WELCOME TO THE MELBOURNE FOOTBALL CLUB - CHRIS DAWES

[Bay Riffin 1,478]

Yep, no one argues about the 'Cats' being slow, or how they are too big bodied.

They have positive proof of the benefits.

Exactly. How many of the swans players had express speed ? Very few. Seasoned bodies, tough tackling footballers with an appetite for the contest.

Something to keep in mind when supporters won't consider a kid like wines with pick 4.

[BangkokDemon 96]

I bet you would complain if you won a $10mil lottery and then found out you had to share it with 5 other winners. So far we have had a great FA/Trade period.

As for the midfield, we have Viney probably Wines, Jones, Trengove, Ray, a guy named Couch (who did just ok in the VFL), Howe (who Neeld described as a potential elite midfielder), Barry etc. No doubt we will pick up a couple more in the drafts.

You can have all the elite midfielders in the world, but if you don't have anyone to deliver the ball to up forward, then what's the point? The other thing is that Neeld has stated through this whole process is that we need experience injected into the club... and he has been true to his word and is giving us that in spades.

I for one am ecstatic over what they have achieved thus far.

Me too.

Can't wait for 2013 to start.

This is the excitement we should have had a couple of years ago and not the "Claytons" event we ended up with !!

I don't expect a flag in 2013 or probably not even 2014 (50 years anniversary), but if this trade period doesn't create a club with a future, I may as well follow another football code.

Go Dees!!

[dee-luded 2,959]

Exactly. How many of the swans players had express speed ? Very few. Seasoned bodies, tough tackling footballers with an appetite for the contest.

Something to keep in mind when supporters won't consider a kid like wines with pick 4.

Why do everyone think Port didn't go any good since they beat the Lions for the flag.

Too many flimsy & flashy types, with no where near enough drivers of the footy. They were a flash in the pan, & look whats happened to they're Club.

[Dee Fan 3,247]

Rockliff was PSD. Dalhous was a rookie. Suckling rookie, cut and re-rookied. Last time I looked we've still got picks there. Other than that you've listed 7 players out of how many hundred that went #19 or over? Why not list all the rubbish picks as well?

I'm not overly wrapped about Dawes for #20 and the rest of the shuffle, but I do support the theory of what Neeld and co are doing: draft the best available, and trade for needs. #20 gives you an OKish chance at a good player, and a good chance at a rubbish one. What it won't give you is a good chance at drafting a good player that also fills a need. Far too much would have to go right for that to happen. The powers that be have decided that we need a big unit or two added to the list (and ready to play) so we are trading for them. We won't get what we want with lower picks so pick 20 and a shuffle it is.

Will Dawes be worth it? I don't know. I didn't think Clark would be but not many would argue that today. Will Collingwood pick a 100 + gamer with #20? I don't know about that either. Maybe they have a one in five chance at that. Maybe less. Maybe they'll strike gold. What I do know is that you can't look at a draft from a previous year and say 'Well Joe Bloggs went at pick 27 and became a gun, so we should never trade #27 unless we are given a gun in return'. It doesn't work that way.

It depends on who's doing the picking whether you get a good or ordinary player and our track record isn't flash. We could pick a player at 20 that may play 100 or 10 games so I'm happy that we've got a known quantity, I'm not a huge fan of Dawes but if the coach sees a need then I'll trust his judgement.

We've had trouble picking top liners at the sharp end so until we get a new senior recruiter I guess we'll have to trade for existing players that fit a certain need.

Edited October 12, 2012 by RobbieF

[Johnny Karate 559]

On the face of it, pick 20 seems overs.

Dawes played his best footy as a 2nd/3rd tall with an A grade midfield hitting him on the [censored].

He needs to take on a lot more responsibility at the Dees given the state of our KPF stocks. No doubt pressure will come from supporters who feel that pick 20 may have netted a star midfielder rather than an okay KPF.

I bow to Neeld & Brown's greater knowledge of Dawes than I, but we better nail pick 4.

[Wozzer1 6]

First time post, long time reader

Dawes may not be the best player in the league but we are pretty sh*t at present and he is what we need. Congratulations on mark need and co for what they have achieved this week with viney, hogan, Barry and hopefully Dawes. At least we are heading in the right direction at last and hopefully it will be easier to convince my wife and son to attend games . Pick 20 might sound high for him, but we could do a lot worse in the draft at pick 20

[DemonOX 8,791]

Geez it hard to please some D'landers.

This is the most active we have been in the trade period for at least 6 years and its great. We have a coach who knows what he wants but more importantly what we NEED and he is going for it.

In the last 6 years I cannot remember being this positive about the next season.

All of the changes will be positive.

If we didnt make many changes you would be on here carrying on like pork chops saying that we need change.

I am sure Neeld has a little more experience in recruiting players than we do.

Be positive people its been a long time since there has been so much action going on at the Dees (in a positive way).

Edited October 12, 2012 by DemonOX

[DemonOX 8,791]

On the face of it, pick 20 seems overs.

Dawes played his best footy as a 2nd/3rd tall with an A grade midfield hitting him on the [censored].

He needs to take on a lot more responsibility at the Dees given the state of our KPF stocks. No doubt pressure will come from supporters who feel that pick 20 may have netted a star midfielder rather than an okay KPF.

I bow to Neeld & Brown's greater knowledge of Dawes than I, but we better nail pick 4.

Look how MC turned out.

[DemonOX 8,791]

First time post, long time reader

Dawes may not be the best player in the league but we are pretty sh*t at present and he is what we need. Congratulations on mark need and co for what they have achieved this week with viney, hogan, Barry and hopefully Dawes. At least we are heading in the right direction at last and hopefully it will be easier to convince my wife and son to attend games . Pick 20 might sound high for him, but we could do a lot worse in the draft at pick 20

Welcome aboard the Dee train Wozzer1

[Little Richard 6,265]

On the face of it, pick 20 seems overs.

Dawes played his best footy as a 2nd/3rd tall with an A grade midfield hitting him on the [censored].

He needs to take on a lot more responsibility at the Dees given the state of our KPF stocks. No doubt pressure will come from supporters who feel that pick 20 may have netted a star midfielder rather than an okay KPF.

I bow to Neeld & Brown's greater knowledge of Dawes than I, but we better nail pick 4.

Looking forward to seeing the realisation that Dawes is a good quality full forward in his own right. Has his head screwed on right and I think he is the kind of guy to thrive on the added responsibility. Hopefully I'm not wrong.

[Hannibal 5,814]

Rockliff was PSD. Dalhous was a rookie. Suckling rookie, cut and re-rookied. Last time I looked we've still got picks there. Other than that you've listed 7 players out of how many hundred that went #19 or over? Why not list all the rubbish picks as well?

I know where the players were picked, which was clearly my point. And I could have named many more. The insinuation was that there's not much quality available at pick 20, which is clearly false.

There are plenty of players at pick 20 that will be fantastic if you choose wisely. If you don't then there's plenty of [censored] ones too. Clearly.

[Range Rover 1,935]

First time post, long time reader

Dawes may not be the best player in the league but we are pretty sh*t at present and he is what we need. Congratulations on mark need and co for what they have achieved this week with viney, hogan, Barry and hopefully Dawes. At least we are heading in the right direction at last and hopefully it will be easier to convince my wife and son to attend games . Pick 20 might sound high for him, but we could do a lot worse in the draft at pick 20

Welcome Wozzer ... great first post!

[felixdacat 459]

He was a Dees supporter as a kid.

lol was he really or are you taking the pi$$?

[Pennant St Dee 13,250]

[censored] the haters who said nobody wants to play for Melbourne. And ADC, FFS I think you need to end the torture for yourself and find another club to support.

Well said Jaded, ADC needs that or either a stick mag and some quite time

[rpfc 28,544]

I know where the players were picked, which was clearly my point. And I could have named many more. The insinuation was that there's not much quality available at pick 20, which is clearly false.

There are plenty of players at pick 20 that will be fantastic if you choose wisely. If you don't then there's plenty of [censored] ones too. Clearly.

The insinuation from where I sit was the chances of landing a very good players tails off dramatically from about Pick 7 onwards. And that the talent 'flattens' out, to the extent that better players are taken as far along as the Rookie Draft than in the 20s.

[deejammin' 2,373]

I think that alot of D'landers are neglecting Viney's true value, should we take a mid with pick 4 (and GWS take Grundy) we have 2 of the best 4 midfielders in this draft as well as Barry (ranked a potential 30s pick), add to that Taggert who is effectively a new mid having missed last season and you have 4 highly rated young new midfielders coming in to our midfield. Add to that Dawes and Pederson who will bolster our forwardline (whilst simultaneously bolstering our backline by allowing Garland, Watts, McDonald, Riv?, to remain KPD). They will also aid the development of our young potential superstar in Hogan and Byrnes will fill a role that this year was a clear void in our playing list (might even rejuvenate Davey having another small forward around). And I think that in the first week of the trade period we have filled (to the extent we can) almost all vacancies on our list, obviously an experienced midfielder (I still think Wellingham would have been great but you can't win them all), would be amazing, but it still may happen, Farren Ray would be icing on the cake.

Dawes is a great pickup, he is an experienced KPP coming into what is meant to be the prime of his footy career (25-28) he has played in a Premiership, proven that when in good form is a 50+ goalkicker and pack busting machine. He has been out of form this year, but I think that between Nathan Buckley's new style (it could be they don't get along, lets face it Nathan is notorious for this), being forced to play the ruck role which he isn't good at, Cloke's bad form putting extra pressure on him and the fact that his confidence has been low there are plenty of reasons to assume this is an anomaly. I suspect that coming to a new club with two coaches he knows well and gets along with combined with getting to play his favoured role could see a Mitch Clark like spike in form. Not only that but he could be another 7 year player for the dees, we may well could have a Clark, Dawes duo for almost a decade. Also, should the Dawes deal turn out to fail we still have options to replace him (Hogan and Pederson) so he will still have to earn games.

Well done Mr Neeld.

Edited October 12, 2012 by deejammin'

[Tatu 416]

I view getting Dawes as another step in the road onto where Neeld wants us to be. The acquisitions of Byrnes, Dawes (potential, not over the line yet) and Clark were done to bring in a harder and more demanding culture to the club. Dawesy ain't the second coming of George Patton crossed with Royce Hart but he has been at a club that has been pretty successful since 2006 and one that has won a premiership. He has observed the kinds of behaviours that win flags and hopefully can bring some of that insight to Melbourne.

Some posters on the 'Land and Cameron Schwab might not want to acknowledge this but our culture is one of the worst in the AFL at the moment. Jake Niall summed it up best when discussing the development of Ted Richards into a star at Sydney 'Would Richards have become a star, at say Melbourne?' I thought it was pretty telling that he chose us in his comparison.

Despite all my bagging of the Bailey years, I will acknowledge that some pretty promising kids were recruited in that time. Unfortunately, no one was ever around to show them what was required to make it at the top level. We now need to top up with some hard nosed experience so those youngsters drafted in '09-10 aren't a complete write off.

nice post......

[rpfc 28,544]

Martin will be traded surely with Dawes and Pedersen on their way.

The effect will be a 2nd ruck who can play forward (Pedersen), and a FF to take the pressure off Clark. Rivers/Sellar will go to the backline and then Garland/Watts might be surplus back there.

Watts in the middle? Obviously, he won't be winning to many hard ball gets...but I just want to build his fitness base so I don't have to watch the non-existence of second efforts from him.

Not looking for this to be a Watts thread but these two new players will make the team a great deal more structured, balanced, and certain.

[Go the Biff 3,435]

I think that alot of D'landers are neglecting Viney's true value, should we take a mid with pick 4 (and GWS take Grundy) we have 2 of the best 4 midfielders in this draft as well as Barry (ranked a potential 30s pick), add to that Taggert who is effectively a new mid having missed last season and you have 4 highly rated young new midfielders coming in to our midfield.

Yep, good point well made. The Pick 20 thing gets me because I'm greedy. Handing it to the Pies has me mourning the loss of a crack at a Shuey et al. If Stringer or Garlett or Kennedy slip that far I'll be well [censored] off. But I concede there are no guarantees & we could well draft a Maric again. At the end of it, as you say, the club will have picked up the two young players it wanted most and some useful additions to the framework it wants to develop them in. Good result

[olisik 4,060]

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/afl/more-news/exit-dawes-stuck-shut-at-collingwood/story-e6frf9jf-1226494724164?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+HeraldSunAflMelbourne+%28Herald+Sun+%7C+AFL+-+Melbourne%29

Pies playing hardball and may want more then just pick 20. Don't know how they will justify that though with Wellingham being pick 17 and a hell of a better player then Dawes is.

[GRUN DEE 69]

Chris Dawes & pick 39 for Pick 20 & Ricky Petterd.

Pick 39 to be used on Pederson.

Stef Martin & Pick 45 for Farren Ray & Pick 34

Edited October 12, 2012 by GRUN DEE

[Webber 10,476]

Dawes in our side will be just as effective as when James Sellar plays forward. Will do some good things but will struggle to dominate. At least Sellar has some cred as a defender and is Dawes equal as a pinch hitter in the ruck. If he is the big hulk we hoping he will be then why did none of the big clubs want him? Collingword preferred the aging "hands of stone" to him.

This. He is very ordinary. Poor contested mark, average skills, not difficult for the opposition to negate. He's just a bad option in every sense. I watched him this year round 17 against the Hawks at the G, and his inability to impact the game was comical, reminding me of Juice Newton and Koschitzke for most of his career. He will bring us nothing but frustration. Why the love on here for him?

[Straight Sets Simon 23,113]

http://www.heraldsun...FL - Melbourne)

Pies playing hardball and may want more then just pick 20. Don't know how they will justify that though with Wellingham being pick 17 and a hell of a better player then Dawes is.

The difference is Dawes is contracted and Wellingham was not.

[Bring-Back-Powell 14,865]

For those that don't want to give up pick 20 for Dawes, you are all going to be very depressed people for a while.

Not only are we going to give up 20, I think we'll also be giving up a player.

[Chook 15,013]

For those that don't want to give up pick 20 for Dawes, you are all going to be very depressed people for a while.

Not only are we going to give up 20, I think we'll also be giving up a player.

That would be moronic. Dawes really is not worth anywhere near that much.