I would like to state that I am as old as the subject in question, and as such, may have a failing memory.
If I have caused any issues for those running this forum, or the recruiting arm of the club, with what I remember from the early 1980s, I humbly apologise.
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Itâs Blitz⌠there are punters here that donât have time for a politely put forward theory not supported by a mountain of verified evidence⌠I mean, what is this some kind of discussion forum or something?
Best ignore the dpshts that shoot you down with far less evidence than you put fwd in the first place.
Think l heard Rama this morning talking about the continued reduction in rotations. Reckons the big blokes will have to stay on the ground without a rotation which ties in with Essendon/Dodoro drafting a raft of them like Cox, Reid, Eyre, BrandâŚ
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AFL Draft 2020: Essendon defends taking more tall players | Herald Sun
Essendon list boss Adrian Dodoro has rejected any suggestion he took too many talls in this yearâs draft pool, insisting the Bombersâ spine is now in place for the foreseeable future.
Over the past two years the Bombers have brought in eight talls in Peter Wright (203cm), Andrew Phillips (201cm), Nick Bryan (202cm), Harry Jones (194cm) and now Josh Eyre (197cm), Cody Brand (195cm), Zach Reid (202cm) and Nik Cox (200cm).
It has led to some questioning whether their list was unbalanced, but Dodoro on Friday pointed to the versatility of many of his recruits.
âWeâve been criticised for a number of years for picking all these little midgets running around, but we changed that perception in a hurry, didnât we?â Dodoro said on RSN.
âItâs exciting and I think in many ways it was a bit of a blank canvas.
âYou look at your list, or your structures, and you think, âWhat is this team going to look like in the future?â.
âThereâs a new coach coming in and he has a very distinctive way in which he wants the game to be played.
âWe just felt what a great opportunity to get our potential spine in place.
âBut the players themselves, they pick themselves.
âNik Cox, our first selection, may be 200cm but he can run around like a midfielder.
âJosh Eyreâs a phenomenal athlete as well and these guys could play on a wing.â
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Essendons three top-10 draft picks Zach Reid, Archie Perkins and Nik Cox.
At pick 53, the Western Bulldogs placed a bid on Brand, an Essendon Next Generation Academy member.
The Bombers matched it but not before taking a long time in the room to make their decision.
âThe issue there was that Cody has been with our NGA and heâs a fabulous player, but weâd taken three talls ahead of him,â Dodoro said.
âThat was the discussion about whether we take the pick or not, so we had a discussion but at the end of the day we were unanimous about putting him on our list.
âThere was potentially another player we could have taken, but we just thought weâd do the right thing and bring on this young man whoâs going to be a fabulous talent.â
At pick 9, the Bombers landed Archie Perkins, who on draft day confessed heâd told non-Victorian clubs he didnât feel ready to move interstate.
Dodoro said the public declaration did not make the Bombers think twice about nabbing the 188cm midfielder/forward.
âit didnât turn us off,â Dodoro said.
âHe never told us that because obviously weâre a Melbourne club, but what we liked about him was his honesty and that heâs forthright.
âHeâs a very head-strong young man and he knows what he wants in life
âWe found that really refreshing, that heâs honest, and we think thatâs a great trait.
âI think weâre getting a bit precious because over the years Iâve had many young men that have said theyâd prefer to stay in their home state.
âAnd look, clubs are making a massive investment and what you donât want to do is draft a boy if itâs line ball and then he goes home after two years and youâve wasted an investment.
âParticularly in the first round of a draft, itâs just a huge call.
âYou can look at it a number of ways but had an interstate club picked him up, he would have been the first one on the plane.â
I guess my take on it is that the talls highly rated pre draft year (and didnt play this year), are less likely to change position in the draft than the midfielders / smalls who may suddenly grow / get stronger and dominate.
As tall guys were already good and tall, and most actually just got taller.
Plus next year is touted as a smalls draft.
I was after more balance and Bruhn or Henry, but understand the plan a bit more now the drafts over and if we said we were rebuilding, clubs may have known we were going tall.
Plus there is the upside tooâŚi.e Cox and Reid with exposed form may have been rated higher than Grainger-Barass if they had of played.
same could be argued for most of our picks - Eyre, Brand as well. and perkins, whose body has significantly changed and may have played more midfield. No doubt shaw connection helped there. But If Perkins had a petracca type season, would be talked about amongst Phillips and Hollands.
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Here we goâŚ
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Was a bit of a pun old chum .However thank you.
If thatâs him being spooked then itâs for the better because I actually saw a strategy on display.
I think Nik Cox might be that inside mid we have been missing.
Unfortunately his strategy has landed us f/all success over the years.
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Boardâs refusal to rebuild during Sheedyâs (who also had huge influence) era post 2000
Rebuild that finally occurred under Knights/into Hird ruined by saga when weâre on the right track
Post saga all in attempt on flag ruined by Woosh not being up to it/dicking around with game plans/S&C team not being up to it + unlucky on injury
List manager merely gets the players into the club. We could have had Wells and it wouldnât have mattered.
Can the club get it right on coach, development, S&C team and every other facet this time around?
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Not much gets past him , he suddenly realises ,after 22 years in the job with Zero success, its an AFL team with no key position players and no inside mids, we have 40 half forward half back flankers all of whom are no good , so then he recruits 8, 2meter tall players all of which are incredible athletes ,can play forward or back and if need be on the wing.
Sound familiar.
My favourite was when he recruited Stringer as a big bodied midfielder ,
he got the big bodied bit right .
The best bit was poor old Worsfold thought he was serious.
OH and of course all of you clowns. HAHA
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Unfortunately, RFK is Dodoroâs protegeâŚprobably his successorâŚso will continue the Dodoro âphilosophiesâ even after Dodoro is gone.
This draft was the one where I was eager to see what RFK could do, after bring starved of top picks for yearsâŚ
âŚthe outcome was pretty unimpressive.
Was it thoâŚ
If true that means that at least one person at the club has been successful. So not wasted years after all!!!
*Unimpressive to you
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So who would have you selected for our five draft picks.
This years draft picks were spot onâŚnext year is when the list gets rounded off with midfield - half back - small / medium forward types.
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I prefer we recruit players who are actually wingmen, not guys âwho could possibly play wingâ
its such a flawed recruiting method.
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Thatâs your issue?