For what it’s worth Cooney saying Sharp is the steal of the draft. Watching the reels I kind of agree. Some have him as lacking pace and being a bit one dimensional or ‘old fashioned’ but he looks manic and very quick minded with amazing reaction and awareness of where to put the ball. Invaluable traits
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Yeah, but it was still a risk. They may have looked at Sharp and though he is the best available and picked him regardless of needs. You know, like Dodoro did for 30 years.
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I think clubs have a pretty good handle on what other clubs want/will do, particularly in the early stages of a draft.
We have demonstrated that twice, maybe even three times last night.
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Their first pick last night was far too low below #9 for it to have worked, let alone also wanting our F2 back.
But the strategic play to get Sharp past Melbourne suggests we weren’t going to part with #9 anyway.
Pre-draft, I thought WC might have come knocking if Farrow was on the board at #9 , and that might have been an interesting offer.
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The prevailing thought is that Melbourne wanted someone to release Rivers into the now thinner midfield . Farrow, Taylor and maybe Grjl perhaps fitted that, and we obviously had a good read on it. And Melbourne secretly got Kozi in the door Off-Broadway so I think they’d committed to Pickett .
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Learnt from Hawthorn and their 11 first round picks they offered for Merrett.
Whether hindsight proves they were the right selections or not, the strategic read on things last night was spot on. Everything was calculated, including opting to not degrade next year’s first.
It certainly feels like there’s a new sheriff in Essendon recruiting.
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Maybe they think the Vics will be stronger next year.
That’s how the strength of a draft is determined, isn’t it?
Because they picked Langford last year
I remember well playing footy on blokes who looked like Mr Sharp, still have nightmares.
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And they have other future mid options in Lindsey and Windsor with Rivers also to shift into the midfield.
My point is they were never picking Sharp, and we knew it, and we also likely knew that teams that wanted Sharp were not going to offer enough to Melbourne to get them to move. So it wasn’t a big risk.
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Most of the trade backs were 1-2 picks for second rounders, not 6-10 pick downgrades.
He was a very clean player.
I swear he had springs in his heels, one of those that from a standing start he could jump on your shoulders.
Won numerous club and association awards and association team of the century as a KPD despite also winning association goal kicking awards.
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From experience, my advice is DON’T!!!
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Ya I think Rosa calculated the risk correctly
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Hawthorn effectively traded back 4 (I think) spots from a later starting position for two extra second rounders. We’d have gone back (I think) 6 spots for an (expected) upgrade of our second round pick by maybe 4-8 spots.
I think that’s a LOT worse.
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So bloody excited for this guy. I needed a new fav player now after Zacky went and broke me. This guy I think is it!
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Agreed
He’s reliable and comes up in the big moments which is what you need. He’ll be our version of josh dunkley.
Every midfield needs an engine room and he’ll be the sort of player that makes everyone else better. Plus he’s a future captain in the making.
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I assumed the offer was for #13.