I'd love to know why the club didn't seek to pick up Hunt in the rookie draft.

On the basis of the reports I've read, it seems to me that he's unlikely to get a game in the seniors this year (ie, he's in a development phase), and it seems unlikely that any other club would've picked him in the national draft. In short, Hunt seems like an obvious rookie selection.

I would've thought it would've made more sense to pick Harmes in the national draft and Hunt with the pick we used on Harmes in the rookie draft.

Anyone able to shed any light on this?

I was thinking the exact same thing. Surely it would make more sense to have the speculative Hunt as a rookie and the stock-standard TAC CUP under 18's footballer in Harmes as late ND pick.

Maybe we received some some intelligence that another club was looking at Hunt after us in the draft.

Jamar still in rehab eh...

Seriously has this bloke done a thing since 2011?

Anyone get the feeling Spencer will be our number 1 ruckman for 2014?

I was thinking the exact same thing. Surely it would make more sense to have the speculative Hunt as a rookie and the stock-standard TAC CUP under 18's footballer in Harmes as late ND pick.

Maybe we received some some intelligence that another club was looking at Hunt after us in the draft.

Hunt has an extra things that Harmes doesn't...speed and agility.......would suggest that is why it was that way around, Harmes from what i have seen/heard/read is a big bodied inside grunt merchant, Hunt has more agility, leap and speed.........Harmes probably needs more development

Jamar still in rehab eh...

Seriously has this bloke done a thing since 2011?

Anyone get the feeling Spencer will be our number 1 ruckman for 2014?

Gawn more likely.

I can confirm Hogan is definitely out there this morning.

Jamar still in rehab eh...

Seriously has this bloke done a thing since 2011?

Anyone get the feeling Spencer will be our number 1 ruckman for 2014?

Am I right to observe that Spencer doesnt mind that he hurts an opponent? Reminds me of Jolly early and that commends him - when his kind of size I expect that he is physically assertive with controlled aggression whenever possible. By contrast Gawn is a nice guy.

I was thinking the exact same thing. Surely it would make more sense to have the speculative Hunt as a rookie and the stock-standard TAC CUP under 18's footballer in Harmes as late ND pick.

Maybe we received some some intelligence that another club was looking at Hunt after us in the draft.

I read somewhere that a number of Clubs were circling. After last year's experience with the ruckmen that Freo snuffled from under our noses the Club must have decided not to take the risk. He also is probably seen as having more upside with exceptional speed. According to Mark Fine he was streets ahead of his Brighton Grammar teammates J Kelly T Boyd &. Salem in a game he saw during the year. Has been under the radar for injury & physical development issues so has missed elite jnr development but has all the attributes to be a gun.

I read somewhere that a number of Clubs were circling. After last year's experience with the ruckmen that Freo snuffled from under our noses the Club must have decided not to take the risk. He also is probably seen as having more upside with exceptional speed. According to Mark Fine he was streets ahead of his Brighton Grammar teammates J Kelly T Boyd &. Salem in a game he saw during the year. Has been under the radar for injury & physical development issues so has missed elite jnr development but has all the attributes to be a gun.

Collingwood were after him.

WJ raises a very good point regarding the relevance of 300m repeat running to football and thanks for an excellent reply Rob.

I found the quoted part of your post very interesting. Why is it that footy clubs seem to place so much emphasis on 300m sprints and 3k time trials and not more on the shorter distances? How do our training regimes compare to soccer or basketball? Are those sports fitness regimes relevant to AFL?

Burgess the fitness guru at Port last year comes straight from a Premier League soccer background. Apparently in soccer they do a lot more repeat sprint training and less distance training. Seems to have worked very well for Port especially into 4th qtrs. I don't know where 300m sprints fit in that type of training. Would be very interested to know the science behind the different methods. I would imagine Misso is all over it. But getting fitness from game simulated running makes most sense to me.

Collingwood were after him.

That's interesting, if true. Perhaps Taylor had some intel.

I wondered the same thing about him being not rookied, however i wondered why Georgiou wasn't the one on the main list given he is mature age and AFL ready whereas Harmes and Hunt are unlikely to play AFL this year.

Edited January 8, 201411 yr by binman

I think it matters little where the players' individual readiness to play in regards to where they are selected.

I'd say Hunt needs more development than most others selected.

But we had zero competition for Georgiou, so he was taken as a late rookie.

Obviously we anticipated much more competition to draft Hunt, that not all teams would have ignored the obvious physical talents he possessed, not to mention his promising output in minimal opportunities, and that they were more valuable to the club than what Harmes could bring to the table, meaning we were happier to risk not getting him in favour of Hunt.

I think it matters little where the players' individual readiness to play in regards to where they are selected.

It matters in so far as if the club suddenly needs a backman to fill a hole (eg short term injury) and/or Georgiou is starring at Casey he is on the rookie list and can't play unless t a player is put on the long term injury list. This is not likely to be an issue with either Harmes our Hunt as almost certainly neither will be ready to play AFL footy next season whereas Georgiou is ready to go.

However perhaps you are right and other clubs were considering drafting Hunt and they didn't want to risk it.

Lets be serious here.

If we're in trouble to the point where we're relying on Georgiou to fill in as a KPD, we've clearly lost quite a few to injury, when we have Frawley, Garland, McDonald, Dunn, Pedersen, Strauss and Grimes, then we can send Watts, Hogan, Tapscott and maybe Fitzpatrick down there.

Georgiou is not going to be the saviour of this list, and I'd much rather have better young players on the list in the longterm than blow the chance to select them just so a stopgap mature player can come straight in, just in case.

Collingwood were after him.

Thanks. Makes sense to me now.

I read somewhere that a number of Clubs were circling. After last year's experience with the ruckmen that Freo snuffled from under our noses the Club must have decided not to take the risk. He also is probably seen as having more upside with exceptional speed. According to Mark Fine he was streets ahead of his Brighton Grammar teammates J Kelly T Boyd &. Salem in a game he saw during the year. Has been under the radar for injury & physical development issues so has missed elite jnr development but has all the attributes to be a gun.

This too.