Originally Posted by
bloodspirit
I mostly agree with you, barry. We don't appear to have done enough to shore up our midfield in the short term (which would have been medium term a couple of seasons ago), especially through trade.
I don't agree about failing to negotiate with GWS for that extra pick - there is nothing to suggest we had that opportunity. GWS was always going to prefer to get pick 4 from the Crows than pick 5 from us. The Crows were just at the right spot and we weren't. If we had held pick 4, then we might have got a deal done. BTW, was interesting watching episode 3 of Melbourne FC's 'To Hell and Back'. Apparently they rated Luke Jackson as the second best player in the draft and Tom Green at 3. There was a real risk they could have bid on him. They were tossing up between the two of them and (the doco makes it appear) they went with Jackson because he was a better fit for their needs given their depth of inside mids. I still wouldn't have minded if we had bidded on (or gotten) Tom Green ahead of Dylan Stephens. I guess the reasons we didn't are (1) we felt that Stephens, as a balanced inside-outside midfielder was a better fit for our needs; and (2) to a lesser degree, we wanted Stephens to feel like he was wanted and not a second choice option.
Looking forward, we are going to get a couple of players who can play through the midfield in Gulden and Campbell, and possibly this has been a factor in our choosing not to prioritise bolstering our midfield more in the short term. In fairness, we have done ok at looking after our midfield at the draft (Rowbottom and McInerney in 2018 and then Stephens and Warner last year).
It's at the trade table where it feels like we maybe could have done more. I think we could have looked at a player like Hugh Greenwood as an interim measure (I think he might be 27 or 28 already). I agree with those suggesting we target some of the surplus mid-stock that GWS have, especially since they are already located in Sydney. Hately was born in Canberra and played for Central Districts in South Australia before he was drafted and so hopefully would come with a limited go-home factor. Caldwell is regarded as the more talented of the two. Encouragingly Caldwell is from Vic Country and played for Bendigo Pioneers, so maybe less go-home factor than a Vic Metro boy. I wonder if he's mates with either Dyl Stephens or Brady Rowles? Caldwell got 2 games last year whereas Hately got 7 and is considerably bigger than Caldwell (190 cm v 183 cm). Hately played together with Gould at National Champs in 2018 and so they might be mates. The other inside mid GWS drafted also in 2018, Xavier O'Halloran was from Vic Metro and so perhaps is more likely to accept an approach from a Melbourne club.
I think GWS will be keen to hang on to Hately given his Canberra connection but surely there is no way they can hang on to everyone given the list they have and the lengths they will have to go to to re-sign Cameron and Williams after already signing up Coniglio, Whitfield and Kelly. Also you'd think we'd have to give up a pretty decent pick to get Hately. They paid pick 14 for him in 2018. Depending on where we finish on the ladder this season, we may have the currency.
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