This just isn’t true that EFC don’t use first round picks on midfielders. Since 2007 we’ve used 9 first round picks. Three were talls (Hurley, Francis, Daniher), but the rest were midfielders. Myers, Melksham, Kavanagh, Heppell, Parish and McGrath. The only one of those clearly not a midfielder was Myers, who the debate over whether he was or wasn’t rages on in this thread.
So 66% of our first round picks over the last 13 drafts have been midfielders. Only Parish and McGrath were short either.
You missed Langers
You are wrong. Heppell and McGrath were not seen as pure mids. They primarily played junior footy as rebounding defenders. Heppell made AA playing there.
For Vic Metro Yes, for their local clubs No
They played both and were drafted with the intention of playing midfield after a few seasons
Yeah, so they weren’t pure mids. That’s the complaint.
I mean you could say that about most of the best mids in the comp, heaps of young players get thrown around to different positions to see if they are versatile or because someone else gets a game in there position, it doesn’t mean they aren’t worth a high draft pick, if you want Dodoro to draft players who have never played anywhere but on ball then your limiting the players available for selection massively.
We didn’t take him anyway but Taranto would have been ruled out on that notion too
And McCluggage who is an outside player.
So we should’ve got Will Brodie at Pick 1 and everyone on Blitz would be celebrating right now.
To be honest, I forgot the entire 2014 draft!
With both Langford and Laverde, to what degree were they seen as midfielder/forwards (like Tarranto) versus forwards who could possibly go through the midfield?
I’m disappointed in you Ant.
How could you forget my boy Langers.
No idea. When listing first round picks, I just somehow skipped Langford and Laverde.
Its not the first time. I’ve been pulled up before for forgetting that Laverde’s pick, which was the pick we got “back” (after losing our first and second for the sanctions) was technically a first and not a second round pick.
I think you’re right about assessment, I’d be staggered if there wasn’t a mechanism in place. I think there would be two assessments - one immediately after draft and another down the track. The post draft one would be important to assess whether the recruiting network missed any players and how closely we rated players to where they were actually picked.
If your top 30 looks nothing like the top 30 that were drafted, you probably have a problem!
I find list management/recruiting fascinating as there is so many layers and aspects to it.
I’d be interested to know how many trades/recycled players are coaches picks vs list managers picks. Certainly Sheedy had a few. I reckon Mitch Brown was a Hird pick, Townsend a Truckcella pick.
Re-read my post mate, I don’t think its wrong.
Lol. Bats. climate change denial, and the ‘Heppell was a defender in juniors’ myth. Blitz knows how to trigger me…
For the record, I watched basically every game Heppell played as a u18. He played a couple of games as a defender while returning from an off-season injury mid-season (which included the national champs), but spent the rest of the time as head and shoulders the best midfielder in the TAC Cup.
McGrath rotated between midfield and defence, and was good in either position but dominant as a defender. In fact, one of his selling points for me was his flexibility. Even if he didn’t work out as a mid at the top level, you could get a 200 game back pocket out of him.
Fair play. I was wrong about Heppell then.
Heppell was certainly the main mid at Gippsland.
@Humble_Minion was perched on West Gate Bridge waiting for us to select him.
So many of the gun kids are mids, that if you can play HBF or HFF in the carnival, you do.
I think Myers was in the same boat. Played mid in Perth Colts but HBF for WA.
And McGrath, played a large portion as a midfielder. Things had to go very wrong for him to be moved to defence weather it was to stop a rampant Jaiyden Stephenson or to steady the ship in the Grand Finals. He didn’t average almost 33 disposals for nothing.