Season 2021 - North Melbourne

thats terrible for cunnington. deadset ■■■■■■…

one can only wonder if the recruitment of greenwood was because the club knew this? it does make sense. either way, just sh*t

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Got my fingers and eyes crossed for Ben, in the fond hope that he beats this cancer, banishes it, never to return. Come on Ben kick this thing!

There are not many things l hate, utterly detest, but cancer is one of them.

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Gee I hate to say this but these tin rattlers have a extremely talented (and balanced) midfield group coming through.

LDU, Thomas, Simpkin, Phillips and Powell are all first round picks that are either established or shown a lot of potential. Add JHF to that mix and it has a lot of fire-power.

Need more all over the ground and no depth whatsoever currently so hopefully they keep kicking it to drips like Larkey the rest of their career and go nowhere.

Just bedazzled me how they could overlook McDonald to be leading out the square to that midfield.

Fold and die.

I think they might regret drafting Phillips at Pick 3. It’s only one year in but he looks a fairly unremarkable player with no elite attributes. Not big, not overly quick, lack polish with his disposal, not a massive goalkicker. He was a surprise going that high from memory wasn’t he?

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I can still see what they were trying to do: Ziebell and Cunnington are almost at the end of their careers, get someone through the door who is the best shot at filling one of those spots in a year or two. Which is what Phillips was touted as.

IIRC, he was the highest touted midfielder in the draft, and certainly expected to go top 5.

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But those very qualities, or lack of, make him a classic Norf type.
So hard for them to resist picking him in that context.

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I dunno, you could argue that’s a pretty good description of Parish too. I agree Phillips hasn’t looked like what you’d hope from a #3 pick, but still a lot of water to go under that bridge.

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It made sense except that it also didn’t. They are in a rebuild and a KPF would have been an ideal pick up to build their forward line around. Comp is littered with teams who forgot key position players.

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I wouldn’t write Phillips off yet.
apparently he was a long way off AFL fitness at the start of last years preseason, in part due to lack of footy, and not being a string bean or a elite athlete like big cozy.

This is true, but I think the success rate for top 10 KPF’s is lower than for top 10 Mids. Burning pick 3 on a McCartin/Gumbleton/Thorpe/Dowler/Walsh type outcome would hurt. In North’s position, taking the more reliable option is understandable.

It’s ridiculous putting Bonar in that list but that aside it’s undeniable that the tin rattlers are putting together a fantastic and well balanced young midfield group.

Good mix of tall and small, pace and endurance and importantly goal kicking ability.

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Will Phillips is going to be a gun.

He certainly had a fairly underwhelming first season but when a guy is taken top 3 in the draft, the likelihood is he’s going to become a decent player for them.

It was weird with him because at draft time they stated how incredibly fit he was and that he was one of the guys most ready to play senior footy right away. Yet in a developing team that was giving lots of games to kids, he didn’t play too many.
My memory is that he may have got sick or something though, like glandular?

No, he just didn’t really show the form expected.

And it’s a warning that we might need to be patient with Hobbs. Contested ball winners with solid frames for juniors suddenly have to cope with AFL builds and superior running ability. Some are fine from day 1 - J Selwood, for instance - but others are not.

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That’s like buying a new toy that doesn’t come with batteries… booo! I want Hobbs now!

He was seen by most as top 3-5. Just McDonald was rated higher than Thillithorpe and was seen as a need.

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I thought Phillips was rated 5-7 and was a chance to be there at one of our picks him or the lad that went to the suns falling to us. Think we were assuming someone ahead of us would pick cox or reid.

A bid on braeden campbell would have been interesting by north last year.
although had swans known a bid was coming they would ahve traded out their pick which netted them logan mcdonald

This should keep the lights on for a few more weeks

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As much as I would have liked getting the Goat, its cool he gets to play for his childhood club

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I can’t believe I’m asking this but is that real? :joy:

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