Who would you have JMac target this year?

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

Why not have both?

Let's put someone of value up to get both.

Work your magic Tradinator...work your magic..

[Sedat]

Why not have both?

Let's put someone of value up to get both.

Stringer, Dahlhaus and our first 2 picks for starters? We'll need to be bold.

[bulldogtragic]

Work your magic Tradinator...work your magic..

It's not going to be popular... But I subscribe to the notion that you have to give something of value to get something of value. So maybe we've got to hit free agency hard, put down our picks 9, 27 & 40 and Liberatore/Stringer or for a lesser value trade Hunter/Wallis/Roughead.

We need to move some bad kicks out, and try to keep Webb. Which we won't. It's a bizarre world when we're overstocked for slow poor kicks, and good kickers like Hrovat & Webb will have left for bugger all after costing us heaps to get them.

[bulldogtragic]

Stringer, Dahlhaus and our first 2 picks for starters? We'll need to be bold.

Stringer is my first tradable. He takes up large salary cap, is inconsistent and now developing hammy issues. For that salary cap I want consistency of top level performance. If we can use him to engineer Kelly coming, we'd be turning that swap in investment of salary cap into a better one for the club. Sure he might not fly for (and drop) big marks, and kick some freakish goals, but we are not seeing the ROI in Stringer and next year his manager will want a lot more.

Ideally a club paying overs and needing a marketable face is his new home. I don't dislike Jake, but the question is if Kelly & Stringer are on the same wage, who would you bank on across a season. I'd pump it into Kelly. Stringer could be anything, but we are not seeing it.

[Sedat]

It's not going to be popular... But I subscribe to the notion that you have to give something of value to get something of value. So maybe we've got to hit free agency hard, put down our picks 9, 27 & 40 and Liberatore/Stringer or for a lesser value trade Hunter/Wallis/Roughead.

We need to move some bad kicks out, and try to keep Webb. Which we won't. It's a bizarre world when we're overstocked for slow poor kicks, and good kickers like Hrovat & Webb will have left for bugger all after costing us heaps to get them.

Libba is a keeper for mine if he is committed to his career. His skill set is in short supply at our club and he has beautiful disposal skills by both hand and foot. He is elite at his best.

Of course if he is not 100% committed he is fair game for trade. But there are other players with greater deficiencies who I would be looking at trading out first.

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

Yep, as much as Stringer has great 'potential' I'd trade that for consistent impact week in week out in a Josh Kelly.
Dahl too, has great attributes, but he is one of the largest culprits when it comes to poor ball use. I could see him having value for a team who needs and desires a contest terrier.

Jeez.. given what these guys have given us in 2016..it really feels like heresy to be considering this.

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

Libba is a keeper for mine if he is committed to his career. His skill set is in short supply at our club and he has beautiful disposal skills by both hand and foot. He is elite at his best.

Of course if he is not 100% committed he is fair game for trade. But there are other players with greater deficiencies who I would be looking at trading out first.

Absolutely, if he's up for the challenge he's a keeper, but you have to wonder whether the club is running out of patience.
At his best he almost has no peer in the competition in his hunger and desire to get from contest to contest and influence the terms under which a ball comes out of a congested pack.

But the 2017 version is just a plodding liability who sometimes does enough to remind you of the larger talent that he is wasting.

[bulldogtragic]

I hope those Ablett rumours about us from earlier this year are real. Stuff Geelong pressuring GCS to get him for nothing, if we provide an alternative destination not far from Geelong, then maybe they will deal with us. Package Matera up and give us a quote GCS.

[comrade]

Yep, as much as Stringer has great 'potential' I'd trade that for consistent impact week in week out in a Josh Kelly.
Dahl too, has great attributes, but he is one of the largest culprits when it comes to poor ball use. I could see him having value for a team who needs and desires a contest terrier.

Jeez.. given what these guys have given us in 2016..it really feels like heresy to be considering this.

I know what you mean, but they will always be Bulldogs heroes.

I'm firmly on the 'trade Stringer' bandwagon for a few reasons. He is extremely talented, there is no doubting that. But he seems to be stuck in a massive rut that only a change of scenery may reverse. He's currently contracted, meaning we have some leverage.

If we're going to make an almighty play at Lever and Kelly, a player of his calibre will need to be involved in any deal.

And as much as I'm all in on the trade Stringer bandwagon, I'm all in on the keep Dahlhaus wagon. You don't trade the heart out of a playing list and have it end well.

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

I just hope we don't go the Casboult route.... He may've improve his goalkicking..but he's still faulty...

[bulldogtragic]

I just hope we don't go the Casboult route.... He may've improve his goalkicking..but he's still faulty...

I think we should work on extremes for trade targets:

(1) They're very good to guns (Lever, Kelly, Kruezer)
(2) They're very good to guns, but injury or falling out with coach has held them back (Matera), or 'go home' or age (GAJ)

No plodders at all in between (ie Casboult)

(3) They're very good kids, great kicks, who can't get a game (Webb) and cost very little

[josie]

What picks would Wally, Libba, Webb, Dickson, Stringer, Dahl, Hunter be worth? Not saying I want to trade them - just asking.

[Go_Dogs]

Cordy, Adams, Biggs
Wood, Lever, JJ
Hunter, Macrae, Kelly
Bont, Young, McLean
Dale, Boyd, Dahl
Roughead, Liberatore, Daniel
Jong, Wallis, Williams, Suckers

If I'm throwing together a best 22 based on the comments in this thread (ie. Trade Stringer, Morris retires, no Dickson, maybe Picken not best 22, Lever and Kelly in etc) this is what I'm coming up with.

The difficulties I had:-
Our midfield is still too bare based on 2017 output and requiring Bont to play forward.
We require Bont forward because we have no consistent goal kickers and no one who consistently leads at the ball - maybe having Tom Boyd and Lewis Young up front can help that - but that's an unknown.
Could Lipinski play a role up front in 2018?
Can Libba, Walllis, Jong return and be consistent midfield cogs?
Can we rely on the likes of Daniel and McLean to take our midfield to that next level?
Is Roughead going to bounce back (he had a few pretty good weeks, but started slowly after his injury and wasn't at his best most of the year) and if not, who else can we play there so we can keep TB forward?

Do Lever and Kelly help? Yes - if we can get one or both of them we should do it.
If we can't get both or either?
Well to give us flexibility up front I would like a ready made defender, but there may not be a lot of options.
If we can a midfielder, do we have a crack at Dusty? Who else will be a difference maker?
On the flip side, we could get a couple of very good players through the draft, is that sufficient and a proven formula we can continue to follow?


Plenty of questions and no standout answers.

[Twodogs]

Watching Trengrove play for Port yesterday...

He even kicks straight. He's got everything we need. Two of him would be ideal.

[Twodogs]

And, yes, I know there are almost two of him but Melbourne's is broken.