guys."

    On Shai Bolton: "I think it will be difficult for anybody, really. He's heavily contracted and a high quality player."

    On James Peatling: "He's heavily involved in a finals series at the moment so I don't want to comment too much on it, but I think there's a number of guys that have been playing really good footy this year that could suit what we do and what other clubs do. He's taken his footy to another level this year."

    On Tom Barrass: "We've had an early discussion with Hawthorn about it, they understand where we're at. He's nominated Hawthorn as his ideal destination. We want what we think he's worth, as a genuine key back in the competition that can do what he can do. We're obviously mindful of getting an appropriate deal for West Coast."

    On Tom Clurey: "Maybe (note: sounded very non enthused). We'd probably need some key back depth, whether that's through the draft or trade and free agency."

    On Jack Darling: "We've had initial discussions with his management group about (moving). We're open to talking, as we are with all of our players, but Jack's contracted with us."

    On Liam Ryan: "I expect him to be at West Coast next year, yes." (The most definitive answer of the day by a mile, a non-starter of a talking point.)

    On out of contact players e.g. Rotham, Witherden, Jones: "We're still working through what it looks like from a list point of view, and how many selections we'll want to have, and players that may come in and potentially may go out. You might want to give a coach an opportunity to look at these guys."

    On Harley Reid: "We've had discussions most of the year with his management group. I think it sits in a really good place. We're open to doing really whatever they want to do to be honest. We're really confident in building the right system around Harley, on and off field, to make sure that he's really comfortable, that he's going to play his best footy, and his long term future."

    On Jake Waterman's new deal: "Yep, really close. We're working really closely with his management on that. I expect that we'll have something done pretty soon."

    On Oscar Allen: "We've been talking with Oscar and his manager most of the year on that one. We're going through some stuff at the moment. I think we'll be ok with that one."







 
Last edited by a moderator:
I would suggest that the gimp wing role that we have played in recent years is Simmo's game plan not evolving.

Look at the top sides and they are not playing the gimp winger. Holmes has spent a fair deal of time on the wing at the Cattery and Acres has been part of the new style wingers and likewise Guilden.

What is needed on a new age wing is both pace and endurance and the two attributes do not always go together.

A new coach with ideas on a new game plan will help us send the gimp wing role back to basement in Pulp Fiction.
 
Perryman has plateaued/gone backwards a bit in the last couple of years. Used to rate him highly but not so sure anymore.
He lost his role to Whitfield when they moved him to the HBF .

Perryman would be infinity better than witherden in the backline , can also play wing and on ball .

He would have way more freedom to play a front line role for us rather than being a bit part player at GWS
 

Log in to remove this ad.

I would suggest that the gimp wing role that we have played in recent years is Simmo's game plan not evolving.

Look at the top sides and they are not playing the gimp winger. Holmes has spent a fair deal of time on the wing at the Cattery and Acres has been part of the new style wingers and likewise Guilden.

What is needed on a new age wing is both pace and endurance and the two attributes do not always go together.

A new coach with ideas on a new game plan will help us send the gimp wing role back to basement in Pulp Fiction.
I can imagine the eagles had hoped that petrucelle might eventually find his position on the wing. I remember an open training session in his first preseason where they'd just kick the ball way in front of him so he'd burn his opponent running onto it. Unfortunately he doesn't have the footy smarts to keep himself involved unless he's right at the coalface

On SM-S921B using BigFooty.com mobile app
 
I can imagine the eagles had hoped that petrucelle might eventually find his position on the wing. I remember an open training session in his first preseason where they'd just kick the ball way in front of him so he'd burn his opponent running onto it. Unfortunately he doesn't have the footy smarts to keep himself involved unless he's right at the coalface

On SM-S921B using BigFooty.com mobile app


I think he's also lost his real zip as he's got older and put on weight. He's still quick but other players can now keep up. When he first started noboby could.
 
I can imagine the eagles had hoped that petrucelle might eventually find his position on the wing. I remember an open training session in his first preseason where they'd just kick the ball way in front of him so he'd burn his opponent running onto it. Unfortunately he doesn't have the footy smarts to keep himself involved unless he's right at the coalface

On SM-S921B using BigFooty.com mobile app
I had hoped that Chesser would also be a wingman but his inability to read the play means he too often gets caught between the contests without impacting either
 
Really don't understand how those few sane Freo supporters kept their sanity for all those years when "Contract, Trade and Draft Discussions" fill your September with rejections, mindless meandering towards ultimately fruitless scenarios and all you read are so many views on whether a player is too slow, not agile enough, too short, can't kick, plays a gimp position, loves his mummy too much or did a bit of tent rolly/polly with a sprinkling of Hawk Tuah.

All leaving you feeling like you can't decide if you Arthur, Martha, Trans, Pans or simply a Pro Noun.

Please for the love of all things good, let us nail this draft so we can return to our God given place in September..... the Finals.

And keep pick 3!
 
I think the concern is the building around Kelly/Yeo/Ryan rather than the chasing Hutchings and Masten.

Basically we are backing in the guys who have failed us to turn the club around.

Largely agree, and although Yeo re-signed shortly after a few god mode games for us, in hindsight I wouldn’t have been sad if he (or Kelly or Ryan) wasn’t at the club next year.
With the caveat that our coaching, S&C and medical were subpar, I think the biggest mistake post-2018 was thinking that midfield was going to cut it.

2018 from a midfield perspective was a flash in the pan. Shuey, Yeo, Redden, Gaff and Sheed (Naitanui), had never demonstrated consistent midfield dominance bar those few weeks in September. All either inconsistent, perennially injured or not elite. Ironically, given his demise, Gaff was arguably the only bankable member.

That team was held up by the forwards and the backline. In many ways Melbourne, with its weak forward line and similar trajectory is the bizarro version of us.

This lead to overpaying for Kelly and playing him in the wrong position and a belief that if we just get the Best 22 on the park it would work itself out.

It's imperative that we don't make the same mistakes this time. We need rolled gold, A grade midfielders before anything else.
 

(Log in to remove this ad.)

With the caveat that our coaching, S&C and medical were subpar, I think the biggest mistake post-2018 was thinking that midfield was going to cut it.

2018 from a midfield perspective was a flash in the pan. Shuey, Yeo, Redden, Gaff and Sheed (Naitanui), had never demonstrated consistent midfield dominance bar those few weeks in September. All either inconsistent, perennially injured or not elite. Ironically, given his demise, Gaff was arguably the only bankable member.

That team was held up by the forwards and the backline. In many ways Melbourne, with its weak forward line and similar trajectory is the bizarro version of us.

This lead to overpaying for Kelly and playing him in the wrong position and a belief that if we just get the Best 22 on the park it would work itself out.

It's imperative that we don't make the same mistakes this time. We need rolled gold, A grade midfielders before anything else.
Also just need players who don’t pick and choose when to play at their best. When they all do, we’re finals quality. Unfortunately that happens too infrequently
 
With the caveat that our coaching, S&C and medical were subpar, I think the biggest mistake post-2018 was thinking that midfield was going to cut it.

2018 from a midfield perspective was a flash in the pan. Shuey, Yeo, Redden, Gaff and Sheed (Naitanui), had never demonstrated consistent midfield dominance bar those few weeks in September. All either inconsistent, perennially injured or not elite. Ironically, given his demise, Gaff was arguably the only bankable member.

That team was held up by the forwards and the backline. In many ways Melbourne, with its weak forward line and similar trajectory is the bizarro version of us.

This lead to overpaying for Kelly and playing him in the wrong position and a belief that if we just get the Best 22 on the park it would work itself out.

It's imperative that we don't make the same mistakes this time. We need rolled gold, A grade midfielders before anything else.
I disagree with this. It wasn't the absolute best in the league, but Gaff and Yeo were dual AA and Shuey was a consistent big game player. The team played pretty well in 2019 and 2020 and were unlucky not to be top 4 both years.
 
Also just need players who don’t pick and choose when to play at their best. When they all do, we’re finals quality. Unfortunately that happens too infrequently
Agreed, the floor is a chasm. That's on the players, yes, but I think coaching let it become the social norm.
 
With the caveat that our coaching, S&C and medical were subpar, I think the biggest mistake post-2018 was thinking that midfield was going to cut it.

2018 from a midfield perspective was a flash in the pan. Shuey, Yeo, Redden, Gaff and Sheed (Naitanui), had never demonstrated consistent midfield dominance bar those few weeks in September. All either inconsistent, perennially injured or not elite. Ironically, given his demise, Gaff was arguably the only bankable member.

That team was held up by the forwards and the backline. In many ways Melbourne, with its weak forward line and similar trajectory is the bizarro version of us.

This lead to overpaying for Kelly and playing him in the wrong position and a belief that if we just get the Best 22 on the park it would work itself out.

It's imperative that we don't make the same mistakes this time. We need rolled gold, A grade midfielders before anything else.

The game plan worked well with the midfield we had. Unfortunately the rules changed which killed off the game plan as a viable option.

We had drafted for the plan continuing and were then slow to adapt (partly based on the squad being left in the past).

I think we also got distracted with new home base, AFLW, WAFL teams... leaving us with where we are.

(Noting that is not the full picture... losing Lycett, Rioli drama, Veneables injury, for example, didn't help)
 
Last edited:
I disagree with this. It wasn't the absolute best in the league, but Gaff and Yeo were dual AA and Shuey was a consistent big game player. The team played pretty well in 2019 and 2020 and were unlucky not to be top 4 both years.
Sure, the team as a whole played well for that period but that's not my point. It's that the midfield was never 'sorted', it was only 'elite' for a very short period when everything aligned.

Gaff was a winger and could never dominate the 'midfield battle', not his role.

Yeo was a 1 x All Australian in the mids and has either been injured or inconsistent or some combination of both.

Shuey was absolutely a big game player but also inconsistent and hobbled by injury.

Nobody in that midfield was a set and forget matchwinner. And the other lines papered over that. For years it was Naitanui, a player with his own deficiencies (body), papering over the problems. But post-2018 we somewhat justifiably forgot about that, and assumed that was the new norm.
 
On reflection Petrucelles season was pretty average. It went under the radar a bit i reckon.

Particularly after his "strong" finish to last year finding his niche as an onballer, which low and behold ended up being a flash in the pan purple patch with no substance.

Much like his entire career unfortunately.

2024 summary from his 16 games (AVG)
10.7 disposals
2.1 tackles
3 clangers
& Booted 11 goals.

The kind of player we really needed to step up as he's in that prime age bracket were trying to acquire more of.

We've invested the past 7+ years into him and counting, but he still can't lock down a spot. He's one of those players who aren't AFL quality but stick around for longer than they should due to more pressing issues with the list elsewhere.

He's 26 next year and better have an impressive season, or he'll be part of the next cull.
 
Jed Walter is in town WCE_phil if you’re back from NSW and James Peatling’s honeydicking.

I've just finished 2 days of club by club meetings and the follow ups from that in Melbourne.

I can't give out details but there is at least one poster here who I personally told that the WCE no longer had the largest offer to Peatling before any media.

I'm busy until 2 tomorrow then have until Monday off.

Only a few weeks to go.

I can't give answers publicly, won't comment on the coach and will only give out limited info to those I personally trust privately.

As far as im concerned most of the crew who seem to rock up solely for the off season shenanigans can **** off.
 
On reflection Petrucelles season was pretty average. It went under the radar a bit i reckon.

Particularly after his "strong" finish to last year finding his niche as an onballer, which low and behold ended up being a flash in the pan purple patch with no substance.

Much like his entire career unfortunately.

2024 summary from his 16 games (AVG)
10.7 disposals
2.1 tackles
3 clangers
& Booted 11 goals.

The kind of player we really needed to step up as he's in that prime age bracket were trying to acquire more of.

We've invested the past 7+ years into him and counting, but he still can't lock down a spot. He's one of those players who aren't AFL quality but stick around for longer than they should due to more pressing issues with the list elsewhere.

He's 26 next year and better have an impressive season, or he'll be part of the next cull.
Petch needs a fresh start in a different system that utilises his speed and overhead marking. With our list he’ll just float along next year without elevating his game nor being disastrously shit that would make his delisting a foregone conclusion.

Straight swap for Garcia or if not then Carroll would be ideal.
 

Remove this Banner Ad

List Mgmt. Contract, Trade and Draft Discussions - 2024 Post Season

Remove this Banner Ad

Back
Top