B
Bill James
Guest
It is being discussed elsewhere so I thought I would bring it the forum. A strong argument can be made that the introduction of free agency puts more imperative on salary cap space compared to draft picks.
I and many others here have historically valued early draft picks as the way of building a strong list. Now that those draft picks can walk very easily after a couple of years, it is probably just as important to have salary cap flexibility to pick up suitable "walkers". For me what was interesting about Geelong this year was not so much how they picked up good players, but how they prepared for that period by clearing out high salary players from the list to make room.
In that context I think DR's strategy is correct, retaining players requires far more effort than it did. Getting new players in and teaching them the game plan takes time, keeping a player who has two years experience in the club systems has value in this regard. Sam Mitchell commented on how long it took Frawley to learn how Hawthorn played this year, it can't be underestimated. The other part of our strategy has been to keep salary cap space free. I presume this has been done and we still have the capacity to do a Hawthorn and grab a fish if we have to. As to not attracting players, I think when we contend deep into September that will become easier.
It will be interesting to see how Collingwood and Geelong perform this year with all their additions. North made a preliminary final this year picking up old walkers, but arguably their season was no better than last year on a win loss ratio.
I and many others here have historically valued early draft picks as the way of building a strong list. Now that those draft picks can walk very easily after a couple of years, it is probably just as important to have salary cap flexibility to pick up suitable "walkers". For me what was interesting about Geelong this year was not so much how they picked up good players, but how they prepared for that period by clearing out high salary players from the list to make room.
In that context I think DR's strategy is correct, retaining players requires far more effort than it did. Getting new players in and teaching them the game plan takes time, keeping a player who has two years experience in the club systems has value in this regard. Sam Mitchell commented on how long it took Frawley to learn how Hawthorn played this year, it can't be underestimated. The other part of our strategy has been to keep salary cap space free. I presume this has been done and we still have the capacity to do a Hawthorn and grab a fish if we have to. As to not attracting players, I think when we contend deep into September that will become easier.
It will be interesting to see how Collingwood and Geelong perform this year with all their additions. North made a preliminary final this year picking up old walkers, but arguably their season was no better than last year on a win loss ratio.
