Can GWS outdo Gold Coast with uncontracted players?

When Gary Ablett finally announced his move to Gold Coast last year, it was hard to picture GWS outdoing the Suns in terms of their loot of uncontracted players. With the best player in the competition, and a number of quality players from other clubs, the Suns had set a pretty high bar.

But now GWS are threatening not only to reach that bar, but surpass it.

There are two things to bear in mind here. The first is that almost all of the players strongly linked to Gold Coast last year ended up leaving. The second is that the Giants have two years, rather than one, in which to nab uncontracted players from other teams.

So let’s take a look at whether GWS can come close.

The first requirement in order to match the Suns would be to land a truly marquee signing, an Ablett-type.

I’m backing GWS to get this done. Maybe not in the first year, but certainly by the end of their two-year recruiting window.

Earlier this year Kevin Sheedy promised to get one of Collingwood trio Dane Swan, Scott Pendlebury and Dale Thomas. Since then, Swan was taken out of the equation after re-signing with the Pies until the end of 2014 – but the activity of the other two raises questions.

Pendlebury did sign a new deal, however it was – suspiciously – only one year in length, meaning he could still move to GWS after the 2012 season. Thomas, meanwhile, is in the early stages of negotiations with the Pies but until a contract is signed, doubts will linger.

In the background of all this is Brendon Goddard, who I discussed recently after his interesting response to a Garry Lyon article calling for St Kilda to trade him to the Giants.

“For me personally, I’m as loyal as they come but at some stage players are going to start thinking about their future and life after football is a lot longer than life in it,” Goddard said. “I believe I’ve given everything I can to this footy club and they’ve given back to me as well.”

So there are enough options there to assume GWS will be most likely be successful, eventually, in landing one of the game’s highest profile players.

Beyond that, a lot of discussion in recent weeks has been about Callan Ward of the Western Bulldogs – with a massive difference between what he could earn by staying and going – and Melbourne’s Tom Scully. In addition, earlier in the year Fremantle’s Rhys Palmer was strongly linked to the expansion club.

The amount of talk surrounding these three players makes it likely they’ll all go, at least if we’re following the precedent of players who were last year heavily linked to Gold Coast. The main asterisk is next to Scully’s name, because of that adamant press conference earlier in the year, however my money would be on him leaving.

If one of them falls through, Brisbane’s Daniel Rich is another name that’s been mentioned.

The importance of landing these players is that they are all midfielders at similar stages of their career (ie, currently in their second, third or fourth season).

Ward has demonstrated on numerous occasions he’s a fantastic footballer, while Scully – a former No. 1 draft pick – appears to be a future star of the competition. Palmer and Rich are both former Rising Star winners who haven’t quite progressed as expected since, but would nonetheless be valued additions to almost any AFL list.

GWS would be over the moon getting three of the four.

Up forward it’s Taylor Walker, recruited to Adelaide via the NSW scholarship program, that’s the man most likely. If it happens, GWS will have yet another quality talent currently in their second-fourth season. Walker looked impressive in his first four starts this season but is now out of favour.

Gold Coast have shown that a huge investment in forward stocks isn’t required to be competitive at AFL level, at least initially, so the Giants would be content with signing Walker only if that’s what eventuates.

So, so far so good. Only problem left to tackle is the back line.

And this, unfortunately, is a bit of a worry. Port Adelaide’s Alipate Carlile has had his name mentioned, and would be a fantastic signing, but he’s been stronger than most in his denials.

Few other defenders have been seriously mentioned in relation to GWS.

The worry here is that Gold Coast placed such an emphasis on getting their defence right and it is probably one the key reasons why they have been as competitive as they have in their debut season. A tight defence makes it harder for teams to rack up big winning margins – see not only the Suns, but also Melbourne in 2009 after James Frawley emerged and other players developed.

An under-resourced back line could lead to some embarrassing results for Kevin Sheedy. So, while GWS may very well match Gold Coast in terms of superstars, and surpass them in terms of young talent on the rise, at the moment there is uncertainty over one highly important area.

The only hope is if there are some developments between now and the end of the year.

Maybe the strategy the Giants are adopting will pay off long-term, but right now, GWS could be in for an ugly debut season.