GWS impacting on our next window

[Locals322]

Can't help but think we will both be ready at around about the same. One team has had their sucess rigged by the AFL though.

[longtimesaint]

Melbourne likely to be there then too!

[magnifisaint]

Lets get to the GF before we start worrying too much. Personally I think we have Melbourne covered, especially since we have a superior coach. Don't underestimate that!

Richo is the man!

[Saintberra]

Many of the GWS players are being paid below market value wages.

I think that while some people say that they'd walk if they were offered a higher wage, the enticing title of 'Part of GWS first premiership team' is playing a role.

Once they win a premiership, the floodgates will open - a lot of players will probably start to think about their retirement fund

[Bluthy]

Why do people respond to this troll? All his topics bag the Saints. There was a GWS thread at the top and he starts another one. Number one rule of the internet - don't feed the trolls.

[saintsRrising]

Lets get to the GF before we start worrying too much. Personally I think we have Melbourne covered, especially since we have a superior coach.

Who is the Dees 2017 Coach?

This is Roos last year.

[degruch]

Lets get to the GF before we start worrying too much. Personally I think we have Melbourne covered, especially since we have a superior coach.

Who is the Dees 2017 Coach?

This is Roos last year.

Simon Goodwin

[bigcarl]

GWS is easily the best we've played this season and I reckon they can win it as early as this season. They have, what, 25 first round picks ... 12 of whom can't make their first 22. I suggest a raiding party

[Saint wagga]

I think we'll be contending with more than just GWS...the doggies, Dees...i mean Geelong will probably still be strong for another 3-5 years!! There are so many variables to predict...

We could do a Hawthorn ' 08 and snag a flag right as the window opens using some of the veteran core with a top up or two and then be up and about for half a decade...or we could miss using our core of very good vets...and reply only on the post Naughties crop of players...that is a much more uncertain prospect....could be better than expected if say Paddy and Goddard become stars and some of our last two draft mids/outside players develop into A grade...like i said, so many variables...

Best case and most appealing to anyone with a hint of sentimentality is we snag a flag with one of our favourite sons still ticking, heart says Roo and Joey and Chips, but best guess it'll be Joey in 2018 )

[BigMart]

GWS

Will be scary good. Are scary good!!

We have a hole in our list demographic 25-30yo
Which concerns me

[Playon]

GWS

Will be scary good. Are scary good!!

We have a hole in our list demographic 25-30yo
Which concerns me

Salary cap, contract offers from other clubs etc might sort them out a bit, wait until some of their players get offered 700k plus to move and then we'll see.

In the meantime we could even be one of those raiding clubs

[BigMart]

I wouldn't leave GWS

They'll earn good money... Life is better winning and playing in premierships

Adam Treloar
Gone to Collingwood
Will watch his old team win 3 flags IMO

That's why
Cameron, Sheil, Whitfield, Scully, Ward etc... Will stay

[Playon]

Even Buddy and Ablett moved, wonder why they did that?

It takes a special player not to move for money.
If you were offered a job where you could earn near double of what youre being paid now under the same conditions would you take it?
To say no players would move would be ludicrous

Salary cap will fix them in the end

[Playon]

You forgot to add Josh Bruce

[saintsRrising]

Adam Treloar
Gone to Collingwood
Will watch his old team win 3 flags IMO

Well he wanted to be like his hero Bucks

[BigMart]

From memory

Buddy and Gary had already won 2 flags each, won B&Fs, Brownlows, Colemans, AA's

And were mid-late 20s

Probably not a great example?

[To the top]

There is no doubt that GWS are going to be the powerhouse Club over the next generation.

As confirmation of this, when addressing the Press Club luncheon in Canberra before the start of this season and being asked about a side from Canberra, the CEO of the AFL responded that GWS was representing Canberra and would be the powerhouse of the competition over the next 10 years at least.

If that is what Head Office dictates then that is what is delivered - as we see with Umpires intervening in the results of AFL matches.

The fact that such a statement was made was astounding - and telling in regards the "doctoring" of the competition.

So GWS are most definitely the side standing in the way of any side aspiring to an AFL premiership in the long term future (10 years being a player life span in the game.

In terms of impact on the competition, well it is my view that the AFL will pay a hefty price - if it is not already paying that price with its "administration" of the competition, an administration that has devoured any equalisation courtesy of Salary Caps and Drafts by father and son "rules" and now "free agency" - and that is just for starters in terms of how the competition has been manipulated to favor certain Clubs, Clubs with political, media presence and financial support.

What will be interesting is the response of the "power broker" Clubs at the AFL Board table when GWS start winning premierships - and we are starting to see those responses now as reality strikes.

It is a situation the AFL has made for itself.

Consider also the reliance of the AFL on media and broadcast rights - a bidding war contingent on the ability of the media organisations to bid as they do and the audience AFL can deliver - so attracting sponsorship dollars for media.

This revenue is vital because so many Clubs have debt and trade at a loss excluding AFL assistance.

Debt and performing in an AFL competition do not mix - all financial resources are required to be directed at on field performance because that is where success comes from.

Not from paying interest to a creditor.

The further issue will be the sustainability of interstate teams from "non AFL" States (ex GWS) and where they may wither on the vine (as we see in Queensland with Matthew's comments) sucking more and more from AFL revenues to sustain them and sustain the competition the media has invested in.

To survive them the AFL will have to again tamper with the Rules, delivering competitive teams in the "non AFL" States at the expense of the "football State" sides (and where these "football State" teams will feel extreme pressure to survive, starting with Port Adelaide and then other less well supported teams who will lose support because they are perennial "non achievers").

So where does St Kilda sit in this equation.

Simply, as we have seen with umpire intervention in the results of games most recently, St Kilda does not rank in the eyes of the AFL and their power brokers - St Kilda are only there to make up the numbers to support the media rights agreements.

[Sainternist]

Lets get to the GF before we start worrying too much. Personally I think we have Melbourne covered, especially since we have a superior coach.

Who is the Dees 2017 Coach?

This is Roos last year.

Precisely. Roos taking off could be very disruptive to their progress. Not sure why Roos was only going to be their as a short-term coach. You'd think they'd want someone who would be in for the long haul. Or perhaps that idea to Melbourne is completely foreign. Perhaps Melbourne will enlist the services of Ross Lyon. Makes sense since Roos is good mates with him.

Am really liking the way Richo is going about business.

We definitely should focus on becoming a great team before worrying about other clubs. Anyway, if we're going to have a great team in the future, why on earth would they fret over other teams in the first place?

[SuperDuper]

Going to be very hard to beat GWS over the next decade.
They are still accumulating high draft picks, regardless of position.

They will get 3-4 more top 20 picks this year, even if they win the GF.... which is a clear possibility

I know there is a salary cap... I just cant see its effect being strong enough to stop this runaway train

e.g. they lose Treloar, they just save some salary cap space, pick up Hopper who could have gone at pick 2, and get another early pick for 2016.. hardly a loss

Surely they wont win all GFs in the next decade but they are on path to win a swag of them. We just hope to sneak one in there when they maybe get some injuries one year...

[Impatient Sainter]

The whole competition wont have a window if the AFL dont wind back their concessions!

They had a kid today from the Riverena who in his first game had 31 possessions with 17 contetsted - what hope do we have?

[Con Gorozidis]

The whole competition wont have a window if the AFL dont wind back their concessions!

They had a kid today from the Riverena who in his first game had 31 possessions with 17 contetsted - what hope do we have?

Jacob Hopper is his name.

Not to mention Josh Kelly who goes under the radar but is an absolute gun.

They have a stockpile of A grade talent and most of them will stay because they know they can win multiple flags. Shiel and Cameron cases in point.

They then have Matthew Kennedy, Ahern, Himmelberg and Pickett who havent even debuted yet. Kennedy had 37 touches and 11 inside 50s in the NEAFL on the weekend and is only just 19.

Completely unfair. They will dominate the comp for the next five years. Be under no illusions.

[Playon]

According to Barrett on the footy show last night GWS will be $600K over next year's salary cap and need to reduce it before the start of the season.

So pay cuts all round or OOC players offered less or and lose a couple of players to raiding clubs?

[saintsRrising]

According to Barrett on the footy show last night GWS will be $600K over next year's salary cap and need to reduce it before the start of the season.

So pay cuts all round or OOC players offered less or and lose a couple of players to raiding clubs?

This is where GWS have a huge advantage. They have a stockpilie of young guns outside of their best that they can afford to trade for early draft picks. This will reduce their salary cap, but will keep more young guns coming so that they can be sucessful for longer.

If they go ok in the finals this year their players will really start to sniff success and this will make their players more amenable to staying at less than market rates.Just as the Hawks have been able to cheery pick aqusitions in recent years to assist in keeping them up for longer.

The Hawks did peak at eaxctly the right time. GWS and suns concessions keept their opposition weaker and FA allowed them to cherry pick. Has assisted in giving them a sustained period of success before the GWS take over.

[Con Gorozidis]

I have a feeling we might end up making a GF in 2019 or 2020 only to come up against an unstoppable Giants side.

[Sainternist]

I have a feeling we might end up making a GF in 2019 or 2020 only to come up against an unstoppable Giants side.

That is three or four years away. Let's wait a little while before making these sorts of predictions.