2017 Draft picks actually picked

Agree geelong killed it.

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Brandon, Jordan. Should’ve got a Jack and a Luke.

I wouldn’t underestimate Fantasia and Tippa running a bit more through the middle, and not necessarily just outside. Both ball hungry chaps. Smith and Stringer likewise, all will be expected to play as goal kicking mids. And how did we destroy the midfieldiest team in the world twice last year in the Pies?
Pssst, we’re building to 2019, chill.

They needed to. Their last few drafts have been rubbish and most of their kids are duds

Just watched dodoro’s interview post draft. Does not fill me with confidence whatsoever. Caught himself downplaying the talent a couple of times and tried to recover when he realised he was actually downplaying new Essendon players.

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Not sure what people expect.

It’s highly speculative and even more so in a weak draft. It’s no surprise so many state league players were given an opportunity and players from other clubs given second chances.

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Reflecting on the draft, I think it went somewhat disappointingly.

Logically, we would have wanted to satisfy both ‘needs’ and ‘best available’ with pick 48…I don’t think anyone would deny that Houlahan is purely ‘best available’…So what happened? Well the ideal draftees must have been plucked prior to pick 48.

So we then swung back towards addressing ‘needs’ with the next two picks…but Dodoro admitted in his video that the pickings were lean.

So we’ve ended up with a high quality player who doesn’t address ‘needs’, and two other low quality players.

Just think about Stringer, Saad and Smith and all your worries will go away.

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We’ve only had 4 ND picks after pick 48 in our previous 4 drafts combined. I don’t blame him if he isn’t overly excited about his late picks in a supposedly weak draft.

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I can’t believe people are whinging/worrying about us having a bad night.
FFS, no-one really has any clue if we’ve done well or not and won’t know for probably 12 months minimum. I reckon we’ll know for sure on Guelfi by the end of next season. The other 2 probably not for 2 years.

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I will admit I was disappointed we didn’t get Cassidy and Worpel didn’t last to our first pick but I like what I read about Houlahan. Guelfi looks like he is an outside of the square selection that might very well address a need for inside mids and who knows about B-Zerker? I think it is pointless to pot them, that will not make anyone feel better, back them in and hope for them to do well.

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Did you know that before the Wedding ?

Considering the highest pick we had was 48 I think we’ve done okay. None of them are obvious budding champions but they’ve all got a bit going for them. My only disappointment is that they all seem very lightly built, but then they’re young, and they’ll fill out. From memory Fantasia was well under 70kg when he was drafted but now, a couple of years later, he’s very nicely muscled.

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I dont think that’s much of a problem for Guelfi at all- Houlahan somewhat yes, Zerk Thatcher hell yes. Still, i think (across trades and draft) we’ve added 4 guys who played senior football this year and should be able to play seniors next year. That takes a little pressure off Zerk Thatcher and Houlahan (and rookie pick 10)

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We picked up 3 best 22 players in trades, that’s where our short term improvement comes from. This draft was never going to improve the 2018 team. The only talent we were going to have access to either has deficiencies or is underdeveloped.

We got one who could be elite but needs to stay more involved all game. One who needs 2-3 years in a weights room. One who got overlooked for a few years from a state league. You could have predicted that mix a week ago.

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To be honest I didn’t mind our picks. I have faith in our recruiting team. People on here criticize our picks every year such as Fantasia and Hooker in the past. To me, Houlahan a Academy player was the best pick at 49. I don’t think our recruiting team expected him to be there at our pick as they took extra time on the clock. With pick 66 they took a young key position player that they had planned and with our final pick 76 on Guelfi, a midfielder who had a good year at Claremont. Considering late picks in the draft, you going to win some and lose some, we will have to wait and see. I think they will take a inside mid in the rookie draft like a Banfield, Schloithe, Wilson, Parish or someone. Anyway, that is my views.

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I just went back to look at the welcome thread for Fantasia. It was almost entirely positive, couple of complaints about his weight, but that’s about it. Lot of people happy that we got a small forward.

Oh and this absolute blinder of a call from @Riolio

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Just read it.

90% of the comments are about his name :grinning:

Admittedly most liked his name.

What makes them low quality players?

And let’s not forget this of course

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I also love that video of him kicking the footy into the bin.