Trade HQ: Can Carlton land Stephen Coniglio for $1.4 million a season?
Forget the ladder position and the win-loss record. The Blues are on the way up. But if they want to take the next step, they need to get Patrick Cripps a right hand man in the midfield.
Trade HQ
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Forget the ladder position and the win-loss record. I’m bullish on where the Blues are at.
When a club is rebuilding, the hardest part is creating a spine that will one day be capable of winning big finals.
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In Jacob Weitering, Liam Jones, Patrick Cripps, Charlie Curnow and Harry McKay, the Blues have that.
But there are two big holes in the list which must be addressed this off-season.
The first is an elite A-grade midfielder. They were close with Dylan Shiel and they’re going to have to reload this year with a big offer to free agent Stephen Coniglio.
Cripps is a star but he needs some help. Most clubs operate with at least a ‘big three’ in the middle.
The Blues currently have a ‘big one’ in Cripps. Sam Walsh has showed plenty of encouraging signs in his first year and could fill the third midfielder role as soon as next year. But they must lock down that second star.
The other area is at small forward. Not one Carlton small has kicked double figures in goals this year.
When you’ve got McKay, Curnow and Mitch McGovern inside 50, there are crumbs to be had. Slotting in someone of Tom Papley’s skillset would add a dangerous dynamic to a forward line that is currently predictable.
When people talk about the Blues list, the name Jack Silvagni always comes up. The scrutiny on the kid is ridiculous.
I know his dad is the list manager but Jack is a pick 53 who is delivering more than plenty of players taken ahead of him.
The bigger concern should be the development of former Giant Matthew Kennedy, who the Blues traded away pick 28 to get.
To survive at the top, you’ve got to have at least one element to your game that is absolutely elite. He doesn’t have that at the moment.
He was recruited as that inside midfielder type and my advice to him would be to study Sydney’s Josh Kennedy and set himself to play in that mould.
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THREE BLUES RIVAL RECRUITERS ARE WATCHING:
JACK SILVAGNI
Has been in and out of the senior side in his three and a half years, with the pressure of being a son-of-a-gun surely taking an emotional toll at times.
He is a jack of all trades right now as an inside midfielder who can push forward. He is only 21, so does he have a specific skill that would entice a strong multi-year offer from a rival club. Essendon bid for him four years ago and forced the Blues to match a bid.
PATRICK KERR
A 196cm marking forward who kicked 20 goals in the VFL last year and has a bag of six this year. Is there room for him in the forward line with Charlie Curnow, Harry McKay and Mitch McGovern and him in the senior side? Only a pick 65 in the 2016 national draft, but there are enough clubs looking for young forward that someone would take a chance on him?
SAM PETREVSKI-SETON/LEVI CASBOULT
Lots of youngsters in this side so they are in a good list-management space. Petrevski-Seton will have WA-based clubs scrutinising him for years to come, even though he is happy at the club and contracted until 2021. Levi Casboult has been trade bait for many of his recent off-seasons but if he plays every game this year will tick off a games-based trigger for 2020, having slotted into defence with ease. The question is where does he slot in next year if Liam Jones come back from concussion at full back?
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THREE PLAYERS BLUES RECRUITERS ARE WATCHING:
STEPHEN CONIGLIO
The man chosen by Stephen Silvagni as the No. 2 pick in the 2011 draft is in-demand everywhere. Carlton would throw everything at the free agent, but how much over the odds would they have to pay to get him given they aren’t in the premiership window?
$1.4 million per season is a sexy number, but they would need to mount an amazing case to get him but if he did his list analysis he would know the Blues should be in the window as he reaches his prime.
JACK MARTIN
The Blues need some silk, and they don’t come silkier than Jack Martin. He isn’t the finished product and would probably thrive in a dominant team but at his best has shown he is a finisher who is surprisingly tough in the clinches for his size. Would be happy to come to a Melbourne club and 2018 suitor Essendon is out of the race given cap constraints. At 24 he is in the perfect age bracket and the Blues are happy to trade their first pick, linked to Adelaide.
ZAK JONES
They haven’t been linked to the Sydney midfielder, who has progressed from half back with aplomb. And Sydney thinks he will re-sign. But do they need another talented half back given the age profile of Kade Simpson and Dale Thomas, with doubts about Sam Docherty coming off two knee reconstructions. Tom Williamson’s back issues continue, so who is their elite running half back of the future given Lochie Plowman is more of a lockdown defender and Liam Stocker might move into the midfield.
RATE THE 2018 TRADE PERIOD
Score: 4/10
Where do we start? Took the biggest risk any club has ever taken with future picks by handing over what is now pick two for Liam Stocker and Adelaide’s first-round pick. Right now even if Stocker turns into a star no one believes he has the talent of Matt Rowell or Noah Anderson, currently starring as the nominal number one and two picks in November. At least Carlton is having a win with the Bryce Gibbs deal, having received 10 and 16 from Adelaide as well as a complicated pick shuffle that in essence saw them get 10 and a second-rounder for the ex-Blue.
We have to factor that deal in if we are criticising the Blues over this year’s contentious swap.
As well as the Stocker trade, they handed over their 2019 second-rounder for Will Setterfield, who should come of age at some stage but right now is easing into senior football after a 2018 ACL rupture.
Then they secured Mitch McGovern in a three-way deal with Sydney and Adelaide. The complicated deal that saw them give up 26 and 28 and access to Sturt’s Shane McAdam but get back 40. Leading into the weekend he had 16 goals from 11 games.
You get the feeling there will be a time when Stocker regularly bursts out of the midfield to hit up matchwinner McGovern but as always the Blues fans need to be patient.
WHY CHAMPION DATA LIKES THE BLUES:
The youngsters are starting to improve and take a hold of this side. Of the players under the age of 25 in the competition, Patrick Cripps has the best relative rating of any midfielder, Sam Walsh has the second best relative rating of any wingman, Charlie Curnow has the best rating of any key forward and Jacob Weitering the fourth best rating of any key defender.
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