Agree geelong killed it.
Brandon, Jordan. Shouldâve got a Jack and a Luke.
I wouldnât 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, weâre building to 2019, chill.
They needed to. Their last few drafts have been rubbish and most of their kids are duds
Just watched dodoroâs 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.
Not sure what people expect.
Itâs highly speculative and even more so in a weak draft. Itâs no surprise so many state league players were given an opportunity and players from other clubs given second chances.
Reflecting on the draft, I think it went somewhat disappointingly.
Logically, we would have wanted to satisfy both âneedsâ and âbest availableâ with pick 48âŚI donât think anyone would deny that Houlahan is purely âbest availableââŚSo what happened? Well the ideal draftees must have been plucked prior to pick 48.
So we then swung back towards addressing âneedsâ with the next two picksâŚbut Dodoro admitted in his video that the pickings were lean.
So weâve ended up with a high quality player who doesnât address âneedsâ, and two other low quality players.
Just think about Stringer, Saad and Smith and all your worries will go away.
Weâve only had 4 ND picks after pick 48 in our previous 4 drafts combined. I donât blame him if he isnât overly excited about his late picks in a supposedly weak draft.
I canât believe people are whinging/worrying about us having a bad night.
FFS, no-one really has any clue if weâve done well or not and wonât know for probably 12 months minimum. I reckon weâll know for sure on Guelfi by the end of next season. The other 2 probably not for 2 years.
I will admit I was disappointed we didnât get Cassidy and Worpel didnât 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.
Did you know that before the Wedding ?
Considering the highest pick we had was 48 I think weâve done okay. None of them are obvious budding champions but theyâve all got a bit going for them. My only disappointment is that they all seem very lightly built, but then theyâre young, and theyâll fill out. From memory Fantasia was well under 70kg when he was drafted but now, a couple of years later, heâs very nicely muscled.
I dont think thatâs much of a problem for Guelfi at all- Houlahan somewhat yes, Zerk Thatcher hell yes. Still, i think (across trades and draft) weâve 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)
We picked up 3 best 22 players in trades, thatâs 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.
To be honest I didnât 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 donât 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.
I just went back to look at the welcome thread for Fantasia. It was almost entirely positive, couple of complaints about his weight, but thatâs about it. Lot of people happy that we got a small forward.
Oh and this absolute blinder of a call from @Riolio
Just read it.
90% of the comments are about his name
Admittedly most liked his name.
What makes them low quality players?
And letâs not forget this of course
I also love that video of him kicking the footy into the bin.