Great day for the MFC

[Dannyz 2,351]

It is not very often the MFC receives positive news articles or in general have a day where the media attention is focused on us.

Today was great. Very happy with all of our recruits.

Onwards and Upwards for the Melbourne Football Club.

[The Backyard Charizard 1,178]

Agree 100%

I have total faith in the direction our club is heading.... Today was great for us..... The right people are in the right job and the right decisions are being made for our future.... Nothing wrong with that!!

[Old Man Rivers 326]

Agree 100%

I have total faith in the direction our club is heading.... Today was great for us..... The right people are in the right job and the right decisions are being made for our future.... Nothing wrong with that!!

Hope you guy's are correct

I am surprised @ the type of player we have targeted today

I would of thought KPP was the focus

Like all drafts Time will Tell

Welcome onboard to all the New Boy's

[Jaded No More 59,546]

One gun key position player and a bevy of midfielders who can deliver the ball to him, is better than one gun key position player and two other ordinary tall forwards with no midfield.

Outside of McLean and Morton we have no quality in the midfield, and given that McLean can't physically carry the workload, and Morton is a beanpole who we may even have earmarked into a forward role in the future, that's really not great.

How many times last year were your tearing your hair out because our players couldn't deliver, by foot or hand, and we stuffed up any forward momentum we had? Our lack of skills, and at times pace, continuously killed us. Without a great engine room, your forward line is irrelevant and you can't win games, let alone a premiership.

Besides, Watts, Bate, Miller, Newton, Dunn, maybe even Garland and Martin are plenty of forward options for one club to work with. Long gone are the days of a giant forward-line. All you need is one really good quality tall and quicker, smaller forwards to work around him (which many of the players drafted today could do, along with Davey, Aussie, Maric, Sylvia and the list goes on).

[sylvinator 96]

The fact is that we have ALOT of holes in our list.

Some of these holes were filled today:

Key forward- Watts

Pacey, highly skilled midfielders- Blease, Strauss, Bennel and Bail

Small forward (to allow Davey to move permanently further up the ground)- Jetta

By filling these positions I think we did extremely well. especially considering our current midfield lacks flair, pace and athleticism, these players will add excitement to our team.

However considering we have so many holes in our list it cannot be expected to fill all of these in 1 draft!

We still lack a top class ruckman. We still need 1 more key forward to act as a twin tower to Watts. Lastly we could use 1 more great midfielder. Hopefully next year we can use our picks on these types of guyz so that we'll be fully set for 2010 draft which is taken over by GC17

[Diablo 1]

One gun key position player and a bevy of midfielders who can deliver the ball to him, is better than one gun key position player and two other ordinary tall forwards with no midfield.

Outside of McLean and Morton we have no quality in the midfield, and given that McLean can't physically carry the workload, and Morton is a beanpole who we may even have earmarked into a forward role in the future, that's really not great.

How many times last year were your tearing your hair out because our players couldn't deliver, by foot or hand, and we stuffed up any forward momentum we had? Our lack of skills, and at times pace, continuously killed us. Without a great engine room, your forward line is irrelevant and you can't win games, let alone a premiership.

Besides, Watts, Bate, Miller, Newton, Dunn, maybe even Garland and Martin are plenty of forward options for one club to work with. Long gone are the days of a giant forward-line. All you need is one really good quality tall and quicker, smaller forwards to work around him (which many of the players drafted today could do, along with Davey, Aussie, Maric, Sylvia and the list goes on).

Pretty much agree with that. All the relics over at Demonology are moaning about how we didn't draft enough KPP or a ruckman, demonstrating how hopeless their understanding is, both of modern football and the draft.

How many genuine KPP do Geelong have in their best 22? 3, probably, in Scarlett, Harley, and Mooney, only one of which you would say is a genuine star. Premiers last year.

What about Hawthorn? Again, probably 3, including one they can hardly get on the park (Croad). Premiers this year.

Sydney of a few years back? 3, maybe 4 if you believe that Leo Barry is a bona-fide KP type full back. Premiers 2005.

And the West Coast premiership side of 2006? I wouldn't say they had more than 4, and I reckon I'm pushing it by including Hunter alongside Lynch, Glass, and Hansen. Glass is the only good player in that lot.

Of all these KPPs in premiership sides, I wouldn't say more than 1 in any given team was an outright star. But wait... KPPs are the be all and end all aren't they? Apparently not. This game is won and lost IN THE MIDDLE, with hard-running, good disposal and attack on the football. All these sides had very good midfields, and that is what got them across the line.

Our Key Position stocks are perfectly adequate given the nature of modern football. If Watts turns out to be a gun forward, Garland continues to improve, perhaps adding a forward dimension to his game, and one or two of Martin, Warnock, Rivers, Newton or even Miller can lock down a place in the team and play consistent football, then the KPP ingredients for a modern premiership team are satisfied.

In regards to ruckman, aside from a few standouts each year, you might as well be playing pin the tail on the donkey. Good ruckman could come from anywhere (rookie drafts, PSD being just as probable as from ND selections), and as I have said previously, I'd be pretty irked if the club chose to [censored] away good picks just because such and such happens to be 200cm.

What we have been sorely, sorely lacking is another dimension and some creativity in our midfield, and prima facie our picks seem to be directed at remedying that situation.

[Carn dees 108]

One gun key position player and a bevy of midfielders who can deliver the ball to him, is better than one gun key position player and two other ordinary tall forwards with no midfield.

Outside of McLean and Morton we have no quality in the midfield, and given that McLean can't physically carry the workload, and Morton is a beanpole who we may even have earmarked into a forward role in the future, that's really not great.

How many times last year were your tearing your hair out because our players couldn't deliver, by foot or hand, and we stuffed up any forward momentum we had? Our lack of skills, and at times pace, continuously killed us. Without a great engine room, your forward line is irrelevant and you can't win games, let alone a premiership.

Besides, Watts, Bate, Miller, Newton, Dunn, maybe even Garland and Martin are plenty of forward options for one club to work with. Long gone are the days of a giant forward-line. All you need is one really good quality tall and quicker, smaller forwards to work around him (which many of the players drafted today could do, along with Davey, Aussie, Maric, Sylvia and the list goes on).

As if mclean and morton are our only quality mids.

If we had of picked up some tall forwards i doubt they would of been ordinary Cornelius slipping ryt to 57 and others lsiding i recon we could of got good mids and forwards.

But ill trust the recruiting staff and BP to no more than me, today was a possitive day for the dees!

[grant 10]

Its days like today where all the blowouts and frustration manisfest into potential and oppurtunity. If the priority systems still exists next year, I for one will not be flustered if we win fewer than 4.

[Carn dees 108]

yeppp i believe if so we can win 4 games and draw and get pic one and two?

[e25 5]

Bit early to start thinking of tanking boys. We're not Carlton.

And I hate to burst your bubble, but Bailey will do quite a bit better with this side next season.

(and if, heaven forbid, I am wrong, then, well... we're fu&%ed).

[Jaded No More 59,546]

As if mclean and morton are our only quality mids.

I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but we only have one true proven quality midfielder, who can get the ball and use it, and that's McLean.

Putting Morton in there was generous and possibly premature.

The rest of our midfield has serious, and I do mean serious deficiencies, primarily when it comes to disposal. Jones and Bruce have awful disposal, Junior is on his last leg, Morton is not necessarily an extractor or even a pure midfielder, but more a wingman, same goes for Green. Moloney can barely get on the park, Grimes is a complete unknown but hopefully will become a great player. So go on, who else, apart from McLean, has shown us that they are good enough to become a part of a premiership winning midfield?

Lets hope that the boys we picked up today will finally provide us with some much needed class and above all else the ability to dispose of the ball... and not to the opposition

[Carn dees 108]

I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but we only have one true proven quality midfielder, who can get the ball and use it, and that's McLean.

Putting Morton in there was generous and possibly premature.

The rest of our midfield has serious, and I do mean serious deficiencies, primarily when it comes to disposal. Jones and Bruce have awful disposal, Junior is on his last leg, Morton is not necessarily an extractor or even a pure midfielder, but more a wingman, same goes for Green. Moloney can barely get on the park, Grimes is a complete unknown but hopefully will become a great player. So go on, who else, apart from McLean, has shown us that they are good enough to become a part of a premiership winning midfield?

Lets hope that the boys we picked up today will finally provide us with some much needed class and above all else the ability to dispose of the ball... and not to the opposition

Ok make some good points, some i disagree in though bruce isnt bad and jones isnt exactly awfull.

IMO alot of our young blokes will be involved in our next premiership, Buckley shown great signs this year

both grimes and morton are rated highly and dominated as juniors, and are devleping along nicely. And will have big roles in our next premiership team. Fingerscrossed.

[Dappa Dan 2,188]

I've gotta say I'm going with the 'ologists here...

If the Hawks model is anything to go on, you draft your spine, and talls first. Give them a couple of years to develop while you recruit the mids and flankers that we all know develop quicker. You don't do it the other way around... otherwise you end up with Sylvia and McLean both 28 before your new recruits come of age.

It could still work of course, next years draft could contain ANOTHER KP forward and maybe a ruckman... followed by perhaps another KP defender should the need arise in the late teens... And things would even out a bit.

I'm excited about Jetta for where we got him, and obviously Watts is enough food on your plate for any one draft... but I would have liked it if we'd gone with another real name, like Swift with our second or third. Blease seems ok without being devastating... and he's tiny... and Strauss seems like a good ordinary player to me. It's VERY early days, but neither look like they are in the embryonic stages of being out and out stars...

I'm not ALL that pumped about these selections. But then at 17 and 19 maybe I was never going to be? At least these players look like the type that DB needs to fit into his gameplan...

[whitito 187]

I've gotta say I'm going with the 'ologists here...

If the Hawks model is anything to go on, you draft your spine, and talls first. Give them a couple of years to develop while you recruit the mids and flankers that we all know develop quicker. You don't do it the other way around... otherwise you end up with Sylvia and McLean both 28 before your new recruits come of age.

It could still work of course, next years draft could contain ANOTHER KP forward and maybe a ruckman... followed by perhaps another KP defender should the need arise in the late teens... And things would even out a bit.

I'm excited about Jetta for where we got him, and obviously Watts is enough food on your plate for any one draft... but I would have liked it if we'd gone with another real name, like Swift with our second or third. Blease seems ok without being devastating... and he's tiny... and Strauss seems like a good ordinary player to me. It's VERY early days, but neither look like they are in the embryonic stages of being out and out stars...

I'm not ALL that pumped about these selections. But then at 17 and 19 maybe I was never going to be? At least these players look like the type that DB needs to fit into his gameplan...

Early days??? its freaking hours. Our faith is in the recruiters, now lets hope they have done well.

[Lord Travis 10,307]

A great day indeed. Last years draft, and now this years. We're a few steps closer to a strong rebuild that will hopefully bring us a flag at the end!

Morton, Grimes, Maric, Watts, Blease, Strauss.

That's 6 top 20 picks, and what do they have in common? Good kicking skills and smart footy brains.

Next year we grab another key forward and a ruckman and we'll have a very nice balance of talent all over the ground. We might even grab those kinds of players in the PSD and rookie draft yet. Never know what can happen!

Edit: Maric was pick 21, but close enough. You get the point, considering he was rated the most accurate kick ever to be drafted!

[hoopla 418]

A great day indeed. Last years draft, and now this years. We're a few steps closer to a strong rebuild that will hopefully bring us a flag at the end!

I hope you are right - but I am concerned that Jack Watts is only player we took more than 189 cm.

It is a running game today but the difference between the top sides and the rest are the two or three talls the smaller sides can't match up on.

If Rivers doesn;t get fit and Newton doesn't kick on... we are only going to have two or three blokes on our list capable of taking a contested mark in three years time - Watts, Martin(?) and Miller(?). There aren't many options - especially with an injury here and there.

By taking five mid size runners, I think we took a major risk.We let the best group of potential ruckmen and KPPs to ever enter a draft pass us by. Wattsy'd better not get injured.

I'm not convinced it was a great day for the MFC - even if all of our picks can play.

[torpedo 33]

If the Hawks model is anything to go on, you draft your spine, and talls first.

Hmmmm.... I think this is a bit of myth brought about by the Franklin / Roughead hype. Can you provide a list of Hawthorn picks that demonstrates this actually what happened?

The Hawks drafted many more quality mids than talls, Franklin was the only real standout as far as tall forwards go yet they got 4-5 quality mids in the same period... Roughead isn't a match winners bum hair, he just happens to be surrounded by guns, much like a Mooney.

One gun key position player and a bevy of midfielders who can deliver the ball to him, is better than one gun key position player and two other ordinary tall forwards with no midfield.

This is the Hawthorn & Geelong model. Look at the lists and do the math.

Admittedly it would normally take a few cracks to get 1 or 2 gun key forwards but at the same time you need 4 x as many gun mids to complement them.

[Carn dees 108]

IMO i was hoping we had of grabed Lisle and cornelius both being available around pic 35 and 51.

But i have faith in BP and the dees only time can tell now.

[Neita3000 37]

I've gotta say I'm going with the 'ologists here...

If the Hawks model is anything to go on, you draft your spine, and talls first. Give them a couple of years to develop while you recruit the mids and flankers that we all know develop quicker. You don't do it the other way around... otherwise you end up with Sylvia and McLean both 28 before your new recruits come of age.

It could still work of course, next years draft could contain ANOTHER KP forward and maybe a ruckman... followed by perhaps another KP defender should the need arise in the late teens... And things would even out a bit.

I'm excited about Jetta for where we got him, and obviously Watts is enough food on your plate for any one draft... but I would have liked it if we'd gone with another real name, like Swift with our second or third. Blease seems ok without being devastating... and he's tiny... and Strauss seems like a good ordinary player to me. It's VERY early days, but neither look like they are in the embryonic stages of being out and out stars...

I'm not ALL that pumped about these selections. But then at 17 and 19 maybe I was never going to be? At least these players look like the type that DB needs to fit into his gameplan...

So Dappa Dan what talls would you have picked up with 17 and 19?

I have no doubt in my mind Melbourne was planning to pick up one of Mitch Brown and Ryan Shoenmakers at these selections however they were taken in the first round.

What would you have Melbourne do? Pick up some talls who they didn't rate at these picks just for the sake of it?

Strauss and Blease were the best players available at those picks no doubt about it.

You talk about the Hawks supposed "model" of drafting. In 2004 they were fortunate enough to have picks 2 and 5 used on Roughead and Franklin.

We had picks 17 and 19. Were you expecting us to pick up a Franklin or Roughead with those 2 picks? There just totally different circumstances

[LeBron James 41]

People, people. Don't forget we can still get quality talls in next years draft. Butcher (CHF/FF) will go in the top 3 and is a freak.

[Diablo 1]

IMO i was hoping we had of grabed Lisle and cornelius both being available around pic 35 and 51.

But i have faith in BP and the dees only time can tell now.

I don't know alot about Lisle but I've seen Cornelius in a couple of games, good and bad, and there were reasons why he slid so far. One is his body size. At 192cm and very skinny he isn't exactly classic Key Position Forward (more a tall flanker), which is where he plays. Doesn't mean he can't play it but there are obvious question marks with regards to the AFL. Also, he seems to be what I would describe as 'mercurial', meaning he can do some great things but also has a tendency to vanish completely in patches (cough, Newton).

If you don't put any weight in what I've said, then put weight in the fact that these guys obviously weren't rated that highly by ANY club, given each overlooked them at least 3 times.

[H_T 2,941]

Great day yesterday for the club. Really happy with the selections, I think the HAwks beat us to the punch by picking Schoenmakers, but we got the next best available in Blease. Did unbelievably well to land Blease at pick 17, who I thought St.Kilda would have picked at 13. Of course Watts was always going at No.1 as 95% of Demonlanders predicted. Strauss, great pick up at 19 too.

I am surprised @ the type of player we have targeted today

I would of thought KPP was the focus

We did get Watts. I am not at all surprised at the selections with pace and good foot skills being required. We got that through Blease and Strauss. Our midfield has lacked and the run and carry game plan needed these players. KPP wasn't the only focus.

One gun key position player and a bevy of midfielders who can deliver the ball to him, is better than one gun key position player and two other ordinary tall forwards with no midfield.

Besides, Watts, Bate, Miller, Newton, Dunn, maybe even Garland and Martin are plenty of forward options for one club to work with. Long gone are the days of a giant forward-line. All you need is one really good quality tall and quicker, smaller forwards to work around him (which many of the players drafted today could do, along with Davey, Aussie, Maric, Sylvia and the list goes on).

Well summed up Jaded.

[hoopla 418]

Think about it

Teams with the option to put a couple of talls up forward - and with the option of combatting tall forwards with a couple of tall backs are better off than teams who don't.

Our achilles heel in the good Daniher years was that we relied too much on Neitz up forward - and didn't have a quality tall defender

Project forward three years - and for Neitz read Watts.

Good talls are hard to find - and for the next three years at least the good talls are going to go to the Gold Coast and Sydney West

[Mono 454]

So Dappa Dan what talls would you have picked up with 17 and 19?

I have no doubt in my mind Melbourne was planning to pick up one of Mitch Brown and Ryan Shoenmakers at these selections however they were taken in the first round.

.............

Don't know about DD, but Gilie, Jones, Roughhead, McKernan, Post and Trengrove all went in 2nd Rd, and all have their supporters in the media. To say that there were no more quality talls available after pick 16 is absurd.

You make a good point that the other talls we rated might have already been gone by picks 17 & 19, but our draft is very lopsided IMO.

Remembering talls/KPP take much longer to develop, I hope like hell that the MFC have some in mind in the PSD and Rookie draft (if we have any spots available).

As an aside, Jones, Wonna & Davey (amongst others) had better be looking over their shoulders. Competition for their spots is about to heat up heaps.

[Diablo 1]

Good talls are hard to find

Exactly. And whom, in all your wisdom, do you believe were the good key forwards available at 17 and 19, who were also clearly superior choices to Blease and Strauss? Since they are hard to find, what do you reckon the odds are of us landing a good KPF with a later pick? Minimal, I would have thought.

We've got a hatful of promising young tall defenders. I concur another tall forward option would be IDEAL (if far from essential), but the last thing I want is us chucking handy picks away at a problem we are never going to be able to solve in one year, without at least a couple of top-10 picks and a serious dose of luck.