What if recruiting zones were still in place?

[LeBron James 41]

Thanks to AFL.COM.AU, our team would look like this (Note: NT players stay at the club they were originally drafted to)

MELBOURNE

B: Colin Garland, Will Thursfield, Matthew Whelan

HB: Tom Murphy, David Mundy, Marcus Drum

C: Shannon Byrnes, Brett Deledio, Matthew White

HF: Brad Green, Chris Bryan, Kayne Pettifer

F: Aaron Davey, Russell Robertson, Austin Wonaeamirri

Ruck: Steven King, Luke Ball, Simon Buckley

Inter: Kane Tenace, Beau Muston, Steele Sidebottom, Cameron Wight

It is often said that one of the Melbourne Football Club’s greatest identity problems lies in the fact it doesn’t have a set area of the city it can call its own. While every other club comes from a suburb, the Demons are from a stadium and therefore don’t really have a development area. They have patches around suburban Melbourne and did have a large chunk of the inner-city zone but few children grow up right in the middle of the city these days.

Melbourne’s saving grace comes from its country zoning area that covers part of the Murray region. Kyabram, the team that gave the Dees Garry Lyon, has also produced Brett Deledio and Kayne Pettifer.

Tasmanians Brad Green and Russell Robertson as well as Northern Territorian Aaron Davey remain Demons in a side that does not have a lot of depth and struggles to find key position players.

http://www.afl.com.au/News/NEWSARTICLE/tab...px?newsId=71153

No wonder we were so bad in the 70's - 80's!

If you want to see a team who would dominate have a look at Freo.

[Demonator 93]

Thanks to AFL.COM.AU, our team would look like this (Note: NT players stay at the club they were originally drafted to)

http://www.afl.com.au/News/NEWSARTICLE/tab...px?newsId=71153

No wonder we were so bad in the 70's - 80's!

If you want to see a team who would dominate have a look at Freo.

Yeah, but like it says earlier in the article......how many kids grow up in inner city Melbourne? no wonder they scrapped the zoning idea!

[Toot182 7]

I think we've got one of the worst teams out of the lot so far, bar probably Richmond - who I think only had 1 on the bench... and we're probably only saved by Garland, Wona, Davey, Robbo, Whelan and Greeney who were all recruited from outside our zones but in no-one elses...

[LeBron James 41]

I think we've got one of the worst teams out of the lot so far, bar probably Richmond - who I think only had 1 on the bench... and we're probably only saved by Garland, Wona, Davey, Robbo, Whelan and Greeney who were all recruited from outside our zones but in no-one elses...

Deledio is a massive gun, Luke Ball goes alright too. Other then that, we really have nothing.

[jacey 333]

Inter: Kane Tenace, Beau Muston, Steele Sidebottom, Cameron Wight

Ouch.

Chris Bryan CHF. Stop it.

Port Adelaide would win flag after flag with that team.

[LeBron James 41]

Port Adelaide would win flag after flag with that team.

Jesus Christ

I didn't have a good look at Ports team but it is bloody amazing.

[e25 5]

Jesus Christ

I didn't have a good look at Ports team but it is bloody amazing.

So would a Victorian team that had a zone that covers half of the state.

Its all relative.

This is one of the reasons we no longer have the same zone system...

[pitmaster 3,583]

Of course we have one of the worst teams of the lot. Of course we were crap in the 70s and 80s.

Country zoning came in about 1965. Before that we recruited from all over the state and Tassie.

Our country zone was the Goulburn Valley - Yze, Lyon, O'Donnell and not much else came out of there.

The strongest zones were Bendigo (Carlton) and Gippsland (Hawthorn). Hawthorn also got a lift because their metro zone took in private schools that drew kids from all over the state so they had the pick of them too. Throw in Essendon and you have the clubs that dominated in the 70s, 80s and 90s.

The zones were supposed to rotate but guess who lobbied for that not to happen (Carlton - who supplied senior execs to the VFL for years).

Demonator's comment is a bit misleading: "how many kids grow up in inner city Melbourne? no wonder they scrapped the zoning idea!"

Metro zoning always existed and inner city clubs fared well (C'wood, Carlton, R'mond, Fitzroy spring to mind). Melbourne's metro zones were Murrumbeena (Flower), part of the Mornington Peninsula (Healy's I think) and outer Melbourne we had something around Melton. Neitz was one of our last metro zone players.

Country zoning was the end of our golden period and it shows in this team. Maybe it was brought in to bring us down to size...