Resuming where we left off, with Garry Lyon and Paul Roos weighing in on how the Carlton Blues can be resurrected, Lyon feels that after brining in a coach where the coach has the ability to pick his own assistants, the next step in the rebuild would be to get some players with experience with a winning environment.
Brisbane tried that tack by bringing in Luke Hodge. It could be wondered what it was that convinced Hodge to go over from Hawthorn. It was probably the realization by Hodge that the Hawks were ready to jettison him, but the allure for him to go north was the prospect of moving into a coaching role.
To this point in the Toyota 2018 AFL Premiership competition, the Lions are better this year, marginally so, all the same…the tactic is a tried and true one for many leagues. Lodge has been a keen influence on the Lions/ young list and James Kelly has done similar work for Essendon.
Paul Roos’ candidate would be North Melbourne’s Shaun Higgins, while Lyon would favour Sydney’s Jarrad McVeigh.
Roos cited the benefit to the Dees of acquiring Daniel Cross from the Dogs and Bernie Vince from the Crows.
The next plank in the platform would be to use high draft picks that go to low teams to get an established player or two, along with some slightly lower picks where another player or two could contribute immediately and longer term.
The Lions have a raft of high picks, so they could easily use the number one pick to pilfer the lists of other clubs and possibly pick up a player from a powerful club who does not get on much, or simply a player from the outback clubs who wants back in Victoria.
The final aspect of the rebuild is to look for players to fill the most obvious gaps. No sense in Carlton getting a top forward when what it needs most are midfielders.
Like we said: Easy to say, harder, much harder to do. It has been done before, however, and done again it can be.
