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It feels like the key decision at the club at the moment lies around Crouch and Laird. Both could have 3-5 years ahead of them and both are good enough that it is awkward to drop them, but we absolutely can't afford to have them taking up so much of our midfield time for 3-5 years. It doesn't get the results we want and it halts our development.

I wonder if Nicks feels a bit like taking Laird out of the midfield is an admission that he was wrong and his critics were right.

Laird's move to the midfield is one of the major success stories of Nicks' tenure so far. But it seems more and more obvious what needs to happen.

I worry that our decisions are very reactionary, Rankine's midfield time was talked up all preseason, had an ok game there in round 1 but media picked up on a couple of poor defensive positioning errors and it seems he gets moved out. You could argue we looked like we needed scoring options up forward but again that's short term reactionary thinking when we have been crying out for a mid that can do the things that Rankine can do for a decade. Put him in there and back him in even if not everything is going to plan. What would have happened with Dawson if he asked to be put in the midfield and then had a poor game there to start with?

Given finals are now unlikely I think it's pretty crucial for our future that we end up with a pick before Welsh's bid comes in. It's a unique opportunity to get two highly rated talents in instead of one and we can't afford to miss out on a high end midfielder for another year. A bad year now could be a real blessing in the long run.

Someone like Burgess is fine and all but what does it do for us in the long run if he comes in and plays some fine football. I've accepted now that Gollant probably doesn't have a future in the AFL but I would rather he gets 6 games to completely rule that out.