List Mgmt. Trade Targets / Rumours

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I reckon we are struggling to make the cap floor. Lost Wingard, Polec and Pittard which is a big chunk, possibly losing Ryder, Wines, Howard, SPP, Sam Gray. Apparently Boak and Robbie Gray got part of their salaries rolled over to this season to help make the difference.

Yep, noted, I didn't think that cap comment through very well.

If Howard goes, It’s because he wants to be a key defender, not a forward. (I personally think he should be a key back that sporadically goes forward to unbalance teams defences).

This is where it gets puzzling for me.

Forget about Hinkley's silliness, don't you reckon Port need a proper tall KPD anchor down back?

Clurey 193cm, Burton 191 cm and Jonas 188 cm are all good players, but they are just not big enough for the bigger KPF's, as you found out against us
when Brown (200 cm) & Larkey (198 cm) carved them up, and Westhoff is just about done. I struggle to see why this bloke isn't your defensive lynch pin.
 
Looking very likely dougal is gone.

But we really need to keep him. Once ken is gone, hopefully a competent coach puts him back down back, plays well and happy days for all.
While ken is here, the likelihood of dougal staying is slim.
 

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Howard should be our Harry Taylor. Intercepting key backman who can swing forward on occasion.

Instead Hinkley trained him all pre-season as a key back, swung him forward once with success, then got an asparteme rush and moved him there permanently, only to drop him as soon as he lost a bit of confidence. Who would've thought a bloke who hadn't trained with the forward group in 6 months might get a bit lost from time to time?
 
Fun fact: Dougal Howard averaged less intercepts per game than any player who played in defence this year. Including Westhoff and Hartlett.
 
Fun fact: Dougal Howard averaged less intercepts per game than any player who played in defence this year. Including Westhoff and Hartlett.

Are you only averaging the games he played in defence ? - otherwise that stat is meaningless.
 
Are you only averaging the games he played in defence ? - otherwise that stat is meaningless.

How many games did Westhoff play in defence?

The problem with Howard is that he’ll post up great intercept stats one week but terrible disposal numbers, and the next it will be great disposal numbers but terrible intercept numbers.

It’s like he can only focus on one aspect of the game and plays robotic instead of letting it flow.
 
How many games did Westhoff play in defence?

I don't know - I know it was a lot as I was frustrated he was playing back rather than forward/wing, but back to my question that you didn't answer ?
 

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Howard is a 'fringe player' in the same way that Luke Davies-Uniacke is a fringe player. Talls take time. He may not have been an automatic selection this year, but that doesn't necessarily mean he won't be next year and beyond.

And given that he's contracted for the next three years, the question isn't 'what would another club be prepared to give up?', the question is 'what would Port accept for him?' And if what Port would accept for him is less than what another club would be prepared to give up, that's perfectly fine, he'll be at Port next year. Which is my preferred outcome.

Forget about Hinkley's silliness, don't you reckon Port need a proper tall KPD anchor down back?

Clurey 193cm, Burton 191 cm and Jonas 188 cm are all good players, but they are just not big enough for the bigger KPF's, as you found out against us
when Brown (200 cm) & Larkey (198 cm) carved them up, and Westhoff is just about done. I struggle to see why this bloke isn't your defensive lynch pin.

As with all 'I struggle to see why Port aren't doing x' questions, the answer is Ken Hinkley.
 
Fun fact: Dougal Howard averaged less intercepts per game than any player who played in defence this year. Including Westhoff and Hartlett.

Fun fact: Dougal Howard spent half the year in the forward line, so no shit.
 
How many games did Westhoff play in defence?

The problem with Howard is that he’ll post up great intercept stats one week but terrible disposal numbers, and the next it will be great disposal numbers but terrible intercept numbers.

It’s like he can only focus on one aspect of the game and plays robotic instead of letting it flow.
So to answer his question you didn't only average his games down back
 
I don't know - I know it was a lot as I was frustrated he was playing back rather than forward/wing, but back to my question that you didn't answer ?

Fine. 6.75 intercepts per game over 8 games.

Westhoff averaged 7 intercepts a game by the same metric (over 5 games), and he’s 32 years old, so that tells you all you need to know about how easy it is for a tall to take intercepts. Watts averaged 6 per game and he only played 1.75 games.

If Howard is going to play in defence, he’d have to be averaging way more than 6.75 intercepts per game, because he’s not a very good one on one defender. That would have put him 30th in the league for intercepts - just above Jonas and Clurey. The best in the league averaged one to two more intercepts per game than that.

We’re not going anywhere with a floating tall who takes that low amount of intercepts and can’t kick all that well. I’d rather play Watts and/or Westhoff in that role.

That being said - if Lukosius isn’t on his way to Alberton, there’s no way I’m trading Howard. Just because he’s not great in defence doesn’t mean he can’t play there.
 
How many games did Westhoff play in defence?

The problem with Howard is that he’ll post up great intercept stats one week but terrible disposal numbers, and the next it will be great disposal numbers but terrible intercept numbers.

It’s like he can only focus on one aspect of the game and plays robotic instead of letting it flow.
But this isn't surprising for a young tall with less than 50 games who even in that short career has played as KPD, KPF & ruck.
Any player in that situation needs to be settled down in the position where he plays his best footy (even if he has some lapses there too) and be able to work with the one line coach on consistent performance.
It's coaching 101. But instead, Doogs gets thrown around to plug gaps because we don't have any skilled and adaptable and durable older talls who can reliably do it as well as Doogs.
 
My take is that we will do very little in Trade Week and all this talk of Ollie, Howard and SPP is just so the List Managers can say, "well, we tried." It is next year that we will make a play for Lukosius and we will need some currency to get a bid in then.
 
I think Dougs will be a fantastic defender. Just needs to strengthen up a little bit more so that he is able to hold position in a 1 on 1 contest. He should have the body size of Harris Andrews at the start of next season. I don’t think we should trade him for anything. If they want to play him forward then you cant also play Ladhams and Lycett. Dixon and Marshall have to be locks from round 1.
 
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Gold Coast list manager Craig Cameron says Picks 1 and 2 in the national draft aren’t off the trade table, with a former Sun calling on the club to trade both selections for two ready-made stars.

After being awarded Pick 1 as part of their AFL assistance package, most expect the Suns to use the picks on Carey Grammar schoolmates and friends - and clear top two talents in the draft - Matt Rowell and Noah Anderson.

But Cameron told Trade Radio the Suns would consider dealing the selections if the price is right.

“They’re not off the table, but the players at the top of this year’s draft are exceptional,” he said.

“I would take something extraordinary to move those selections.

“But it would be silly for us to say they’re off the table – we have to look at all the ways we can to improve our football club. I haven’t had too many calls on them as yet.”

 
Again, this criticism of Howard isn't unreasonable. But it would be much more meaningful if he'd played 100+ games instead of 45.
He doesn't play as a natural defender - he's still "learning the craft" - while being asked to plug any "talls" gaps anywhere else.
And if he's allowed to play in the one position while he "learns the craft", he's probably capable of being the well-rounded defender who can be swung forwards like Harry Taylor, as a previous poster suggested. And his upside could be huge.
 
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