There has been some recent heated debate about Melbourne's drafting of recent times with some suggesting it has been disasterous and that Prendergast has failed in his role (RobbieF).

Whilst it is easy to examine each draft and say we missed out on player 'x' you cannot look at it so simply as that can be said of every club.

Drafting itself is not a hindsight exercise and is clearly an imperfect science. Clubs have different needs and are in different situations to each other as each season rolls around. Some are re-building from scratch, some are topping up for a tilt at the finals. Not every player picked turns out to play. Whilst the top 10 or so are usually all guaranteed to be good players, some picks are more speculative on what the player might offer. Some turn out to be superstars and some turn out to be duds.

I have asked those critical of Prendergast and Melbourne's recruiting in general to produce evidence of the drafting of other clubs in the same time frame to see whether Melbourne has in fact been clearly worse at it than others. No-one has produced such evidence.

I thought i would examine the drafting of a number of clubs to see whether in fact we have been bad or even disasterous or whether we are in fact one of the better teams at the drafting process. I chose clubs in a similar rebuild mode to us (Richmond, North Melbourne and Fremantle) and the two dominant clubs (Geelong and Collingwood).

In the attached files is the drafting history from 2006 - 2010 of Melbourne and each of these teams. If the attachments fail or you can't open them then you can go to www.footywire.com select the team and then the draft tab to bring up their picks each year.

I will let other posters judge for themselves however i will say that aside from the occasional player in each draft, overall, Melbourne looks to have drafted very well in comparison to other re-building teams and even in comparison to Geelong and Collingwood when you look at later picks, rookies and PSD selections.

It seems the complaints surrounding drafting has been primarily about getting 'bigger bodied' players. Well that's a great criticism, there are countless hulking 18 yr olds out there like tappy and Dustin Martin right? Some perspective please. We may need to grab a couple of older guys late in the draft/psd. But we really should judge the recruiters on top-30 picks (anything after is a lottery), and they seem to have done pretty well in the past 3 years.

Interesting reading

Nearly all of our boys got a run.

Interesting that 2007 pick have given us little this year due to form or injury .

The Cats have done well. What about Harry Taylor at pick 17. What a great 1st Rnder...

I reckon we've drafted well since 2008, very happy.

Yes some are a bit soft, but we may be able to put some shape into them, with good hard coaching methods.

It seems the complaints surrounding drafting has been primarily about getting 'bigger bodied' players. Well that's a great criticism, there are countless hulking 18 yr olds out there like tappy and Dustin Martin right? Some perspective please. We may need to grab a couple of older guys late in the draft/psd. But we really should judge the recruiters on top-30 picks (anything after is a lottery), and they seem to have done pretty well in the past 3 years.

Some would argue that the real skill in recruiting lies in your ability to make good selections with those picks after 30 as this is where more of the unknown is.

The Cats have done well. What about Harry Taylor at pick 17. What a great 1st Rnder...

I reckon we've drafted well since 2008, very happy.

Yes some are a bit soft, but we may be able to put some shape into them, with good hard coaching methods.

I think that the biggest thing that shows out with it all is that Melbourne do indeed have players with all the attributes. But it will come down in a big way to the ability of the coaching and support staff to get the most out of every player to ensure that those abilities are realised and we turn potential good into reality.

Freo's drafting in 08 - 09 is very good.

Geelong has done very well with the picks they had.

Strauss, Blease, Jetta, Bennell all haven't shown much yet. Strauss and Blease due to injury. Jetta and Bennell due to size.

Darling

The Cats have done well. What about Harry Taylor at pick 17. What a great 1st Rnder...

I reckon we've drafted well since 2008, very happy.

Yes some are a bit soft, but we may be able to put some shape into them, with good hard coaching methods.

Decent player going to a good team with a good culture.

Teams don't just get lucky. It's not just about drafting schoolboy talent.

I think that the biggest thing that shows out with it all is that Melbourne do indeed have players with all the attributes. But it will come down in a big way to the ability of the coaching and support staff to get the most out of every player to ensure that those abilities are realised and we turn potential good into reality.

For sure, & we have a history, even if it's recent, of being nowhere near Hard Enough.

Freo's drafting in 08 - 09 is very good.

Geelong has done very well with the picks they had.

Strauss, Blease, Jetta, Bennell all haven't shown much yet. Strauss and Blease due to injury. Jetta and Bennell due to size.

Freo caught my eye as well. They really nailed it in those years. Out of 2008 only Watts and Bail look the goods so far.

I would say that the players mentioned as an example Harry Taylor at Geelong are surrounded by very strong mature players as are the other young players at Geeelong, with the Dees we don't have that calibre of mature players, our senior players like Green and Moloney (Jamar excluded) are not in the same calibre as Selwood, Ottens, Johnson Ling and the list goes on,of cause we could look at Collingwood, Hawthorn and to a lesser extent Carlton and the Eagles in the same light we have to remember that the majority of our players are young and have not played many games, lets put some games under their belt and see what transpires and of cause this means patience and lots of it, I want instant success as much as any other Dees supporter but realise that it is going to take several years before we are up with the big boys.

Before people howl this down for talking drafting this early, I don't think we will draft too many this year. I can see us delisting a couple like Strauss and Aussie to be retaken as rookies. Bate, Maric and Warnock maybe traded if wanted by others and one lost to GWS and we know who that is. One might be uplifted leaving 5 spots with one going to a 17 year old compo pick leaving 4 picks. That I would think would be our maximum.

Darling

I could point out that it's monumentally stupid to compare draft picks in their first year, and that Cook could easily still prove to be a much better choice than Darling... but I won't.

Watching a replay on Foxtel last night of West Coast Vs Richmond from 2009 WC team was pretty much exactly the same as it is now minus 2 or 3 players it made me think we will be ok once we get more games into current players, we are on the right track.

Would have been good to also include the Eagles in the comparison.

Predergast has done a reasonable job in the 3 years he has been there. In hindsight I'm not sold on Blease, Strauss, Bennell and Jetta selections when you consider what was available. I.e Shuey, Hannebury, Redden, McKernan, Trengove and others.

Our problem is with the early selections under Craig Cameron.

Molan, Bell, Nick Smith, McLean, Bate, Dunn, Buckley, Morton, Maric

Many of these selections should now be our senior playing group. We continue to rely on late and rookie picks.

In the last 10 years or more we have failed to secure a strong goal to goal line. Too many light bodied tall and mid-sized players with no grunt.

All is not lost because I have high hopes for Troy Davis and Tom McDonald who could hold down KP down back or forward.

Wer'e probably only short 4 or 5 quality players to be a very good side. A couple of hard nosed accululators that are good clearance players, a super quick clearance specialist, a strong bodied contested marking forward, a Heppell type, and a young Bock type down back to help Frawley.

All is not lost but recruiting is everything and we have not been consistently good at it.k

2007 seems to be our biggest disappointment so far for mine. Was BP in charge then?

The only questionable selection would be chosing Gawn over Vardy. Chances are Maxy would've been around at our next pick (which would've meant we missed out on Fitzy), but Vardy was well hyped up on here and with strong reason as it turns out. I'm not saying we have made a mistake, but in 3 years time it may be a selection that either worked or didn't work!

Predergast has done a reasonable job in the 3 years he has been there. In hindsight I'm not sold on Blease, Strauss, Bennell and Jetta selections when you consider what was available. I.e Shuey, Hannebury, Redden, McKernan, Trengove and others.

Our problem is with the early selections under Craig Cameron.

Molan, Bell, Nick Smith, McLean, Bate, Dunn, Buckley, Morton, Maric

Many of these selections should now be our senior playing group. We continue to rely on late and rookie picks.

In the last 10 years or more we have failed to secure a strong goal to goal line. Too many light bodied tall and mid-sized players with no grunt.

All is not lost because I have high hopes for Troy Davis and Tom McDonald who could hold down KP down back or forward.

Wer'e probably only short 4 or 5 quality players to be a very good side. A couple of hard nosed accululators that are good clearance players, a super quick clearance specialist, a strong bodied contested marking forward, a Heppell type, and a young Bock type down back to help Frawley.

All is not lost but recruiting is everything and we have not been consistently good at it.k

Good poste that.