Too many top-10 draft picks at Melbourne have vanished without a trace

The headline and first paragraph talks about wasted top 10 picks

Then talks rising star nominees who have left

A few facts John about 2012

Jurrah had a broken wrist in the beginning of 2012 , we know what happened afterwards , had he not had a broken wrist , he may still be on our list, cant blame club

Wona went back home home sick and grieving the loss of his father, cant blame club

Gysberts broke his ankle in April for casey and in his comeback game he got a broken jaw against geelong for casey. Played rnd 19 in 2012, cant blame club

scully , has no chance of retaining him particularly with father son deal, backed by Afl

Morton was most dissapointing pick result, watts still a Tba, played too early, very kpp are afl ready , see tom hawkins

These days, there's a bit of revisionism everywhere you go it seems.

They will report what they want to distort.

The most amusing bit for me about the whole article was we had quite a few nominations, so the recruiting looked right, in hindsight which is a wonderful thing, didn't quite work out that way

The rising star is the most irrelevant award in the AFL. Gary Ablett, Jono Brown and Dane Swan, amongst many others, never got a nomination. Enough said.

The lack of development of likes of bates , dunn etc is not mentioned. Jamars replacement Gawn having 2 knee recos , clint bartram retiring early, no replacement for neitz getting developed at Sandy( nic saunter played ff for sandy not another melb player).colin sylvia having 2 preseason injuries that took a while to recover from.

Just stating facts.....

20 first round draft picks since 2004.

No midfield.

Yep, it's Jon Ralph's fault.

  On 09/04/2013 at 00:26, Range Rover said:

20 first round draft picks since 2004.

No midfield.

Says it all.

The Red & Blueprint is an abject failure.

How can people still keep faith in it?

  On 09/04/2013 at 00:30, why you little said:

Says it all.

The Red & Blueprint is an abject failure.

How can people still keep faith in it?

Wonder how this bloke will go this weekend WYL?

Geez he'd be handy in our side.

  On 09/04/2013 at 00:35, Range Rover said:

Wonder how this bloke will go this weekend WYL?

Geez he'd be handy in our side.

  On 09/04/2013 at 00:30, why you little said:

Says it all.

The Red & Blueprint is an abject failure.

How can people still keep faith in it?

Tag team time, Rangey and WYL one two punch, what's wrong, bit too positive this thread at the beginning, too many facts, know you have a disdain for them, how many more topics are you going to attempt to hijack with your relentless negativity, we know how you feel why don't you just go away and let the supporters discuss, in fact start you own board, there will be a few posters.....you could call it "misery corner' or something equally uplifting, spoke to a few supporters, they are now beginning to feel sorry for you.......

I wonder if Darling would be good in our side or just useless like the rest of our blokes have been. No forwad thrives with the lack of oppurtunities our forwards have recieved this year.

The recruiting has been PATHETIC.

Gysberts not the clubs fault!?!?! He was the epitomy of a wasted draft pick. A real Prendergast special. 'We felt like we needed some height in our midfield' so we took a 190cm twig that has no endurance or kicking skills with pick 11. Staggering.

  On 09/04/2013 at 00:52, Watts Jurrah Dunn? said:

The recruiting has been PATHETIC.

Gysberts not the clubs fault!?!?! He was the epitomy of a wasted draft pick. A real Prendergast special. 'We felt like we needed some height in our midfield' so we took a 190cm twig that has no endurance or kicking skills with pick 11. Staggering.

Just like the year before when we needed pace and skill so we reached for Blease and Strauss. And the pick after Gysberts who do we go for, Tapscott, because apparently we dont need height any more we need strong blokes.

The way Predergasts picks came out was almost like he was trying to draft the perfect balanced team when best available would of served us much better.

That said I have no faith at all in our development and even if we picked the eyes out of the draft they wouldn't be the players they are at their current clubs.

  On 09/04/2013 at 00:52, Watts Jurrah Dunn? said:

The recruiting has been PATHETIC.

Gysberts not the clubs fault!?!?! He was the epitomy of a wasted draft pick. A real Prendergast special. 'We felt like we needed some height in our midfield' so we took a 190cm twig that has no endurance or kicking skills with pick 11. Staggering.

, Not clear ,Not clubs fault he got injured twice, not in his pick . Still think he has potential but if he injured its a mute point.

Please Satan - enough excuses.... For every single one of those botched picks we can blame the club - who else is to blame? Vince Colosimo perhaps? John Cleese? Dame Edna? The club picked these players and for whatever reason they failed, meaning the club failed. Our recruiting has been an absolute disgrace - pure and simple.

  On 09/04/2013 at 01:26, simma02 said:

Please Satan - enough excuses....

lol

  On 09/04/2013 at 00:46, Satyriconhome said:

Tag team time, Rangey and WYL one two punch, what's wrong, bit too positive this thread at the beginning, too many facts, know you have a disdain for them, how many more topics are you going to attempt to hijack with your relentless negativity, we know how you feel why don't you just go away and let the supporters discuss, in fact start you own board, there will be a few posters.....you could call it "misery corner' or something equally uplifting, spoke to a few supporters, they are now beginning to feel sorry for you.......

RR and WYL are right. Too many of our supporters are happy to come up with excuses and just accept the ineptitude of the club. if you continue to do this, well then eventually you will not have a club to excuse but just a tomb stone. op has made it clear he is denial he failed to mention the likes of maric, strauss and cook. You only mentioned the failures which were completely out of the clubs control. Lots of you need to take off the beer goggles off.

  On 09/04/2013 at 01:26, simma02 said:

.

Please Satan - enough excuses.... For every single one of those botched picks we can blame the club - who else is to blame? Vince Colosimo perhaps? John Cleese? Dame Edna? The club picked these players and for whatever reason they failed, meaning the club failed. Our recruiting has been an absolute disgrace - pure and simple.

Hindsight.....wonderful isn't it,......most of the picks were taken where the so called footy pundits said they would, so everybody was wrong....not just the Club...we have done a reasonable job of getting players down the order up and running......there is another team full of No 1 picks that at the moment is zip and 2, yes they have performed better but still have the same points as us, using your logic must be a valid point...or our you going to pee on that as well

  On 09/04/2013 at 01:29, timmyo64 said:

RR and WYL are right. Too many of our supporters are happy to come up with excuses and just accept the ineptitude of the club. if you continue to do this, well then eventually you will not have a club to excuse but just a tomb stone. op has made it clear he is denial he failed to mention the likes of maric, strauss and cook. You only mentioned the failures which were completely out of the clubs control. Lots of you need to take off the beer goggles off.

read my above, when strauss, maric and cook were picked all the pundits said we had done alright and they had gone in the draft where they were expected to go....sorry facts again....I know RR and WYL disciples don't like facts but hey they exist......Hindsight.....don't drink by the way, but followed footy for many a year and a voracious reader and watcher of junior footy, all three you mentioned were absolute guns as juniors...Cook was AA.....but [censored] happens...if you believe the Club is dying then walk away....

  On 09/04/2013 at 01:37, Satyriconhome said:

read my above, when strauss, maric and cook were picked all the pundits said we had done alright and they had gone in the draft where they were expected to go....sorry facts again....I know RR and WYL disciples don't like facts but hey they exist......Hindsight.....don't drink by the way, but followed footy for many a year and a voracious reader and watcher of junior footy, all three you mentioned were absolute guns as juniors...Cook was AA.....but [censored] happens...if you believe the Club is dying then walk away....

OK - Perhaps in some instances we may have picked the right players at the time but we failed in developing them properly. AGAIN, who's fault is that? Lets not beat around the bush here - its a combination of poor recruiting and a complete lack of development that has landed us in this mess, amongst other things.... No-one else to blame but the club and the people they employed to Recruit these kids and to develop them to AFL standard. As a club we failed in both areas.

Something like seventeen first-round draft picks since 2003 and we selected less than half a dozen midfielders. At a time when our midfield has been poor, and in a competition where you need maximum grunt in your midfield, that's an indictment on our recruiting.

Forget sacking Neeld, McLardy, Schwab and the boot-studder, failure to recruit either tough and big-bodied, or fast and skilled midfielders with our first-round picks is the root of all our problems. Cameron and Prendergast have gone and left a diabolically poor legacy.

FWIW, Todd Viney's selections might be the best in the last decade, but they need time that few seem prepared to give. Toumpas, for instance, doesn't deserve being booed off the MCG in his first two matches and it's a disgrace that he has been.

I don't know why he cuts it at top 10 (there haven't been that many) but if you stretch it to top 20, the headline is spot on.

  On 09/04/2013 at 01:49, simma02 said:

OK - Perhaps in some instances we may have picked the right players at the time but we failed in developing them properly. AGAIN, who's fault is that? Lets not beat around the bush here - its a combination of poor recruiting and a complete lack of development that has landed us in this mess, amongst other things.... No-one else to blame but the club and the people they employed to Recruit these kids and to develop them to AFL standard. As a club we failed in both areas.

Along with 17 other Clubs, not every players works, tell you what go to the Geelong fan forum and look up Tom Hawkins or the Carlton board and Bryce Gibbs or the Bomber board for Gumbleton, Reimers and Courtney Johns....see what the fans think but in some cases the player will eventually come good....but hey patience, in short supply amongst MFC supporters....we have a squad of 44 players at the moment, this is what we are supposed to have......Mark Neeld is trying to get the 44 players he wants...like every other coach......move on, looking back over the shoulder achieves what?..........you ask the Club to move forward and some supporters on here....all you can hear is..."well I remember" FFS

  On 09/04/2013 at 01:37, Satyriconhome said:

read my above, when strauss, maric and cook were picked all the pundits said we had done alright and they had gone in the draft where they were expected to go....sorry facts again....I know RR and WYL disciples don't like facts but hey they exist......Hindsight.....don't drink by the way, but followed footy for many a year and a voracious reader and watcher of junior footy, all three you mentioned were absolute guns as juniors...Cook was AA.....but [censored] happens...if you believe the Club is dying then walk away....

ok so we had done alright at the time but the bucks don't stop there WE FAIL TO DEVELOP ANYONE. Had they gone any where else there is a strong chance they would of succeeded it can no longer be just chance that we keep drafting crap guys while every club succeeds and develops stars. oh and as for hindsight.. well that just can't even be applied to the mfc any more, you know before its happened that their career is over.

Yes, [censored] does happen here and there but should not happen every year, we have had 15 first round picks since 2003, you must love s$#t! Maybe you should have a drink ("alcohol brings out the truth") but i hope you come to a realisation before it gets to that.

Do not tell me to walk away from the club that i have defended right to the bone for 20 years through thhick and thin because i have now come to terms with how much of a basket case we are. I will keep defending it but I will no longer come up with excuses when there are none. I support the club and want what is best for it and the past 6 years have led me and the rest of AFL fraternity to believe that many of the people in the club are not up for the job.

  On 09/04/2013 at 01:26, simma02 said:

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Please Satan - enough excuses.... For every single one of those botched picks we can blame the club - who else is to blame? Vince Colosimo perhaps? John Cleese? Dame Edna? The club picked these players and for whatever reason they failed, meaning the club failed. Our recruiting has been an absolute disgrace - pure and simple.

I did not name the players written in the article. The journo did . Was any of the facts i posted way off the mark? Had he named the likes of Bates,Dunn, bennel ,I could not argue on the picks being duds. As you well know Jurrah was rookie pick and Wona A preseason pick so its not like we blew 2 top ten picks on these guys. I said Morton was a bad choice. Its easy to write about players who have left the club, but knowing the background is just important before you attack the club for bad picks and bad culture, bad development etc .