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List Gaps
- Thread starter BrisTiger24
- Start date
We have banked one key piece moving forward - Lynch. I’m not sure any of the rest have that level of talent. And it takes star level talent to win it all. I think we’ll find that out when Cotch, Martin, Jack and Rance retire. I don’t see anyone else in that bracket on our list. We have decent level talent - but our ‘list gap’ is future star power. We’re going to have to find it - my guess is through trading and free agency.
It’s always hard when you are at the top because you don’t get the top draft picks. However there is still time for our youngsters to get to that level or close to it. Riewoldt’s first couple of years were development, Rance was prone to mishaps.
There are a few coming through but to me the one is CCJ. Could be anything. His marking is pretty special.
Would be great if we had future star power already there in our young players. CCJ, Stack do have X factor about them. If that can be developed into game winning attributes I’m all for it!
These are rare times. Who would have thought this time three years ago that we would have witnessed two dominant premiership performances in the next 36 months? This is a special group, but times moves fast. As fans, we need to savour them because we know how long it can be between drinks. There is at least one more flag in them, but a look three years ahead shows us it is harvest time right now. The club and the players are well aware of this.
In 2022, our current list will turn:
34 - Houli, Jack, Sheds
33 - Rance
32 - Chimp
31 - Dusty, Grimes, DTLD, Lambo
30 - Prestia, Lynch, Caddy, Pickett
29 - Broad
28 - Floss, KMac, Nank, Aarts
27 - _____
26 - Soldo, Menadue, Butler, Short, Castagna, Markov, Moore
25 - Rioli, Chol
24 - Baker, Bolton, Graham, Garth, Eggs
23 - Higlet, Balta, CJ, Naish, Miller
22 - RCD, Ross, Stack, Turner, English
13 blokes 30 or over, all quality. Not all will be around, hopefully several are. 14 blokes 24 or under (plus three years of draftees) - plenty of quality. There is a looming hole in the crucial 25-29 age group (12 of this year's premiership team in this age bracket). Blair will be all over this and I have no doubt we will look to bring in free agents/trades to fill these gaps. This goes some way to explaining the interest in Zak Jones - he will turn 27 in 2022. Expect us to target blokes from the 2011-15 draft years as they become available.
In 2022, our current list will turn:
34 - Houli, Jack, Sheds
33 - Rance
32 - Chimp
31 - Dusty, Grimes, DTLD, Lambo
30 - Prestia, Lynch, Caddy, Pickett
29 - Broad
28 - Floss, KMac, Nank, Aarts
27 - _____
26 - Soldo, Menadue, Butler, Short, Castagna, Markov, Moore
25 - Rioli, Chol
24 - Baker, Bolton, Graham, Garth, Eggs
23 - Higlet, Balta, CJ, Naish, Miller
22 - RCD, Ross, Stack, Turner, English
13 blokes 30 or over, all quality. Not all will be around, hopefully several are. 14 blokes 24 or under (plus three years of draftees) - plenty of quality. There is a looming hole in the crucial 25-29 age group (12 of this year's premiership team in this age bracket). Blair will be all over this and I have no doubt we will look to bring in free agents/trades to fill these gaps. This goes some way to explaining the interest in Zak Jones - he will turn 27 in 2022. Expect us to target blokes from the 2011-15 draft years as they become available.
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2020 free agents:
Brad Crouch (restricted)
Jeremy Cameron (restricted)
Lachie Whitfield (restricted)
Zach Williams (restricted)
Aidan Corr (restricted)
are the only ones I can see us having an interest in. Cameron will sign on for life at GWS, I expect. Whitfield can ask for a million to move - can't afford him. If Crouch doesn't get his mil this year and doesn't extend with Adelaide, I can see us having a real crack next year but he'll have to cut his salary expectations by a third. I'd love to get Williams.
Brad Crouch (restricted)
Jeremy Cameron (restricted)
Lachie Whitfield (restricted)
Zach Williams (restricted)
Aidan Corr (restricted)
are the only ones I can see us having an interest in. Cameron will sign on for life at GWS, I expect. Whitfield can ask for a million to move - can't afford him. If Crouch doesn't get his mil this year and doesn't extend with Adelaide, I can see us having a real crack next year but he'll have to cut his salary expectations by a third. I'd love to get Williams.
good work Spooker. Impressive
This is preparing for the Flossy era.
Pickett prises that window open a bit longer. A gun midfielder same age as Prestia.
On the negative side its likely we will depart at least 5 of the 25-26 yo. Only keeping small flankers and bigger Ivan.
The 28yo will be 2.
That makes 7 between 25-29.
There will be a massive hole.
I agree with the thinking behind Zac Jones, but not the player (speedy flanker)
It's Taranto I would be eyeing off. Or Bonar.
Build on the cluster of 22-24yo
Cap space will appear when the legends retire
This is preparing for the Flossy era.
Pickett prises that window open a bit longer. A gun midfielder same age as Prestia.
On the negative side its likely we will depart at least 5 of the 25-26 yo. Only keeping small flankers and bigger Ivan.
The 28yo will be 2.
That makes 7 between 25-29.
There will be a massive hole.
I agree with the thinking behind Zac Jones, but not the player (speedy flanker)
It's Taranto I would be eyeing off. Or Bonar.
Build on the cluster of 22-24yo
Cap space will appear when the legends retire
Spooker & Del great work there.
The end can come quickly too we have to factor things like that so that critical gap really will need addressing to keep us near the top for a sustained period, not only till our premium players retire!
Careful planning should have began last year and you would hope that salaries have been front loaded to take this into account.
Sustained successs is the key here. That gives us the most chance to add to the cabinet not just make up the numbers.
We missed an opportunity possibly between 13-15 to snare one before we did in 17 & 19.
I’m sure Blair, Balme etc are all over what we need to remain at the top.
Keep drafting and looking within the next two years to keep adding quality to fill list needs but in the meantime keep adding kids, rookies etc!
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Totally agree. We may of already targeted someone for next year, meanwhile, we will get the best possible kids in this year's draft and use the free agency /swap to get the player we need urgently.
Griff is the same age as Dusty and co, and Conca is the same age as the Prestia group, so we've covered for them.
The gap is from the 2011 draft class (Broad 'group') through to the 2015 class. 2011 was deeply affected by GWS taking 17-year-olds like Treloar, Shiel, Cameron and co the year before, then 11 of the first 15 picks. Without them we would have had pick 5 in a very strong draft, instead of pick 15 (Brando). We also drafted Elton and Arnot that year, traded for Maric, and like everyone but Adelaide (Laird) struck out in the rookie draft.
The 2012 class was weakened at the top with O'Meara and Crouch having gone the year before as 17-year-olds in the mini-draft. Put them back in and we might have ended up with Wines instead of Vlastuin.
Likewise, 2013 had mini-draftees Hogan and Martin removed. If they were added in we probably would have ended up with Salem instead of Lennon. We traded our second-rounder that year for Hampson, and used our third and fourth picks on mature-agers Gordon and Lloyd. This was a disaster of a year, notwithstanding the solid contributions of Lloyd and mature rookie Miles. As such, we have no one born in 1995 on our list.
2014 is a weird one - other than Butler at 67, all our ND picks look to have failed for one reason or another, but we plucked four premiership players in the rookie draft (Lambert mature-aged).
We weakened our 2015 hand by trading for Yarran but we still scored two dual premiership players in Rioli and the mature-aged Broad (another 67 special).
As well as pure numbers, we lack for star power in this projected 25-29 group. Floss is a gun, but a 17-touch intercept back-flanker gun. There is no midfield king, no key position star, or even rock - unless Chol clicks into his talent ceiling. Compare it to this year's 25-29-year-olds and it comes up waaaaaay short. We will need to attract some seriously good players in the next few years or be prepared to wait for our current youngsters to hit their mid-to-late 20s before we could hope to see success again.
The next two years are our golden opportunities with this list. If in that time we can bring in a couple of stars in that key age range, we might extend it a few more years. Tricky balancing act.
The big risk for the AFL if they do that is the attendance numbers go backwards due to ground size. They won’t want that to happen.
Added to my last post I have heard a rumour that all our home games will be played in Tassie as a pre cursor to the new club the Tassie Tigers.Has anyone heard this?
Our list is in great shape.
When you look at guys that will be pushing to get into this Premiership team, we have a pretty good list. Perfect? No, but who has ever had a perfect list? Next year we regain the AA defender too. I have great trust in what the club is doing.
Look at what we got through this year with all the injuries. We won when we had to and got games into young guys. This will stand them in good stead. We're letting guys go to other clubs for a bag of chips and can afford to do it. Good luck to them if they get better opportunities.
Lets go to the draft and uncover a few more gems. I love what we've done with Stack & Pickett. Nobody is doing what Richmond are doing.
And being a destination club, who knows, if salary cap permits, we may land another big fish next year.
I'm so proud of our club.
When you look at guys that will be pushing to get into this Premiership team, we have a pretty good list. Perfect? No, but who has ever had a perfect list? Next year we regain the AA defender too. I have great trust in what the club is doing.
Look at what we got through this year with all the injuries. We won when we had to and got games into young guys. This will stand them in good stead. We're letting guys go to other clubs for a bag of chips and can afford to do it. Good luck to them if they get better opportunities.
Lets go to the draft and uncover a few more gems. I love what we've done with Stack & Pickett. Nobody is doing what Richmond are doing.
And being a destination club, who knows, if salary cap permits, we may land another big fish next year.
I'm so proud of our club.
