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Re: Tom Liberatore and Mitch Wallis push for Dogs' debut
Nothing mandates the fall happens, but history shows it does. It becomes harder to recruit and retain your next batch of stars while you're up the top. Obviously with the draft you get latter picks, but drafting is hardly such a precise science that it can't be overcome, the main problem is salary cap and offering opportunities to players who could develop. Young players who show a bit early start to command bigger dollars perhaps before they deserve them, and players who've been on the list for a couple of years expect regular games, warranted or not. Being able to keep your next group together and content is pretty tough.
I look at Brian Lake, who's probably the key to our team, even as late as the start of 2006 he was still a bit of an unknown quantity, would he have been getting the opportunities in 2008 that he was afforded in 2004/5, probably not, and if he put his hand out for a pay increase when our salary cap was tight would we have considered making him trade bait to create room? Possibly, but we didn't have to because we were down the bottom and to the surprise of many he's developed into the AFL's best defender. Losing one or two players like that can make a massive difference to the overall team.
Nothing mandates the fall happens, but history shows it does. It becomes harder to recruit and retain your next batch of stars while you're up the top. Obviously with the draft you get latter picks, but drafting is hardly such a precise science that it can't be overcome, the main problem is salary cap and offering opportunities to players who could develop. Young players who show a bit early start to command bigger dollars perhaps before they deserve them, and players who've been on the list for a couple of years expect regular games, warranted or not. Being able to keep your next group together and content is pretty tough.
I look at Brian Lake, who's probably the key to our team, even as late as the start of 2006 he was still a bit of an unknown quantity, would he have been getting the opportunities in 2008 that he was afforded in 2004/5, probably not, and if he put his hand out for a pay increase when our salary cap was tight would we have considered making him trade bait to create room? Possibly, but we didn't have to because we were down the bottom and to the surprise of many he's developed into the AFL's best defender. Losing one or two players like that can make a massive difference to the overall team.
...LOL. And I really DID laugh out loud.
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