Our Next Premiership Team

[boydogs]

With the outflux of players this off-season and huge intake of youngsters, the list rebuild looks complete. Obviously there will be changes each year, but the players on the list now will form the core of our side when we next challenge for a premiership from about 2017.

So, who do you see as the ones who will claim their spot in the side? Do you see your side as being premiership quality? Are there any remaining gaps you think we will need to fill through trading to complete the side?

[boydogs]

I'll start with mine:

WESTERN BULLDOGS
B: Lukas Webb, Jordan Roughead, Zaine Cordy
HB: Easton Wood, Michael Talia, Jason Johannisen
C: Jack Macrae, Marcus Bontempelli, Declan Hamilton
HF: Toby McLean, Jake Stringer, Stewart Crameri
F: Luke Dahlhaus, Tom Boyd, Lachie Hunter
Foll: Tom Campbell, Tom Liberatore, Lin Jong
I/C: Caleb Daniel, Koby Stevens, Joel Hamling, Mitch Wallis

It's hard to guess how good they could become but what gives me hope is we will have a huge number of players hitting their prime at the same time

[bulldogtragic]

Great thread, but I can't play on this one. The last time I thought about a team for a GF before getting there was 1997. I jinxed it then, I can't do do it to everyone again. Generally, we need to use FA as best we can.

[ratsmac]

Great thread, but I can't play on this one. The last time I thought about a team for a GF before getting there was 1997. I jinxed it then, I can't do do it to everyone again. Generally, we need to use FA as best we can.

So it was you! For all these years I thought it was me. All the personal pain and anguish for nothing :-)

[bornadog]

So it was you! For all these years I thought it was me. All the personal pain and anguish for nothing :-)

nah it was my wife. I was listening to the game on short wave radio in Singapore and at three quarter time I said, we are 30 minutes from the GF and she said, you are not there yet.:(

[Torpedo]

Please , Please I beg you all, stick to the OT and lets not revisit 1997 again in this or any other thread. Every day I go without thinking about it is a bonus. 17 long years of remembering. Libbas raised arms in victory still comes regularly, to haunt me. No more please. After all this is Lifeline's busiest time of year as it is. Lets not make their job more difficult.

[always right]

With the outflux of players this off-season and huge intake of youngsters, the list rebuild looks complete. Obviously there will be changes each year, but the players on the list now will form the core of our side when we next challenge for a premiership from about 2017.

So, who do you see as the ones who will claim their spot in the side? Do you see your side as being premiership quality? Are there any remaining gaps you think we will need to fill through trading to complete the side?

I think our re-build is far from complete. It will take another two years of astute drafting/trading before we can consider ourselves close to being ready to return to the upper echelon. Meanwhile let's just enjoy the climb up.

[1eyedog]

I'll start with mine:

WESTERN BULLDOGS
B: Lukas Webb, Jordan Roughead, Zaine Cordy
HB: Easton Wood, Michael Talia, Jason Johannisen
C: Jack Macrae, Marcus Bontempelli, Declan Hamilton
HF: Toby McLean, Jake Stringer, Stewart Crameri
F: Luke Dahlhaus, Tom Boyd, Lachie Hunter
Foll: Tom Campbell, Tom Liberatore, Lin Jong
I/C: Caleb Daniel, Koby Stevens, Joel Hamling, Mitch Wallis

It's hard to guess how good they could become but what gives me hope is we will have a huge number of players hitting their prime at the same time

It's a very good team but you need to find a spot for Hrovat and Clay Smith in there somewhere. If Smith can get back on the track and stay fit he is the hard nosed goal kicking mid we need. If he can't we're a mid short IMO. Obviously Hamling and Talia need to develop.

[bulldogtragic]

Please , Please I beg you all, stick to the OT and lets not revisit 1997 again in this or any other thread. Every day I go without thinking about it is a bonus. 17 long years of remembering. Libbas raised arms in victory still comes regularly, to haunt me. No more please. After all this is Lifeline's busiest time of year as it is. Lets not make their job more difficult.

Ok, I. Not sure what kids who've not yet done one preseason are premiership players. Stats and history say several draftees won't make the grade. Our premiership side isn't on the list yet. We've got high picks for the next few years, a few trades and most importantly free agency. The current list won't win a premiership, there's a lot more work to mould our talent into a flag.

[Mantis]

It's a very good team but you need to find a spot for Hrovat and Clay Smith in there somewhere. If Smith can get back on the track and stay fit he is the hard nosed goal kicking mid we need. If he can't we're a mid short IMO. Obviously Hamling and Talia need to develop.

Really?

That team has 5 players who are yet to play an AFL game and atleast another 10 who are yet to establish themslves. I'm assuming that there will be a number of misses in this group, but hopefully a lot of hits.

[1eyedog]

Really?

That team has 5 players who are yet to play an AFL game and atleast another 10 who are yet to establish themslves. I'm assuming that there will be a number of misses in this group, but hopefully a lot of hits.

I would substitute Hrovat and Smith for two of those. All good in terms of potential and on paper I suppose and I guess I'm getting a bit carried away with the expectations on a number of those names.

[Greystache]

Really?

That team has 5 players who are yet to play an AFL game and atleast another 10 who are yet to establish themslves. I'm assuming that there will be a number of misses in this group, but hopefully a lot of hits.

Agree.

Given their draft position and limitations we'd be lucky if 2 of them became regular AFL contributors.

[Mantis]

I would substitute Hrovat and Smith for two of those. All good in terms of potential and on paper I suppose and I guess I'm getting a bit carried away with the expectations on a number of those names.

Ok, but that still only gives us about 12 or 13 bona fide AFL players in that team... Yes, we have names to fill the rest of the spots, but it's going to take some time before we work out if they will cut the mustard.

[1eyedog]

Jordan Roughead
Easton Wood
Jason Johannisen
Jack Macrae
Marcus Bontempelli
Jake Stringer
Tom Liberatore
Stewart Crameri
Luke Dahlhaus
Tom Boyd
Lachie Hunter
Tom Liberatore
Koby Stevens
Mitch Wallis
Nathan Hrovat
Clay Smith

There's 16 there that have shown enough to suggest they will be bona fide AFL players and I would have to count Boyd in that group as well. I will be astounded if he is not at least serviceable as a player. I think Jong will make it as well so make that 17. We certainly have the nucleus of a very good side. If two out of the other five come on and we draft in another 2-3 decent players over the next 3 years then we should be able to consider ourselves as a side with very good players.

[bulldogtragic]

Jordan Roughead
Easton Wood
Jason Johannisen
Jack Macrae
Marcus Bontempelli
Jake Stringer
Tom Liberatore
Stewart Crameri
Luke Dahlhaus
Tom Boyd
Lachie Hunter
Tom Liberatore
Koby Stevens
Mitch Wallis
Nathan Hrovat
Clay Smith

There's 16 there that have shown enough to suggest they will be bona fide AFL players and I would have to count Boyd in that group as well. I will be astounded if he is not at least serviceable as a player. I think Jong will make it as well so make that 17. We certainly have the nucleus of a very good side. If two out of the other five come on and we draft in another 2-3 decent players over the next 3 years then we should be able to consider ourselves as a side with very good players.

Players like Wood & Stevens need to be 25-30 on the list. I'm not sold that either will be or would want to be brst 22. Wallis has a question or two as well, Smith could be unreliable with injury, JJ is not a dead cert either. Odds are one or two could be traded.

There's a good canvass to work on, but of the 40 on our list, 12 would be in a very strong premiership contending side. We just need to keep high picks now and plunder FA like current top teams have been doing. I'm all for the fun and positive thinking of preseason hope, but some suggestion the list 'as is' is a premiership contender or some such is not something I would subscribe to.

[1eyedog]

Players like Wood & Stevens need to be 25-30 on the list. I'm not sold that either will be or would want to be brst 22. Wallis has a question or two as well, Smith could be unreliable with injury, JJ is not a dead cert either. Odds are one or two could be traded.

There's a good canvass to work on, but of the 40 on our list, 12 would be in a very strong premiership contending side. We just need to keep high picks now and plunder FA like current top teams have been doing. I'm all for the fun and positive thinking of preseason hope, but some suggestion the list 'as is' is a premiership contender or some such is not something I would subscribe to.

Completely disagree with regard to Wood. He was very good this year and is getting progressively better. He's AFL quality and will be best 22 easily.

[bulldogtragic]

Completely disagree with regard to Wood. He was very good this year and is getting progressively better. He's AFL quality and will be best 22 easily.

In 4 seasons time? This year wasn't too bad, but I see him going out like Mitch Hahn.

[Go_Dogs]

In 4 seasons time? This year wasn't too bad, but I see him going out like Mitch Hahn.

I think the new coach will like a lot of what Wood offers insofar as his shutdown ability, and ability to play on a few different types of forwards, perhaps not dissimilar to a few at Hawthorn.

[1eyedog]

In 4 seasons time? This year wasn't too bad, but I see him going out like Mitch Hahn.

He'll be 27 at the start of the 2017 season he should be playing his best football. Mitch did a knee and never recovered from the Barry Hall hit. He had dizzy spells and balance issues for weeks after. If Wood has a clean run at it he should be best 22 in 2017 which was the year the OP suggested.

[bulldogtragic]

He'll be 27 at the start of the 2017 season he should be playing his best football. Mitch did a knee and never recovered from the Barry Hall hit. He had dizzy spells and balance issues for weeks after. If Wood has a clean run at it he should be best 22 in 2017 which was the year the OP suggested.

I hope you are right.

[boydogs]

Ok, but that still only gives us about 12 or 13 bona fide AFL players in that team... Yes, we have names to fill the rest of the spots, but it's going to take some time before we work out if they will cut the mustard.

The fun is in guessing who you think will make it.

I've got Roughead & Talia at FB & CHB, if you had to guess would you have the same two or maybe Hamling, Roberts, Z Cordy or Redpath in there? Hunter, Honeychurch, McLean or Hrovat? Webb, JJ, Darley or Biggs? Stevens, Wallis, Smith or Daniel?

Or maybe you don't like the chances of anyone in some areas and think we need to look at trading?

[F'scary]

Firstly, I want to say that in footy things can change very quickly in terms of a team's performance. It is pretty easy to see that with sudden declines from one year to the next. It also happens going the other way. But I see us with our young list, a few top players nearing retirement (and therefore replacement) as being a minimum of 3-5 years off being a top 4 side and a contender (2018-20). If our winning streak with recruiting continues and we have in fact gained a bunch of top players in the past couple of months, we will probably still be a couple of KP's short on the current list, a gun ruck, a smaller A grade defender and probably a top line outside midfielder as well to really be a contender. Just got to keep turning the list over while retaining the good ones and hoping a few of the unknown quantities turn out to be aces (that is aces, not Ayces).

[1eyedog]

I hope you are right.

Me too!

[Mantis]

The fun is in guessing who you think will make it.

I've got Roughead & Talia at FB & CHB, if you had to guess would you have the same two or maybe Hamling, Roberts, Z Cordy or Redpath in there? Hunter, Honeychurch, McLean or Hrovat? Webb, JJ, Darley or Biggs? Stevens, Wallis, Smith or Daniel?

Or maybe you don't like the chances of anyone in some areas and think we need to look at trading?

On what we've seen so far I'm a no on Talia & Roughy to take the key defensive posts, both lack the straight-line speed which is a must in these roles.. Big 2015 for the both of them as they both have time on their side, but they need to start playing consistently. Roughy has shown he is capable, but his 2014 was extremely poor which obviously wasn't helped by a bung shoulder, hopefully this will now be rectified... I have no idea how the rest of the talls you mentioned will go in defence and seeing as though they have played about 5 games collectively it's anyone's guess.

From that group of about 12 mid-sized players you listed there would have to be question marks on almost all of them becoming the very good players we need a few of them to be.. Thye all have traits/skills that give them every chance, but they also have limitations which need to be ironed out/ improved upon.. I look forward to tracking their development in 2015.