THE GUIDE FOR THOSE WHO DON’T REALLY CARE ABOUT THE DRAFT

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THE GUIDE FOR THOSE WHO DON'T REALLY CARE ABOUT THE DRAFT by Whispering Jack

There have been a few enquiries about whether we would be doing a preview of the forthcoming national draft and I suppose the answer is self-evident.

It was tough enough last year when the Demons came in with a first round pick at 12 but, with selections 36, 52 and 54 this week, it's almost impossible to predict who will end up in the Melbourne camp on Thursday night and what's more, there are a lot of people who don't care!

We can all speculate as to the type of player the club will pick up with these selections, and we're all no doubt hoping that players of quality will somehow slip through the cracks and fall into MFC National Recruiting Manager Barry Prendergast lap, the history of these picks is not all that flash (see here, here and here) .

As far as the national draft itself is concerned, there has been a substantial amount of coverage about the potential high draft selections rangy from the well thought out analysis of Emma Quayle in the Melbourne Age - Guide to the 2011 AFL draft and Jobs for the boys: building a club, finding a roughie to the various phantom drafts on various Internet sites.

Jay Clark of the Herald Sun also produced a The SuperFooty Phantom Draft with the assistance of Sam Landsberger along with the unbelievably hyped up Pick Me series of 30 profiles of potential draftees in which the theme was to compare each with a current AFL player.

But it's all a yawn this year because Melbourne went and traded away its only first round draft pick - admittedly it received a better player than pick 12 will probably achieve but it's taken all of the interest out of the draft despite Jay Clark's attempt to hype up some players who might never get a game of AFL footy.

Our resident draft expert Stevo who has previously been involved with TAC Cup clubs and keeps a close eye on that competition and the national championships believes the series went way over the top in terms of hype. Geelong Falcon prospect Jai Sheahan was thus compared with Carlton's Jarrad Waite but Stevo doesn't see the resemblance. Liam Sumner the next Dale Thomas? More wishful thinking than anything else at this stage.

Stevo won't be drawn into much on this draft although he believes that it is very much on the shall side with a few of the best players already taken as 17 year olds by Greater Western Sydney a year ago. He concedes that the Giants franchise comes in with a big advantage but he also believes that the proof will be in the pudding and much will depend on how recruits are brought into the system, how the transition from junior football to an elite club is made and how well they are coached and mentored.

As far as Melbourne's selections are concerned, he says that no matter what happens, pick 36 will always remain pick 36 but there may be some advantages gained from having to sit back and wait for so many selections to go through before the Demons get their first choice. He has promised to come back and look at the club's selections after this draft and the preseason and rookie drafts but he says he would not be surprised if more than a few Pick Me candidates are available when Barry Prendergast finally gets his chance to clear his throat and call out a player's registration number.

If anyone really cares, here are the 36 Pick Me candidates for Thursday's Draft:-

Taylor Adams

Andrew Boseley

Dylan Buckley

Matthew Buntine

Jack Crisp

Hayden Crozier

Sam Docherty

Brandon Ellis

Todd Elton

Sam Frost

Toby Greene

Will Hoskin-Elliott

Elliott Kavanagh

Adam Kennedy

Sam Kerridge

Billy Longer

Daniel Markworth

Jackson Merrett

Jack Newnes

Jon Patton

Sebastian Ross

Jai Sheahan

Tom Sheridan

Clay Smith

Devon Smith

Liam Sumner

Michael Talia

Adam Tomlinson

Dom Tyson

Alex Woodward