the exciting news is that we are officially going after a big fish gun mid at draft period
Who?
Has Fyfe signed?
Everything gone quiet on him.
shitposting i got nfi and half the time when people here say something will happen, nothing happens, so not holding my breath at all
Yeh 6yr deal at freo
Iām ignoring the first 5 years or so, when he had Sheedy issues, was part-time, and we had stuff all infrastructure or development coaches.
And it is with the caveat that Iām assuming that Dodoro is implementing a strategy plan put in place by the board/coaches (i.e. no sustained period at the bottom of the table, donāt trade anyone out of value unless they want out/are a trouble maker, the periods where we supplemented with older players, re-sign all the SAGA players, etc.).
Splitting between trading and drafting, on trading I donāt think Dodoro has been great. Not so much āgetting the big fishā, because I think like the fishing analogy, itās a rubbish argument that hardly ever happens. But I do think heās been poor at identifying and poaching developing talent from other lists, and hasnāt always got value out of those leaving (although the Saga clearly hurt there). Getting Goddard was huge, and for all of how he turned out, we beat multiple clubs to Prismallās signature, and Caddy initially wanted to come to us. So itās not all a disaster, and itās a hard area to measure. I think any team finishing in the top 4 or expected to be top 4 has a huge advantage over other sides. So on trading, Iād probably give him a C+.
On drafting, the only drafting clubs I rate higher are Adelaide, Bulldogs recently, and West Coast (marginal, and I think their development is poor).
Heh, you referred to the list. A list I never asked for originally, or replied to in its first incarnation. So donāt accuse me of changing the goal posts, when I hunted down the list you talked about. If you wanted to add a group of other players (Bennell, Thomas, Caddy) then you should have done so, instead of whining that I went and found and replied to the list you referenced.
I find it a bit funny you accuse me of not recognising reality. The reality is, with the exception of a handful of players across the decade, very very few clubs who arenāt deep into finals or the go-home location of a player has managed to snaffle a ābig fishā. We are actually one of them with Goddard (who I didnāt even mention, alongside Thomas/Bennell/Caddy).
Or maybe Dodoro should have just waved a magic wand and turned us into a top 4 team so weāre attractive for players. Or made the Saga disappear. That would suit your version of reality, right?
The reality is that Dodoro has to work within the parameters of the restrictions of where the team is at, the philosophy which is imposed on team management, and sign-off by the board and coaches. What those all are, and where the lines blur between Dodoro accepting and influencing decisions are, I donāt know. But Essendon has had a long history of certain approaches, some of which is clearly board mandated (e.g. finishing high every year), and I very much doubt the list manager sets the course, only tries to steer within the rules he receives. Thatās the reality he has to work with.
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On the nitty gritty of your post, maybe Tyson was a ābig fishā, but I canāt remember anyone really referring to him in those terms and he only was āworthā a smallish pick downgrade. Heh, maybe I missed one. I never had an issue with considering guys who were highly rated. But I think itās laughable that you consider Wellingham a big fish. Under that category, so was Lovett, Redden, McLean, T. Johnstone, who all went for late first round picks.
And Anderson??? Under that basis, what are you whining about? Dodoro got Prismall AND Edwards, surely your big fish quota is more than made up if you consider Anderson a big fish.
Iāve now listed the teams I think have done better than us recently. Maybe we can compare a few teams and see how the performances stack up.
We did fine in 2006 when you consider Gumbyās injuries (or do you expect Dodoro to predict that)?
I think you ignore that Iāve been calling out to do a full rebuild for years, including trading players out, which you should know. But weāve chosen not to, and so the Dodoroās had the picks heās had to work with. Despite my qualms, I think he had the list pretty well positioned around 2012/13, got in a big fish, was positioned to fill in more cracks with the status of high finishes, and then got torpedoed.
The point I was making with Hawthorn, Bulldogs and Collingwood is that they generally have had far more elite picks than we have. 2 top 5 picks in 15 years was terrible for recruiting. Hopefully with our 2014/15 picks we have more elite talent to go on with.
And why would we switch out Dodoro if heās been in the top 5-6 recruiters?
ZZZZZZZā¦
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WHATS THE ā ā ā ā ā ā ā NEWS THAT WAS MEANT TO BE OUT 2 WEEKS AGO.
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You just know itās going to be disappointing after this build up.
Ants playing for keeps. I like it!
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Talk of Mark Bradtkeās son coming back from US to play football as a category B rookie. Could that be Jackets coup?
Wanganeenās son? When does he have to make a decision?
LOL, isnāt he only about 10 years old?
Apprently 13. For some reason I thought he was closer.
But I might be rightā¦ Dodoro plays the log game on any exciting news 
Thank God you went for that log description
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Hard to argue our midfield has been average to poor for the best part of 10 years, I mean even going back to our times of dominance in the early 2000s it was based on excellent back and forward lines predominately. Itās certainly in dire straights right now and preventing us from being a real threat. The argument as to whether Dodoro invested enough first and second picks into actual midfielders vs running players that could become midfielders is a tough one. You would have to look at all the good to great midfields of the time and analyse what positions they played throughout their junior football (a larger project than Iām willing to undertake). Anecdotally it āfeels likeā he likes to play a little left of centre here. Or and I think this is a reasonable point to make, perhaps Dodoro is just not that good at picking mids. Ive always felt he was pretty good at assessing taller guys so I had a quick look at his record since 07.
Talls - guys that actually played KPD or third tall roles not big bodied mids.
Since 2007 Talls/Third Talls successors:
Tayte Pears (23), Cale Hooker (54), Tom Bellchambers (8 PSD), Michael Hurley (5), Jake Carlisle (24), Stewart Crameri (43 Rookie), Josh Jenkins (12 Rookie), Joe Daniher (10 FS), Patrick Ambrose (26 Rookie), Shaun Mckernan (12 Rookie), Mitch Brown (54), Michael Hartley (68)
Since 2007 Talls/Third Talls busts:
Darcy Daniher (39), Michael Still (55), Tyson Slattery (67), Christian Bock (36 Rookie), Ariel Steinberg (31), Sean Gregory (88), Fraser Thurlow (9 Rookie),
Undecided
Aaron Francis (6), Jordan Ridley (22), Sam Draper (1 Rookie)
Successors - I have rated Mckernan as a success as I think he has been incredibly handy ālistā wise, also Brown.
Certainly Dodoro/Keane look to have a knack of picking up some gold towards the end of the draft and have only failed with 2 second round picks, Daniher having his career destroyed by injury. If all three of the āundecidedsā become players which is a reasonable expectations on current output/development that has the recruiting team going at 68% success rate on talls. Now obviously I havenāt done the analysis across all teams but that appears to be a fairly successful record.
My point is maybe we just arenāt as good at identifying midfielders, I remember Scott Clayton years ago at Footscray churning out excellent mids and running players but couldnāt find a decent tall to save himself. Itās not unreasonable to surmise that certain recruiters have a player profile they are more suited to identifying talent in.
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I believe Dodoro and Keane and the recruiting team do a great job drafting.
But if I have one criticism, itās that when weāve bottomed out, we havenāt traded out aggressively to obtain blocks of picks in round one. I realize this would have involved losing favorite players etc, but doing it at the right time seems to be essential to establishing a foundation draft for an era of success. Yes this is over simplifying and yes I remember 2006 all too well. But its what I think anyway.
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