We lack class - need to make tough decisions at seasons end

[Old Mate]

We will probably sneak into the finals and may even win a final. In the end it means jack.....

Geez I get jealous of seeing teams with players like Martin, Dangerfield, Scully and Ziebel running around.

They're out and out young guns. Sadly we don't have any.

Mac has come along and Steven is a trier, however not a gun.

We need to bite the bullet, show some balls and make some tough decisions come the end of the year.

I believe in order for us to go forward we must go backwards. Sadly this year finishing 6th-10th won't net us much in the draft.

We have to hit trade week hard and look for low picks or established 21 year old guns.

Hayes will most likely return to Sydney at the end of next year in an assistant coach role with GWS. Dal Santo is a gun however getting into his twilight and Monty is a very good player when the team is up and about.

People saying that next year is our last crack at the big one are kidding themselves. That was last year and unfortunately we fell short. Time to move on.

Sadly Lenny and Roo have missed the boat. I very much doubt they will see a flag.

What I want to see at the end of the season:

1. Move on a marquee player for low picks
2. Delist some of the old vets i.e Gardy, Blake & Baker
3. Trade out a couple of B graders (GWS will pay overs) for picks
4. Don't trade away our picks
5. Don't recruit fillers like we have in the past i.e Polo, Gamble, Pattisson & Smith

[Dan Warna]

when you trade fillers, you get fillers back.
Trading away marquee players for low draft picks doesn't always pay dividends, especially if the marquee player is quality and playing on with injuries.
taking 6 or 7 players in the draft means 3 to 4 seasons till they come on, and 2/3 of them will be rubbish.
Good coaches make players.

[Old Mate]

Agree with some things you've stated however...

Not all players take 3 years to develop. I mentioned some that didn't.

Of course drafting is a gamble, thats the idea. However not often do teams get the top 5 or so wrong...over the last 3 years anyway.

Our last shot was last year. We should consider moving players on that won't be around for when our window reopens.

[whiskers3614]

Always been said that our bottom six weren't much good,this year our top six collectively have had lesser output meaning the mid tier players have come on or we would be below Port Adalaide.Maybe all is not lost yet.

[Old Mate]

I will add that Ross is the right person to lead us through a mini rebuild...

Just don't want to become the next 'Sydney' that wins enough games to dodge low picks (picked up a beauty in Reid though) but not good enough to challenge for a flag.

[BringBackMadDog]

Yep let's trade a marquee player for an untried 18yr old in a week draft, that will fix our problems, just look at how well Richmond and Melbourne are going with all of their young guns

[gringo]

At least the madness has returned to this forum, it was starting to get boring.

[Hurricane]

While I agree that a bit of a shake up is needed we dont need that much in order to make a big run next year, IMHO we are 4 players away from being a serious force

1. A top class (young) ruckman.
2. A power foward.
3 + 4. 2 speedy players that can use the ball.

For 1. Clark from Brisbane would fit the mould. Imagine what we could have done with Blake instead of letting Geelong bully us into taking King. Imagine if we tried harder to snare Mumford, Jolly or Brogan when we had the chance

For 2. I hate saying this but Fev would be almost perfect. If he can prove he is fit, committed and not going to do a Lovett on us plus we can get him cheap he would fit into the foward line like a glove

For 3 and 4. If we can get a solid pre season into some of the players we already have we shouldnt need to trade here. If we do though we need to go hard for any number of players with a bit of toe.

Thats my 2 cents anyhow.

BANG BANG

[Eastern]

I think we really need to have some knowledge of the quality & depth of this years compromised Draft BEFORE saying that we should trade for low Draft Picks. From what I have read, this years Draft is way down on BOTH quality & depth, with GWS grabbing the best available, so there won't be much left for us to trade for.

I also read that 2012 is shaping as a super Draft, with 2013 not far behind. I'm sure our recruiters and list managers will be already armed with much more info than any of us and will be considering all this and much much more in their strategy going forward !!