Do We Have The Courage To Make It

[bulldogtragic]

Geelong:

Needed a good ruck and extra hands up forward. Had the courage to go after Ottens even if it meant they had to lose a very good young midfielder in Moloney.

Result - More balanced team.

Two last grand finals, Premiers in 2007.


Hawthorn:

Traded Rawlings who had a great year up forward, Thompson who played well and Hay who was an A/A Full Back and Everitt. Got some good picks.

They needed a KPP back and traded for Croad

Result - More balanced team, good stock of youth.

Finals last year and Premiers in 2008.


Our trading has been at the fringes. We can not afford to do this anymore.

Koops, Street, Rawlings, Morgan etc have been disgraceful.

Our premiership window is open, we know we need some quality players in key positions to take the next step.

Question is, if we have the courage to trade away good players to get good players to make it happen.

If not, lets just wait another 10 years for another shot.

[Sockeye Salmon]

Geelong:

Needed a good ruck and extra hands up forward. Had the courage to go after Ottens even if it meant they had to lose a very good young midfielder in Moloney.

Result - More balanced team.

Two last grand finals, Premiers in 2007.


Hawthorn:

Traded Rawlings who had a great year up forward, Thompson who played well and Hay who was an A/A Full Back and Everitt. Got some good picks.

They needed a KPP back and traded for Croad

Result - More balanced team, good stock of youth.

Finals last year and Premiers in 2008.


Our trading has been at the fringes. We can not afford to do this anymore.

Koops, Street, Rawlings, Morgan etc have been disgraceful.

Our premiership window is open, we know we need some quality players in key positions to take the next step.

Question is, if we have the courage to trade away good players to get good players to make it happen.

If not, lets just wait another 10 years for another shot.

Geelong - didn't need high picks as much because of their 14 father/sons
Hawthorn - topped up with blokes like Brent Guerra and Stuart Dew.

You're being a bit selective there, 42-C-3.

[bulldogtragic]

Geelong - didn't need high picks as much because of their 14 father/sons
Hawthorn - topped up with blokes like Brent Guerra and Stuart Dew.

You're being a bit selective there, 42-C-3.

Yeah, it helps with my argument...

Our idea of trading was selecting other teams average players and paying with decent picks. Maybe because we didn't want to trade young Hahn's or Gian's.

My point is that is we identify we need a ruck or KPP forward, we think a quality player will enhance our list during a premiership window, than we may have to trade away a good kid or qulaity player to get what we need.

I think we need a dose of courage and consider for trade someone other than Street and Ray. Our recent and longer term history of trading is very poor (last 18 months aside). Smorgon himself has urged aggressive trading for a KPP forward. That can't happen unless we are willing to lose a quality player whether its Gia or Higgins and the replacement better be a very good play with years left as well.

[LostDoggy]

I think it is a very good point but we would need to suffer a little bit of pain by letting go players that we admire. However, you are probably correct and we need to be tough.

My thoughts would be Gia because we have Higgins and Ward to cover him.

The other one would be either Boyd or Cross as they are both very similar and cant kick very well. We only need one of these.

On top of this we will also be trading Ray, so we have the opportunity to do similar to Hawthorn.

[ledge]

Boyd will have a shot at goal , Cross wont, i would trade Cross out of the 2.

[Sockeye Salmon]

Boyd will have a shot at goal , Cross wont, i would trade Cross out of the 2.

I suggest we shoot Ledge instead...

[bulldogtragic]

Just watching a replay of 'on the couch', and listening to Clarko talk about having to make the really tough decision to create change and aggressively go after a premiership, he talked about really tough decisions with favourites sons of the club.

Got me thinking about about Eade and some of the really tough changes he's faced in his short time. Tapping Smith, Grant and now West on the shoulder to blood kids. No doubt Aker and Johno will get taps too soon enough. Takes tough decicisons to change and be serious about things. I hope people in the next year or two are talking to Eade in the same fashion. Makes me feel good about the direction of the club and decisions taken by Eade.

[Scraggers]

Yeah, it helps with my argument...

Our idea of trading was selecting other teams average players and paying with decent picks. Maybe because we didn't want to trade young Hahn's or Gian's.

Agree whole heartedly ... the idea of going after Hall or other 30ish year old players annoys me ... Yes we need a KPP ... lets take a couple of years and design our own from this draft instead of trading for other teams average (or past it) players ... we've waited 54 years, what's a couple more

Takes tough decisions to change and be serious about things. I hope people in the next year or two are talking to Eade in the same fashion. Makes me feel good about the direction of the club and decisions taken by Eade.

Again, I agree whole heartedly ... Eade is exactly who this club needs right now.

We need to build on our successes ... get more of our youth with finals experience ... build our own team of KPPs and midfielders ... then have a shot at the big dance ...

This was a great building year with a lot of success ... we need to keep building and making those hard decisions

[bornadog]

Agree whole heartedly ... the idea of going after Hall or other 30ish year old players annoys me ... Yes we need a KPP ... lets take a couple of years and design our own from this draft instead of trading for other teams average (or past it) players ... we've waited 54 years, what's a couple more

I agree, I thought we recruited guys like Grant and Boumann exactly for that reason. I still want them both in next year getting game time.

[LostDoggy]

My view is that if we can't get an established full forward like Barry Hall, then draft and nurture our own. I don't want any more valuable draft picks being wasted on hacks.

When you think about it Geelong played consistent finals footy for four years before the got into the Grand Final and won the premiership. We have only played finals twice in the last six years - so we can afford to build.

I read somewhere that the teams that are unsuccessful are the ones that seem to have the 300 game players - i.e. Harvey at the Saints, Neitz, at Melbourne and of course Granty, Westy and Johno with us. Other clubs turn over their players more quickley so they don't risk getting caught out with an ageing list and bottoming out. I fully expect and fully support that next year will be Johno and Aker's last year.

[Sockeye Salmon]

I read somewhere that the teams that are unsuccessful are the ones that seem to have the 300 game players - i.e. Harvey at the Saints, Neitz, at Melbourne and of course Granty, Westy and Johno with us. Other clubs turn over their players more quickley so they don't risk getting caught out with an ageing list and bottoming out. I fully expect and fully support that next year will be Johno and Aker's last year.

Hawthorn in the 70's-80's had Tuck, Matthews, Scott, Moore, Knights, Dipierdomenico, Langford and Ayres. Dunstall, Platten and probably a few others like Collins, played high 200's as well.

Good players, who play for a long time, mean one piece of the puzzle is sorted for a decade. When enough pieces are in place you win premierships. I'd love Lake to play another 150 games and us not have to worry about fullback for another 8 years.