Howard Injury Might Benefit Moles

[The Coon Dog]

In today's Sunday Herald Sun (can't find a link) Craig Hutchison reports that Christian Howard is at least 8 weeks away from returning to the field & unlikely to play at senior level in the first half of the season.

Howard is making a slow recovery from hip surgery in December.

Given he's 8-10 weeks away, it might be worth putting him onto the long term injury list (must be on there for a minimum of 8 weeks, so better to get the clock ticking ASAP in my view) which would allow Brodie Moles to be elevated from the rookie list at the start of the season.

[ledge]

Re: Howard Injury Might Benefit Moles

Good move unless Eade wants another player of the same mould as Howard up.

[Go_Dogs]

Re: Howard Injury Might Benefit Moles

If that's the time-frame for his come back, then yes, I'd be very surprised if Moles was not upgraded.

[Missing Dog]

Re: Howard Injury Might Benefit Moles

Heard on SEN last week that rookies can be upgraded after round 11, so if Howard is 8-10 weeks away and we upgrade Moles now, we might just be lucky to have him on senior list all year????

[Go_Dogs]

Re: Howard Injury Might Benefit Moles

Heard on SEN last week that rookies can be upgraded after round 11, so if Howard is 8-10 weeks away and we upgrade Moles now, we might just be lucky to have him on senior list all year????

Correct. (I think! )

[The Coon Dog]

Re: Howard Injury Might Benefit Moles

Heard on SEN last week that rookies can be upgraded after round 11, so if Howard is 8-10 weeks away and we upgrade Moles now, we might just be lucky to have him on senior list all year????

Funny, you're not the only person who has considered that.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Howard Injury Might Benefit Moles

I thought you could only put a rookie to the senior list after round 11 if you had no one on your veteran list. As we have Johnson and Eagleton it means that we can't raise any rookies except for LTI.

I also wouldn't raise Moles unless he would play most of those 8 games. And is that likely? With a full team available I doubt he will make the cut. He isn't in my best 22 yet so I'm happy to see how he goes for the rest of the preseason and even the VFL season before putting him in the senior list.

[The Coon Dog]

Re: Howard Injury Might Benefit Moles

I thought you could only put a rookie to the senior list after round 11 if you had no one on your veteran list. As we have Johnson and Eagleton it means that we can't raise any rookies except for LTI.

I also wouldn't raise Moles unless he would play most of those 8 games. And is that likely? With a full team available I doubt he will make the cut. He isn't in my best 22 yet so I'm happy to see how he goes for the rest of the preseason and even the VFL season before putting him in the senior list.

Number of veterans is irrelevant. The club checked it out with the AFL this week. He can be elevated after round 11.

He might not be in your best 22, but it's the coaches best 22 that counts & if Rocket wants to elevate him just before round 1, he'll do so (provided we have someone on the LTIL).

[azabob]

Re: Howard Injury Might Benefit Moles

Number of veterans is irrelevant. The club checked it out with the AFL this week. He can be elevated after round 11.

He might not be in your best 22, but it's the coaches best 22 that counts & if Rocket wants to elevate him just before round 1, he'll do so (provided we have someone on the LTIL).

Well TCD, I think you have answered the question.

Moles will be elevated prior to round one, as the club gave the impression Howard would struggle to play any senior footy this year.

I'd be very suprised if he wasn't elevated.

I didnt see the game against the lions were did he mostly play? Did he start in the middle for many centre bounces?

[Missing Dog]

Re: Howard Injury Might Benefit Moles

Rose would be a better option if Johnson and Aker go down with injury.

[LongWait]

Re: Howard Injury Might Benefit Moles

Number of veterans is irrelevant. The club checked it out with the AFL this week. He can be elevated after round 11.

He might not be in your best 22, but it's the coaches best 22 that counts & if Rocket wants to elevate him just before round 1, he'll do so (provided we have someone on the LTIL).

"Number of veterans is irrelevant. The club checked it out with the AFL this week..." gives the game away a bit TCD. It would seem that Moles has a huge incentive to impress the hell out of the coach in the next few weeks!

[The Coon Dog]

Re: Howard Injury Might Benefit Moles

"Number of veterans is irrelevant. The club checked it out with the AFL this week..." gives the game away a bit TCD. It would seem that Moles has a huge incentive to impress the hell out of the coach in the next few weeks!

That was relevant to the second half of the season, nothing to do with now.

Quite a few people including myself were of the understanding that after round 11 you could only elevate rookies if you didn't have 2 vets on your list. When I mentioned the number of veterans is irrelevant I was stating it in this context.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Howard Injury Might Benefit Moles

Fair enough. I was unaware of the change from the AFL. And if Rocket has him in his best 22 that is enough for me. I thought he played well last weekend and from reports he also tore it up during the intra club.

I'm probably more cautious then others and I'd like to see him show some consistency in the VFL but if the coaching staff already believe he has shown enough then I'm more than happy for him to jump straight in for Round 1. Be great to show it up to Geelong with what they just gave away.

[divvydan]

Re: Howard Injury Might Benefit Moles

So if it's 8-10 weeks from now and I guess we'll know fairly soon if they decide to put Howard onto the LTI list or not. Assuming they do, there's 4 full weeks before the season starting round, so at this stage Moles would be eligible for the first 4-6 games, at which point he'd have to go back onto the rookie list unless Howard has a setback or someone else gets a LTI.

The other thing I'm wondering is if we will even elevate someone unless we really need to due to salary cap reasons. We're obviously very very close to the cap at the moment and any elevation would happen just before round 1 starts if at all.

[The Coon Dog]

Re: Howard Injury Might Benefit Moles

So if it's 8-10 weeks from now and I guess we'll know fairly soon if they decide to put Howard onto the LTI list or not. Assuming they do, there's 4 full weeks before the season starting round, so at this stage Moles would be eligible for the first 4-6 games, at which point he'd have to go back onto the rookie list unless Howard has a setback or someone else gets a LTI.

The other thing I'm wondering is if we will even elevate someone unless we really need to due to salary cap reasons. We're obviously very very close to the cap at the moment and any elevation would happen just before round 1 starts if at all.

Yup, agree with all of that.