This should be the last year for Murphy, MBoyd and Morris

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

I'll present a dissenting view on Moz.
I'm not sure we can afford to lose almost 800 games experience out of our back half in one bite.
Boyd and Murphy are getting more soft tissue injuries and may not have the ability to navigate another season.
Moz has had his body issues too, but not soft tissue and i think he can play a transitional role next year in guiding the development of our inexperienced key defenders.

Adams has had significant foot injuries that may or may not hold up and Collins would benefit from the sort of guidance Moz could provide. Roberts too for that matter.

Of the 3 old guys Moz is the only one to really pronounce a real desire to play on next year, so the mental fire is still there.

Let's also not discount the impact his back had over the summer and also his fractured leg earlier this year on his performances. He missed a fair chunk and yet came straight back into the team. Maybe with other options to draw on we could've eased him back this year via VFL first. That we didn't, probably says how highly he is still rated by the coaches.

This I think could explain his dip in form as opposed to be not up to it any more.

Knowing how selfless and team oriented Moz has been his whole career, I think he would be the first to call it a day if he felt he was either not up to it anymore or if he felt he was holding up another player.

Collins or Young are not yet ready to play 22 games and neither Roberts or Adams have shown they are up to the rigours of a full season either through form or fitness. Therefore I think there is a case for Moz to play a role, possibly a diminished one, if others earn a chance.

[bulldogtragic]

Would recruiting Lever effectively force Morris out? I can't imagine that the list is balanced with Lever, Adams, Cordy, Roberts, Collins, Young, Wood & Morris.

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

Would recruiting Lever effectively force Morris out? I can't imagine that the list is balanced with Lever, Adams, Cordy, Roberts, Collins, Young, Wood & Morris.

Possibly. A couple of variables there.
1. Maybe we don't land Lever.

2. Even if we do Bevo might like the extra coverage it provides to maybe play Adams and or Cordy in other roles up forward. We know Bevo likes the option to provide versatility on the ground.

[Doc26]

Would recruiting Lever effectively force Morris out? I can't imagine that the list is balanced with Lever, Adams, Cordy, Roberts, Collins, Young, Wood & Morris.

Love the idea of getting Lever, and would add to our list, but not at the expense of grabbing an elite mid to work alongside Marcus.

My fear is that The Bont will burn out with so much attention directed his way by opposition mids / blockers, not to mention being at a competitive disadvantage in the critical midfield area if heaven forbid he was to break down. I thought we barely contemplate.

We need insurance for Marcus and for the effective running of our midfield given the potential for another below par season by Tom. Most of the top performing teams are running a number of elite level mids through their midfield e.g Danger/Selwood/Gazza(2018) Kennedy/Hannebery/Parker/Heeney etc Hawthorn have topped up wth Mitchell and O'Meara (although not working currently).

Kelly of course is the most obvious to address this need but will no doubt come at a huge cost given his value for all.

Who are the other Kelly's out there that will force the opposition to pay attention to, to give Marcus a chop out? Rockliff's name has been mentioned but not really at this level, and a no for me unless for chips.

My hope is that we've got something up ours sleeves with an elite level midfielder as our highest priority.

[Twodogs]

They are pretty rare at the level you'd stop putting all your time into stopping the Bont to concentrate on somebody else. Maybe an older guy from another club who wants a crack at a flag.

[Doc26]

They are pretty rare at the level you'd stop putting all your time into stopping the Bont to concentrate on somebody else. Maybe an older guy from another club who wants a crack at a flag.

It's why guys like Dusty and Kelly are demanding so much in the market whilst others are backing in the future with offers for types like Jacob Hopper. Tom Mitchell was astute by the Hawks last season but it did cost them. Love to pry Cunnington from North or Seb Ross from the Saints but both are contracted unfortunately.

[jeemak]

How can we expect to land a Tom Rockliff standard player for chips? He's an excellent footballer and Brisbane would need to be compensated well for his services which they would be via free agent compensation.

But, we'd have to pay a very good salary to him.

Check out his numbers compared to Shaun Burgoyne at the same age:

http://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/f...&fid1=O&fid2=O

What would we pay to get half the value out of Rockliff that Hawthorn got out of Burgoyne?

[bulldogtragic]

How can we expect to land a Tom Rockliff standard player for chips? He's an excellent footballer and Brisbane would need to be compensated well for his services.

Yep. The club who gets him need to look at Hawthorn & Vickery last year. The contract determines the compo, so if say the same as the James Frawley offer was made (4 years at $600,000 or more), Brisbane get pick 2 FA compo. They can't really say no to that compo in a proper rebuild (picks 1, 2 & Callenden from their academy as a first rounder too). Is Brisbane's best midfielder and top 5-20 in key stats across the comp worth that kind of offer? I say yes.

Generally on looking after Bont, WCE mids looked after Judd incredibly well. Guys sacrificed their games to block for him, and kits that would be meant for him. If we are not doing enough around the contest for him, well, that's a thread in itself.

[Doc26]

How can we expect to land a Tom Rockliff standard player for chips? He's an excellent footballer and Brisbane would need to be compensated well for his services which they would be via free agent compensation.

But, we'd have to pay a good salary.

No I wouldn't expect that we would get him for chips but based on our need I don't see him worth more than that for US.

He can no doubt play and offers flexibility in that he can go forward or back but I don't see him as an elite destructive type midfielder, more an accumulator who for mine too often seems to play on his own terms. Closer to B grader these days.

By all accounts he was very gettable last season but with no interest - this year the difference seems to be that he simply would cost far less in terms of a trade.

[Doc26]

Generally on looking after Bont, WCE mids looked after Judd incredibly well. Guys sacrificed their games to block for him, and kits that would be meant for him. If we are not doing enough around the contest for him, well, that's a thread in itself.

If you equate Judd with Marcus, who do you equate Cox, Cousins and Kerr with in our best midfield? This to me highlights the type of gap that I'm trying to convey.

[bulldogtragic]

If you equate Judd with Marcus, who do you equate Cox, Cousins and Kerr with in our best midfield? This to me highlights the type of gap that I'm trying to convey.

We don't have a Cox type likely any time soon. Or maybe Bonts is our Cox ruckman... I'd hope Jong can get back to form and be a big body, blocking and protecting. Realistically, we might need to trade out some talented but limited midfielders to do that unless they come via free agency.

[Doc26]

We don't have a Cox type likely any time soon. Or maybe Bonts is our Cox ruckman... I'd hope Jong can get back to form and be a big body, blocking and protecting. Realistically, we might need to trade out some talented but limited midfielders to do that unless they come via free agency.

At best Lin might aim to be our Andrew Embley from that star studded Eagles line up. Would be a great achievement if he could rise to this height.

[jeemak]

No I wouldn't expect that we would get him for chips but based on our need I don't see him worth more than that for US.

He can no doubt play and offers flexibility in that he can go forward or back but I don't see him as an elite destructive type midfielder, more an accumulator who for mine too often seems to play on his own terms. Closer to B grader these days.

By all accounts he was very gettable last season but with no interest - this year the difference seems to be that he simply would cost far less in terms of a trade.

I'm at a disadvantage as I've not seen a huge amount of opposition team's footy this year, and Brisvegas gets very little exposure on FTA however, his numbers are excellent and seem to put him into A-Grade category.

My preference would be to land the best un-contracted player around, the likelihood of doing so is slim unfortunately meaning we have to look at other ways of improving our list.

Picking up an all australian and multiple best and fairest winner at 27 years of age is something we should look at doing.

[always right]

Rockliff's stats are obviously pretty good but I think he has limited hurt factor. Might explain why you often see taggers going to Zorko but never to Rockliff.

[Doc26]

I'm at a disadvantage as I've not seen a huge amount of opposition team's footy this year, and Brisvegas gets very little exposure on FTA however, his numbers are excellent and seem to put him into A-Grade category.

My preference would be to land the best un-contracted player around, the likelihood of doing so is slim unfortunately meaning we have to look at other ways of improving our list.

Picking up an all australian and multiple best and fairest winner at 27 years of age is something we should look at doing.

His first half of the season was very solid. Looking at him during the second half of the season a different story. Maybe he's playing hurt.

Not sure on picking up a player because they might've once been an All Australian, nor being a B&F winner at the Lions through such a lull but nonetheless he is a very good player and no doubt would also bring leadership qualities.

I guess I see that we do have a number of very good midfielders, or developing midfielders, and to take Rockliff will demand a skewed portion of our TPP. I would just prefer us to hopefully set our sights a bit higher, if available, for higher end quality midfield line breakers.