I think people are undervaluing how good Cripps is (he was one of the Brownlow favourites before the season). Whether his dip in performance the last couple of years is related to specific injuries, or more akin to wear-and-tear, is a genuine question. Peter Bell talks a great game when it comes to player due diligence, but our outcomes on some of our bigger trade swings have been poor.
As a trade for Cerra, it’s a numbers game. On age projections alone you’d think Cerra has twice as many games left in him as Cripps. Are Cripps’ games likely to be twice as valuable? Not likely. Six months ago you could have talked me into Cripps allowing Fyfe to play forward more, but I’m not sure that’s in our interests.
If it was on the table, I’d rather get their first round pick (say, pick 5) and SPS, than put our draft and salary cap eggs in one basket for Cripps. If you look at our midfield, I think for the next 5 years we’ll have Serong to provide the grunt, Brayshaw the running power, and Young (and maybe Henry) the class. You could add Cripps to make a pretty formidable unit, but unless you think Treacy is going to be an elite forward, I think we could use an early pick to bring in a guy who can take a grab forward given Tabs and Lobb are in their late 20s.
I think we need a bit of dash on the wings, so I’d happily give an early second round pick for Clark; but only if we were still picking early for a KPP, hence why I’d prefer Carlton’s pick and a player than Cripps alone.
Of course, underneath all of this is JLo trying to build a culture at Freo. I understand why Cerra might want to go home and keep his options open on a 2 year deal, but ideally you want buy-in from star players who want to come/stay and for less money than they could get elsewhere. If keeping/getting guys like Cerra/Bolton means spending more than the next club, then it puts a limit on Freo’s ceiling. Paying Cerra big bucks to keep him is understandable, but it creates inflationary precedent for Freo when Serong and Young’s managers come to the table.