Yeah I read they were.
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Would love to bring Hammer back into the fold
Until he nominates the Dogs as his destination, I won’t be getting excited. We have very few trade assets this year.
This could be irrelevant.
I know nothing official has been said, and I have no idea what the actual plan is, but if the initial rumours of much smaller squad sizes happens (say 35 which means you cut 10+) then trade assets might not matter.
Consider:
-Every club will need to get rid of 10 players. A player who wants out is an easy cut instead of cutting someone who wants to stay. So if Hamling goes it means they can keep someone they like like Lachie Schultz.
-The draft is stuffed. No junior footy, no exposed form, academy picks, father son picks. Even the good picks are much more of a lottery than normal. Why bother holding out for something good for a player that will command you something like a pick in the 20s at best anyway?
-Trading players in is going to be difficult, because that means another player you probably rate gets cut. Again if Freo wanted to bring someone in it's at the expense of Lachie Schultz. You already have to cut 10+, for every player you bring in thats another player gone.
So if the reduced list sizes do eventuate, any player that is not core (ie. best 12 or someone with potential to be top 10 at the club) is probably cheaper than usual.
Of course there's the other issue that to fit these guys in ourselves that means we have to cut 10+ players ourselves, which seems ludicrously unfeasible considering we have had about 4 goes at delisting Roarke Smith and still haven't had the heart to follow through with it.
A cut of ten would be devastating to the standard of the game. You need as many players as you can afford in the elite environment as the difference between player 35 and 45 is marginal so the elite experience needs to be spread across as many in this bracket as possible.
Alright a cut of 10 is probably a bit much but even a cut of 10% is 4 players plus whatever you need to make room for draftees so you are looking at 7 minimum. I think the point stands that it could be a really easy year to get a club to give up a non core player, regardless of whats going back the other way.