Rating the 2022 Trade Period - After 7.30pm Wednesday Night

[MrMahatma]

Guess if your glass is half full, you see 2 additional best 22 players in positions of need.
If it’s half empty you see an old dude who hasn’t played top flight for a year, and a dooood who has horrible hair and maybe this year was a fluke year, so he’s overrated.

My glass is half full. I think our best 22 is better now.

I hope we draft a good young KPD.

[DOG GOD]

Getting Lobb is ok…but my biggest concern is if English goes down.

[dog town]

Think we needed some run at the start of the period so losing 2/3 best runners is far from ideal even if Hunter hasn’t been that recently. McLean and West might help a little but we needed winger/flanker types and it’s unlikely to be addressed by first year draftees. Realistically we are not contending at the moment and need to nail these draft picks. Suspect Daniel gets his body right and potentially steps inside as well.

In terms of the trades executed I have no issues, Lobb balances the forward/ruck situation which needed addressing. I expect Naughton and English to be better for that change. Can argue it’s slight overs for Lobb but probably means we don’t see huge difference in value post pick 25 or so. Other thing with Lobb is it helps us negate interceptors potentially, no English forward hurt this year from that perspective.

Woukd have kept Schache but don’t think he is a Lobb comparison. Lobb size makes him a genuine 2nd ruck who can give minutes without giving too much impetus around the ball. Certainly no star Lobb but we have put our eggs in the English basket so needed another English type to make it all work.

Jones was a free hit, if he comes back at the same standard it’s a win.

Hunter is a disaster really. Fair enough he needs to be moved on but that reflects on the clubs ability to get him back on track. Was vice captain two years ago and smoked Langdon in Ballarat. Obviously a fair bit happening for him since then off field but we needed more wing support not losing our best proven option without some sort of plan to replace him.

Dunkley return is as good as we were going to get. The change from original Brisbane offer shows Power did quite well with the cards he was given on that particular one. Go to the draft and make them count, Port and pies have both used a quick draft injection to fuel a spike recently.

Pickering looked extremely unprofessional and Brisbane actually backed down significantly from what he told us to take on Saturday. Barrett referring to his dislike for Bulldogs from previous dealings is also disappointing. I actually think we are in the right but stirring the media up is becoming a sideshow for us now. I’m a Bevo fan but this is one aspect I think we need to be a bit smarter about, our list of media enemies is growing.

[angelopetraglia]

I also don't understand the negativity.

We swap Cordy for Jones.
We swap Shaq for Lobb.

In the short term, that makes us better.

Shaq just doesn't have the intestinal fortitude to play the game at the highest level and Bevo will simply not play players who don't fully commit at the contest (see Lippa). Cordy just isn't at AFL standard IMHO.

We lose Hunter, who was obviously creating some issues if he was banished from the club. He has his own internal demons to deal with. I wish him all the best and will always be a Premiership player, but he has lived his life in a manner in recent years that is just not AFL standard. Thank you and good luck.

We lose Dunkley who is an A-Grade inside midfielder. However he has serious limitations in his game. He can't kick in general play and is someone who you just can't rely on to convert set shots from any distance. He is also slow and we have too many slow midfielders as it is. He definitely has some assets that we will miss. He is a tackling machine. He is great overhead for his height. He is a contested ball beast. But if he doesn't want to be at our club, so be it. We are well served in that part of the ground and it means Treloar and others can play more midfield minutes.

It feels like we basically traded Dunks for a future first rounder.

What is absolutely crucial now is that we nail some of our draft picks.

[GVGjr]

Getting Lobb is ok…but my biggest concern is if English goes down.

We still need to find a ruckman. Bringing in Lobb doesn't change that.

[whythelongface]

This is a big interest for me going fwd. There were definite issues within the playing group this year, and these 2 “might” have been a big part of that. Will be interesting to see how galvanised we are next year.

This could also have affected Bont. As the captain having to deal with internal as well as carrying a significant workload (incl being a target up forward) clearly impacted his performance this year. Next year will be a new lease of life for the Bont and he will take his game to a new level.

[dog town]

We still need to find a ruckman. Bringing in Lobb doesn't change that.

If Sweet is on the list isn’t that what he is for?

[DOG GOD]

If Sweet is on the list isn’t that what he is for?

Neither sweet or Martin should be on the list. The fact they are shows how desperate we are.

[whythelongface]

Getting Lobb is ok…but my biggest concern is if English goes down.

This is where Lobb is beneficial as it allows Sweet to play just a ruck role without compromising our forward structure. Last year with Bruce out we were stretched in the forward line once English went down. We now have some genuine options but it would still be good to have another decent ruck

[hujsh]

So you mean West, JUH, Darcy, Bruce, McClean and Weightman. I’m coming scoter and can live very comfortably with that. Bring on 2023 I’m backing the boys in.

Name another club that has this much raw talent ready to explode

Well not even just that. I mean that we have our already good players playing to the level they expect but also committing to doing the hard stuff. Can't rely on Dunkley to do the defensive stuff so now EVERYONE has to contribute. We need that buy in. As a side effect the performances of those fringe/developing players will look even better

[dog town]

Neither sweet or Martin should be on the list. The fact they are shows how desperate we are.

Not many teams with a great ruckmen playing in their reserves.

[GVGjr]

If Sweet is on the list isn’t that what he is for?

Do you think 2 ruckman and a forward ruckman is enough?
Sweet is on the list because he is improving but we need 3 specialist ruckman.

[Grantysghost]

Are we paying for Hunter?

Also has anyone checked on Treloar.

[FrediKanoute]

Picks 11, 21 & 39 to the draft this year unless swaps prior to the draft.

They are good picks. Good enough to address some longer term issues and maybe nab a play first year type player.

Overall I am ok with this trade period:

Dunks - wanted out and was uncontracted so we did the best deal we could do (and I think its a pretty good deal given the hand we held and the counterparties hand)
Cordy - a loss. Given we have a dearth of decent backmen his departure hurts.
Schache - a little disappointed, but given Lobb comes in then he was never going to be part of our plans. Also think we have Buku, who showed promise last year as both a forward and a back.
Hunter - a loss. A ball winner and great link between the front ad back half. We struggled to replace him all year and none of the replacements - Smith, Smith, Macrae, etc were as effective in the roles. Would have preferred we kept him.

In:

Jones - thnk 3 years is too long, but that final year may be a paid coaching role
Lobb - again suspect a 3 year deal is a little long and will be interesting to see how our forward line works.

If I was grading I would give it a B - got what we wnated, but overpaid a little; extracted value on most of what we sold.

[dog town]

Do you think 2 ruckman and a forward ruckman is enough?
Sweet is on the list because he is improving but we need 3 specialist ruckman.

I would be ok to carry another one but is anyone worth having going to come if they know they are starting at Footscray? English planting his flag as wanting to be a first ruck means we have had to go all in on two forward/ruck types. I suspect if English wanted to play as a forward with a bit of ruck we might have been looking for a meat and potato ruckmen. That’s not saying one way is right or wrong that’s the decision we had to make once English made that clear.