Genuine dual position mid/forwards are the most valuable players in the comp - Can’t have enough of them. That’s kinda why I’m on the Humphrey train
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I still think he can become that player, he is only 2 years in.
But agree another one would be great, I’m leaning towards Humphrey for this reason
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it wouldn’t be if langford was any good
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Leave Langford alone, you bully.
when essendon can move beyond snelling, langford, lav and the idea of parish forward, we’ll be a good club
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I thought you loved Lav.
Melksham was a pre-draft taller midfielder who could mark and kicked goals. Might have kicked 10 in an underage final I think.
Jake has had a good career, but is not elite across any of those lines. I think this is a risk being a bit overlooked with some of the projections on underage mids that can ‘forward’ - like Phillipou, Humphrey.
Not suggesting they will be no good- just would hope that the recruiters are not seduced by positional duality and also are confident they can be elite at one/both.
We need to uncover our next champion with these high picks when they come round.
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are you thinking of sidebottom?
He kicked ten in the TAC grand final.
Remember Knights wanted Sidebottom
But Dodoro wanted Hurley.
If we got Sidebottom would have addressed list imbalance somewhat.
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Yep I think you are right-my bad, I think Sidebottom kicked the 10.
yep - much better them than the fans 
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I believe it was seen as a weak draft. The top 5-6 were strong. But fell away quickly.
Other than Melksham being picked at 10, the only other players who had a good career after that, was Lewis Jetta, Dan Tahlia & Nat Fyfe who went at pick 20.
HM would have a better idea. But I believe there was some big concerns on Melkshams consistency…. As he would have long periods of the game where he would disappear.
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Yeah, that’s how I remember it, though it was just before I got really seriously into watching the games myself. Clear top 4 with Scully, Trengove, Martin, Cunnington, though Freo took Morabito instead who was going to be the next Pav and then did a knee and never did much.
There were a lot of hyped guys that year who dropped quite low on draft day for reasons that ended up being good. Butcher, Lucas, Stevens and Christiansen for instance were all talked about at possible very early picks for a while, for instance. And the ones that went up the order to replace them seemed to be weird utility type like Andrew Moore or Gary Rohan who nobody quite knew what to do with. I was desperately hoping for Cunnington (BBM!) but once blokes like Butcher started to drop in the phantoms it became pretty clear we wouldn’t get him. Melk was pretty clearly picked as the best midfielder left on the board. I was never entirely thrilled with what (very little) I’d seen of him (he did some nice things but just didn’t get the numbers I’d expect a top 10 midfield prospect to get), but we were absolutely desperate for a midfielder at the time, and it’s not like we missed out on much by passing on Gysberts or Moore or Lucas or Tapscott. Fyfe of course was the one that got away, but nobody at the time predicted what he’d become, he was being talked about as a mercurial hff.
Ironically, given our draft hand we did pretty well from what ended up a very weak draft. Martin and Fyfe head and shoulders above the rest, but Melkham, and even Colyer and Carlisle, (and Crameri as a rookie) had reasonable careers, and Crameri/Carlisle were even bordering on dominant at their best.
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That 2010 final series, Melk dominated two finals including the granny, and was hardly sighted in the other two. That’s been the story of his AFL career…feast or famine.
Melk and Sidebottom weren’t in the same draft, were they? Because they both starred in grand finals…and both won flags…with different teams.
Hurley was 2008 draft, as were Rohan, Cunnington, Sidebottom, Rockliff, Ziebell etc.
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Melk was 09. Sandwiched between the Hurley and Heppell drafts. 2010 was the year Heppell singlehandedly dragged Gippsland to the grand final with a 44 touch, 19-clearance performance in the prelim, and then got a hard (and TAC-illegal) tag from Guthrie I think against a stacked Calder side in the grand final, and Gippy got smashed.
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Nothing compares to the ‘great’ 2006 super draft, where the top 4 players were a complete flop.
And then picks 5-15 had Boak, Selwood, Frawley, Reid, & Reiwoldt.
In this super draft we picked Gumbleton, Jetta, Hislop, Houli, Davey & Reimers.
I dunno. Gibbs was a marshmallow, but played some very good footy at times and got close to 200 games i think. Hardly a bust. Hansen and Leuenberger had long careers too. Not spectacular, and certainly not living up the the pre-draft hype, but hardly busts to the Mitch Thorp or Beau Dowler degree
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Hard to look past the greats of the game, that were picked in the next group tho!
Edit: then throw in Josh Kennedy & Tom Hawkins who were father-son picks aswell.
if Gibbs was drafted to a club other than the blues he may have developed into more than a marshmallow
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at the rate things are going, mcgrath will be lucky for a gibbs/murphy calibre career
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Fark Carlton
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