u/GuardedFig

I heard Kane Cornes a few days ago commenting on the Neale/Hogan trades. His view was that they will help us remain competitive around the middle of the ladder, and we can beat anyone on our day, but with the ageing list we can't seriously think we are in premiership contention.

Then today came across comments from Gerard Healy who says trading JDG would make no sense - if we are topping up with Neale and Hogan, we must think we are still in the window. JDG won us a flag in '23 and could do so again.

Just got me thinking, where are we really at? With Hogan and Neale filling a couple of big gaps in the short term, are we a real threat next year? Or is a mid-table finish the most we can realistically hope for?

Personally, I agree with Gerard. Injuries permitting, I see no reason we can't make a deep finals next year. So I'd be keeping Jordy and looking to maximise his damage in the forward half.

We all know the Pies have by far the oldest list in the competition. The theory was we lacked talent in the under-22 demographic.

Well the last few weeks have shown there is more than enough coming through. They just need opportunities.

Swadling is a jet. Ed Allen has gone from strength to strength since landing in the midfield. West crashes packs and clunks makes like a young Travis cloke. R Steele busts his gut and bobs up for a goal every week. McCreery turned the game last night when he went into the centre. The list goes on.

The problem is not young talent - it's opportunity for that talent to thrive. And I think McRae needs to be ruthless about making those opportunities happen.

My argument is, it's time to pick players on form rather than reputation. He's the GOAT, but the game has finally gone past Pendles. Sidey has been in steady decline all year. Houston is in the team based on his two-time AA label, but apart from the odd game he's been poor since coming to us.

With Lippa, Howe Perryman and Maynard to come back in, who goes out?

We've looked much better with speed on the ball.

I'd like to see some tough calls made in coming weeks. Don't select players just because they are club champions or All Australians.

Keen to hear what you guys think. Do we need to make some tough selection calls on Pendles, Sidey and potentially Houston? If not, why not?

I'm quite torn on this. One the one hand, Pendles is still playing at a high level and his experience is invaluable around the club.

On the other hand, he's missed 7 out of 19 games and it's starting to seem like father time is finally catching up to him. We've presumably got Neale coming in and young mids coming through who need opportunities to play. On balance, I'm probably in the retire camp for those reasons.

What do you guys reckon?

Who are we most interested in?

I think Neale would be a great get for us as a free agent, and Mitch Lewis would be very handy too. Not so keen on King and Humphrey at the likely trade cost. Don't know much about Stevens.