Where are our holes now!

[Coach]

Merrett is overrated.

Disagree. Is one of the best defenders in the league. Not one of the defenders at our club could hold a gun big man like Cloke, Brown, Roughead Franklin etc when isolated deep forward. Keeping them to 5 would be considered a good effort. Merrett is a top notch defender.

Cheers!
The Coach

I don't think his output or results have been near as impressive since the Lions slid down the ladder.  He was partially made look good by a very good team and is now struggling to have the same impact as he did a few years back.  A good ordinary defender imho.

He's played forward this year hasn't he? and when playing as a defender, when have you seen him taken to the cleaners? I can honestly say I haven't watched a Brisbane game where I didn't think he was servicable. Forwards playing on Sauce need to earn every touch. If we can pay McGuane 1.2 million over 3 years then we can chuck some $ at Merrett to sure up our defense.

[Smokey]

Merrett is overrated.

Disagree. Is one of the best defenders in the league. Not one of the defenders at our club could hold a gun big man like Cloke, Brown, Roughead Franklin etc when isolated deep forward. Keeping them to 5 would be considered a good effort. Merrett is a top notch defender.

Cheers!
The Coach

I don't think his output or results have been near as impressive since the Lions slid down the ladder.  He was partially made look good by a very good team and is now struggling to have the same impact as he did a few years back.  A good ordinary defender imho.

He's played forward this year hasn't he? and when playing as a defender, when have you seen him taken to the cleaners? I can honestly say I haven't watched a Brisbane game where I didn't think he was servicable. Forwards playing on Sauce need to earn every touch. If we can pay McGuane 1.2 million over 3 years then we can chuck some $ at Merrett to sure up our defense.

Yeah he has Coach but I still think his best football is past him and was in part due to the quality of players around him back then.  He might regain that form in another good side but he is now injury prone and approaching 30.  An unacceptable risk at the cost to our club but again, only my opinion.

[10 FLAGS]

Merrett is too old for us. If he was 24 or 25 then maybe but not now.

[Judge Roughneck]

I would agree with the 16 you have picked. Good job.

Our side is beginning to settle and our depth improve but we still have some positions, I would suggest, that are still there for the taking. I remember doing something similar a couple of years a go, in another posters thread, and most of the field was question marks. Times are changing though. 

Here's where I think we still have positions to fill

FB -     Houli      Rance        Grimes

HB -    Batchelor      ???      Morris

C -      Conca       Martin        ???

Foll -     Maric      Cotchin       Lids       

HF -     ???            ???          ???

FB -     Vickery       Jack        Grimes

Int -     Foley       Ellis        Grigg         ???


It's interesting to me that it seems our forward line and in particular our half forwardline including our small forwards that seems our weakest area going forward. Nahas and King are servicable and can have breakout games but are they going to remain in the side in 3-5 years? I don't know.

Our backline is surprizingly settled with a big CHB the only hole imo. Morris was lucky to be placed in but he seems to be doing everything right at the moment.

We still need more depth to our midfield though this had improved greatly. We probably need just 2 or 3 more good midfielders to fill the void and support the others to be pushing the best teams.

What's your thoughts? Am I miles off? Are any of my certainties wrong? HAve I left someone out who deserves a place in our future side?

[gerkin greg]

Definitely need another experienced defender ASAP. If Rance or Grimes goes down, touch wood, we are screwed. Touch wood. Touch wood.

Doesn't have to be a big name, just needs to be able to do a job like Millsy for a few years while our kids come through.

Then discard and go back to the Free Agency fountain for another dip.

[Judge Roughneck]

Rance. Grimes. Morris.
Dea. Griffiths. Batchelor.
Houli. Deledio. Grigg.
Conca. Vickery. Foley.
Ellis. Riewoldt. Edwards.
I.Maric. Martin. Cotchin.

X. X. X. X.

---

 The #17. Newman fits in the puzzle too.

Tuck. Nahas. King are the intersting ones. Ditto Jackson.

I think Dimma will be banking on Astbury. Helbig. Aarnot and the next draft period to finalize his best list/22 and to finish the list for lack of a better term. By round 1 next season we should almost be like a europe football club;  one good player per postion and a good back up in the 2s.

[Stripes]

Will be very interesting to see how we draft this time. Think we will just go for best players this time. We seem to have 'depth' across the list at different stages of development though I am still very concerned with the quality of that depth in the ruck department. This would be a draft target area for me but I really think that we can trade for good ruckmen going forward rather than expend an early pick on one.

The hardest types of players to trade for are elite mids and tall forwards imho which is where I think we should focus our draft priorities this year.

[the claw]

i dont get this so and so is too old crap.

a little different perspective.
most at richmond were saying we dont want podsiadly too old yet he was killing it in the vfl. geelong an aging side saw quality to go with quality and said yes please we will give him a chance.
what side would not want a podsiadly.

age by itself has absolutely nothing to do with it.

ben cousins anyone quality did he harm our development did he stop a kid god no he actually gave everyone something to aim at.

what is important is several things.
1/ the older player you are taking is proven and can do a job for you.
2/ you are not taking that player and foregoing your future  quality 10 yr players to get him. ie trading away your firsdt and second rounders for him.
3/ does your list need experience. a simple spread sheet will tell you how many experienced players you have and where the experience is spread thru your list.
4/ the thing to always remember is older players do not harm your list as long as you look after the youth side of things and balance out what you do.

at our club we have as of 26 march 2012 the following players in the following age brackets. if you do a spread sheet you will see age games height size and depth.

28+ the veterans in the team.  king, newman, tuck, miller, moore.

25 - 27 should be proven consistent leaders. foley, jackson, mcguane, i maric.

now that is the state of the real senior list. 9 players.  the lack of experienced players is mindboggling. theres just 4 consistent good performers  maric, foley, newman and tuck.
in that group theres just one ruckman,
two undersized tall  defenders mcguane who is poor quality and moore who is injury prone.

one tall forward miller who is not up to it.
one mid in foley.

sheesh there is absolutely nothing from stopping us or that will hurt us from taking a 27 - 30 yo player as long we dont fritter away early picks to get em.

some one like merrett on a two yr contract straight away gives us cover experience size strength and barely enough proven kpds. i would love him for two yrs or even 3 and develop a good kid while hes there.

[tiga]

Will be very interesting to see how we draft this time. Think we will just go for best players this time. We seem to have 'depth' across the list at different stages of development though I am still very concerned with the quality of that depth in the ruck department. This would be a draft target area for me but I really think that we can trade for good ruckmen going forward rather than expend an early pick on one.

The hardest types of players to trade for are elite mids and tall forwards imho which is where I think we should focus our draft priorities this year.

Agreed Stripes. With Rance in AA form, Dea improving with every game and Griffiths slotting in well to cover the loss of Grimes, our major issue of defensive depth has improved substantially. I too think we should be focusing more on our forward line and Ruck stocks. If we lose Jack to injury, IMO we really don't have anyone to replace him right at this time. Miller is just a stop gap measure and Vickery although it may be temporary, is struggling right now. So unless we have a hidden gem in our younger brigade, I think we really need to focus on looking for a KPF. Preferably someone who is tall enough to pinch hit in the Ruck if Maric were to get injured or vice versa, a mobile ruckman capable of filling the role of a KPF. I really don't have a lot of faith in Gus and BrownE to fill that void.   

[Judge Roughneck]

It is a good thing our leaders are in the 20- 25 age range. 

i dont get this so and so is too old crap.

a little different perspective.
most at richmond were saying we dont want podsiadly too old yet he was killing it in the vfl. geelong an aging side saw quality to go with quality and said yes please we will give him a chance.
what side would not want a podsiadly.

age by itself has absolutely nothing to do with it.

ben cousins anyone quality did he harm our development did he stop a kid god no he actually gave everyone something to aim at.

what is important is several things.
1/ the older player you are taking is proven and can do a job for you.
2/ you are not taking that player and foregoing your future  quality 10 yr players to get him. ie trading away your firsdt and second rounders for him.
3/ does your list need experience. a simple spread sheet will tell you how many experienced players you have and where the experience is spread thru your list.
4/ the thing to always remember is older players do not harm your list as long as you look after the youth side of things and balance out what you do.

at our club we have as of 26 march 2012 the following players in the following age brackets. if you do a spread sheet you will see age games height size and depth.

28+ the veterans in the team.  king, newman, tuck, miller, moore.

25 - 27 should be proven consistent leaders. foley, jackson, mcguane, i maric.

now that is the state of the real senior list. 9 players.  the lack of experienced players is mindboggling. theres just 4 consistent good performers  maric, foley, newman and tuck.
in that group theres just one ruckman,
two undersized tall  defenders mcguane who is poor quality and moore who is injury prone.

one tall forward miller who is not up to it.
one mid in foley.

sheesh there is absolutely nothing from stopping us or that will hurt us from taking a 27 - 30 yo player as long we dont fritter away early picks to get em.

some one like merrett on a two yr contract straight away gives us cover experience size strength and barely enough proven kpds. i would love him for two yrs or even 3 and develop a good kid while hes there.

[Penelope]

i dont get this so and so is too old crap.

a little different perspective.
most at richmond were saying we dont want podsiadly too old yet he was killing it in the vfl. geelong an aging side saw quality to go with quality and said yes please we will give him a chance.
what side would not want a podsiadly.

The highlighted part is an important point in regards to pods. I highly doubt he would have had anywhere near the impact if we had grabbed him when geelong did.

Horses for courses, and at that time we needed a mature player with AFl experience, not one that still had to step up from a lower league

[the claw]

It is a good thing our leaders are in the 20- 25 age range. 

i dont get this so and so is too old crap.

a little different perspective.
most at richmond were saying we dont want podsiadly too old yet he was killing it in the vfl. geelong an aging side saw quality to go with quality and said yes please we will give him a chance.
what side would not want a podsiadly.

age by itself has absolutely nothing to do with it.

ben cousins anyone quality did he harm our development did he stop a kid god no he actually gave everyone something to aim at.

what is important is several things.
1/ the older player you are taking is proven and can do a job for you.
2/ you are not taking that player and foregoing your future  quality 10 yr players to get him. ie trading away your firsdt and second rounders for him.
3/ does your list need experience. a simple spread sheet will tell you how many experienced players you have and where the experience is spread thru your list.
4/ the thing to always remember is older players do not harm your list as long as you look after the youth side of things and balance out what you do.

at our club we have as of 26 march 2012 the following players in the following age brackets. if you do a spread sheet you will see age games height size and depth.

28+ the veterans in the team.  king, newman, tuck, miller, moore.

25 - 27 should be proven consistent leaders. foley, jackson, mcguane, i maric.

now that is the state of the real senior list. 9 players.  the lack of experienced players is mindboggling. theres just 4 consistent good performers  maric, foley, newman and tuck.
in that group theres just one ruckman,
two undersized tall  defenders mcguane who is poor quality and moore who is injury prone.

one tall forward miller who is not up to it.
one mid in foley.

sheesh there is absolutely nothing from stopping us or that will hurt us from taking a 27 - 30 yo player as long we dont fritter away early picks to get em.

some one like merrett on a two yr contract straight away gives us cover experience size strength and barely enough proven kpds. i would love him for two yrs or even 3 and develop a good kid while hes there.

theres only 14 in the 22 thru 24 age bracket.  6 of them cant get a game another 3 are ordinary it leaves just 5 deledio, grigg, rance, riewoldt, and morris.

anyway that comment just detracts from whats been said. we have very few players of experience as long as we arent giving away good picks  some good quality mature players can only help us not detract.
with the way the list is we could add 3 or 4 mature players aged 26 thru 30 and not harm our list we could do with some experience. the only way we can hurt ourselves is if we take em and they fall outside the 4 points i made. some one like merret would be ideal in free agency he is not 28 until december. we would get 3 or 4 yrs out of him.

35 players are aged between 18 and 24 with so many youngsters we can do with 3 or 4 more aged between 25  to 28+.

[the claw]

i dont get this so and so is too old crap.

a little different perspective.
most at richmond were saying we dont want podsiadly too old yet he was killing it in the vfl. geelong an aging side saw quality to go with quality and said yes please we will give him a chance.
what side would not want a podsiadly.

you miss the point geelong an ageing team and probably in more of a need to ignore older players  still took a 29 yr old who they deemed the goods. they didnt let age be a barrier to taking him. forget pods it could be any proven afl player who would fit a need in the mature age group.
what was  wrong with them  taking a 29 yr old a player who will give them 5 yrs of real good footy.id take 5 yrs of pods over 5 yrs of late nd picks or rookie picks anyday.id take 5 yrs of a player who does a job and provides depth and experience while a young boy grows into his role.id take him  especially when we have a need for older players and he costs nothing more than a late nd psd or rookie pick.

i dont get why people argue over this. the pros out weigh the cons because there are no cons if you do it right. we actually did it with maric who came with less credentials than say someone like merrett and  hes less than  two yrs younger.

this yr im strongly advocating we use 5 or 6 picks in the nd psd and if we can get a 28 yr old merret on top of that in free agency i would be over the moon.

The highlighted part is an important point in regards to pods. I highly doubt he would have had anywhere near the impact if we had grabbed him when geelong did.

Horses for courses, and at that time we needed a mature player with AFl experience, not one that still had to step up from a lower league

[Penelope]

so lets get this straight, when you said geelong saw quality to go with quality, that's not really what you meant?

Do you really think that if we had recruited pods in 2009 he would have had the same impact at richmond as he did at geelong, even though there is no way in hell you could argue we would have been recruiting quality to go with quality?

I'm not sure how you can be talking about a vfl player and then talk about "any proven AFL player" as if they are the same thing?

[TigerTimeII]

Rance. Grimes. Morris.
Dea. Griffiths. Batchelor.
Houli. Deledio. Grigg.
Conca. Vickery. Foley.
Ellis. Riewoldt. Edwards.
I.Maric. Martin. Cotchin.

X. X. X. X.

---

 The #17. Newman fits in the puzzle too.

Tuck. Nahas. King are the intersting ones. Ditto Jackson.

I think Dimma will be banking on Astbury. Helbig. Aarnot and the next draft period to finalize his best list/22 and to finish the list for lack of a better term. By round 1 next season we should almost be like a europe football club;  one good player per postion and a good back up in the 2s.

4 of me on the bench lol