On 22/11/2013 at 22:38, Demon_Tingles said:

Whilst this is untrue I am tipping he actually would do that. I am finding it difficult to spread the hate between him and Carowhine Wilson who has been abnormally quiet this off season

CW might be keeping her powder dry for the ASADA/Bombers conclusion.

  On 22/11/2013 at 22:52, Redleg said:

CW might be keeping her powder dry for the ASADA/Bombers conclusion.

She's still gunning for the MFC too.. Before she took her break from AW in October, she couldn't resist asking why Melbourne hadn't been investigated for their role in the Danks saga.

From 19 Apr 2013 - The 7.30 program on ABC1 - "7.30 has learned the Demons had a detailed supplements regime which it ran in close association with Dank".

She will not let this go away.

Picking through the draft

THE SMOKY

Melbourne's recruiters would have spent plenty of time watching Brighton Grammar play this year. Not only did they have their eye on Christian Salem from a long way out, they needed to get a line on Josh Kelly before trading pick two to Greater Western Sydney. Jayden Hunt will be feeling pretty glad that they did. The onballer was the Demons' third pick at No. 57 despite not playing any TAC Cup or representative footy until an end-of-season young guns game. "He is speculative, but we did some research and we think there is enough there," recruiting manager Jason Taylor told the club's website. "We feel that, with time and the strong development program we've got in place, that we might have something there."

  On 22/11/2013 at 21:11, Return to Glory said:

Are you on drugs? Relative, smellative. Bolt, smolt. It is exceptionally quick. Full stop.

Don't think you get it

From the footage I saw on the Demon website, Hunt looked the best player out of Salem, JKH and Hunt.

  On 23/11/2013 at 02:32, Tony Tea said:

From the footage I saw on the Demon website, Hunt looked the best player out of Salem, JKH and Hunt.

School footy

  On 23/11/2013 at 03:34, rhaz said:

School footy

Yeah, was going to say same.

Hunt's going to be a gun if you get him in 50m of space with room to burn but for the rest of the game Salem and JKH will be much better!

Hunt reminds me of Nicholson but taller and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Think about Nicho if we got him at 18 and under Paul Roos and George Stone training methods and what could be achieved with raw pace.

Build Hunt's endurance and size then put him to work tagging the elite running quick wing men like Isaac Smith, Hannebery, the Hill brothers etc and if all goes to play he could develop in to one of those types. If not then it's not a lot wasted.

  On 22/11/2013 at 05:12, binman said:

What a stupid (and unnecessarily snide) comment from Satry. His desire to protect 'his boys' from criticism is almost pathological. Jeez a player that hasn't even had his first training session and Satry feels the need to protect him from perceived criticism.

I say perceived because i for one didn't read InRooswetrust's comments as particularly critical, indeed he emphasized he was surprised (as opposed to bagging Hunt).

Besides he was talking from a perspective of having actually played against Hunt (and for that matter played on him) so i imagine he might have a better idea than Satyr might from the 2 mins of highlights on DeeTv.

Or perhaps Satry has been watching Hunt train all year, is good mates and is confident that Hunt is telling the truth when he says he's a gun.

+1

he looks like he's 12 years old.

They are all babies RF.

Looks like an iPhone snap. They're never flattering. Unless you are Scarlett Johanssen.........

.

  On 22/11/2013 at 04:53, Deestroy All said:

If he answered "pick 40 this year" no doubt he'd suddenly be your favourite poster and you'd PM him nude selfies.

Gold. So, so true.

  On 23/11/2013 at 08:01, RobbieF said:

he looks like he's 12 years old.

Still looks stronger than Cale

Would have preferred Honeychurch, seeing i hadn't heard anything about this guy, but he sounds like he might go alright.

  On 22/11/2013 at 04:46, Satyriconhome said:

So what number were you drafted at, or hoping for a rookie spot?

Satyriconhome, you and I have been around a long time but you're way off the mark this time with your swipe at inRooswetrust. I've been around junior football to have seen not only this poster playing but also I remember his father playing in an under 14s final.

One thing we know about juniors footballers is that they grow and develop their games at different rates and different times. What inRooswetrust is saying is that in earlier times, Hunt was small physically and therefore limited in what he could do in his games. I'm told that he often was given tagging roles which means that his coaches saw some attributes in the kid despite his size because you would never send a really weak player out to stop one of the opposition's stars.

In the case of Hunt, his athleticism and his growth spurt to his current height of 187cm is what makes him such an interesting prospect, albeit a speculative one. He has the athleticism; now it's up to Roos and the development coaches to turn him into a footballer.

I think it's a brave challenge that the club's taking with him and on a par with Collingwood's late drafting of Jonathon Marsh. If it works then the recruiter gets hailed as a genius and if it fails, we'll get a 10 page thread on Demonland blaming someone involved with the club in the distant past who had nothing to do with the selection just to prove a point.

  On 23/11/2013 at 21:14, Whispering_Jack said:

I think it's a brave challenge that the club's taking with him and on a par with Collingwood's late drafting of Jonathon Marsh. If it works then the recruiter gets hailed as a genius and if it fails, we'll get a 10 page thread on Demonland blaming someone involved with the club in the distant past who had nothing to do with the selection just to prove a point.

I don't think it's on a par. If Marsh succeeds at Collingwood, I think most people will be saying in theory how did that highly exposed, well-credentialled athletic young footballer last that deep in the draft and congratulate Derek Hine once again for a good opportunistic pick. I'm not sure it's a huge challenge for the Pies. If Hunt becomes a beauty, I think it will considered a tremendous recruiting pick. I know Ryan O'Connor of the the Sandringham Dragons is astonished that he got drafted and that a large number of AFL clubs had not heard of him.

  On 23/11/2013 at 21:53, goodoil said:

I don't think it's on a par. If Marsh succeeds at Collingwood, I think most people will be saying in theory how did that highly exposed, well-credentialled athletic young footballer last that deep in the draft and congratulate Derek Hine once again for a good opportunistic pick. I'm not sure it's a huge challenge for the Pies. If Hunt becomes a beauty, I think it will considered a tremendous recruiting pick. I know Ryan O'Connor of the the Sandringham Dragons is astonished that he got drafted and that a large number of AFL clubs had not heard of him.

I agree Marsh is much less a smoky than Hunt. Marsh reminds me of Fitzpatrick who himself had played Under18 state footy and done pretty well and like Marsh had great athleticism but awkward size and rubbish skills.

Hunt is a different category all together but it seems to me he got drafted from his latter rounds of footy than earlier in the year. Obviously last year and early this year he probably was miles from AFL recruiting. And given he didn't even make the sandringham squad you'd expect most from sandringham wouldn't rate him. The thing that gives me some confidence is that Roos and Viney have impact on our recruiting and competitiveness is one of our pillars of recruiting. If Hunt was simply a pick by a recruiter chasing a player with elite speed then I'd be very worried. At least Viney and Roos would have provided insight and must approve some what of the other areas of his game. Being 187cm helps as well, if he was 180cm and just a fast outside player I'd be worried.

  On 23/11/2013 at 22:21, the master said:

I agree Marsh is much less a smoky than Hunt. Marsh reminds me of Fitzpatrick who himself had played Under18 state footy and done pretty well and like Marsh had great athleticism but awkward size and rubbish skills.

Hunt is a different category all together but it seems to me he got drafted from his latter rounds of footy than earlier in the year. Obviously last year and early this year he probably was miles from AFL recruiting. And given he didn't even make the sandringham squad you'd expect most from sandringham wouldn't rate him. The thing that gives me some confidence is that Roos and Viney have impact on our recruiting and competitiveness is one of our pillars of recruiting. If Hunt was simply a pick by a recruiter chasing a player with elite speed then I'd be very worried. At least Viney and Roos would have provided insight and must approve some what of the other areas of his game. Being 187cm helps as well, if he was 180cm and just a fast outside player I'd be worried.

I'm not knocking the pick. I can't as I have never seen him play and had only seen his name on a list and thought nothing of it, just suggesting it's the much braver pick

  On 23/11/2013 at 22:28, goodoil said:

I'm not knocking the pick. I can't as I have never seen him play and had only seen his name on a list and thought nothing of it, just suggesting it's the much braver pick

Yeah I agree. There's a huge gap between athletic but skill challenged under 18 representative (who played well at the level) with a guy drafted from school footy and a couple of representative games in which getting a read on the talent would not have been easy.

  On 23/11/2013 at 21:53, goodoil said:

I know Ryan O'Connor of the the Sandringham Dragons is astonished that he got drafted and that a large number of AFL clubs had not heard of him.

I read somewhere that Hunt trialled for the Dragons very late in the piece and missed the cut. O'Connor would have played a role in rejecting him so naturally, he would express surprise that the kid got drafted. On the other hand, his coach Robert Shaw is singing his praises.

No reflection on either of them but from my previous involvement with the Dragons (a while ago now), the process is a bit fraught. There's a problem with the availability of the public schoolboys, you have some junior clubs pushing their kids forward and others hiding them away, you have kids with different personalities, some with behavioural issues and others, like Hunt, who have been injured, have late growth spurts or are simply late bloomers who get missed in the selection process (often minds are made up about players well in advance of when the final cut is made).

I like the fact that the club is prepared to stick its neck out with this sort of player and work on his development. The rewards can be far greater if that sort of initiative with a pick 57 turns out.

  On 23/11/2013 at 22:48, Whispering_Jack said:

I read somewhere that Hunt trialled for the Dragons very late in the piece and missed the cut. O'Connor would have played a role in rejecting him so naturally, he would express surprise that the kid got drafted. On the other hand, his coach Robert Shaw is singing his praises.

No reflection on either of them but from my previous involvement with the Dragons (a while ago now), the process is a bit fraught. There's a problem with the availability of the public schoolboys, you have some junior clubs pushing their kids forward and others hiding them away, you have kids with different personalities, some with behavioural issues and others, like Hunt, who have been injured, have late growth spurts or are simply late bloomers who get missed in the selection process (often minds are made up about players well in advance of when the final cut is made).

I like the fact that the club is prepared to stick its neck out with this sort of player and work on his development. The rewards can be far greater if that sort of initiative with a pick 57 turns out.

Absolutely, and I'd much rather back in the judgment of an AFL recruiting network and a Derek-Hine acolyte than Ryan O'Connor, and I'm not suggesting he is a bad operator, it just makes sense to hold that view at this stage. Like you suggest, the building of TAC Cup lists is similar in a way to the building of AFL clubs in that there is a recruiting aspect/talent identification aspect to it. I'm not sure if it's seen that way, but it would be a bit embarrassing for the Dragons to miss a drafted kid in its zone for whatever reason, but hopefully that's been to our advantage. I love the concept of the pick and the fact that it was made and its a bit of statement from our new recruiting manager. My only query and we won't ever know I suppose, was whether any other club had him on their radar and could he have been safely taken as a rookie. His young guns selection suggests maybe he was liked by a few other clubs.

I thought Kent was lucky to be drafted last year as he didn't play for his state...

But Hunt just played school footy.

If he becomes anything, we are going to see the boundaries for recruitment fall away.

Based on that photo, and assuming it's relatively recent, he has a long way to go.

Will be surprised if he gets a taste of AFL next year.

There's a reason we brought in the likes of Cross, Michie, Tyson, Vince and Riley.

  On 24/11/2013 at 00:01, rpfc said:

I thought Kent was lucky to be drafted last year as he didn't play for his state...

But Hunt just played school footy.

If he becomes anything, we are going to see the boundaries for recruitment fall away.

Don't necessarily agree. APS footy has provided many, many drafted players and as such is watched pretty closely. It's just rare for a good APS player to not have made it to a TAC Cup squad. James Gwilt played suburban footy, St Kilda picked up a forward from Tyabb a few seasons ago. I think clubs aren't scared to pluck players from obscurity, they just need to be lucky enough to have gotten their eyes on them.