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Robert Heatley Stand / Best Line Up - 2013 vs 2014
At the end of trade week, we should be able to get a fairly good indication of the areas we need to address via the draft just by looking at the lineups and depth charts.
B: Simpson Jamieson McInnes
HB: Tuohy Henderson Walker
C: Scotland Judd Gibbs
HF: Robinson Waite Yarran
F: Betts Casboult Garlett
R Kreuzer Murphy McLean
INT: Warnock Carrazzo Armfield Bell
MIDFIELD DEPTH:
Curnow
Lucas
Ellard
Graham
Cachia
Buckley
O'Keefe
Joseph
Dale
FORWARD DEPTH:
Menzel
Rowe
Mitchell
Collins
DEFENSE DEPTH:
White
Watson
Bootsma
Duigan
Laidler
Davies
Temay
McCarthy
RUCK DEPTH:
Hampson
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Factoring in the offseason moves that have currently taken place (or should soon take place), we have the following IN's and OUT's:
IN: Dale Thomas, Sam Docherty*
OUT: Hampson, Betts, Davies, Collins, Joseph, McCarthy, Mitchell, Dale, O'Keefe
So our current lineup and depth chart for 2014 would look something like this:
B: Simpson Jamieson Scotland
HB: Tuohy Henderson Docherty
C: Walker Judd Gibbs
HF: Robinson Waite Yarran
F: Menzel Casboult Garlett
R Kreuzer Murphy Thomas
INT: Warnock Carrazzo McLean McInnes
MIDFIELD DEPTH:
Armfield
Bell
Curnow
Lucas
Ellard
Graham
Cachia
Buckley
FORWARD DEPTH:
Rowe
DEFENSE DEPTH:
White
Watson
Bootsma
Duigan
Laidler
Temay
RUCK DEPTH:
****************************
Which leaves us with 37 list spaces full out of a possible 44 (including rookies) and 7 spots left to fill for 2014 either via more trades or the national draft.
Looking at that chart, we appear to be severely lacking in ruck and forward depth, though obviously there are players capable of filling in at those positions who are currently listed in other areas. Even with Rowe and Casboult capable of supporting in the ruck, however, I find it hard to believe that we won't take a pure project ruckman with at least one of our draft selections at either the ND or Rookie Draft.
We are also seriously lacking in forward options that don't involve swapping people from defence. There aren't too many different structures we can try so I would suggest we would look at selecting players who know where the goals are and are capable of playing a role in the forward line. Whether they are primarily midfielders or not, I would imagine that they will be required to play significant time up forward.
Bringing in Thomas and Docherty effectively cost Armfield and Bell their positions in the best 22, which pushed them down into the Midfield Depth category and improved us considerably there. If we get hit by injury or form drops in the midfield, you could do a lot worse than bring in guys like Armfield, Bell, Curnow, Lucas, Ellard, Graham and Cachia. All of those guys have performed well at AFL level and shown they can compete.
Even though Mick is on record saying that he wanted to improve our midfield depth, I think he has done that considerably by bringing in Thomas and Docherty (who will play half back, but releases Walker onto a wing and into the midfield).
To me, that suggests that pure midfielders may not be our priority come draft day at all. We may select midfielders, but they will be midfielders capable of playing forward and will likely involve several taller types as we have certainly got quite a few of those types on our current OUT's list.
What do you guys think? Have a go yourselves, I'm quite a visual person so it helped to get it all laid out in lineups and lists for me.