Given the direction Neeld is taking the club recruiting-wise, I think it is safe to say there is ZERO chance we will pick the skinny 72kg O'Rourke with pick 4.

No chance.

I agree Hulk. Neeld has shown a very clear hand of what he wants, and has been uncompromising in his focus. Big mature bodies, or mature disciplined minds. If Wines is available at pick 4,MFC will swoop. My prefernce is for Toumpas but he will be gone by pick four and I reckon Neeld will aim for Wines anyway.

Ring Craig cameron & ask him, then ring Prenderghast & ask him, then strike a line thru those 2 & pick the best of the rest.

Ring Craig cameron & ask him, then ring Prenderghast & ask him, then strike a line thru those 2 & pick the best of the rest.

Why waste time and money? Just arrive at a conclusion given by the punters here. Wines.

Ring Craig cameron & ask him, then ring Prenderghast & ask him, then strike a line thru those 2 & pick the best of the rest.

I like, i like a lot.

Put a line through CAC's choice, but make sure you put through 2 for Prendergast's choice (in permanent pen, no less).

I think it is safe to say there is ZERO chance we will pick the skinny 72kg O'Rourke with pick 4.

O'Rourke currently weighs 78 kgs. Get your facts straight. After his first pre-season he will weigh 80+ kgs. Hardly a skinny kid. He also has some of the best disposal, decision making, and pace in this draft. He plays both inside and outside and has elite endurance. He plays outside more successfully than his teammates due to his superior skills and pace. He also plays inside well, with nearly 40% of his disposals in the recent championships being contested. He's a well rounded midfielder in the Scott Pendlebury mould, and would be a great fit for our list.

The fact he is being made out to be a skinny outside player on here is f*cking mind-boggling. He is a well composed kid, is already performing at a good level and has far more scope for improvement than most others. Whoever gets him is getting a winner.

O'Rourke currently weighs 78 kgs. Get your facts straight. After his first pre-season he will weigh 80+ kgs. Hardly a skinny kid. He also has some of the best disposal, decision making, and pace in this draft. He plays both inside and outside and has elite endurance. He plays outside more successfully than his teammates due to his superior skills and pace. He also plays inside well, with nearly 40% of his disposals in the recent championships being contested. He's a well rounded midfielder in the Scott Pendlebury mould, and would be a great fit for our list.

The fact he is being made out to be a skinny outside player on here is f*cking mind-boggling. He is a well composed kid, is already performing at a good level and has far more scope for improvement than most others. Whoever gets him is getting a winner.

So you would prefer o'Rourke LT?

So you would prefer o'Rourke LT?

O'Rourke, Wines and Toumpas all have attributes that many clubs would love. I'll be happy with any of them. I'm just annoyed at seeing O'Rourke described as a skinny outsider. He is a well rounded player, and I think he'd be a good fit at Melbourne because of his skills, decision making, and pace. The key for us as a club this time around is to make sure we develop whoever we draft properly. We've drafted talent before, but we haven't been able to develop it. Hopefully that's not the case anymore.

What if Grundy is still there (which I think he will)...

What if Grundy is still there (which I think he will)...

This is my big fear for the draft - GWS go Whitfield, Toumpas, Wines and then we end up taking Grundy.

We have enough KPP/rucks we need midfiedlers goddamit! I'm sure the club will take the best available ready to go midfielder and I'm hoping it's Wines - but hopefully they're not tempted with Grundy.

I'm going out on a limb here, I don't think O'Rourke will go as high as people seem to think. Had an underwhelming year in the TAC cup and plenty of guys have smashed the championships only to be picked up late if not at all.

This is my big fear for the draft - GWS go Whitfield, Toumpas, Wines and then we end up taking Grundy.

We have enough KPP/rucks we need midfiedlers goddamit! I'm sure the club will take the best available ready to go midfielder and I'm hoping it's Wines - but hopefully they're not tempted with Grundy.

If Grundy is still there at 4 he'll be going to the Bullies. I still think GWS will take him, but if not we'll take whoever is left out of O'Rourke, Toumpas and Wines. If I was Silvagni I'd be calling out Whitfield, Toumpas and Grundy. Out of Wines and O'Rourke, both are great prospects but Wines is more what we need right now. I still think O'Rourke will be a beauty though. Grundy too will be a great player, but we are relatively well served for ruck stocks into the mid-term future. Most of the current elite rucks are originally from the rookie list (Cox, Sandilands, Jolly, Jamar to name but 4). The only really high picks spent on rucks have been Kreuzer, Naitanui, Longer and Leunberger in recent times. The rookie listed guys stack up pretty well. For us, it will be a midfielder - just which one?

we need O'Rourke's polish, pace and skill, we need Wines' hunger, physicality and intensity. We cannot lose. I'd go with Wines, purely because we wouldn't need to worry about our engine room for another decade with him and Viney lining up together.

There's always classy mids, we'll nab one (or 4) in next years draft.

If Grundy is still there at 4 he'll be going to the Bullies. I still think GWS will take him, but if not we'll take whoever is left out of O'Rourke, Toumpas and Wines. If I was Silvagni I'd be calling out Whitfield, Toumpas and Grundy. Out of Wines and O'Rourke, both are great prospects but Wines is more what we need right now. I still think O'Rourke will be a beauty though. Grundy too will be a great player, but we are relatively well served for ruck stocks into the mid-term future. Most of the current elite rucks are originally from the rookie list (Cox, Sandilands, Jolly, Jamar to name but 4). The only really high picks spent on rucks have been Kreuzer, Naitanui, Longer and Leunberger in recent times. The rookie listed guys stack up pretty well. For us, it will be a midfielder - just which one?

Yeah I'm really hoping (praying) we take Wines and that he is still available - I don't see Toumpas still being there he'll go #2 you'd assume. While O'Rourke may end up being a very good player I don't think he is what we need now. We need to work on getting the hard tough midfielders first and then can complement them with the silkier players in subsequent drafts once we have the core there - I see this as a similar strategy to North where they have gone for guys like Ziebell, Cunnington, Bastinac to get the core of a very tough midfield unit and then they can complement that with guys like Atley and whoever else they pick up in subsequent drafts.

It is a fine balancing act. We tried this strategy in 2003 going for "inside" midfielders Sylvia & McLean - adding Moloney to that saw us have a tough but pretty slow (with the exception of Sylvia) midfield unit (although had Thompson stayed it could have been different). So we went back the other way trying to recruit in quicker, silkier players like Morton, Blease, Strauss.

Getting the balance right is difficult but I think getting the tougher guys in first aids the development of the skinner/skilfull players as without the other guys doing the grunt work and feeding the ball out to them they will get smashed. Of course there is more to it than this (and guys like Sylvia and hopefully Wines can be both hard tough midfielders as well as skilfull goalkickers).

People keep talking about tough, hard, clearance types and fast, skillful, skinny types as if there is no middle ground.

I want an inside/outside mid who is strong through the core, reads the ball well in clearance situations, has breakaway pace and the kicking skills to deliver. Is that too much to ask?

The closest player to that description available at pick 4 appears to me to be O'Rourke and that's why he got my vote. Like many I'd love Toumpas but doubt his availability. I really respect the way Wines goes about it but fear that many over-rate him.

People keep talking about tough, hard, clearance types and fast, skillful, skinny types as if there is no middle ground.

I want an inside/outside mid who is strong through the core, reads the ball well in clearance situations, has breakaway pace and the kicking skills to deliver. Is that too much to ask?

The closest player to that description available at pick 4 appears to me to be O'Rourke and that's why he got my vote. Like many I'd love Toumpas but doubt his availability. I really respect the way Wines goes about it but fear that many over-rate him.

The only concern I have with Wines is that he's not a great kick. He'll be an OK kick, as in I don't think it's a massive issue, but far from elite.

I doubt Wines will become a genuine *star of the competition, but I do see an A grade mid in the mould of Boyd, Corey, Adam Simpson, Scotty Thompson, Jobe Watson... I think he'll be that type of solid servant.

*I know some will consider a couple in that list to be "stars", but they're not the type of star I refer to, but you get my drift.

And what do you think O'Rourke will become?

I just cant see GWS with its plethora of mids, passing on Grundy, who is described as one of the best big man talents in the draft for a while. With their shortage of ruckmen he seems too good to pass up for them. They have two more first round picks to grab mids or whoever if they want, but Grundy wil be gone by then.

This is my big fear for the draft - GWS go Whitfield, Toumpas, Wines and then we end up taking Grundy.

We have enough KPP/rucks we need midfiedlers goddamit! I'm sure the club will take the best available ready to go midfielder and I'm hoping it's Wines - but hopefully they're not tempted with Grundy.

What if we take Grundy if avilable, let GC and GWS develope gun mids for us then trade for them later?

And what do you think O'Rourke will become?

I really like him, but he's harder to peg. I think he has more class and potential upside, but Wines might be the safer bet. O'Rourke has better pace and is a better kick. He's also an inside mid at junior level, but in the early days he'll be outside in the AFL. Much will depend on the body he can develop and what's above his shoulders.

I haven't seen nearly enough of either, so take my opinion as an uneducated guess. Though I did read a lengthy interview and article on O'Rourke recently and he's an introverted type that seems to lack a little confidence. But I may be wrong about that and it may not matter.

Here's a link:

http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/149882/default.aspx

Here's a link:

http://www.afl.com.a...82/default.aspx

Cheers.

It's an interesting decision for the club. The current consensus on Demonland is the safe bet is the best bet. And I can completely understand that position given we've just sent Cook, Gysberts, Morton and Bate packing. All of those first round picks were of a speculative nature. Bate, if I remember correctly was youngest player in his draft year and Cook, Gysberts and Morton all obviously had pretty light bodies (and damningly still do). But we also know that the stars of the competition are found in the first round and sometimes those stars are a long way from the finished article. Do we take a 9/10 chance that we'll get a Scott Thompson or do we take a 5/10 chance that we get a Patrick Dangerfield. My nerve has been tested too but I'm ready to roll the dice again. Let's have a crack at O'Rourke.

People keep talking about tough, hard, clearance types and fast, skillful, skinny types as if there is no middle ground.

I want an inside/outside mid who is strong through the core, reads the ball well in clearance situations, has breakaway pace and the kicking skills to deliver. Is that too much to ask?

The closest player to that description available at pick 4 appears to me to be O'Rourke and that's why he got my vote. Like many I'd love Toumpas but doubt his availability. I really respect the way Wines goes about it but fear that many over-rate him.

Of course the desire is to have both but many players, especially coming straight into AFL from juniors, can only fulfil one role or the other. Morton was an outside midfielder, Viney will be inside.

What if we take Grundy if avilable, let GC and GWS develope gun mids for us then trade for them later?

That isn't a very sound strategy.

Though I'm sure Grundy is a gun player, I don't see him fitting into our lineup considering most of our forward line can play in the ruck (Clark, Dawes & Pederson). Also, with our key ruckman (Jamar) and young developing ruckman (Gawn, Spencer) I can't see we'll pick him up in the draft even if Wines goes to GWS.

Although I do know we'll go with the best selection possible.

Other.

Stringer.

The player nobody wants to talk about. Unless you're talking about him being a "steal" when the Bulldogs land him 60 seconds after we've called a name out.

Hi All.

For those that remember a few weeks ago I wrote some info on Wines.

As of a couple of weeks ago I was told that Ollie Wines was personally told by the club that if he were available the club would definetley pick Ollie up with selection #4.

If he is not available and GWS take all mids then MFC will take O'Rourke and definetley not Brodie Grundy. Which would make sense considering the talls we have drafted and our need for mids.

Not that I like revealing sources as its none of anyones business IMO but the source behind this one is: Ollie Wines & his father.

I have spoken to Ollie and asked him a few questions. He said he would be happy and grateful for an opportunity at any club but is desperate to get to the Melbourne Footy Club and is very excited at the prospect of landing here, just loves the Dees. Nice kid, competitive & is a big boy for a midfielder.

Lets hope he gets his wish.

As I stated in another thread Ive also heard Dees are into Mitch Banner & Ben Warren - how true this is, I'm not quite sure.

Cheers,

Hells Gates.