Dave McNamara wrote:Hi Dragstar, IMHO we're not at the stage where we want to find an upgrade to someone of BBBBeau's age/capabilities.dragit wrote:He would be a major upgrade on Wilkes… may also relive Riewoldts retirement and would cost us nothing via the PSD. We can certainly afford his wage, but the big concern is his health.Dave McNamara wrote:We do not want Mitch Clarke!.
Two reasons: matter of principle and matter of maths.
1/ I'm dead-set biased against him after what he did to the Teddies. They compasionately let him go back to Perth coz he pleaded homesickness, yet suddenly... $$$ from the Dreamons... and suddenly... no more homesickness.
Depression or not, that's poor form. (Tippet is in a similar boat re the Crones IMHO.)
2/ DOB: 19/8/1987. So he'll be 27 years old October 19th, therefore 27 for season 2015.
So he'll be 30 years old for the 2018 season, which is when we should start challenging.
(For those who see 2018 as 'optimistic', then Mitch will be even older.)
Easy mistake to make, but too many of us seem to be failing to 'do the sums' re the ages of players on whom we are considering expending significant resources (in terms of draft picks and salary cap space). As posted previously, Carlscum went 'too early' with pokieman Judd and are still paying for it... marooned mid-ladder. And they still don't appear to have cottoned-on...
We are way way closer to our next flags than they are!
Rossy was pretty keen a few years ago, so I imagine he'll end up at Freo anyway.
For that position we want to find who can play there at a high level for many years to come. We may already have him/them(?) We need to find out. But Clarke won't be there long term, so if there short term, he would only interfere with the development of one of our long term hopes.
- We are building a team with the aim of everyone coming into their footy prime around the same time, so as to then be able to create a team that is challenging for years to come... as we did with our list built from the early 2000's.
- When we are nearly ready to strike, only then do we top-up our percieved remaining weakness via the pre-season drafts and FA. (Say the drafts of 2016, 2017.)
And so as for us to be able to that, which we weren't able to under Ro$$y, one of the first tasks tackled by the Pelican and his team was sorting out our salary cap structuring.
- Then, we try to keep that all chugging along via smart mature aged recruiting (eg; a la the Dawks),
- and we can then draft young talent with an eye to developing them for the longer term future, c/f needing them to impact immediately. (In today's terms, think the likes of Spencer White and Lew Pierce.)
So right now, IMHO we need to only recruit young guys who will be in/still be in their prime for 2017/2018 and beyond.
Plotting, patience and timing are the keys as I see it. However, the rewards will be great. Finally, the Juggernaut shall rise.
If Rooy retires at the end of next year do you care to tell me the forward line based on what we have seen so far and please not what we hope. Sometimes you need a mature age player to help the younger guys. I wouldnt pay a huge amount for him but if he was a PSD pick then its only money that is the issue as the pick doesnt normally get to many stars.