Will there be an upgrade?

[st_Trav_ofWA]

One thing is obvious. We have some pace in the team!

it is a big differance from the total lack of pace in the team we had in 2008-2009

[Con Gorozidis]

Id say we will wait until a few weeks into the season to assess:

1. What we need (tall or short)
2. Form - Curren v Ferg.

Maybe an April elevation on the cards.

Why April?

When someone earns a spot in the 22, they get elevated whether its March, April or September.

Well Im just remembering last year when Sandy didnt seem to play very often - so it will take until April to get any gauge on Sandy form.
Also will take a while for Saints to figure out team balance, holes, strength & weaknesses. So April at the earliest Id reckon.

[Con Gorozidis]

One thing is obvious. We have some pace in the team!

Agree!
We have some real pace now.

[loris]

I kind of agr....agre....agree with the old fool too. But just for the chance to be controversial I will say Shentonator because I like his hair and funny neck beard thing. He also is the most mature of them and could potentially play a role as he is a reload defender with some talent based on late season form. He might fight Roberton for the back-line mid-sized spot though.

51 may be old where you come from but to me it is the new 50.

"plugger66"................................... you are definitely wrong there............ 70 is the new 50 FACT!!!!

Well it had better be...................... I'm closing in fast on 70......... 18 months or so to go

[borderbarry]

Loris, once you pass 70 the fun begins.

[Zed]

Surely it's whoever puts their hand up by putting form on the board

[gringo]

I think minchington would be hard to upgrade because with Dennis- lane, Milera, Saad, Schnides and Milney there may be getting over endowed with speedy small forwards. He might want to play some on ball roles to sneak in.

[hAyES]

Shenton isn't up to it for mine. When someone struggles as much as he did in the VFL I can't see them ever being AFL quality, particularly at his age. He is what he is and unfortunately it isn't very good.

We need to find a way to play both Curren and Ferguson as we need to see what we have with them because a decision will need to be made on them at the end of the year. Hard to make that decision if you haven't seen them at AFL level to at least have some idea of what they can do.

If I had to make a decision, if Ferguson looks to just be another flanker then he can wait and I'd upgrade Curren because he couldn't have done much more.

[lefty]

So someone can take Markworths spot and someone can be upgraded mid year?

That's not bad, then Curren, Shenton and Ferg seem the logical choices. I think we lack in our midfield area, the forward line area is fine, and defense is really only one tall short (if that). The only time I see our defense struggle is on Jack Reiwault. I'd have Simpkin as our FB, Fisher at CHB..

I'd have Curren upgraded first, we're short on some mids (young mids anyway, we got Ross, Curren, Ledger, Nathan Wright, thats about it)

[AnythingsPossibleSaints]

I think minchington would be hard to upgrade because with Dennis- lane, Milera, Saad, Schnides and Milney there may be getting over endowed with speedy small forwards. He might want to play some on ball roles to sneak in.

I have very high hopes for Minchington and have a feeling that of all those we have on the rookie list at the moment, he is the one with the highest "ceiling"/most likely to go on and have a really good AFL career, but he is also the youngest on there and as you suggested, I expect the club will want to get him into the midfield in the VFL before they look to upgrade him. I don't think there is any great hurry to get him in there (unless he absolutely blitzes it over summer and in the NAB Cup).

We have so many options for the forward pocket for the time being that he could be played almost exclusively on-ball in the VFL, because I've seen it mentioned in various places that he has the ability to play there, so I'd really like to see him developed in that area, where he could eventually add some real speed, skill and "x-factor" to our midfield.

[Dr Spaceman]

Unless there comes a time when the Selection Committee wants to name a rookie in the 22 for the next Saints game, there's no need to upgrade anyone.

[AnythingsPossibleSaints]

Agree with that.

[defacto]

see how they go in the NAB cup but i think were a lock to upgrade someone