2013 drafting and trading

[MC Gusto]

Early doors but hats off to the team! Could be looked at as one of the best ever in years to come.

Billings
Dunstan
Acres
Longer
Eli
Weller
Delaney
Bruce
Savage

[Bluthy]

I was thinking the other day its amazing that almost all the drafted players have slotted into the 1sts. Players like Simpkin, Minch, Shenton, Murdoch, Ross, TDL etc must be scratching their heads watching Eli, Dunstan, Billings go straight in and stay there. It's transformed the list and created great competition for spots. No more just running around in the VFL until you are inevitably recalled to the firsts. Saunders, Webster, Curren, Stanley have all gone to another level of consistency and effort every week. Will the other fringe players do whatever they need to do to push Jones, Ray, Schneider out etc? You've got to convince Richo you can actually improve the team by being in it. And time is running out as talented kids will come in each year.

[White Winmar]

Shades of 2001.

[Con Gorozidis]

Early doors but hats off to the team! Could be looked at as one of the best ever in years to come.

Billings
Dunstan
Acres
Longer
Eli
Weller
Delaney
Bruce
Savage

Was thinking this the other day. If you get bring in/develop two good players per year you are going well.
We had quite a few years when the 'new good player count' was nil.
This year we might have 7 or 8 - so we might get 3 years in one hit. A good comeback.

[bergsone]

Interesting next year as we don't really have a NDS,or McEvoy to trade out and lever up high draft picks.More than happy with current crop picked up this year

[Milne]

Hopefully we can maintain a core group of talented players and not mismanage them or lose them to other teams:

In the past we have lost:
- Tony Brown
- Jason Heatley
- Matthew Lappin
- Brendan Goddard
- Luke Ball

etc

[Spinner]

Early doors but hats off to the team! Could be looked at as one of the best ever in years to come.

Billings
Dunstan
Acres
Longer
Eli
Weller
Delaney
Bruce
Savage

It's looking better and better.

Bruce Is looking a beauty!

[Richter]

Yep. It certainly sets us up well. 3 on that list are already capable AFL players with potential improvement to come (Billings, Dunstan, Delaney); another two look likely (Templeton, Bruce); whilst 4 more are possibles (Acres, Weller, Longer, Savage). A lot to look forward to.

Our potential team/squad in 2017... (with ages in brackets)...

Gwilt (30) Delaney (27) Geary (28)
Webster (23) Bruce (24) Wright (23)

Armitage (28) Hickey (26) Dunstan (22)
Montagna (33) Steven (27) Newnes (24)

Billings (21) Stanley (26) Templeton (21)
Saunders (22) ????????? ?????????

INT: Gilbert (30), Curren (24), Ray (31), Ross (23)

Defensive depth: Roberton (25)
Midfield depth: Savage (26), Weller (25), Longer (23), Pierce (22), Acres (21)
Forward depth: Lee (26), Markworth (25), White (22)
--------------------------------------
Retired: Hayes, Fisher, Riewoldt, Dempster, Jones, Schneider, Maister
Delisted: Milera, Dennis-Lane, Holmes, Dunell, Simpkin, Shenton, Minchington, Murdoch
--------------------------------------

The average age of this squad is just over 25 yo. There's a lot of evenness in there in terms of age-mix and quality... but clearly there are some problems...

- there's a big hole in the forward line with not much depth there

We'll be hoping that one (or more) of Markworth, Lee, White and Minchington can become a regular.
TDL or Milera may still be kept for depth... or recycled players traded for and tried instead.
Clearly we'll need to get hold of another quality tall forward either from the draft, say this year, or by trading or free agency in 2/3 years time.

- there are only 4 likely A graders in there (Steven, Billings, Webster (probable IMO), Montagna (ageing))

In particular, whilst there is already a degree of midfield depth, the outright quality looks slim (eg. when matched up against say GC - Martin, Ablett, Swallow, O'Meara, Prestia, Bennell, Kolodjashnij). We'll need to prioritise QUALITY over quantity when recruiting mids.

- there's a dearth of depth in the backline

The current starting back 6 (minus the ageing Dempster and Fisher) look good to go for another few years but there isn't much else. This presents an opportunity for the likes of Cam Shenton (still only 23) to step up. Really not sure what has happened to Dylan Roberton this year? Again, the well of the draft, trading and free agency will be looked at.... though IMO we shouldn't look to spend too much in this area as defence is more about a team and effort orientation rather than a search for elite quality.

OVERALL STRATEGY FOR RECRUITING OVER THE NEW 3 YEARS

From the above we can see that we should expect a turnover of around 5 players per year over the next 3 years. This is much less than our average of the last few years (?approaching 10 players per year) In terms of new recruits this equates to a mix each year of perhaps... 2/3 players in the draft, 1/2 from trades/free agency, and 1 new rookie. IMO we can expect to around 6 picks <30 over the next 3 years which should be used to try to snare 4 mids and 2 tall forwards. The 3rd round pick (around 45-50) can be used to trade for backline and small forward depth.

In terms of trading OUT, my list analysis suggests that the only real area we can let go is B/C grade midfielders e.g. One of Hickey/Longer/Pierce, one of Armo/Ross/Saunders. And there are significant arguments against doing this. The best reason FOR doing so would be if for instance we could use one of these players to improve our 2nd round pick (around 30) to a mid-teen pick. OR we could look to trade out our first pick for one of the GWS/GC guns as one or other is inevitably forced out by $$ pressure (Swallow, Prestia, Kolodjashnij, Shiel, Whitfield, Greene, Kelly, Patton, Boyd, Cameron). Or even a 2nd rounder for one of Tomlinson, Stewart, Lynch, Lonergan.

We look placed to snag a quality free agent in 2016 (or 2017/18) as over the next 2 years we will lose some well paid players. Dangerfield, Sloane, Rich, Redden, Shuey, Yarran??

[st_Trav_ofWA]

bit tough calling a delisting of Holmes .... also i think Murdoch is a bit of a big calll for 2017 ... Holmes is a low risk chance we have taken but i gotta say i tend to look on the slightly more possitive side of things .. Murdoch can play i reckon he is injured but i can see him in the team by years end

by 2017 i reckon Gwilt and montagna might be cooked and Acres im tipping will be a huge star for us ..

[Zed]

Who knows maybe Holmes can become a FF next year. Has all the natural attributes just needs to be seen if he can learn the nuances. After all , we now seem to be flush with ruckmen ..

[whiskers3614]

Who knows maybe Holmes can become a FF next year. Has all the natural attributes just needs to be seen if he can learn the nuances. After all , we now seem to be flush with ruckmen ..

Might be a vacancy in Sydney' s forward line!

[Old Mate]

I suspect this will be one of our finest draft/trade periods. You can build a finals team around that bunch, perhaps even more. Spine, ruck, outside and inside mids covered. Plus plenty off classy ball users. Now just gotta find the next Riewoldt.

[lloyd21]

Personally hope they draft either Lamb or Goddard .
Offer both Jaksch & Orourke & Plowman from Gws $ including 3 year deals as all uncontracted .
Heard whisper Buntine is wanting to move too and Gws have to reduce their list anyway.

Think Sloane is the one they will target 2015 restricted free agent from what I hear .