Thoughts on the Trade Period.

[saintsRrising]

LOVETT

Great pick up for the Saints as he is exactly the type of player that the Saints needed. And this makes him more valuable yo us that many other clubs. Pick 16 is good value IMO and particularly as Lovett agreed to play for less than other offers.

PEAKE

A bit of a gamble. However his best is good and Lyon and Drain have so far proved themselves adept at selecting "turnaround recruits" and in giving them the right focus and commitment. Being in a solid club now should further assist now as expectation is now driven not just by the coaches , but by the playing group as well.

He like Lovett fills in an area of weakness for us.

While his draft cost looks high, it is a weak draft. If it comes off we could have a valuable player. If not then we have not lost a lot.

If he can be turned around then a midfield with Gram, Lovett and Peake in support = PACE and LINE BREAKING to burn.


X

Yes sad that he has gone.

But it looks like the club has made the decision that X was most unlikely to force his way back into our best 22. I mean who would he now replace now that we also have Lovett?

While Pick 60 seems low what it does allow is:
*X gets a club happy to rehabilitate him and give him a crack
*the Saints save on salary cap in an environment where we now have just made a GF and so many of the players will have clocked up on performance bonuses. = TIGHT salary cap.

BALL

Reality is that many players have improved at the Saints, but Ball has not.

Once the star...but now the fringe player whose role is to spell the other contested ball players. Unfortunately not damaging enough away from ball-ups o be played elsewhere and this means that his TOG is low at the Saints.

It would appear that Ball is not content to be a support player at the Saints, and not good enough any longer to be more than that.

Unfortunately for Ball it looks like he and his manager forgot to get the Pies to commit to giving up something reasonable for him. The Pies have screwed him over bigtime and have left him high and dry.

So Ball's choice is to now be a solid but key player at a club like the Demons....and to rack up more losses than wins for many years.....or to suck it up and be a support player at the saints and enjoy TEAM success.

Ball's in his court.. I suggest he has a long chat with Mini before he makes up his mind about the PSD.

It will be sad if Bally walks & a bummer to get nothing for him.....but a Ball with the wrong attitude and commitment is of no use to us either.


OVERALL
Even without Ball we head into 2010 in a sounder position.

PS If Armo can step up...Ball may well have been displaced anyway because Armo can kick goals and be played forward when spelled. Geray with another pre-season will be demandinga place and like Armo knows how to snag goals.

[BaysideSaint]

great post.

i would also add that peake will surprise a few people with his offensive aggression. seems to be a natural talent.

[Milton66]

One thing I have noticed, and I honestly don't know if there's anything in it... is that with the compromised drafts coming up, we seem to have targeted specific players in a specific age range, that should see us nicely through the next 2 or 3 years.

This as opposed to gambling on draft picks which could amount to nothing.

We are "topping up" as such for a flag, but with players that should serve us for another 5 years, a opposed to one or two years.

It's almost a case of better the devil you know.

It also takes a heap of pressure off the kids to fast track their development, which means we can bring them on as required.

[skeptic]

OVERALL
Even without Ball we head into 2010 in a sounder position.

i wonder if you would have said that 2 weeks ago

[Moods]

OVERALL
Even without Ball we head into 2010 in a sounder position.

i wonder if you would have said that 2 weeks ago

Of course he wouldn't have. 2 weeks ago we didn't have Lovett.

[saintsRrising]

OVERALL
Even without Ball we head into 2010 in a sounder position.

i wonder if you would have said that 2 weeks ago

Of course he wouldn't have. 2 weeks ago we didn't have Lovett.

Indeed.

[skeptic]

OVERALL
Even without Ball we head into 2010 in a sounder position.

i wonder if you would have said that 2 weeks ago

Of course he wouldn't have. 2 weeks ago we didn't have Lovett.

i missed the tone obviously

i meant more in the sense of don't we head into 2010 in a sounder position with Ball in the team but I c what you mean SRS and I apologise

[saintsRrising]

Time will tell of course.


One player that will have a bearing or not on whether we will miss Ball or not is Armo.

He is due to step up. But will he?

In the Hawks game I rated Armo as better (as did the Umpires) and the main reason for this was that when Armo won the ball that. he was more daming with it. Lyon of course wants Armo to work more on his game as well.

Geary as a mid in the VFL has been good. Another pre-season and he too may step up in this regard. Steven will be sniffing too.

CJ had great year as offensive tagger. But at times when unleashed he did very well in winning contested ball.

Ball yo me is player that we can cover..or even improve on if some of our players improve, and they are of an age that improvement can be expected.


Dal may surprise too in 2010

With Lovett added, and possibly Peake, Dal will not have to spend as much time as an outside player and may spend more time inside where his creative skills can hurt the opposition.

BJ will have bursts on the inside as well for on 2008 he really grew as a player.

Max is gone. But he is already covered.
Ben will be pushing to supplant King.
Dempster will be six months on in his post knee recovery with a full pre-season.
Lynch will be bigger and may crack a game or two)but is probably more for 2011 on).

So hence all in all I see our team as better off in 2010.

[jonesy]

Love the Lovett trade. Will be awesome for us.

I don't know much about Peake. I rarily see any freo games,and all there players looks the same apart from Pav and Sandi. Despite the knockers, he obviously had a good 06,so he is capable of good footy. He might be a flat track bully who plays well when the side plays well. We won 22 out of 25 games this year.....

There should be improvemt in Geary and Armitage who are already very capable. If Steven was to stand up also, our depth is looking very very good suddenly.

Lynch may be ready as the 3rd forward. Very smart prospect

We lose X...but I can't remember the last time we actually had him for any length of time. Hasn't been able to string games together for years....despite him being a good bloke around the club,he won't be missed on the field, we've grown away from him in the past seasons

Bally. Like him to stay now we're not going to get anything for him. If he go's,so be it, he's a hard nut with plenty of flaws, not the champion midfielder he looked to be 4 years ago. More of a pychological loss,his reputation is bigger than his ability now.

So bring on 2010.....we're going to be even harder to stop next year....let's just hope we can deliver the knockout blow when it counts this time

[The OtherThommo]

If the AFL's plans come to fruition, within 4 odd years there will be 12.5% more people employed playing in this employment arena (2 more clubs, on top of 16, gets the 12.5%).

Yet, the growth in player numbers is stagnant, ergo, the average capabilty will drop - it has to. So, smart clubs will realise the chances to revitalise your list by drafting will be minimal, and will trade to address specific deficiencies. That's what we've done this year.

We read it early and loaded up with rookies last year. And, we worked really hard to put in place a development system that can bring on the less than entirely talented. That's what every club is going to have to do.

When these extra clubs put ultimate pressure on the playing numbers, it will be the clubs that can develop the lesser lights into good players, who can play a role in good teams, who will excel.

And, thankfully, that's what we're doing.