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Let's get one thing clear, right off the bat, I hate trading.
How do you plead with one guy to re-sign out of loyalty while at the same time you're trying to shaft his mate for the best deal you can?
You try to build a team environment and insist on every bloke bleeding for the cause, "oh, except you, we got offered pick 22 and we only thought you were worth pick 35 so bugger off."
There are some exceptions.
You trade a bloke out when:
* He is fringe and not getting much of a go and not likely to - Shane Birss
* The bloke wants out and you're not dealing with Hawthorn - Nathan Brown
You trade blokes in when:
* You can get hold of a gun dirt cheap - Aker
* You can fill a gaping hole dirt cheap - Ben Hudson
* You can give a lifeline to a kid with talent who isn't getting a go where he is - Tim Callan
Which brings me to my point (eventually).
If real life was a game of Supercoach, I would trade Daniel Cross.
This might surprise a few people, considering I named my son after him, but purely from an operational perspective he is superfluous. There's no point trading duds because you don't get anything for them (even if you package a few of them up together regardless of what they think on BF) and Cross would still have some very good value.
The media talk about how quick we are but I think it's a falacy, we have a number of plodders - like Cross and Gia - and a few of our better young mids aren't real quick either - Higgins and Ward.
We are pretty well off for inside players, Ward has come on and Reid will be best 22 next year as well, both are ball winners.
Cross is 26 (27 next March) so is the perfect age for it. I think he will drop off the perch pretty quickly as he gets older, one decent injury could stop him from training for a while and fitness is his major weapon.
I'd want a draft pick or two and they would need to be decent.
Most clubs are going to drop away over the next few years as players fall away because of injury, form or age and with the draft concession coming sides will not be as easily able to re-stock.
If we went into the draft loaded with a top 10 pick, a top 20 pick and a top 30-ish pick we could re-stock when others can't. With Wallis and Libba next year we could almost avoid the two years of missing out on the draft altogether.
How do you plead with one guy to re-sign out of loyalty while at the same time you're trying to shaft his mate for the best deal you can?
You try to build a team environment and insist on every bloke bleeding for the cause, "oh, except you, we got offered pick 22 and we only thought you were worth pick 35 so bugger off."
There are some exceptions.
You trade a bloke out when:
* He is fringe and not getting much of a go and not likely to - Shane Birss
* The bloke wants out and you're not dealing with Hawthorn - Nathan Brown
You trade blokes in when:
* You can get hold of a gun dirt cheap - Aker
* You can fill a gaping hole dirt cheap - Ben Hudson
* You can give a lifeline to a kid with talent who isn't getting a go where he is - Tim Callan
Which brings me to my point (eventually).
If real life was a game of Supercoach, I would trade Daniel Cross.
This might surprise a few people, considering I named my son after him, but purely from an operational perspective he is superfluous. There's no point trading duds because you don't get anything for them (even if you package a few of them up together regardless of what they think on BF) and Cross would still have some very good value.
The media talk about how quick we are but I think it's a falacy, we have a number of plodders - like Cross and Gia - and a few of our better young mids aren't real quick either - Higgins and Ward.
We are pretty well off for inside players, Ward has come on and Reid will be best 22 next year as well, both are ball winners.
Cross is 26 (27 next March) so is the perfect age for it. I think he will drop off the perch pretty quickly as he gets older, one decent injury could stop him from training for a while and fitness is his major weapon.
I'd want a draft pick or two and they would need to be decent.
Most clubs are going to drop away over the next few years as players fall away because of injury, form or age and with the draft concession coming sides will not be as easily able to re-stock.
If we went into the draft loaded with a top 10 pick, a top 20 pick and a top 30-ish pick we could re-stock when others can't. With Wallis and Libba next year we could almost avoid the two years of missing out on the draft altogether.
You can do much better than that.
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