If you are going to list facts to try and prove something atleast get them right. In 2005 our first pick was Judas, in 2006 it was Gumby and then 2008 it was Hurley. That is 3 key position players used with our first pick and not 1 from 2005 to 2011. Looking from 2005 to 2008, has three out of four years going with a kpp which is a large investment in non-midfield players. Then if you expand the year range looking at 2002-2004 our picks were laycock, bradley and monfries. Not one was a midfielder. Meaning over a 7 year window our first pick in the draft was a non-midfielder 6 times.
Definitely a defender…
An old and useless Tractor at 27 I heard …
We can turn back time all we like and rehash past drafts (which for the record I believe we made mistakes) but I’m not sure how that has anything to do with how we assess either the club or the list now!
If you listen to the Dodoro interview from a couple weeks back you will understand the transformation that this club has gone through in recent times in regards to the professionalism of the club and the recruitment department in particular.
I believe for far to long, just like Carlton we have rested on our laurels and sat back with full trophy cabinet and believed that success would just take care of itself!
In that time teams like Sydney, Hawthorn, Geelong and others have come through with innovations and taken AFL to the next level. And they were all teams that had far less money and power than us!
Having said that it’s hard to deny that we haven’t caught up. We now have probably the best facilities in the country, and what I believe is one of the best list strategy/recruitment teams in the AFL! On top of that it seems that we are finally getting our ■■■■ together in regards to injury management and also we have our own VFL team which allows us to play our listed players in positions that will allow then to develop rather than out of position to accommodate the senior VFL players.
Taking all that into consideration I also believe it’s unfair to judge the current players on the errors that the club has made in the past. This club is rising and my days of banging my head against the wall because of the ridiculous decisions being made has gone, and now I’m going to support the team I love and watch us become a force again because I actually believe that we are getting very close to that again.
1 Like
We will be suffering from those sanctions for 10 years
1 Like
Except Monfries was a mid.
Only Essendon could recruit mid s and turn them into flankers…
1 Like
Huh? The only reference I made to first picks was saying we went that route with midfielders 4 of 5 years to 2011. I.e. 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011. No other reference and I don’t think the post I quoted had any.
Earlier in that period we took talls first, yes. But we still spent considerable draft coin on mids. If you take the period before that, yes we took Laycock and Bradley. In the same drafts we took Winders and Stanton, and in the surrounding drafts we took Harvey, Davies and Monfries.
We had a tall first focus but always also took mids, and as the talls got mostly rightish have taken mostly mids first since 2007. Only ones we didn’t were Hurley and Daniher.
To be fair, I think supporters get more riled when I the first round picks bust.
1 Like
Kepler was a wingman, played his best footy there in 18s and in the AFL (at Freo)
And Laycock was picked before Winderlich. By one pick…
1 Like
Pears perennially injured
Zaka well there’s enough discussion in his thread.
Stein you’re joking right?
Jmerrett is in vfl purgstory
Ashby gone
Zerrett I said barring 2013
Lav perennially injured. Also should include the midfielder that’s really a forward.
To me, one of our biggest reasons why the midfield has not progressed as we would’ve liked is that 2nd-3rd year players like Langford, Laverde, Francis and Redman haven’t had much of an impact this season. All have differing reasons. Redman is extremely raw and he’s going to be a slow burner, Lav has been injured and really 2017 is a write-off, a real shame as I rate him very highly, especially at the defensive aspects of the game. Francis is playing forward but he is not AFL fit yet. There is a player there and he’d be a really dynamic player to thrown in as a burst midfield option eventually. Langers has been the one that has been slightly disappointing in that he had a great pre-season but was dropped after Round 4. He was one most would’ve tipped to take that next step but thus far has failed to do so. That quartet are all your 189-190cm type that can play multiple roles from HB to HF. For us to really progress in the next few years we need those boys to progress.
3 Likes
None of Langford, Laverde, Francis or Redman are bona fide midfielders - they are all half-forwards who look like they can pinch hit in the midfield except for Francis who really is KP size…and can pinch hit in the midfield.
We have a weak midfield because, until we picked Zach Merrett and Darcy Parish, we hadn’t taken a genuine mid with our first pick typically. Even our second round picks have been more “flanker types with massive upside” than genuine mids.
I think Dodoro has recognised this weakness in our list demographics which is why he took Mutch & Clarke - both genuine inside mids.
We badly need to build genuine mid/contested ball palyer type stocksif we are to rise up the ladder.
Last year’s draft went a long way to addressing this with McGrath & Begley, in addition to Mutch & Clarke, genuine contested ball winning players. Those 4, in addition to McKenna, are the types of players we need to replace Zaharakis & Stanton sooner rather than later as midfielders who win more than their share of ball between the 50m arcs and send it our way more often than not.
For the first time in a long time we have genuinely good forward line. Out backline is ok, but too often swamped. It is the middle that is quite woeful as it’s statistically the worst in the competition.
7 Likes
Don’t like to be one of those “we should’ve drafted X ahead of y” types, but taking Morgan when we did instead of Mathieson might be a real mistake. Been a big fan of Disco’s work of recent times, but RM is a real contested ball animal and look at where we rank in terms of clearances/contested ball between the arcs. Morgan has been injured pretty much the entire time he has been at the club and it wouldn’t surprise if he was delisted at the end of this year. To burn a 2nd round pick on a bloke who might be gone in 2 years is pretty ordinary. I have liked what I’ve seen from Mutch and Clarke, they could be very good value gets…
Yeah Mathieson would really be helping us this year.
Aside from that, I would kick the telly in if he played for us. Only thing hard about him is Troy Pannell and co when they see him sit down as he’s about to be tackled.
I feel like trading out all of the suspended players bar Watson, Hep, Hurley and Hooker for picks/ young talent would have been more beneficial, and our rebuild could have started earlier. But I guess we overestimated our list as per usual and thought that on paper our team could make the finals as is. As well as this, it was about respecting the wishes of the returning players which I get, I just hope the same sentiment isn’t used at the end of this year.[quote=“Ants, post:301, topic:10289, full:true”]
[/quote]
My issues with the strategy were things like rolling over on the Crameri and Ryder deals, recruiting Edwards, Aylett, Chapman, Gwilt, Giles and Cooney, convincing Winders to play on, convincing Howlett to stay, and not being proactive on a rebuild.
[/quote]
Rockliff as a FA and Jones through trade would cost us a 2nd rounder plus steak knives.
We then use our 1st pick which is looking like a top 6 pick on best available inside mid with pace.
Heppell, Merrett, Rockliff, Jones, Goddard, McGrath, Parish, Langford, Colyer, Francis, Mutch, Laverde, Zaharakis, Fantasia, Tippa and pick 6.
Well balanced and versatile midfield group.
TLDR - I want Rockliff and Jones.
3 Likes
You saying you don’t want a kid that tried to do a riveting speech upon being told he was debuting that week?
Whether Morgan makes it or not, it’s not about “over Mathieson”, given we weren’t taking him.
■■■■ Mathieson, hasn’t played a game yet this year
1 Like