Would we have been playing regular finals now if ...

[Moi]

... we had traded Richo when he had enormous value, not topped up with Brown who won't see a premiership with the Tiges (which I hope I'm wrong), told Gas to get on his bike when he wanted more money?

I'm starting to think that even if we make the finals this year, we may go backwards again once these players retire.  Two of them I think will leave a pretty big gap that I don't see "yet" coming up to take their place.

I think we can make the finals this year if things go our way, but I worry about the above scenario happening. 

Discuss lol

[Moi]

And anyone who says, "Oh, we couldn't have traded Richo" I'll throw up lol
It's just a scenario, not the real thing lol

Be cold-hearted for once and think about what might have been.

[Jackstar]

... we had traded Richo when he had enormous value, not topped up with Brown who won't see a premiership with the Tiges (which I hope I'm wrong), told Gas to get on his bike when he wanted more money?

I'm starting to think that even if we make the finals this year, we may go backwards again once these players retire.  Two of them I think will leave a pretty big gap that I don't see "yet" coming up to take their place.

I think we can make the finals this year if things go our way, but I worry about the above scenario happening. 

Discuss lol

Totally agree with you Moi

[harry bosch]

Not really a concern as it was always going to happen.

[Moi]

Not really a concern as it was always going to happen.

Might have been always going to happen, especially with Richo, but needn't have happened IMO
The result is we never saw us playing regular finals with him.  Doesn't matter how good a champion player he could have been, if you don't have other talent in your team to be able to deliver to him, he's useless, as has been the case with the useless cattle we've recruited over the last decade.
Smart drafting and trading might have seen us with better depth.
Players like Gas shouldn't hold clubs to ransom.  I don't blame him for him staying on, just the useless management we had at the time who didn't use him as good trade bait.
Browny puts a smile on the dial but that's about all we'll get I reckon.

If we can't make the finals this year with these ageing three, what chance over the next 5 as we have to replace them?

I'm glad Terry's with us, but I somehow think the mistakes of the past may mean he is fighting a losing battle for the foreseeable future and will cop the flak, which he shouldn't IMO.

[harry bosch]

Sorry what i meant was that after winning the spoon in 2004 it was always going to be that these older players would be gone before we had
a team good enough to be say a top 4 team. Disappointing but not exactly a major shock or new news.
With that in mind i have generally thought after 2004 it would take at least 5 years before we have a finals team and another 2-3 before a top 4 team..
Thats why i am probably not as disappointed with our efforts so far as other people are given i always thought it would take a long time to get there so the fact we are still a long way off is not a real surprise..

Your other point about not giving up picks for guys like browny was spot on..Never should have happened given the position
we were in and no doubt we would be much better off now had we not done that...

[Moi]

Actually Terry will have to take the blame for Browny -  my bad lol

[mjs]

Oh I get it - if we traded Richo we'd be playing regular finals - is that a joke? How many players were we going to get - 20?

Re Gasper - he was out of contract and Freo had first pick in the pre season draft = nothing for him. He was coming off All Australian (minus one year maybe, can't be sure) so we were basically screwed by Freo and had to pay up. Five years was a stretch but we were in no position to play hard ball.

Next person that says we should've traded Richo means  

[Moi]

How many finals games have we played with them, oldtimer?
Can't count many!

[mjs]

Give me the scenario where we traded Richo and got player(s) who would now be so dominant for us that we'd be playing regular finals.

Name the players, and how we got them - assuming we are talking more than one - or would a "Chris Judd" be the difference himself?

[Moi]

You don't have to trade for star players, MJS.  You could have traded for decent draft picks and a few 50 game plus kids.
Trouble is even if we did do that, the loops that ran the place wouldn't have known what to do with them anyway.

[Moi]

And you give me a team that has gone on to win a premiership with a couple of star players earning the big bickies with the rest of the team topped up with discards from other clubs, like we've been doing the past 10 years.  It hasn't worked too well has it?
Terry says we don't have to bottom out, but you also dont get continued success with drafting players who are 27 or whatever, when we know most players don't play after their 30 these days.

[Jackstar]

Fiora before Pavlich says it all.

[Bulluss]

We appointed Rodney Eade isntead of Terry Wallace 

[Moi]

We appointed Rodney Eade isntead of Terry Wallace 

You're catching Jack's disease lol
Terry wasn't even here when we made most of these decisions