John Meesen was drafted for this year and looms as the worse trade. As an ex Crows player you would think he would get a game or at least be named as an emergency.

What' the go with him?

And who did crows get as pick 37 from us ?

Myke Cook pick 38 in last years draft.

John Meesen was drafted for this year and looms as the worse trade. As an ex Crows player you would think he would get a game or at least be named as an emergency.

What' the go with him?

And who did crows get as pick 37 from us ?

True, he's only 21 and was pick 8 in the draft. Ruckmen often take 4-5 years to develop so that suggests he needs more time.

Howver, I've watched 3 Sandy games this year, and he's shown nothing in any game. I'd probably be more willing to give him more time if he was a skinny rake ala Robbie Warnock, or was severely under developed.

The problem is that his body is big and strong. His running capacity is elite. The only thing that's stopping him is the fact he has no footy brain. He wanders around the ground like a headless chook and cannot find the ball. unfortunately this weakness is not something that can easily be remedied.

True, he's only 21 and was pick 8 in the draft. Ruckmen often take 4-5 years to develop so that suggests he needs more time.

Howver, I've watched 3 Sandy games this year, and he's shown nothing in any game. I'd probably be more willing to give him more time if he was a skinny rake ala Robbie Warnock, or was severely under developed.

The problem is that his body is big and strong. His running capacity is elite. The only thing that's stopping him is the fact he has no footy brain. He wanders around the ground like a headless chook and cannot find the ball. unfortunately this weakness is not something that can easily be remedied.

I do wonder what he showed to get pick 8 in the draft, as last week he was worth nothing to Sandy, a witches hat in fact.

I watched some of last week's VFL game on ABC, and from what I saw he was pretty soft. Sorry guys, but I think we might have lost out of that deal.

It was a waste, its ovbious. Why would Adelaide give up a pick 8 ruckman for pick 38? They had done their homework.

This is obviously one of those ...seemed like a good idea at the time. Well [censored] happens.. Not everythig happens to plan..Thats life.

Hindsight is a beautiful thing isnt it ..lol

The problem is that his body is big and strong. His running capacity is elite.

Yeah, if you look at someone like PJ, he didn't realise how big he was for AGES. He struggled, but you could see that his work ethic was top-notch, and his strengths, such as kicking distance and effectiveness, and his pace... would all see him through. All he needed to do was to work on his weaknesses a bit and he'd come through ok. What's worrying with Meesen is that he's not even showing the embryonic stages of a real ruckman. The Crows much be laughing.

I do wonder what he showed to get pick 8 in the draft, as last week he was worth nothing to Sandy, a witches hat in fact.

Is he just one of those guys who ha good stats? And is tall? Played like a man among boys... etc etc

John Meesen was drafted for this year and looms as the worse trade. As an ex Crows player you would think he would get a game or at least be named as an emergency.

What' the go with him?

And who did crows get as pick 37 from us ?

In you guys are going to repeat yourselves, so will I.

My post from a week ago:

It takes time.

That’s all this post is about.

Time and everything that can happen within it.

It’s seems that few here have much genuine respect. Respect for the individuals at our club and the time given to them to make a go of it.

I’m not talking about 40 years, I’m talking about 10 months. Dean Bailey was installed as the coach of the Melbourne Football Club on September 11th 2007. Since then almost every coaching and administration role within the club has changed hands.

Our list, since that date, has been turned upside down. Just last week we lost another player to the long-term injury list, a week that saw a new President take the reigns.

But still, week after week you call for blood.

Over the past ten weeks it feels as though I’ve read it all:

SACK Bailey, TRADE Sylvia, DROP Brock, DELIST Dunn, FORGET Meesen, USELESS Bruce, OVERHYPED Morton, OVERATED Jones, MISSING Mc Namee, NAÏVE Stynes. NO Game plan, STUPID game plan, game plan too HARD, Etc, etc, etc…

Too many supporters have such incredibly high expectations of our club, it’s players and coaches. Expectations that no club in this competition, in this circumstance, would possibly try to adhere to.

All the clichés are true, we’re a fickle bunch. We want it all and we all want it NOW. Well I’m proposing to suggest we decide to get behind the club and support what is a difficult time in our history. To rethink our expectations and show a bit of respect.

Please Demonlander’s be patient. We are experiencing a cleansing of the mediocrity that has held us half way there for decades. Hell, be generous give Sylvia a SECOND pre-season, don’t be so hard give Dean Bailey a season (3 actually but I’m trying to be sarcastic), let the coaches settle on a position for young Dunn, then concoct your pathetic ultimatums. Now that DB knows Millers a forward, lets let him get some continuity in developing as one, give Morton time to eat steak, Give 21 YO Meesen the same time that every other club gives their talls. Stop, shower and shake yourself before you ever write off the two greatest players this club has in Brock and Jones Boy. Consider that Bell might be lacking a bit of confidence (now why might that be?)

Remember that awful thing you wrote about Garland all that TIME ago?

I don’t know about the rest of you but I’m in it for the long haul, not just this year and maybe next. As long as this heart beats it will beat RED and BLUE.

SUPPORT OUR CLUB. GO YOU BLOODY DEMONS.

It was a waste, its ovbious. Why would Adelaide give up a pick 8 ruckman for pick 38? They had done their homework.

I believe Meesen wanted to come back to Victoria, not a case of Adelaide wanting to be rid of him.

The observation by many of us who have watched him at times is that hes not really in the same time continuim as the game !! He may not be actually be playing half hearted..but you certainly come away with that impression. His impact value on a game ?? well its yet to register !!

Melbourne do a bad trade? No!

give him time...

he hadn't done a whole lot at adelaide either... was pretty poor for norwood... a lot of crows fans happy to see him go...

he played 2 games at the end of last season, when adelaide were short of ruckman... didn't have great games, but apparently beat cameron wood when the crows played brisbane...

given that he didn't set the world on fire in the sanfl, there must have been something that craig cameron still saw in him... lets hope we can find it...

Its worth a punt with pick 38. Better than pick 14 for dutchy.

It's easy to overstate things but I believe the the biggest problem the club has had for many years now, and one that probably should have it's own topic, is that we hang on to players too long.

There is a huge emphasis put on drafting but I wonder how much goes into the other end. It should be a science. If a guy is a particular position type and x yrs old then he should have played a certain number of games. The statistical approach ain't that hard. You decide what a successful player is - eg, plays 80 games in his career and then look at the players that made 80 games over all the clubs in say the last dozen years of each position type and see what the average number of games they had by each age. For example, you look at a key position player on the list, he's 22 and played 13 games at top level. Now have a look at what the avg "successful" player had played by the same age. If the answer is 27 games well the guy we're reviewing better have a good reason to be kept like he broke a leg and missed a season.

Generally I reckon that a guy who is not playing in the ones regularly by 22 is just not going to make it. Please don't tell me the big guys take longer and so on. It's a generalization. And I think anyone that goes through our team historically will find that's true. I think there's very few exceptions - Cam Bruce might be one.

Then there's the question of when to retire guys who have been successful. With some guys you know their time is up because you can see there 100 mt sprints aren't so good (or there vertical leap or whatever) as they used to be. But also again, they should be getting a certain number of games if not injured. I think Bizz could be a good example of that. I think we had a contract for 3 years with him that kept him there for how many games!? (Who came up with that contract?)

I look at some of the guys we hang on to and think that the club thinks they may come good. The bar should be raised. We shouldn't be wondering about 23 year olds if they will come good and hold a place. We should be wondering whether they are GF quality.

Its worth a punt with pick 38. Better than pick 14 for dutchy.

It was pick 21 in one of the most ordinary AFL drafts ever....2003 Richmond took Alex Gilmour with pick 21. We missed on a star Dutchy was recruited for a different role both forward and back and over the journey has been servicable. There have been worse trades you should focus on

I believe Meesen wanted to come back to Victoria, not a case of Adelaide wanting to be rid of him.

Dont fool yourself with that. They did the trade they know what he is worth. They must crying they dont have him firing in the SANFL now.

Please don't tell me the big guys take longer and so on. It's a generalization.

No its a fact and you need to broaden your research to all AFL ruckman over the past 10 years.

Meesen has a 2year contract, He either makes in that time or he is gone. I think the latter. We traded pick 37 for him. Hardly a big loss and the strategy to seek out available capable big men to supplement our big man deadwood was sensible.

It's not a fact - just a generalization based on them

The same could be said for any football player though. If you're expecting them to dominate (or be at a high AFL standard) before they're 23/24 (even though it does occasionally happen) you're deluded.

Guys like Spider Everitt, Lade and Ottens have played their best football from the age of 28 onwards. You get the odd anomaly like Kruezer but their aren't many like him going around

It's not a fact - just a generalization based on them

Its based the experiences of AFL clubs in the recruiting and development of tall players. Out of all the ruckman who have been drafted in the last 10 years I dont think there has been one ruckman that has not need a number of years to reach their potential. I have seen a number of midfielder excel from very early in their careers.

Rhino, I'm sorry I didn't express myself well. The generalization I was referring to was not about big men. It would be clearerif it said "Generally I reckon that a guy who is not playing in the ones regularly by 22 is just not going to make it - but this only a generalization so please don't tell me the big guys take longer and so on.

I remember agreeing with our Footy dept when they dumped Simmonds. To me he just didn't have a footy brain. How wrong I was.

Ditto with Jolly. I felt he just didn't have the heart. Wrong again.

Let's give Meesen a bit more time.

John Meesen was drafted for this year and looms as the worse trade. As an ex Crows player you would think he would get a game or at least be named as an emergency.

What' the go with him?

And who did crows get as pick 37 from us ?

Official word is that he can't jump over a match box which is not encouraging for a potential ruckman. The fitness boys have him doing special upward jumping exercises to improve this situation. Let's hope it works.

Myke Cook pick 38 in last years draft.

the crows actually on-traded pick 37 to north melbourne for Brad Moran, who used it to draft Scott D. Thompson

Give him a game soon . He has actually played a few AFL games. I don`t care how ordinary he is playin at Sandy, give him a run! Who knows maybe he can be a decoy up forward as it sounds like he is not much chop in the ruck?!

Idea!! We should on-trade him to Sydney for Darren Jolly.

Give Meesen game time ?? Inspired Seriously.. Lets see if he has anything..Its not likethe results matter unless he turns out to be OK . Got to mind that draft pick !! lol