1999 AFL Draft, who was responsible?

[Rollo2 64]

This is crazy. We had picks 19, 20, 42, 50, 63 and 64, and we ended up with Green, Wheatley, Bruce, and Whelan. Who was our recruiter back then and can we get him back please? The more I watch this game the more I'm convinced that drafting well is the only way up for a bottom club.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_AFL_Draft

[S.R.J 418]

I think we all need to get the [censored] over the past mistakes of our recruiter etc. time to move on, build a bridge and get the [censored] over it. What's done is done

[What 18,810]

This is crazy. We had picks 19, 20, 42, 50, 63 and 64, and we ended up with Green, Wheatley, Bruce, and Whelan. Who was our recruiter back then and can we get him back please? The more I watch this game the more I'm convinced that drafting well is the only way up for a bottom club.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_AFL_Draft

we drafted brilliantly last year (Viney, Hogan, Toump,Kent M Jones, Terlich) and that will continue

The duds recruiters are gone now thank christ

[CHAMP 347]

This is crazy. We had picks 19, 20, 42, 50, 63 and 64, and we ended up with Green, Wheatley, Bruce, and Whelan. Who was our recruiter back then and can we get him back please? The more I watch this game the more I'm convinced that drafting well is the only way up for a bottom club.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_AFL_Draft

Craig Cameron?

[Rollo2 64]

Let's let last year's draftees prove themselves a little more before judging it to be a brilliant year, but yes, it looks good so far. Well, it looks OK. Toumpas at pick 4 isn't certain not to have been a blunder you'd have to say. Not bagging him or defending him, just don't think he's shown much yet.

Craig Cameron it was. http://demonwiki.org/tiki-index.php?page=Craig+Cameron

Now at Richmond, who i'd argue HAVE drafted brilliantly since he got there. Surely the AFL will buy him back for us!

[Bang Bang Bang 5,574]

Craig Cameron picked Cale Morton. Jussssst sayin....

[bentleigh demon 64 6]

Let's let last year's draftees prove themselves a little more before judging it to be a brilliant year, but yes, it looks good so far. Well, it looks OK. Toumpas at pick 4 isn't certain not to have been a blunder you'd have to say. Not bagging him or defending him, just don't think he's shown much yet.

Craig Cameron it was. http://demonwiki.org/tiki-index.php?page=Craig+Cameron

Now at Richmond, who i'd argue HAVE drafted brilliantly since he got there. Surely the AFL will buy him back for us!

Craig Cameron resigned from Richmond earlier in year and was General Manager, not recruiter.

[Rhino Richards 1,467]

Cameron is no longer in football. He is now working in the thoroughbred industry.

For the record, his 1999 draft was very very good. It's a pity that 2000 onwards to 2007 were a washout with apologies to Chippa, Garland,N Jones.

[Little Goffy 12,833]

In the 1999 pre-season draft we also snared another 100-gamer, the mighty, beloved and deeply missed Simon Godfrey.

Craig Cameron did alright as a recruiter overall, Jones, Frawley, Thompson, were all about as good value as any from their respective drafts. Sylvia and Mclean were ok acquisitions at the top of one of the worst drafts ever!

It was the quest for a tall target to replace David Neitz that did him in -

Nick Smith (15), Luke Molan (9, but so much bad luck who can you blame?), Bate (13), Dunn (15)

The other error was a willingness to trade decent picks to acquire second-rate players. Earnest tryers generally, and no knock on them, but the decisions to spend on them were not ideal.

There was also a sustained list management issue with over-paying our 'franchise' players as if they were stars, instead of just very good players.

We'll never quite know what went so horribly wrong in 2007/08/09, and there will always be bitter recriminations because so many of those guys seemed really promising in their first year or two.

And getting back to the 1999 draft... ohhhh boy what a draft it was. Like shooting fish from inside a fish in a barrel full of salted fish. 25 players, more than a quarter of those taken in the national draft that year, went on to pass 200 games.

[Clark_Kent 315]

Cats Drafting wasn't bad either besides a couple players. But Corey at 8, Chapman 31, Ling 38 and Enright 47 is a pretty good effort.

[Supermercado 2,649]

This is crazy. We had picks 19, 20, 42, 50, 63 and 64, and we ended up with Green, Wheatley, Bruce, and Whelan. Who was our recruiter back then and can we get him back please? The more I watch this game the more I'm convinced that drafting well is the only way up for a bottom club.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_AFL_Draft

There used to be a clip on YouTube of the first round of that draft (probably still is, CBF searching for it) where they're focused on Green and waiting for him to get selected from about pick six onwards. Maybe we just got lucky on that one? Also I'd argue that while Wheatley was handy he'd probably be copping hell on here as a #20 pick these days.

[Whispering_Jack 28,096]

That was also the year when we lost our first pick due to salary cap breaches. Imagine how good that draft could have been had we held on to the pick?

[Macca 16,174]

That was also the year when we lost our first pick due to salary cap breaches. Imagine how good that draft could have been had we held on to the pick?

Freo received our pick (which would have been pick 5) Jeff White and our breaches of the salary cap were the broad reasons.

The Dockers ended up with 3 picks in the top 5 (Hasleby 2, Pavlich 4, Leigh Brown 5) That included a priority pick of course ('apparently' there weren't any shenanigans involved!)

Fiora went at pick 3

1999 AFL Draft

[Bang Bang Bang 5,574]

Cameron is no longer in football. He is now working in the thoroughbred industry.

For the record, his 1999 draft was very very good. It's a pity that 2000 onwards to 2007 were a washout with apologies to Chippa, Garland,N Jones.

To be fair he nabbed Scott Thompson with pick 16 in 2000; Sylvia and McLean in 2003 (doesn't look good on paper - but look at those taken around them) and a few reasonable rookie and late draft selections.

He completely bombed out in the 2001 superdraft as well as 2002, 2004 and 2007 so shouldn't be hailed as a genius. Prone to errors like the rest of us but only a middle-of-the-road recruiter for mine.

Apologies if your reading this CAC1963

[Earl Hood 5,850]

To be fair he nabbed Scott Thompson with pick 16 in 2000; Sylvia and McLean in 2003 (doesn't look good on paper - but look at those taken around them) and a few reasonable rookie and late draft selections.

He completely bombed out in the 2001 superdraft as well as 2002, 2004 and 2007 so shouldn't be hailed as a genius. Prone to errors like the rest of us but only a middle-of-the-road recruiter for mine.

Apologies if your reading this CAC1963

Looks a lot like the law of averages in play here. CC got it right in 99 but it all drops away in 2001 and 2002 etc. I think I might have about the same hit rate as these guys. I pick Scott Thompson one year then I pick Bate and Dunn the next. Is that recruiting talent or the law of averages? Geelong and Hawthorn seem to have picked the eyes out of a number of drafts, did they have better recruiters or better opportunities in drafts that had real talent. I always look at the drafts of 2003 versus 2004. Both MFC and HFC had similar priority picks but look at the talent pool!

Oh hold on we are now going to get into the player development argument. All I will say to that is I remember Neil Danaher saying he interviewed Roughead and said he would be a champ and I saw Buddy's first game against us in 2005 as a skinny tall kid playing on the wing and said to my Hawk friends, who the hell is that kid? You could see the talent immediately.

The Hawks managed it again in 2007 with Rioli. Within 3 months of training he was playing exceptional, if erratic footy and played a great finals series. My point is there was minimal player development here, more an inspired selection yet again by a good side. And that adds another recruitment variable. Recruiting a player into a good team adds to their chances of success.

[angrydee 842]

. Recruiting a player into a good team adds to their chances of success.

When you are recruited into a top side you learn from the best, and have the best coaching.

When you you are recruited by the likes of us, you learn from excrement. Hard to develop your skills in that environment.

Hopefully that is about to change.

[praha 10,441]

Every club drafts well: you go into a draft knowing what sort of player you need and how they can fit in a piece of the puzzle. If Melbourne hadn't taken the players they'd taken in the past years at the positions they did, other clubs would have thereabouts.

It's clearly been the club's capacity to manage and develop the young men that come into the organisation.

Rarely do players come into the league 100% equipped to play in AFL standard.

The club has absolutely sucked at a managerial level. The recruiters really can only do so much.

[Rhino Richards 1,467]

In the 1999 pre-season draft we also snared another 100-gamer, the mighty, beloved and deeply missed Simon Godfrey.

Craig Cameron did alright as a recruiter overall, Jones, Frawley, Thompson, were all about as good value as any from their respective drafts. Sylvia and Mclean were ok acquisitions at the top of one of the worst drafts ever!

It was the quest for a tall target to replace David Neitz that did him in -

Nick Smith (15), Luke Molan (9, but so much bad luck who can you blame?), Bate (13), Dunn (15)

The other error was a willingness to trade decent picks to acquire second-rate players. Earnest tryers generally, and no knock on them, but the decisions to spend on them were not ideal.

There was also a sustained list management issue with over-paying our 'franchise' players as if they were stars, instead of just very good players.

We'll never quite know what went so horribly wrong in 2007/08/09, and there will always be bitter recriminations because so many of those guys seemed really promising in their first year or two.

And getting back to the 1999 draft... ohhhh boy what a draft it was. Like shooting fish from inside a fish in a barrel full of salted fish. 25 players, more than a quarter of those taken in the national draft that year, went on to pass 200 games.

Cameron's outcome was barely 50% if that.

Molan was taken for type rather than best avail. Injuries aside, Cameron has admitted the error then chose Smith under BA principle.

It's difficult to shelve responsibility to Cameron for the PJ, Pickett trades. Understood the reasoning but they were fails. We should have rookie a ruck when Jolly left. We didn't and paid the price. 2007 was poor drafting aside from Grimes. Morton, Mariculture and trade for Meesen. Awful

[Rhino Richards 1,467]

To be fair he nabbed Scott Thompson with pick 16 in 2000; Sylvia and McLean in 2003 (doesn't look good on paper - but look at those taken around them) and a few reasonable rookie and late draft selections.

He completely bombed out in the 2001 superdraft as well as 2002, 2004 and 2007 so shouldn't be hailed as a genius. Prone to errors like the rest of us but only a middle-of-the-road recruiter for mine.

Apologies if your reading this CAC1963

We traded out of Thompson and McLean well for 1st round picks but blew them on Bate (2004) and Gysberts (2009).

Agree with your assessment though.

[Rhino Richards 1,467]

Every club drafts well: you go into a draft knowing what sort of player you need and how they can fit in a piece of the puzzle. If Melbourne hadn't taken the players they'd taken in the past years at the positions they did, other clubs would have thereabouts.

.

Your first statement is totally wrong.

Successful clubs generally draft well. Other clubs don't.

You may go into the draft knowing what you want but after the first 6-8 draft positions you don't know what will be around in later picks.

And your last statement is an assumption and shows that many of the choices MFC made were choices other clubs didn't.

Development is definitely an issue but that does not overcome definite poor choices in Cook, Gysberts and Maric. Others could be added to them.

[Rollo2 64]

Lot of really good info, thanks Demonlanders! I find it really interesting looking at these past drafts. I guess determining which promising junior is going to become a star AFL player is always going to be a bit like black magic. But I still think that's where i'd spend extra money if given a choice. My house mate is Richmond, and it's just been bizarre how our clubs have diverged over the past 5 years, in my opinion because of recruiting.

[beelzebub 22,529]

The problem as I see it is in many respects its a bit of a gamble at the best of times. You might suppose a player to be the goods only to have him plateau'd not long after he arrives, i.e he's reached his Zenith, others you get mid way and they still have a lot of upside but were't all shiny shiny at camp time. Some you roll the dice on even though they've had some injuries leading into carnivals but you grade them on that which they have done.....only for them to continue with injuries !!

There are definite picks we got wrong, either by type or where we took them ( i.e their weighting ) . Geez recruiting is rather akin to farming. You plan....but a lot of things are out of your hands.

About the only constraint I think i would follow as gospel is #1 they must be able to play footy first and be a so called elite athlete second and #2 dont expect miracles off of anyone. Draft kids that will complement lists not try to kick start them all the time

[Guest]

The 1999 draft just goes to show that you don't always need picks 1-4 to get decent players. We were kinda snookered because of the sanctions put on the club but that may have forced CAC to work just that little bit extra to make sure we got quality.
I think the other reason why those blokes kicked on was that the team's performance initially didn't hinge on their performance. Brad Green or Cam Bruce didn't need to kick 60 goals in their first year because they had Jeff Farmer, Neitz and Schwarz in the forward line. Paul Wheatley had Ingo, Al Nicholson (though I was never a believer), Matty Collins and Doggy Brown to fall back on. They were allowed to develop at their own pace rather than being 'fast tracked'.

Edited October 30, 2013 by Guest

[What 18,810]

Think you're overrating that 1999 draft for us

Green and Bruce were handy but nowhere near stars

Wheatley was a battler who played a role

Matty Whelan was a gun though, most underrated back pocket of all time

Edited October 30, 2013 by hogans_heroes

[DemonFrog 1,347]

I heard a rumour from a trusted source who knows the third cousin of the best mate of the MFC 1999 Water Boy that it was Old Dee and Redlegs who suggested these recruitments