_RT_
Community Leader
- Sep 17, 2006
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Still wasn't a marking forward though. Average 3 marks a game in 2018, with less than 1 contested mark a game.
See what i am saying here? This guy is no back up for Tom Lynch & Jack Riewoldt - the fact people can only conjure up his name as some type of retort just underlines how dire our situation is there.
If we are seriously going for a flag next season, we need to seriously get a back up. For as bad as Levi Casboult is - he was probably the best out there for a serious KPF.
I know this will make a few vomit (including me) - but if the Pies bite the bullet & delist Mason Cox, I think the club would seriously have a look at him. Maybe that is why we gave them a bit of an overs in the pick trade .
I know the names being bought up are not sexy - I would have kept Chol over all these blokes anyday - but unfortunately we blew our chance to lock him up cheap by keeping him marooned on the rookie list a year too long. If we are legit, 100% going for a flag next year - we need to be armed and have all weak spots covered. We didn't do that in 2021 & when Toby went down, we struggled to compete in the middle. We now run that same risk if Lynch goes down.
Before we crap on Mason due to his giant spudness - look at your stats & tell me he will not give you nearly the EXACT same output than CCJ did this year. For all the hecking he cops, he is a proven Finals player - he stood up bigtime in 2018 Prelim & GF Their 2021 stats are almost a dead replica.
All going well, we play him in the VFL for 20 games and never need to use him - but if Lynch goes down & Soldo struggles to regain his past form - we will need him, or someone else - otherwise we are screwed. Samson Ryan is not ready for that roleView attachment 1265319
I hate Mason as much as anyone, but i wouldn't cut off my hand to spite my Cox
A stop gap KPF is a waste of space. As I said the other day, if things go pear shaped and we need to turn to the likes of Ryan or Miller or a draftee or need to use Nankervis or Soldo as a KPF we're going to get more out of that, than turning to failed options from other teams.
Firstly if that happens then it's likely that we're not going to be a finals contender, so why shoot ourselves in the foot from a draft point of view by having a stop gap option helping us win a couple of extra games. Secondly by using the likes of Ryan or Miller or a draftee were getting development into them, which serves us better for the long term future than a stop gap spud will offer.
If the opposite happens and it all goes well, then the likes of Ryan and the draftee/s will get to be around a team that is contending which also helps their development because on the likelihood that they are called upon they are going to be playing in games where we're contending and that will help with their development again.
Stop gaps very rarely work, and to get them to even commit you need to offer up a multi year deal which means we're effectively stuck with them for 2 seasons. As it stands we have 7 open spots, with the plan being to take 5 kids in the draft, upgrade a couple of rookies and then redraft Nyoun and Cumberland, if we were to take a stop gap option, then it means we either don't take the 5 picks in the draft or we don't redraft one of Nyoun or Cumberland, who are both likely to only get 1 year rookie deals initially which means if they don't work out we can move on from them this time next year, rather than being tied to them for another 12 months.