Who joins us this year?

[hawk_88]

What are the weaknesses in the side at the moment?

Who should the Hawks go after this trade week to fill these weaknesses?

Who should we trade out to get these players?

[DazBurg]

tarrant or another KP back would defiantly help that would free up gibson

[Hawka]

Is a little obvious we need key defenders and rucks however since last trade period players in those postions have improved like
TALL DEF:stratton,murphy and gilham have improved and gibson coming in has been good
RUC:Renouf and skipper

So now we cant just go after any tall defnder or ruck we need very decent one the weakness is our defences is height
Stratton:189
gibson:189
shoey:193
murphy:189
gilham:192
We need some height in the defnce for those realy tall fwds eg: tippet,hale,shulcz...si we cant just take any defender we need a tall and quite decent one at that tarrant would be good but he is a little to small at 190 some1 of dustin fletcher size or little below would b good but there is not many going around mayb we need to look in the sanfl,wafl or vfl

stratton will improvealot and same with shonmakers but the lack of hieght concerns me

Onto the ruck situation here is my opioion on all of them
Renouf:Great yr and Devolp alot could be a fuure dominate ruck in the afl
Skipper:was awesome this yr rely god but lack of height may see him pushed out of our best 22 nxt yr
Taylor:SPUD
Bailey:Hope he gets over his injuries and hopefully we see some goood signs nxt yr from him
Lowden:havent seen much
Grimley the same and like lowden will take a long time to devolp
I think while renouf and lowden and grimley devolp we need to make a play to get a ruck between the ages of 27 and 29 for a few yrs Eg:fraser,robbie campbell mayb even stephen orrenson from the vfl

And that comes to my last point who to trade
Ladson:Has a had a poor year and i dont rely think we need him so trade i rckon
Morton:didnt catch on and i think its time for him to go
dowler:After his last few rnds last yr i thought he was gona b awesome but ened the yr in the box hill reserves time to let him go i prefer jordan lisle to him now
Osbourne:now this may shock a few ppl but i reckon if GC can give us a first rnd pick or a decent rookie they have and a later pick we should take it

wow thhats 1 of the longets things ive wrote on here thoughts??

[DazBurg]

i like it in depth and pretty much spot on
osbourne though would be a bit of a loss but if u could get that for him might be worth thinking about

[Justin Bieber]

Nice Rant hawka. Taking over from BP :P.

Backman are needed like Daz said. Tarrant would be ideal for the short term while the window is open for you guys. Stratton is a find :). Schoey needs to develop a little more and gain in confidence. A little more muscle wouldn't hurt.

Rucks have no clear solid player. Renouf has improved. Skipper was solid as a back up. Bailey always finds himself injured. Hopefully he gets himself right.

Could be hard recruiting ruckman this year. Fraser likely the only one in that age group. Might have to look abroad in the VFL and try to find the next Pods-type player.

[Hawka]

thats y i bought of stephen orrenson from the vfl who is 28 207 cms and been the dominate ruk of the last few yrs

[DazBurg]

a trade for hale perhaps?

[Justin Bieber]

Hale likely to go North to the Suns.

Orrenson could be good. A little on the older side and if he's dominating the VFL, the hawks could do a little experiment.

[Hawka]

no diffrent fro pods hp with the risk

[hawk_88]

Ruck isn't as much of a priority as it was last year in my opinion. Renouf had a great year, Skipper is great backup. Bailey has been fit for 2 months without an injury (a record!!!) and touch wood he remains.
Robbie Campbell would be good but I feel he will be Suns bound. I don't think we will look at Fraser. I think that Skipper has been better in the ruck than Fraser ever has been, but he has also shown some skill around the ground and up forward. Lowden played some senior Box Hill matches and showed some skill, but, as with all big guys, will take some time. Grimley is behind Lowden in development.

A KP backman is a priority. I think 193 is tall enough to play KP against pretty much any forward if you have the build. Schoenmakers doesn't yet, but a good pre-season might see him near abouts. Taz is an obvious option here.

I can't believe no one has mentioned out need for outside speed. We are a very slow side and are often showed up by lesser teams because they can simply out run us. Someone off half back with some speed now that Brown has gone could be a good option. Drummond springs to mind. Someone to play on the wing and send Young to the back flank is also a possibility.

As for who we trade.
Ladson: still a good player but doesn't have the speed we require.
Dowler: may still have something but the Hawks wont see it. Please someone take him.
Morton: Shown glimpses but not cutting at the Hawks. Talk is some clubs are interested, probably wont get too much for him though
Lisle: been great in the VFL this year and probably has quite a bit of currency. Much better up forward than down back and isn't going to get a game with Franklin and Roughy playing. Shame to lose the talent but could get us something we need.
Muston: Doesn't quite fit into the side. The Hawks will keep him another year if they can't trade him as he has potential but that potential might be worth something
Suckling: Another player that has shown some talent. Doesn't quite get in the 22 but could be worth something on the market.

[Hawka]

Ellis,young,cyril,hooper bit of pace there but i agree we need a bit more

[hawk_88]

We probably need more quicks than usual as our insiders are pretty slow relative to the rest of the comp.

Hooper is quick, but not a midfielder. Ellis isn't slow but I wouldn't say quick.

Our main pace comes through Cyril (when he plays midfield), Young, Bateman and Burgoyne. Cyril doesn't quite have the tank to play midfield fulltime (although I would imagine that will change after this pre-season). Bateman has been a hard tagger for the past half a season so hasn't had the opportunity to run and carry.

Young is damaging with his massive left foot and pace through the middle.

[Hawka]

but bateman is getin old so i see we do need a pacy midfilder

[Master Q]

Really like the thoughts in this thread, but I have a feeling Tarrant will go to Carlton.

Of Course, the Rucks and Backs are the problem. With the backs, it doesn't look good, all the "tall" guys are tall enough, with some needing to bulk up.

It's going to be hard for any team to recruit this year, so the way they get around this is by recycling players. For me, Hawks need a Ruck first, which I think can be solved by Trading 1 or 2 of your rucks bundled with a Draft pick, for a Strong, Experinced Ruck, I think teams will accept this, the only thing is it will be a hard task to find Good Rucks who are on the outs at their club like Mummy at Geelong in 09.

[hawk_88]

Do you really think we need a ruck?

Renouf and Skipper have performed very well in the ruck since Monkhorst became our ruck coach. Renouf is ok around the ground and provides a good contested mark when kicking long. Skipper's also provides a good option for a contested mark, but is handy up forward as well. And if Bailey comes good he will be a superstar.

Our weaknesses are lack of speed, lack of a solid KP backman and lack of structure in the forward line and at clearances. You can always use better players but I think these are deficiencies greater than our rucks (12 months ago I would have said this was our biggest issue).

Hopefully giving Johnny Barker the flick and recruiting Leon Cameron will solve our structure issues.

Getting Taz would solve our backman issue. Not sure there is anyone else potentially on the market that could fill this void. Without Taz Schoenmakers will have to step up.

Then we just need an injection of speed on the wings.