- Banned
- #76
Iirc I never took a side on Mitchel vs draft picks.
I was very ok with taking Mitchell and often advocating for it but whatever
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Iirc I never took a side on Mitchel vs draft picks.
I was very ok with taking Mitchell and often advocating for it but whatever
- Banned
- #77
3 or 4 very good contested marks iirc but obviously didn't play well overall sadly
Time for a full rebuild. Luckily we had a strong draft hand last year. We need to play kids and trade in picks for 3 years before going for some free agents.
He had a team high 9 marks and was competitive in the air. 16 disposals wasn't bad for his role.
Importantly, he didn't make multiple fundamental errors and give away multiple free kicks like Aarts did.
Never go full Hawthorn.
Tom would be a bandaid, we need a gut and rebuild.
Did I say he was BOG? No. I said of the 3 you mentioned he had a respectable game. The others were far worse.
Lynchy04
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Really don't understand the hate for George from last night
He was the Equal 4th Highest possession winner for us with 16
9 Marks - Team High for us 2 of them contested again a high for us.
6 score involvements which was equal 1st
6 Contested possessions.
His statistics and impact on the game was on par or greater than Baker and Edwards who played more midfield minutes along with the half forward role.
Was far from our problem last night
If you had to rate our performances last night from best to worst I would go Bolton, Pickett, Grimes, Martin, Short, Broad, Tarrant, Balta, George, Gibcus, Rioli, Baker, Nank, Ross, Edwards, Cotch, Lynch, Hugo, Aarts, Graham, Soldo, Jack ( Not counting Dion but his 20 minutes of game time would be above half that list)
He was the Equal 4th Highest possession winner for us with 16
9 Marks - Team High for us 2 of them contested again a high for us.
6 score involvements which was equal 1st
6 Contested possessions.
His statistics and impact on the game was on par or greater than Baker and Edwards who played more midfield minutes along with the half forward role.
Was far from our problem last night
If you had to rate our performances last night from best to worst I would go Bolton, Pickett, Grimes, Martin, Short, Broad, Tarrant, Balta, George, Gibcus, Rioli, Baker, Nank, Ross, Edwards, Cotch, Lynch, Hugo, Aarts, Graham, Soldo, Jack ( Not counting Dion but his 20 minutes of game time would be above half that list)
OK, Hardwick press conference last night:
(speaking of Matt Kennedy) “he has become the player he always looked like he would be.”
Kennedy is a free agent. He will be 25 at the start of next season. I can see us making a 5 years x $600k+ type offer for him, and I don’t imagine the Blues could match that.
Then go eyeballs out for Tom Green using our draft picks. That would instantly give our mid section a much better balance of age, size and inside/outside talent. We should have the cash and draft picks to throw at these type of recruits. This would be a way to fix our ailing midfield.
Not to mention the tallest man alive, Mate Colina in the ruck.
(speaking of Matt Kennedy) “he has become the player he always looked like he would be.”
Kennedy is a free agent. He will be 25 at the start of next season. I can see us making a 5 years x $600k+ type offer for him, and I don’t imagine the Blues could match that.
Then go eyeballs out for Tom Green using our draft picks. That would instantly give our mid section a much better balance of age, size and inside/outside talent. We should have the cash and draft picks to throw at these type of recruits. This would be a way to fix our ailing midfield.
Not to mention the tallest man alive, Mate Colina in the ruck.
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We had a heap of early draft picks and we selected hbf
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is that what he said?
mid section a much better balance of age, size and inside/outside talent. We should have the cash and draft picks to throw at these type of recruits. This would be a way to fix our ailing midfield.
Not to mention the tallest man alive, Mate Colina in the ruck.
- Thread starter
- #87
You think he is going to want to join a club that has ageing superstars on big back-ended contracts?OK, Hardwick press conference last night:
(speaking of Matt Kennedy) “he has become the player he always looked like he would be.”
Kennedy is a free agent. He will be 25 at the start of next season. I can see us making a 5 years x $600k+ type offer for him, and I don’t imagine the Blues could match that.
Then go eyeballs out for Tom Green using our draft picks. That would instantly give our mid section a much better balance of age, size and inside/outside talent. We should have the cash and draft picks to throw at these type of recruits. This would be a way to fix our ailing midfield.
Not to mention the tallest man alive, Mate Colina in the ruck.
We are in the phase of getting the S**** kicked out of us as we gambled successfully and won 3 flags now we have to cop being trash for 3 to 4 years
Cotchin and Riewoldt likely retire, Edwards probably as well.
Martin 2 more years, Lynch 3. Prestia 2. They all remain strong players until proven otherwise.
We have a load of young talent coming through and if we could grab a couple of quality big bodied mids then there is every reason to think we would be pretty viable. Kennedy would be just 27 at the start of 2025 when 2 of those last 3 big contracts have washed through. Green would be about 24 at that point entering his absolute prime. As would Balta and Bolton.
I don’t know, you cannot account for what individual players will decide they prefer, but if the club was trying to recruit Kennedy and Green on reasonable long term contracts I wouldn’t be unhappy about it.
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No chance - Cerra is a soft receiver. The exact opposite of what we need in the midfield
Since when has Prestia and Lynch been strong players. One can't get on the park and the other one is as athletic as a 90yold and too easy of defend
bloody good rankings/order/list. heres mine....
we had so many below par... ive added ratings out of 10. cripps 8, kennedy 8, cerra 7 docerty 7 geez no wonder we lost then look at our meek list.
I'm not disputing any of that - its all true. The reality is if you spend too long looking back you end up in the bottom half of the ladder again for 30 years.
We need to make decisions now for the future and Lynch and Prestia are now massive liabilities as are the likes of Cotch, Shedda and Jack
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You are never as bad as you think (nor as good). But I agree we need to do something about our midfield given the game has changed to being a midfield battle and rule changes to favour attack rather than defence. We certainly didn't put enough pressure on the carlton mids out of stoppage last night and we didn't win enough stoppages. I do think this is fixable with structure at around the ground stoppages. Centre clearance more difficult but we only lost centre clearance by two last night, it was around the ground stoppages we got smashed. Also think we could gain an advantage at centre clearance by instructing our ruck to grab it out of the ruck and just hold onto it, creating a ballup without the structure rules allowing us to set up as we please effectively nullifying 666 and allowing an extra at the stoppage for increased clearances or greater pressure on oppo if they win it. We do this successfully though and I guarantee it would lead to a rule change.
Still fing it astounding that the key rule changes have been largely designed to counter the way we play (666, more space for the kicker after a behind, stand rule) and everyone just thinks yeah that's OK we need to bring Richmond back to the pack. And then have the gumption to reduce our distribution by $2m as well.
Still fing it astounding that the key rule changes have been largely designed to counter the way we play (666, more space for the kicker after a behind, stand rule) and everyone just thinks yeah that's OK we need to bring Richmond back to the pack. And then have the gumption to reduce our distribution by $2m as well.
I'm wondering where the Ross/RCD/Dow/Graham defenders are at the moment. All of them are not going to even be in the B+ category of AFL midfielders going on current output and projections. Dow the only one I give half a chance of making it.
We are so disgustingly reliant on Prestia to remain competitive in the midfield and last night reminded me of the game against Melbourne last year when everything was going beautifully up until the moment he got injured and we then got smashed out of the middle.
It has been glaringly clear to most football people that the rule changes have made clearances the most important feature of the game right now, not turnovers. Look at the top 6 teams from last year and have a look at where they all sit in terms of getting first use. We are nowhere near them on those measures.
We've drafted for a turnover game style that by the end of this year will be four years out of date. The game has moved on and we've failed to innovate. The new rules hurt our ability to put pressure on back half kickers as they can just run around the man on the mark or get overlap without the angles being cut off. Our small forward depth has been eroded and players have not come on as expected in that area with the exception of Bolton.
We've also failed to bring through a noted 'purebreed' midfielder for what seems like a generation given the trade for Prestia. Those drafts where we took blokes like Lennon and Corey Ellis are now coming home to roost given they would be in the 25-27 category of players that could have kept us around the mark had we been more prudent in our selections (players like Cripps, Steele and Touk Miller were available for example).
It's time to invest in the future of the midfield. Try blokes through there like Baker and Ralphsmith who could have an impact and try and go to the draft with 3-4 big blokes in mind who get first use and use it well (and keep bloody drafting them instead of getting one like RCD and thinking that'll solve all of our problems).
Everyone seems to think that we're a few free agents or trades away. Tom Mitchell would have helped last night, but if we don't want a Hawthorn-esque decade back down the bottom I think we've got to continue to be patient, recognise what needs to be changed and put in place a consistent strategy to do so. I'd certainly rather Gibcus and a Sonsie long term than Tom.
There's plenty to work with. Gibcus and some of the younger generation like Bolton and Balta absolutely could be the next pillars of a run, but I think we all need to face the fact that we're no longer up there with the best sides anymore and need to start thinking strategically about how to get back there.
We are so disgustingly reliant on Prestia to remain competitive in the midfield and last night reminded me of the game against Melbourne last year when everything was going beautifully up until the moment he got injured and we then got smashed out of the middle.
It has been glaringly clear to most football people that the rule changes have made clearances the most important feature of the game right now, not turnovers. Look at the top 6 teams from last year and have a look at where they all sit in terms of getting first use. We are nowhere near them on those measures.
We've drafted for a turnover game style that by the end of this year will be four years out of date. The game has moved on and we've failed to innovate. The new rules hurt our ability to put pressure on back half kickers as they can just run around the man on the mark or get overlap without the angles being cut off. Our small forward depth has been eroded and players have not come on as expected in that area with the exception of Bolton.
We've also failed to bring through a noted 'purebreed' midfielder for what seems like a generation given the trade for Prestia. Those drafts where we took blokes like Lennon and Corey Ellis are now coming home to roost given they would be in the 25-27 category of players that could have kept us around the mark had we been more prudent in our selections (players like Cripps, Steele and Touk Miller were available for example).
It's time to invest in the future of the midfield. Try blokes through there like Baker and Ralphsmith who could have an impact and try and go to the draft with 3-4 big blokes in mind who get first use and use it well (and keep bloody drafting them instead of getting one like RCD and thinking that'll solve all of our problems).
Everyone seems to think that we're a few free agents or trades away. Tom Mitchell would have helped last night, but if we don't want a Hawthorn-esque decade back down the bottom I think we've got to continue to be patient, recognise what needs to be changed and put in place a consistent strategy to do so. I'd certainly rather Gibcus and a Sonsie long term than Tom.
There's plenty to work with. Gibcus and some of the younger generation like Bolton and Balta absolutely could be the next pillars of a run, but I think we all need to face the fact that we're no longer up there with the best sides anymore and need to start thinking strategically about how to get back there.
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Spot on
Most supporters wanted us to make a play for Mitchell or Wingard.
You're either going for a flag or you aint. So why get Tarrant and not top up the mids
Dr Tigris
Brownlow Medallist
Oh yeah, I am singing the midfield song now.
Losing Dion was huge. And Graham being played unfit was stupid.
I haven't lost the plot yet. But unless we do something about inside mids we are toast. If Cotch can pick his game up, and we have a fit Dion and Graham we're competitive. But we need more than that IMHO. Play RCD/Dow and try to build them into AFL quality mids this year.
Basically, last night we lost the core of our midfield through injury, fitness and form. If they all stay fit and play well we're fine. I hope that Dimma et al learn to stick to at least nullifying the contested battle. We were way to cute and lost to a team that payed with heart and to their strengths.
Prestia was more or less BOG until injured last night. And Lynch was the best tall forward on the ground despite minimal supply and playing against an opponent rated by many the best key defender in the AFL.
They were both clearly hampered by injuries throughout much of 2021. If that continues then sure, they are not going to set the world alight, but both showed enough last night alone to show that given a fair run at it, they remain strong players.
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Remember when so many here wanted Graham as captain
I said he’s battling for best 22 and got laughed at
Only at his fittest and best he’s best 22.. but Jeeze does he have much upside? I wish I could see it but I just can’t
I see much more in Dow, RCD, Sonsie, Stack
I said he’s battling for best 22 and got laughed at
Only at his fittest and best he’s best 22.. but Jeeze does he have much upside? I wish I could see it but I just can’t
I see much more in Dow, RCD, Sonsie, Stack
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We did no better naming nank captain too. He could easily not play due to structural reasons of 2 rucks.
Just awful offseason decisions
Because Tarrant was free whilst the other 2 would have cost us x2 1st rounders. Pretty simple really
