2008 Draft, what does it all mean?

[Little Goffy 14,662]

The Melbourne Football Club has suddenly become one of the AFL’s fastest sides, with almost all it's new draftees specifically noted for speed and agility.

In fact, ALL of our draftees also had ‘good skills’ comments next to their name, and perhaps most impressively all have had ‘smart player’ and ‘reads the play well’ comments thrown around about them too.

The draft selections are an unmistakable vote of confidence in our existing tall forward group – just the hole at FF/CHF has been filled – or perhaps more accurately, we now have great material to fill it but it might take a while to do the pour.

The flood of skilled, agile and fast midfielders is likely to push players such as Matthew Bate, who has often been used as a utility, forward much more of the time to do the leading, marking and long kicking that were the most promising features of his game not so long ago.

Adding to that, it has been well noted that the Demon’s much discussed game plan was falling down before it ever got to the forward line, as there simply wasn’t enough speed and skill to execute it. This draft shifts the balance significantly on that front, too.

Mclean and Jones will go from being the too-slow workhorses to being very explicitly Scott West style players, feeding a fleet of skilled runners and using their endurance to get to every possible contested ball. Nathan Jones in particular could see tremendous benefits from not feeling a need to do everything himself, and having a single clear task to dedicate his effort towards.

This draft is also a major vote of confidence in Mark Jamar and Paul Johnson. Perhaps Stefan Martin will end up doing some ruckwork after all, because there isn’t a lot of ruck depth on the list right now. I’m sure this is an area where many Demons will have their fingers crossed - is it a vote of confidence, or just a choice to take the risk here, rather than try to cover all areas in one draft?

Two new aboriginal players mean we now have five on our list: Davey, Whelan, Wonaeamirri, Bennell and Jetta. Without descending into stereotypes, there’s no denying that many indigenous players take seriously an obligation to provide mutual support, and having a substantial group of indigenous players across a range of ages is a definite positive factor. The more the merrier.

The delay to the Pre-season draft will give the club some time to interview a few people and conduct ‘due diligence’ on character and determination. Then draft Casey Sibosado. If he had any arrogance issues or whatever the hell it was that made 16 clubs overlook him, being snubbed at the draft should help squash that.

And for the future?

I would tip that a relatively small number of players will exit the club next year (end of 2009), as the feature of that draft will be shallowness – increased age requirement and the ongoing siphoning off of players from Queensland who choose to sign with the Gold Coast team will shrink the pool significantly. A trade to advance a pick might happen if we have a player not getting opportunities because of a full best 22, or a ‘best set’ in their area (a speculative example would be James Frawley, should our defence continue to improve and especially if Rivers comes back in at full steam)

The year after that (end of 2010), some players - remember that we re-signed a whole swag of young players for two years - may be up for trade to the new Gold Coast club, hopefully at inflated prices as Gold Coast will have lots of good draft picks but be in need of some ready-to-go players. Obviously I wouldn’t want it to be anyone I rate especially highly, but there’s no harm in helping a couple of OK to Good players make a fresh start and stretch their career. Brad Miller is even from the area.

And we'll need those traded picks, too. Because by the end of 2010 the Demons won't be playing around with luxuries like number one picks anymore.

[e25 5]

Damn good post. I've nothing to add just now.

[Guest]

Not sure if you can claim the 'unmistakable vote of confidence' in our forward line talls.

BP clearly thinks we have a few areas that need fixing - "We weren't going to be able to be able to address all our issues in one day..." http://www.melbournefc.com.au/tabid/7415/D...px?newsid=70460

I'm just glad that the 10 talls taken in the first round pushed some quality mids to our next picks.

[Demon Disciple 12,285]

It means, that with another decent year of drafting in '09, ie. Butcher and Scully (yes one more year of pain, with only 4 wins)

we could be finally on our way to the elusive 13th.

[grazman 7,463]

Great Post DD.

[Deeoldfart 8,077]

Astute and thoughtful post DD.

[H_T 3,049]

And we'll need those traded picks, too. Because by the end of 2010 the Demons won't be playing around with luxuries like number one picks anymore.

Yes, good post DD. The end of 2010 is not that too far away really. You sound quite confident we'll be well and truly out of oblivion. I have my fingers crossed we are out of that position by then.

[45HG 1,559]

We will be