Morgan had no confirmed contract before the trade period - He like many others was advised he may be offered a contract after the trading period - Do we expect players to wait around until after the trade period to explore other options when there is no contract on the table - Strange thinking !
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This is exactly what happened and there are many others in the same boat in the AFL - Some will be offered contracts after trade period, while most will miss out - Nearly all of this group will seek other options and a few like Morgan will get lucky - Some have expressed interest in McKenzie from the GC, but my guess is he was in the same situation as Morgan, that is we may offer a contract after trade period - There is nothing new with this scenario.
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Definitely hope we draft McKenzie from GC now that Morgan is gone. Would only make our list stronger. Would back our leadership to help/sort out any off-field issues with him.
I think they will have there hands full with Stringer. No point adding another guy who likes the nightlife too much.
You keep banging on about Mathieson. You do realise that he was overlooked by everyone until pick 39, not just Dodoro? There had to be a reason no one was overly excited to pick him up any earlier.
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Itās guaranteed that when someone asks a genuine question or makes a genuine comment, condescending Yaco is waiting to give away some condescending response. I hope you arenāt a teacher, that would be strange!
So many ahead of him and he hasnāt shown much, makes complete sense that he is let go. Even if he said no thank you, I think they didnāt mind either way.
His unexposed form is uncertain.
You canāt manufacture that kind of arrogance.
Itās a gift.
Heh, I probably bang on about him cos he was one of my favourites that year, he fit whai believed was a need, I didnāt expect him to be available when our 2nds came around, and Iām still sore we didnāt grab him!
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I donāt think inside types have any extra mystery about them - they simply donāt stand out & catch the eye like outside players naturally do. The little 1m handball from the bottom of the pack doesnāt stand out like the dash & long kick but of course you canāt have 1 without the other. That inside bull strength probably needs a few preseasons to come through. Its also about what level of importance each club places on these types of players. In spite of being beaten at the contest most weeks this year we didnāt appear to place much importance on winning the inside ball. Drafting mids in general has been my biggest criticism of Dodoro so really for mine no Parker, Mathieson, Witherden etc looks more like plan rather than accident.
But what does that actually mean?
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The strength is the key. Inside mids are like KP players in that regard. You canāt judge the end product because the strength is not yet there, and the strength of the opponent is even less there.
And when the strength is there and is being used to outpoint opponents that can be even harder to judge, because you have no idea whether they can adjust, or can continue to get stronger, etc. I think thatās a reason that there are so many unexpected late pick gems of that style (while we forget about the late pick failures).
Strong players who win there own ball, have clean Hands and use it well under pressure. If they can do all of that pick them regardless of how short or quick they are and always pick them over the rangey outside player with upside
Confirmed letting him go so thereās another spot freed up.
Hypothetically if we replaced Dodoro for Callum Twomey.
And he went for best available left on the board then we probably would have went with
Zerrett - Zerrett he was rated at 19 anyway we got him 26
Witherden > Ridley - jury still out on Ridley he could still be a very good player
Mathieson/Balic > Morgan/Redman
Laverde > Laverde
Touk Miller > Langford
still would have had Francis. unless GWS didnt match bids on Hopper then Kennedy, but would have meant Francis wouldnt ahve been pick 6. 
it wouldnāt change the list that much.
We could also have had Rich instead of Hurley, Prestia instead of Heppel and any number of players instead of McGrath. Canāt just focus on the misses, plenty of people didint want our hits at draft time.
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And thatās fair but not fair on Dodoro for not picking him.
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That skillset is very valuable (although difficult to find at any height or speed), particularly if you play all of your games at the SCG, or favour a very contested gameplan (see the way Hird tried to utilise a midfield including Watson, Hocking, Myers etc back in the day). Itās also going to lead to a pretty one dimensional team (and I know you know this), that will likely be found out on the MCG in September, or will get smashed on the spread week in week out for years.
Drafting is difficult. The choice might be between 2 very similar guys whose apparent difference is 5cm, 5kgs or 0.05s on 20m sprint time. They may have very similar contested ball winning abilities and distribution abilities. And when they make the step up the extra 5kgs might mean one has superior ability to win and distribute the ball due to extra strength. Or the other might grow into their body, or the extra pace may be more important, or etc etc.
There is no golden rule. Every choice is made both in isolation, and with the weight of list and gameplan needs surrounding it. (And with the recruiters historical biases, and with statistical biases as well)
Every club/recruiter favours particular attributes (And this changes with time and changes in gameplan etc), and every club/recruiter will have to take players who donāt have the attributes they think will translate just because a list is more than 40 players of the one type.
I canāt find a way to close this out, but no one wants me to rant for another 4 hoursā¦so this will have to do. Iām the end itās hard. For the Morgan pick they may have been considering 5 guys, none of which were Mathieson and 3 of which were never drafted, because thatās who the collective wisdom of the recruiting team rated. That recruiting team apparently got it wrong with Morgan (even if he turns out good elsewhere) as we got nothing out if him. Thatās always disappointing, but is part of the process. Every pick is a risk. Given we all think weāre pretty will place at the moment our recruiting appears to be going ok. But if this becomes another false dawn Iād be thinking that the whole recruiting organisation needs a massive rethink.
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