That's some coin in the forwards. It seems to me a week out of the opening round every year we all get really nervous about the rookies not showing up and being viable - they will. $300k at F6 must limit the team elsewhere, it would for me anyway.
So I'll go through the logic as to why I don't think that's necessarily the case. Firstly, my team as it stands:
Reverse engineering, the way I got Gulden and Bruhn was trading Oliver. Let's see how the team looks reverting the side.
So the defence and ruck line remain almost unchanged. One difference is that Madden replaces Ratugolea at R3 - but to fund even just Madden, Philipou must be taken down to Alwyn Davey on the forward bench. Lachlan McAndrew is basically completely done for as an option now, so there's not even him as a prospect to generate some cash, so might as well go Madden. Alwyn Davey might be better than Phillipou, but at least we had the option.
Additionally, we still have McLean on field, but instead of ANY of Greene, Davey/Phillipou, Cincotta, Chesser, Baker, Wilmot or Constable able to sub in for him, we're reduced to using just Greene or Davey.
Secondly, now Ratugolea comes onto the field. The general consensus is that if he does manage to hold down a spot, he's probably not safe enough to field. Granted, we could turn him into a Sheezel or Allen, but the issue remains.
But there's still Clayton Oliver. Obviously, he provides a massive boost to scoring power, especially as a Captaincy option. But he does not provide potential value, where Gulden and Bruhn do. Additionally, with Dunkley moving to the Lions, and Bont raising his floor whilst also possessing an astronomical ceiling, we already have two solid leadership options. But let's say we compare the scoring potential of Oliver and Ratugolea versus Gulden and Bruhn.
125+55 v 90+80
So we gain 10 points here, giving Gulden a very conservative output. Bruhn gets a 25 point per game boost, but he could be considered to potentially earn more. On the other side of the equation, Ratugolea could conceivably average more at some point, especially with a boosted score from a great game, but from what McCartin, Gibcus and SDK showed in 2022, that's more likely to happen around early mid-season - rounds 8 onward, and by that time, he's less likely to be on field anyway. Oliver could certainly push 130, but I think 125 is a very reasonable estimation. So Gulden and Bruhn have a massive amount of potential upside, where Oliver is the safer pick - one I would normally take.
Okay, so let's consider other options. Maybe we don't take Oliver, but we also don't pick Bruhn AND Gulden. Let's say we lose Gulden, and we keep the money from going Phillipou to Alwyn Davey, so we have $520k to spend. Where do we use it?
In defence we can pick up Daicos, who divided opinions in his games, Young, who barely fired a shot, or Ridley, who firmed into contention but shone in a game against absolute zero opposition. Additionally, anyone of them pushes Yeo to D4, which probably bats deeper than most sides.
Okay, so let's try the midfield next. Tom Mitchell is the obvious play - but we already have Tom Green at around the same price bracket. We're just swapping a risk for a risk in a harder line to accomplish keeper status. Granted, Tom Mitchell has a more obvious path forward, but unlike Gulden, he's on the wrong side of the age curve.
Okay, so instead of losing Gulden, we trade Cogs instead. An extra $80k goes a long way.
Let's see who we can get?
In defence - Tom Stewart. Obviously a decent pick, but the defence is really batting heavy now. In the midfield it's Josh Kelly or Darcy Parish, both of which are absolutely fraught with risk as starting options.
(We can easily turn Bruhn into a Worpel type. Less flexible being Mid only, so we won't go too far into that).
So let's see if we can split the Gulden $$$ into something useful instead of investing it in one player.
Alright, that's a little better. But now instead of 12 potential keepers, 3 midpricers and 7 rookies, we now have 11 potential keepers, 5 midpricers and one midpricer/rookie, and 5 rookies. Alternatives with some finangling could be Callaghan, Fyfe, or Flanders instead. We sacrifice potential for more security - and personally, I don't want to pick Ziebell, Fyfe or Liam Jones types, and Worpel is a very meh pick to me. I'd rather have the excitement of Gulden potentially going 140.
This is obviously an extremely long post, and there's probably a myriad of other ways to use the Gulden + Bruhn funds, but very few of them would be ways that I would use them.