So from memory over the last few years we have had a crack at the following young stars wanting to come home to play
Josh Caddy (pick 7 in his original draft)
Dom Tyson (pick 11)
Taylor Adams (pick 13)
And now we have a chance with Dylan Shiels who I rate the best of the lot of them. If we could manage to get him in a player/trade pick swap and keep our first round selection this wouldn't be a waste of a year after all.
Next year Lennon is another year older and hopefully McBean can take the next step and we start to look a little more classy.
Trade in the small forward we desperately need in Garlett.
Throw some money at Chip Frawley that way we could use Astbury or Griff in the Shiel trade. Let's face it, Astbury was ok this year but could quite easy do nothing again like his previous years.
I would also be looking to trade Grigg, Houli, Hampson, Jackson and Batch. I know we wouldn't get much for any of them but I would prefer kids on our list than blokes that continue to let us all down and are on pretty good money. (250/300k) They play a good game here and there but they make to many mistakes when things get tight.
We need to bring in kids with pace and good skills. Draft 8 to 10 kids. Treat this year as one we needed to have.
This club needs a real good clean out but as well as do that bring in blokes that are starting 22.
A side like this next year surely is better than what we have had to put up with this year.
Grimes Frawley Morris
Dea Rance Lids
Ellis Miles Vlaustin
Lennon Vickory Martin
Garlett Jack McBean
Maric Cotchin Shiels
Foley Conca Draft pick 7 Edwards/other drafted kid
Not a bad starting 22 with some real toughness and improving skill level.
they have absolutely no need for either griffiths or astbury. their list of tallfwds, tall defenders and ruckmen far exceeds anything these two could offer. if we want a quality player like shiels we will have to offer up quality to get him or use pick 7 with a decent player.
with us still 5 yrs away from having any chance of a gf the one high quality player we could afford to lose would be deledio hes 28 in april next yr. but brett is contracted is loyal and would have to want to go. at 28 if he went it would be for immediate success so while gws are a very promising long term prospect they dont meet the immediate nnow.
it wont be until we actually build up a substantial amount of depth and real talent thet we will truly be in a position to trade for these types. when we have very good players who cant get a game then we can afford to offload quality players.
for now we must find ways to get good picks in the nd and do the hard yards. we have a better chance of gaining say top 20 - 35 picks by making some hard calls on blokes like vickery and griffiths than actually getting players like shiels for nothing.
i agree frawley and garlett meet needs and add to the team straight away.
but how do we realistically get our hands on high quality young talent like shiels.
