He's had chronic fatigue for a lot longer than just 2009. He's supposed to be managing it very well for the last 2 years.

I thought the draft selections had 2 clear messages.

I wanted us to choose a KPF at either 11 or 18, and i thought there was a pool of players that had the potential to meet our needs.

This included Black, Talia, Griffith, Carlisle and Panos.

The FC has looked at this group and found there were deficiencies or issues that marked down every player.

I was a fan of Black from WA but it's interesting that the Weagles didn't pick him at 22 or 23.

Panos didn't even get selected.

The other clear message is that the FC has looked at the current list and determined that there is enough talent within the club to fill the key forward positions.

I can see Jack Watts as a viable KPF in 3-5 years, but I think he will desperately need some support.

Sorry Billy2803, but the whisper is that Garland will head to the forward line. Melbourne have a very high opinion of his skills and we now have Joel Mac on the backline.

The other options might be Martin and Morton. I suspect that fitzpatrick - when fit and ready - may end up on the backline.

So we have an army of midfielders, very skilled at kicking the ball forward from the centre.

All we need is someone to catch it.

He's had chronic fatigue for a lot longer than just 2009. He's supposed to be managing it very well for the last 2 years.

Point taken Bob, but it did seem to affect him more this year than last year. It can be such an unpredictable & frustrating condition, sometimes getting worse or better for no apparent reason, and sometimes what you do can make a big difference and sometimes it's marginal.

Get back to me in 2014

Hello jaded....

A little tongue in cheek. Something for the off season ;-)

I'm Stoked that we got 4 class Midfielders to run around the MCG.

Now Go for it Bails, Coach your ass off with this young talent.

LET'S GO 2010

Sorry WYL but this reads as a very interesting post 5 years later

I am unsure if Jordan Gysberts has the pace to be a top line player, but I am sure the club has done some homework in this regard. This will be one of the key picks which we will judge Barry Prendergast on in the future.

The verdict is in and it isn't good news for Barry.

Sorry WYL but this reads as a very interesting post 5 years later

And just a little embarrassing too

I think this draft will go down as historic, a turning point where we cashed in on top picks, made good use of good picks, and got fantastic value from lower picks.

Well, it's gone down as something.

Zero points to all of you. None of you predicted that 3 of our top 4 would be gone by the end of 2014, with the fourth suffering a career threatening injury, nor did anyone reckon Max Gawn would be the best player out of the six players we took.

I think I'm going to chuck. Edit: and dazz, you are a sadistic bastard for bumping this thread.

Sorry WYL but this reads as a very interesting post 5 years later

2010 was solid but it all exploded.

I was happy we got midfielders. The method was dodgy but the club had to get it 100% right.

The answer was a complete fail!!

This whole thread is agonising.

Truly painful.

I had even traveled up to Canberra to watch the draft camp (a fun experience in itself) and then come down to Melbourne for the 'Mates of Melbourne' draft event.

Four midfielders in the top 20, all of them different types and all of them highly rated. That kind of injection should be enough to bring a club at least back to something competent.

Scully and Trengove were the 'only a matter of which is 1 and which is 2' talks of the draft.

It really blows my mind to think of the sheer scale of the failure. Has there even been a worse first round of the draft, 4 picks, and almost total failure*.

* I still think Trengove can contribute, and Scully at least got us Hogan and screwed up GWS.

The lyrics have nothing to do with the title but reminiscing about this draft brings forth this sentiment in me.

Edited October 25, 201411 yr by Colin B. Flaubert

Why do we do this to ourselves? That was truly horrendous. I won't sleep tonight.

I've always wanted to say this.

Mods, please close down the thre ...

Glad I've never made any silly statements.

Get back to me in 2014

Go on..

Well this is just the thing I wanna revisit after a 9 hour red-eye flight.

Bloody hell!

So just quietly I think we [censored] up that draft.

Get back to me in 2014

lol

amazing post

Well this is just the thing I wanna revisit after a 9 hour red-eye flight.

Bloody hell!

So just quietly I think we [censored] up that draft.

The funniest thing is how you chose 2014, of all years.

This whole thread is agonising.

Truly painful.

Four midfielders in the top 20, all of them different types and all of them highly rated. That kind of injection should be enough to bring a club at least back to something competent.

It really blows my mind to think of the sheer scale of the failure. Has there even been a worse first round of the draft, 4 picks, and almost total failure*.

* I still think Trengove can contribute, and Scully at least got us Hogan and screwed up GWS.

Agree on most of this. Don't think Trengove and Tapscott are midfielders. I think Scully and Gysberts were. As you say we got out of the Scully mess reasonably at this stage but I was rapt when Carlton traded pick 11 for an ordinary slow midfielder. Could not believe our luck. Then we blew it.......

And for the record Richmond had 5 picks in the top 20 in 2004 and aside from Deledio at pick 1 they picked rolled gold duds and passed on Franklin. We seemed to repeat that standard on an annual basis.

lol

amazing post

Agree. Most sage post in the thread from 2009.

The funniest thing is how you chose 2014, of all years.

I reckon is pretty sharp. 5 years is a good and reasonable period of time to assess a clubs performance in a draft and the quality of the overall draft.

However in MFC's case it's draft performance from 2009 have been on the nose after about 2 to 3 years.

It's interesting to read through this thread and get a feel for the confidence and excitement that was brewing back then. I remember that Scully and Trengove were absolute locks as the consensus 1 and 2. Despite what the revisionists might say- they were IT in the 2009 draft. Following that I recall wanting Aaron Black with pick 11 and was a little surprised to say the least when Gysberts was read out.

However at the intra-club match down at Casey I remember being very impressed by the new number five who well outperformed the much more fancied ScullGove. Tapscott was a great get next and he would have gone by the next pick I think. The first couple of matches of 2011 told me we'd got a bargain!

We'll be debating for decades what exactly went wrong during this time and where the blame should lie- but all of these players showed signs of being very, very good footballers. Were they not up to the demands of profession football or were they brought into an environment that was not equipped to develop them?

This article by Jay Clark gives an insight into what the football world thought was coming with this Melbourne group at the time. It follows the win against Essendon just before the wheels fell off the club, the list and the Stynes, Schwab, Bailey era.

http://www.perthnow.com.au/sport/afl/jordan-gysberts-key-to-melbournes-engine-room/story-e6frg1xu-1226081585751?nk=c7bbb8a8de36c7cc2f6bb36fc9507b46

It's interesting to read through this thread and get a feel for the confidence and excitement that was brewing back then. I remember that Scully and Trengove were absolute locks as the consensus 1 and 2. Despite what the revisionists might say- they were IT in the 2009 draft. Following that I recall wanting Aaron Black with pick 11 and was a little surprised to say the least when Gysberts was read out.

However at the intra-club match down at Casey I remember being very impressed by the new number five who well outperformed the much more fancied ScullGove. Tapscott was a great get next and he would have gone by the next pick I think. The first couple of matches of 2011 told me we'd got a bargain!

We'll be debating for decades what exactly went wrong during this time and where the blame should lie- but all of these players showed signs of being very, very good footballers. Were they not up to the demands of profession football or were they brought into an environment that was not equipped to develop them?

This article by Jay Clark gives an insight into what the football world thought was coming with this Melbourne group at the time. It follows the win against Essendon just before the wheels fell off the club, the list and the Stynes, Schwab, Bailey era.

http://www.perthnow.com.au/sport/afl/jordan-gysberts-key-to-melbournes-engine-room/story-e6frg1xu-1226081585751?nk=c7bbb8a8de36c7cc2f6bb36fc9507b46

Gysberts Pendlebury-like?

Oh dear.

This bit is such cringworthy to read by BP..

"There was a bit of pressure with No.11 and expectation that we would go tall with that pick because it was seen as a pretty big need," he said. "Gysberts probably wasn't really rated that highly in the industry, and maybe a lot of people were surprised at the time.

"He didn't have a great under-18s carnival but when you looked at his skill set, I honestly believed that he has the potential to be the equal of Jack and Tom.

Then why the FK would you use pick 11 on him!? if he wasn't so highly rated then surely they could have waited till pick 18 or 2nd rounder aswell.!

Get back to me in 2014

Some jokes are like a fine wine. They need to be aged just right.

This bit is such cringworthy to read by BP..

"There was a bit of pressure with No.11 and expectation that we would go tall with that pick because it was seen as a pretty big need," he said. "Gysberts probably wasn't really rated that highly in the industry, and maybe a lot of people were surprised at the time.

"He didn't have a great under-18s carnival but when you looked at his skill set, I honestly believed that he has the potential to be the equal of Jack and Tom.

Then why the FK would you use pick 11 on him!? if he wasn't so highly rated then surely they could have waited till pick 18 or 2nd rounder aswell.!

Phantom drafts I've read didn't have Gysberts being drafted until the mid 20's. Unbelievable we took him at 11 when could've picked a half decent tall like Carlisle or Black. Sigh.....

Edited October 26, 201411 yr by Demon Jack