Our veteran quandary

[piffdog]

Agree to disagree Geek. I don’t think we should be planning for a decade just to make sure Nick has someone to kick to. He’s great, but he’s not going to win the next 10 straight Copelands and brownlows and it still takes 17 other blokes to run around and win games of footy. I’m not sure I could think of a single player in the game who has been so great that the entire footy club were put in place to facilitate their greatness. Oh and according to our club’s voting he wasn’t even the best Daicos in black and white this year!

But that’s the beauty of these forums I suppose - we’re all allowed a view.

[Charlie Oneeye]

A bit concerning to see a large group of over 30s. It is, IMO, a tad too many.
Time does fly. But they are there because they have passed the 'great filter'. They are not lingerers.
Lucky we won a GF, if we hadn't, we would be in the primed but failed category.

Pendels and Sidey very hard to replace… but over the next 10 years, we may be saying exactly the same thing about Nick Daicos and Bobby Hill.
We may already have another 10 players on our list who will one day be their equal, but will also be in their 30's. It's a natural pool of player ages. It cycles.
Overall, on paper it's concerning, but I am not concerned. We have good depth, and the retiring players will provide enough salary relief to be used as needed.

[RudeBoy]

Our most urgent need is to find and develop an absolute A grade midfielder to replace Pendles in a couple of years. I've got hopes for Ed Allan, but it may well be someone else altogether, someone not yet at our club. All the others - Howe, Elliott, Crisp, Sidey, WHE, Mitchell etc - as great as they are, will no doubt be replaced by others in due course, but Pendles is a once in a generation talent, whose replacement we need to find and begin nurturing asap.

[jonmac1954]

^

True enough Rudey it will be a delicate dance over the next year or so giving young men their chance to show their stuff whilst still remaining competitive.
Now that we have that elusive flag it may be time to see Pendles marshalling the troops from the back line.
A back to back is every flag team's goal but realistically it's far from a sure thing and we must continue to cycle players through.

[Geek]

Agree to disagree Geek. I don’t think we should be planning for a decade just to make sure Nick has someone to kick to. He’s great, but he’s not going to win the next 10 straight Copelands and brownlows and it still takes 17 other blokes to run around and win games of footy. I’m not sure I could think of a single player in the game who has been so great that the entire footy club were put in place to facilitate their greatness. Oh and according to our club’s voting he wasn’t even the best Daicos in black and white this year!

But that’s the beauty of these forums I suppose - we’re all allowed a view.

Grrr... turns out that when our moderators move our posts to different threads when we are halfway through our carefully crafted and detailed reply, we can lose our content. That's ok. Happy to write something else

FWIW, we don't disagree on something and that is that we are in the window now and should be trying to bring home another cup, especially while we still have the services of Pendles. Much as his output across the season has diminished recently, that ability to stand up to the level he did in the final quarter of the year was something else. We'll miss it when it's gone.

I just happen to also think that we will be having exactly the same conversation in 5 or 6 years when we will be wanting to bring home another cup while we still have the services of Daicos (and Moore/Maynard/Degoey are most likely retired.)

Nobody is saying that "the entire club has to be put in place to facilitate his greatness". But he is the kind of player that you build a list around and we have 10 or 12 years left to do that. The first couple are already earmarked for getting the most out of the final years of this current cohort.

Like you said, he's gonna need a lot of help. Too much to bring in on the spot or even in a couple of drafts. So we should be planning

[Kingsofclutch]

McInnes is about to explode, his last game in the magoos I saw the first signs of 'the strut', he looked around and saw he had everyone covered and liked it, of course he promptly got injured but look out when he comes back with some size. He replaces a Billy or a Checkers down the track with the tools to do either job.

[inxs88]

Hopefully we can stagger the following out over two years, not one:

* Pendles
* Howe
* Steele
* WHE
* Elliott

Reckon Howe's final series was fantastic and a tad underrated. He still has the spring, skills, pace and poise and hope he has at least 2 more years to go.

[Take_a_Screamer]

You guys worry too much about our 30+ players.
It will be natural attrition...
Look at what happened with Adams, we are getting a younger Shultz
For retirements, it leaves cap space to buy other stars, young to mature.
You still need good management and planning, sometimes ruthless culling.
With Wright in charge...what me Worry?

[jonmac1954]

^

The worrywort approach is an issue - as is the 'she'll be right' approach.
Natural attrition will take care of some of the replacement but not all, some trading and dealer brokering will be necessary.

[Kingsofclutch]

You guys worry too much about our 30+ players.

I watched the Grand Final from behind my hands like it was a horror movie, I'm following the wrong club if I want a worry free experience.

[Pies4shaw]

If we'd traded Sidebottom to Essendon for a late third-rounder in, say, 2013, we simply wouldn't have this problem, now.

[inxs88]

You guys worry too much about our 30+ players.

I watched the Grand Final from behind my hands like it was a horror movie, I'm following the wrong club if I want a worry free experience.

It is always a struggle. But how great is it being Premiers???

[Geek]

With Wright in charge...what me Worry?

Wright is gonna hire Brett Ratten?

[Kingsofclutch]

You guys worry too much about our 30+ players.

I watched the Grand Final from behind my hands like it was a horror movie, I'm following the wrong club if I want a worry free experience.

It is always a struggle. But how great is it being Premiers???

Ooh yeah

[think positive]

Our most urgent need is to find and develop an absolute A grade midfielder to replace Pendles in a couple of years. I've got hopes for Ed Allan, but it may well be someone else altogether, someone not yet at our club. All the others - Howe, Elliott, Crisp, Sidey, WHE, Mitchell etc - as great as they are, will no doubt be replaced by others in due course, but Pendles is a once in a generation talent, whose replacement we need to find and begin nurturing asap.

How do you find someone with his smarts?
I love the way Nick hangs around him, I reckon there is our genius matrix replacement in training.