Free Agency - Pass or Fail

[TigerLand]

I remember hearing Brendon Gale speaking about the FTF and how it will aid us in Free Agency.

Looking back and comparing against other clubs I fail to see in any way how we can be considered as a pass mark at this stage.

You can say our salary cap didn't allow us to take advantage but that's a list management and admin problem. Other clubs with better lists than us seemed to have done fine.

Our recruits:
Troy Chaplin
Chris Knights

Lost players:
Matt White
Robin Nahas

Missed Players
Danyle Pearce
Brendon Goddard
Paul Chapman
Eddie Betts
Colin Sylvia
Dale Thomas
Lance Franklin
Nick Dal Santo

Still annoyed we missed on Nick Dal Santo. We preech about having players who can kick and we miss one of the best in the game.
We don't have a single small forward on our list and we missed Eddie Betts, granted he was asking for stupid money.
Goddard and Chapman at Essendon annoy me. Would love either on our list.

Some of those players we couldn't afford, Franklin in particular, but we haven't taken advantage of Free Agency at all after hearing that we would. James Frawley and Bryce Gibbs are available next year if they don't sign. If we aren't central in these discussions I'll be disappointed. Can't look at improving our list with delisted players all the time. We might have to let a decent player go to significantly upgrade an area we lack in.

Can anyone name a decent player that has left the club in the last 20 years that you were upset we traded? Maxfield and Ottens are the only ones that have left the club that I wanted to stay. Other clubs let good players go to receive players in areas they need.

Still early days but we are leaning towards failing it when we said we would take full advantage of it.

[Rampstar]

We talked big but the reality is we have done very little in free agency... the moneyball philosophy they are running at Richmond has stuffed the club good and proper and seen us target very average footballers who wont take us anywhere near a Premiership.

[YellowandBlackBlood]

I remember hearing Brendon Gale speaking about the FTF and how it will aid us in Free Agency.

Looking back and comparing against other clubs I fail to see in any way how we can be considered as a pass mark at this stage.

You can say our salary cap didn't allow us to take advantage but that's a list management and admin problem. Other clubs with better lists than us seemed to have done fine.

Our recruits:
Troy Chaplin
Chris Knights

Lost players:
Matt White
Robin Nahas

Missed Players
Danyle Pearce
Brendon Goddard
Paul Chapman
Eddie Betts
Colin Sylvia
Dale Thomas
Lance Franklin
Nick Dal Santo

Still annoyed we missed on Nick Dal Santo. We preech about having players who can kick and we miss one of the best in the game.
We don't have a single small forward on our list and we missed Eddie Betts, granted he was asking for stupid money.
Goddard and Chapman at Essendon annoy me. Would love either on our list.

Some of those players we couldn't afford, Franklin in particular, but we haven't taken advantage of Free Agency at all after hearing that we would. James Frawley and Bryce Gibbs are available next year if they don't sign. If we aren't central in these discussions I'll be disappointed. Can't look at improving our list with delisted players all the time. We might have to let a decent player go to significantly upgrade an area we lack in.

Can anyone name a decent player that has left the club in the last 20 years that you were upset we traded? Maxfield and Ottens are the only ones that have left the club that I wanted to stay. Other clubs let good players go to receive players in areas they need.

Still early days but we are leaning towards failing it when we said we would take full advantage of it.

To be honest, Dal Santo is a big downhill skier too. Don't need more of those types.

[Hellenic Tiger]

Seems the club has continually followed the philosophy get us competitive, give them finals regularly and that should keep the masses happy.

I hope that is not the case and development after 3-4 years of rises has plateued and will then rise to the next level.

[TigerLand]

To be honest, Dal Santo is a big downhill skier too. Don't need more of those types.

Agree but he's exactly what we need, our delivery into Inside 50 this year and even last year has been pathetic. If we don't have small crumbing forwards we need to be hitting Jack and Ty laces out, not many of our players can do that which makes the slingshot so successful against us.

If we truly wanted top 4 we would have gone after someone like Dal Santo or even Thomas or Chapman. Instead we banked on the list naturally improving but we didn't take into account our luck of injuries last year. Out of our best 7 players: Jackson, Cotchin, Martin, Deledio, Jack, Rance and Ivan. Only Ivan missed any games through injury and it wasn't many. Last week we had 3 out and 1 coming back off an injury plagued pre season and we lost to the dogs who we've beaten by over 10 goals in the last 3 meetings.

Our list hasn't improved as much as it should have because we banked on naturally improving, which is great if you have the same players on the park as last year. We get hit by injuries this year and we will finish 10th.

[Hard Roar Tiger]

We have Hawthorns list management strategy but executed it like the demons

[Hellenic Tiger]

Yeah but even a bloke like Dal Santo would be told to go sideways to a target 15 metres away than kick the footy 50 metres with exquisite skills to the advantage of a target.

Even if you land a big fish you need the game plan too.

Remember Nathan Brown in 2004 under Spud. Hardly helped the way we played added to our defensive plan and horrible skill level yet first year under Wallace till his shocking injury the kid was amazing.

[WA Tiger]

Epic fail, likewise the trade period, we are never aggressive enough, haven't been since we drafted N.Brown!!!!

[the claw]

i reckon we have failed to go hard enough for players on that list.
for me we screamed out for a sml fwd/mid and chapman fit the bill perfectly. should have thrown the sink at him given him 2 yrs and 400k a season he was always worth that.
here we were as a club just made finals and looking to do better yet we could not take aim at a quality player who would cost nothing as far as picks go and filled a glaring need immediately.
instead we targeted plenty of mature  sml/med for/mids i dont get it.

im all for f/a and i think we have done okay with it.  what im against is trading out of the nd to get players who have not even proven themselves that is a horrid process. i am against  giving up valuable picks to get older players especially unproven players. imo we need to always be   using those picks on kids instead. . its simple target quality and the long term with 1st 2nd and 3rd round nd picks target needs and maturity in f/a psd and rookie drafts. take quality at every opportunity if possible.

when we have depth and good quality spread thru the side and have become a genuine contender then and only then should we be trading out of early picks.
in saying that i would not call getting chaplin and knights a failure . no matter how much we didlike chaplin he has added to the side,
put it this way.
chaplin was an upgrade on players we had and filled a need. thats not to say we should not be looking to upgrade on chaplin as well.in fact we are crying out for a big power defender who can constantly win 1v1 contests.

[🏅Dooks]

D+

[tdy]

im all for f/a and i think we have done okay with it.  what im against is trading out of the nd to get players who have not even proven themselves that is a horrid process. i am against  giving up valuable picks to get older players especially unproven players. imo we need to always be   using those picks on kids instead. . its simple target quality and the long term with 1st 2nd and 3rd round nd picks target needs and maturity in f/a psd and rookie drafts. take quality at every opportunity if possible.
.

I agree, I personally would have gone after Neon Leon Davis for 2 years.

I wouldn't have gone after any of
Eddie Betts - overpriced.
Colin Sylvia - too dodgy mentally
Dale Thomas- too costly, dodgy foot
Lance Franklin - too costly, can't pack mark.

Any of these overpriced recruits will create problems in the team, so I don't mind us going after fringe players and disgruntled types like Dal Santo.

My issue is also with the ND, you just can't recruit a premiership team, you can recruit a competitive team but you have to draft your stars mostly.

[Andyy]

Ask this question 4 weeks ago and most people who have been thrilled about Chaplin. Had a great 2013.

Knights was also looking in very good touch until his freak knee injury.


Pity we missed out on the likes of Chapman and Pearce, but I think most of the other big names (IE Goddard, Betts, Thomas, Franklin & Dal Santo) are really quite expensive. Most of those blokes are looking at $600,000-1,100,000/year.

Sylvia has done SFA for Fremantle so far and it's yet to be seen if he will be a major contributor for them. Probably dodged a bullet there...

[Francois Jackson]

Ask this question 4 weeks ago and most people who have been thrilled about Chaplin. Had a great 2013.

Knights was also looking in very good touch until his freak knee injury.


Pity we missed out on the likes of Chapman and Pearce, but I think most of the other big names (IE Goddard, Betts, Thomas, Franklin & Dal Santo) are really quite expensive. Most of those blokes are looking at $600,000-1,100,000/year.

Sylvia has done SFA for Fremantle so far and it's yet to be seen if he will be a major contributor for them. Probably dodged a bullet there...

this is where your wrong.

take Goddard and chappy  as an example.

cost 800k and 350k per season

edwards. 250k
edwards (a) 200k
white 250k
newman 250k.
dea $200

bang theres your money for quality players and change for ND players.

we stuff around paying these spuds when we could land a gun like goddard and chappy by clearing these worthless spuds out

[Coach]

Most people on this site thought we'd done brilliantly with our trading & recruiting before the season started. Unbelievable what a 2 point loss can do.

[Willy]

I take your point Coach but really we've been shyte since late last year.
not just yesterday that hes me concerned.