The Recruiting Stakes

There's still a little way to go with recruiting this year, but who has 'won' the recruiting battle, to strengthen their team?

Some have recruited well, but have to cover big 'outs'.

My analysis (early days, though), only looking at the 'Ins' we know about.


Glenelg - Lonergan and Joseph are very good pick-ups.

Norwood - Bartlett is a very talented player, while Allan can play a bit.

Eagles - Wundke is a big addition and Boyd similar.

North - Some good returning players and a key forward.

Sturt - Beard, Kirkwood and Watt add a fair bit of stability.

Central - Retzlaff OK, jury is out on Mabon, Gilbee would be a good pick-up.

West - Hayes has to prove himself, Newell a rookie, desperately need key defenders.

South - All pretty quiet so far, a couple returning.

The above picture changes when the 'outs' are taken into account.

The teams most affected by outs are:

Norwood - lost half a premiership side, still amazingly have a potential premiership side.

Central - a lot of key players gone.  It almost seems like they've thrown the 'clean-out' switch.

North - lost a forward line.

West - lost the best key position players back line.

Sturt - lost several AFL listed players.

Glenelg - lost Davenport, tenace and several AFL listed players.

Eagles - Parry gone.

South - Hartigan gone.

Oh, the Magpies - a lot of very good ins and a lot of very good outs. Ins outweigh outs, unless the ins play AFL, in which case they're out.

Adelaide - win the 'Ins' by a mile, no outs, but their ins to replace injuries are questionable (as they always said).

Too early to say, need to wait till all signings are announced.

Eagles have lost alot of AFL listed players too.

Yes, too early to say. I would expect to hear of further signings from most clubs, particularly South, West and Central. The Eagles have signed two highly proven SANFL players but as BL has said, they have lost several and we're still a ways off last season. Norwoods two recruits appear high class but they still look vulnerable onball, especially inside mid and marking mids. Glenelg look to have really bolstered their ranks and I don't think they're finished yet - For mine Lonergan and Joseph are an improvement on Davenport and Tenace. West are an unknown at this stage - Everyone discusses their massive losses from the back-half but I think they require some improvement up the front also (perhaps the coach can contribute a bit in this area). They have the best group of midfield ballwinners, but will they be able to reach standard in disposal by finally handling the opposition press? Perhaps the most interesting offseason since 90-91?

Think West will be ok up forward with Michael Still and Daniel Webb to play forward and Nelson to ruck more than lasst season. Nelson seemed to lose favour with Collins for some reason.

Looks a bit light on for mine Brod, but a different style and system might change that. As talented as Webb and Still are, they would need career seasons. Beech is class, and there's a young lad that looks to have a future (Keough?).

Tommy Keough is going to develop into a very good player.

My forward line before any recruits would look like, a handy forward line.

Beech Still Keough

Ezard Webb Silverlock

Add Silverlock to the players needing a career season - Clearly has the talent but has delivered nothing. Ezard is obviously a high quality player if his best isn't behind him.

So potentially it is a very damaging forward line, but potential is a dual edge sword. Beech is the only player there with enough recent runs on the board.

Webb was very good for us last season, our gameplan didnt really allow out forwards to dominate.

Surprised norwood didn't pick up any big bodied midfielders to cover the loss of suckling and thomas

Yes, interesting picks by Norwood. Bartlett is a seriously good player, but has had 2 knee reco's and Jimmy Allan of course is a great player, but has some risk also.

They still scrub up pretty well as a side though.

redandblack wrote:Yes, interesting picks by Norwood.  Bartlett is a seriously good player, but has had 2 knee reco's and Jimmy Allan of course is a great player, but has some risk also.

They still scrub up pretty well as a side though.

Certainly easier to place question marks now though. I think to a degree the same could be said of all teams I guess.

Indeed. My surprise at the Jimmy Allan recruiting was that I thought Norwood would go for an interstate big name, given they would have had money and salary cap room.

I think it's been hard to shift players out of Victoria this year - Andrew Collins has recruited them all for Williamstown   

As for Norwood's recruiting, it has been brilliant for several years now, so I'm not doubting them, just a bit surprised.

I think most clubs would select a proven SANFL player over a bigname Victorian recruit, if they were competing for the same role. With an existing SANFL player you know they cope with the standard and style of the comp and there's no relocation cost.

redandblack wrote:

West - Hayes has to prove himself, Newell a rookie, desperately need key defenders.

   What? 4 Premiership Medallions doesn't impress you?
He doesn't have anything to prove as far as I'm concerned.

Of course he does. Hes been plagued by injury the last two seasons so can he get back to his best? Will his role be the same?

OK, fair enough you make a good point. You're right he has had a very bad run with injuries the last 2 seasons. When he was fully fit he showed what he was capable of in 4 Premierships and was one of the first chosen in the Centrals team each week. He has the score on the board but as you say he needs to show that form again.

It will be interesting to see who else Centrals sign before Christmas. They have,lost 2 quality midfielders in Boyd and O'Hara and they are going to be very hard to replace. It seems as though they have signed Gilbee from the Gold Coast and that is a good signing as well as McIntyre who will be also be used as a mid
Their key Forward in Retzlaff is a good signing but think they need another Mid.

West have been very quiet on recruiting  need to replace 3 quality players  all of whom were named in The
Advertiser Team of the Year. They need to sign two key defenders

South have also been quiet. Think they need a couple of big bodied Mids plus a key forward and Backman with the loss of Wundke and Haritgan

The Eagles have signed 2 very good players however their ruck stocks seem thin

Norwood have real depth and despite their player losses they will be around the mark

North have they covered their loss of key forwards adequately only time will tell however Grove and Obst must prove they can perform consistently and perhaps they will at another club.