I agree with some of your comments but wins from the 30+ crowd mystify me. Our three best players this year have been Bolton, Taranto and Rioli. Martin has been better in recent games but most of our veterans including Prestia have been well below their best.
I don't disagree with the top 3 but there's been a significant contribution from Martin in our wins, Prestia was BOG against Geelong, Jack still our leading goal kicker, these are positions still lacking a transition plan. Granted, their output not a patch on previous years but the emerging tier not ready to take the baton either.
Prestia had 19 disposals against the Cats so best on ground is probably a stretch but his goals were obviously vital.
Prestia was good in that game but sadly been well below his best in most others. You are right, the players coming through are either not good enough or not ready but that was always going to happen after a sustained period of success. We will need some astute trades and draft selections going forward if we are to climb the ladder again in the near future.
But it can happen.....look at Adelaide. I reckon we can bounce quite quickly. Give a few years!
Gibcus is not the same type of defender as Balta, not even close. Balta is much much stronger bodied and plays on the Hawkins types. Gibcus more of an interceptor and would get mauled by Hawkins imo.
Tarrant, Dow and Biggy all get delisted for mine.
Graham trade
I think it was the wrong time to be trading out first round picks, even Blair himself would be questioning that decision. At this juncture we desperately need top 10 picks, multiple picks if we are being realistic. I would personally feel a little aggrieved at losing a player like Balta but I also recognise he's much easier replaced than Riewoldt & Lynch, such a bind has been caused by paying top dollar for an inside midfielder who has a questionable injury history. And Balta isn't without his faults, the gap between his best and worst stark. Rance was a little bit the same so probably not terminal but I think he's pretty close to hitting his ceiling.
You don’t give up players like Balta. List management suicide. Just like you dont trade out match winners like Bolton.
As we play lolnorf in final round, I reckon it will be Tarrant, Jack and Chimp's final game.
Yeah right trade a tall marking defender for what a suspect top 10 pick?
Any new coach deserves a clean slate to build the list in whatever manner he deems fit, if you are spruiking for the next Hardwick then I would have thought there would be a clean slate to assess the list and make whatever changes are necessary. If I'm in those shoes my list of untouchables would be limited to Dan Rioli & Shai Bolton, Balta a borderline untouchable but even he has a price & I'd do if it meant stitching up a key forward. Jackson's first pick in the AFL was Jack Riewoldt, that set the tone for the next ten years, that's how long it takes to build a premiership list and it's noteworthy for the fact that Jack is still our leading goal kicker. Himmelberg is also a like for like replacement for Balta, he's actually better in defence than up forward. I doubt he's a 60 goal forward, I reckon 35 goals a season around the mark, that won't get you a premiership in isolation.
We're going to be short of players any way you dice it. Hopper will be one of a very few senior players on our list in a couple of years; I think it was important to fill that age profile gap with some talent. Which isn't to say we didn't need the picks. We did. The reality is though that the system is designed specifically to break the top teams down, and what's important I think is a bit of continuity. I agree losing Balta wouldn't be the end of the world, but it would be creating a pretty big gap in our best 22 in order to fill another gap. I'm not sure there's heaps of benefit, though the salary cap space could make it a good play. I think if I was looking for tradeable talent that is replacable, I'd be thinking Short and Graham - but our cupboard at the right age/talent profile is pretty bare, which is why we got Taranto and Hopper in the first place.
Short worth about a pick in the mid twenties I reckon, Graham about mid thirties, packaged maybe a late first rounder. As a strategy worth considering, this might yield an Oscar Allen type.
Agree with the sentiment, but not with a solution that involves the trade of Shai.
It would be a super deal to get a pick and a player for a guy who will be 32 at the start of next season. I think we'd get some kind of token late pick, tops, for him.
Maybe. But Dusty still has it and for any team that might consider its self close but lacking in finals experience, who could bring more?
