Any idea why aidge didnt take his 2 seconds in the spotlight to announce our pick?
I think a list manager and his team need to be assessed against the quality of the players they bring into the club, rather than whether these players turn out to be top echelon players or not. There are too many factors outside their control post trade and draft, such as injury, player development and social welfare, which the list management team can not be reasonably held accountable for.
As an example, Iād say LAV and Langford were good draft selections, which represent success at the draft table rather than failure. They may or may not end up quality players, but they have many obvious qualities which quite rightly made them good late first round draft selections. Their respective limitations which have surfaced over the past few years, were not evident at under age level.
This season weāve brought in Shiel, Mozz & Ham. Mozz and Ham are late pick gems, and nothing that happens subsequently changes that. Together with Snelling they clearly address gaps in the list. These were good draft decisions and if they donāt play 100 games it doesnāt mean the draft team made poor decisions. Our list balance is good, although with Drapes busting a knee we do need a Grassy Knoll type as backup.
The more reasonable line of criticism would be why did we take so long to become aggressive traders, why have we been of limited appeal to free agents (goddard & loony excepted), and why did we fall behind in the drafting of Indigenous players?
Throughout and since the saga, our trading and drafting has been exceptional.
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Our U23 Team (U23 on 1/1/19) - these are all of our under 23 players.
B: Guelfi, Zerk, Ridley
HB: Redman, Francis, McKenna
C: Parish, D Clarke, Ham
HF: Mozzie, Langford, Houlahan
F: Mynott, Gown, Begley
R: Draper, Laverde, Pidge
I: Mutch, Long, Jok, Snelling
Not a terrible side, which is a sign of good drafting.
If you actually wanted to balance the side to play, it needs another ruck and one or two more KP players and more speed.
The thing that stands out to me is you wouldnāt worry too much the side would be monstered as much as you would expect a young side to be.
This is probably partly to do with the fact that there were only 2 players born in 2000 (Mozzie and Gown) and 3 born in 1999 (Hams, Mynott and Houlahan)
Jordan Ridley is the 6th youngest player on our list and he was drafted 3 years ago, he is one of seven players who we have on the list who were born in 1998. We also have 6 players born in 1997.
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So, whatās the current thinking?
Dodoro actually does draft mids, but weāve just refused to play them there? And now weāre concerned he hasnāt taken enough talls?
I said, āIf you actually wanted to balance the sideā, which is totally unnecessary.
We have plenty of older KP talls, and it doesnāt hurt to bring them in later when they are showing signs of fully developing (Smack, Brown, Stewart, Zerk, Hartley, Ambrose and even Hooker were over 18 when first drafted).
We are short a ruck at the moment though, as we all know.
Again not looking for 18 YOās in the first instance.
In fact it is a notable feature that Dodoro likes to pick riper fruit with a visible upside, especially from the third or fourth round on, and now more and more at the trade table.
Sounding like thereās little in the way of ruck options in this yearās draft. Would then need 4 years development before they can compete. Expect a trade or mature rookie to fill this role.
I think itās a longer term problem than coverage for 2019. Sydney beating us to the ruck we wanted in the mid season draft hurts us for backup this year and probably for 2020 as well.
I do think that Dodoro will be well within his rights to draft talls as a priority over the next couple of years.
In terms of list balance for āthe nowā, weāre actually doing pretty good bar except for maybe a quality big bodied mid, some more small forward depth and a ruck. Overall pretty good though.
So itās pretty safe to look at who will be the first to retire of the older brigade and then simply fill those spots with fresh player types.
Baguley - small forward
Hooker - KP
Myers - inside mid
Bellchambers - ruck
Zaharakis - outside mid
Z.Clarke - ruck
Hurley - KP
Brown - KP
McKernan- KP
So I think our priorities will be a KPP for sure. Get another KP defender to partner BZT when Hooker and Hurls retire. But obviously if there is some kind of rare midfield talent like Zerrett that drops then you obviously jump on that.
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You are overlooking the middle age group which includes JD, Stewart and Hartley. But i agree i think our focus in the next draft would be a tall defender given Hooker, Hurley and Ambrose ages itās the next part of the first team to turnover, we have a young team elsewhere on the park
If the club thinks we wonāt win a flag with Hooker or Hurley, Iād start playing Zerk and either move Hooker forward or try and trade one of Hurley / Hooker for draft picks.
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Theyāll never be traded
As we saw in the Hawks flags, Brian Lake was still contributing strongly at 34yrs old.
Weāve still got plenty of years left in those two
Hooker perhaps moreso than Hurley just due to his body. Hurls plays banged up most of time.
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Yep. I think people go far too early with the cooked call.
Apparently Goldstein was cooked three years ago. Heās still better than our starting ruck three years on.
Others are saying that Dayne Beams is cooked. Heās still performing better than most of our midfielders.
Hooker and Hurley have another few years in them. If Zerk or anyone else we pick up plays well enough to move them, then we do it.
Otherwise we fall into the hole that Melbourne are in where they thought they didnāt need Jesse Hogan as Weideman and McDonald did well enough for a short period of time, only to find out that Weideman isnāt ready and McDonald canāt take the best defender every week.
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Melbourne brought in May though, they just canāt get him on the park
Think Riley Bowman would be a smart choice as a rookie, offers long term tall forward and ruck depth. Still ways off but thatās the point
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Yep. Need the production line to start with these tall players. Donāt start developing them and you have a big problem in a few years time.
While I suspect Hooker will fall off a cliff at the end of his career, itās not any time soon unless injury intervenes. Heās backing himself to dodge and outrun everyone right now, and heās right!
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The real question is Stewart, JD and Gown - and therefore do we have enough tall forward cover. The assumption was that we had a lock with JD, and between Stewart and maybe Gown we had a production run that would produce something. But if JD goes his brotherās route, we really need another KP forward.
Really? I wouldāve thought Hooker was an ok prospect to battle on for longer than the average.
Has never particularly relied on pace or jump. Just a very smart footballer with exceptional hands.
Heās been getting a bit more aggro lately which often happens when players start to feel their age. I like aggro Chooka.
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