splitting hairs there with the contested possession stat. he's also more of a kicker and territory taker than those you mentioned as well.
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Welcome to Tigerland - Tim Taranto
- Thread starter mad_tiggy911
- Start date
Tuck & Taranto have similar hurt factor by foot, that's my point, also the reference to top 5 B&F finishes particularly apt. As a trade it will be comparable to the Kane Johnson situation, we get a leader & a 3rd or 4th ranked mid in a potential premiership line-up, nothing more. Some may argue Johnson was good for the club but we gave up Daniel Wells to get him, I think we'll be seeing a similar opportunity cost in this instance.
I actually think the opposite.
Mitchell was a good top up for a side that has some of those star midfielders that just need an additional legup. The sort of final piece of the jigsaw if you like.
We weren't in that position, we needed the underbelly filled in and we have done that and this is where free agency comes in. You as well as anyone on here know that a premiership midfield, needs top 5-10 midfielders, Hopper and Taranto provide that, and by staying in the finals mix it helps us attract quality free agents so that we can continue with the rebuild on the run.
Your thinking IMO is outdated. Its exactly the way teams would have rebuilt 10-15 years ago. Go through a period of being up, knowing you will have 5 or so years on the doldrums. We are trying to avoid that, by maintaining quality and then adding with quality free agents. Going towards the bottom, restricts you to the free agent quality of players like Karl Amon who will not take you to a premiership. Free agency is different if you are at the top to the bottom, the top you are adding that final quality in a key area of deficiency to take you that final step (see Tom Lynch). Free agency at the bottom of the ladder, you get in some quality to support your young youth as you compete at the bottom of the ladder.
The other thing we need to remember, is we did this assasination on Prestia in his 1st few games. Crap kick etc, but look at that back now what 7 years on.
His kicking has certainly been an area of weakness in the first couple of rounds, but we don't rate an acquisition after a couple of games. Thats actually the dumbest thing we can do, and history proves that with the Prestia trade.
His kicking has certainly been an area of weakness in the first couple of rounds, but we don't rate an acquisition after a couple of games. Thats actually the dumbest thing we can do, and history proves that with the Prestia trade.
Another thing is we needed a midfielder or two mid 20s, mitchell is 30 this year
Yes whilst footskills are neither players strengths, for the reason Leysy outlined that is where the similarities end.
Simply a very poor comparison.
Taranto isn't perfect, but is a better player than Johnson (and Tuck). By a long way and will display that.
the criticism of prestia was savage in his first year! now we all love him
It is seriously ridiculous to to be judging the Taranto and Hopper trades 3 games into their first season.
With all due respect BH,, comparing Tarranto to Tuck is pure rubbish. You are using this to suit your Mitchell argument.
Tuck was purely an inside player. Tarranto is an elite midfielder who can work on the inside and has the ability to hurt you on the spread.
Our window is roughly comparable to the years of good footy ahead of Mitchell, it was the perfect compromise, he retires with the other 30+ crowd. In the meantime guys like Hewett & Cowan step up and provide us with two core players for the next tilt. I've been critical of our recruiting ever since 2017, it's lacked focus & we are now chasing tail to find replacements for a host of other departures. The reluctance to acknowledge the mistakes of other dynasty clubs has us on that dreaded middling path, the signs are all too familiar. This is nothing like the Prestia trade, aside from Prestia being a better footballer he arrived when our superstars were peaking, next year and beyond will be a new dawn & we will be saying our farewells to some club legends. We don't have much in the VFL to make me an optimist, this situation made worse by the fact we probably enter next year's draft with a pick in the thirties. If we're on the free agency hunt we will be competing with 17 other teams, our destination club status tenuous at best.
Love his ball winning and endurance running. Rang the alarm bell 4320 pots ago about his kicking.... was advocating Hopper over Taranto when it when we did not know were they would land purely on his suspect kicking skills. Just needs to play within his limitations.
If you read my post above I was referring to their hurt factor by foot & finishing top 5 in the B&F. By the way, I loved Tuck for giving his heart and soul to the RFC, he was the first guy you take into the trenches but my point stands, you don't give up two top 20 talents when you can fill the void with a former Brownlow medalist who was effectively a salary cap dump.
You have a seriously gloomy view of our club going by this
we drafted 5 kids in the top 30 picks in 2021, who the club obviously have huge faith in by extending them all to 2025, we have drafted so well with rookie and late picks over the years, we’ve already got a rookie from last year in our 22 at the moment in Tylar Young. Sonsie and the other young mids will benefit greatly over the years from having Taranto and Hopper in the midfield with them. I see plenty of positives in our youngsters, yeh we’ve missed the mark with a few high picks over the last decade but we’ve more than made up for it with our late-draft / rookie draft recruiting
You over value the draft picks we gave up for Taranto and Hopper. The highest pick we gave up (so far) is pick 12 and history shows it’s very hit and miss. More miss than hit actually. The other picks even more so.
We traded out high risk, very high reward scenario (the draft picks) for low risk, high reward scenario(Taranto and Hopper). Both of those players are near certainties to play 100+ quality games for us. You can’t say that about any or even all the picks we gave up to get them. The only caveat is if we crash and burn this year and end up with a top 10 pick that then goes to GWS.
As mentioned on the Kicking thread, having handed out 7 (7!) year deals to blokes who are not good kicks, I'm unconvinced Blair & Matt Clarke have fully adjusted to the Stand Rule implications.
Their MO and average kicking skills have been evident for years at GWS so yeah, we knew or should have known what we we're getting.
Unfortunately we had dug ourselves a massive midfield hole through recent poor drafting of mids (RCD, Dow, Martyn, etc) and with durability question marks over Dion, have been forced to pay up for these blue collar workhorses to dig ourselves out, but it’s in defiance of the game trend favouring precision passing at speed.
Would be less worse if we had quality elite kicks all around them, but we don’t - we have more of the same.
I'm with bulliss on this debate - we have doubled down on Ball Butchers at great expense; these two high profile trades can keep us competitive but ultimately unthreatening to the top echelon.
Their MO and average kicking skills have been evident for years at GWS so yeah, we knew or should have known what we we're getting.
Unfortunately we had dug ourselves a massive midfield hole through recent poor drafting of mids (RCD, Dow, Martyn, etc) and with durability question marks over Dion, have been forced to pay up for these blue collar workhorses to dig ourselves out, but it’s in defiance of the game trend favouring precision passing at speed.
Would be less worse if we had quality elite kicks all around them, but we don’t - we have more of the same.
I'm with bulliss on this debate - we have doubled down on Ball Butchers at great expense; these two high profile trades can keep us competitive but ultimately unthreatening to the top echelon.
Hewett, Cowan, one project tall in Keeler & next year's first (plus Mitchell) versus Taranto & Hopper (plus next year's second which was my mooted Mitchell compo). Both Hewett & Cowan have already begun their apprenticeships, Keeler hopefully ready to unwrap in 4 years with Verrall another tall in the mix. That is far better planning for the next tilt in my opinion, this year's draft will reap another midfield prospect or possibly another bookend player. This might appear old skool or outdated to some but I'm a stickler for history & I have paid particular attention to the years leading up to our dynasty era. I also haven't forgotten about the top-up frenzy which occurred in the 90s & early 2000's, the Ninthmond jibes the product of middling mediocrity.
i love how you assume we would have taken those players and also you are completely disregarding the youngsters currently playing VFL. We have players on all lines showing something in the VFL this year and last
But you are trying to compare apples with apples when it comes to Tuck and Tarranto. IMO you are off the mark here.
Tarranto is a transitional mid (extremely valuable in todays football) whilst Tuck was purely an inside grunt mid. Transitional mids such as Tarranto, Prestia etc are worth their weight in gold. Your Tucks. Mitchells etc they are dime a dozen.
I have no idea who Clarke would have picked, that much is true but Hewett was the best mid available at that selection, a definite requirement, Cowan was the second best kick in the draft, I would have backed Jackson with those picks, his methodology usually reliable with a premium placed on kicking skills. The draft was also stacked with talls in the third round & we opted for flankers instead. That's an issue which keeps rearing its head. Sam Taylor missed, there's an AA defender overlooked for a tweener ruck. Brown another leftfield selection, I pushed hard for Bailey Williams who at least provides some depth with the tall stocks, he probably has 6-7 years of footy ahead of him. Simply assuming free agency will come to the rescue is pie in the sky optimism, we may have won the Lynch bidding war but that is one win in the decade since the inception of free agency. Free agency won't fix all our problems, the only way to do it is build from the ground up, no corners being cut.
