Should we thank Leppa?

[Earl Hood 6,058]

Barlow ended up going to Werribee and was picked up in the Rookie Draft of 2010 at pick 8. He's been a wonderful story.

Much gets made of "the players we missed". Lewis Jetta is another often brought up. But timing is everything. We heard about Lewis Jetta from Neville's mother but by the time we heard it was too late to do the due diligence. Recruiting staff spend months checking a raft of players. They speak to the players coach, teachers, team mates and anyone else they can find who knows the kid. They try to see them play on numerous occasions, view draft camp data, interview them and often have psych testing available. IIRC Lewis played in a secondary league and wasn't on anyone's radar. There would have been little if any vision of him playing and by the time we heard of him the season was over so there was no opportunity to see him play. It would have clearly been too much of a risk to take him on the say so of one parent.

Add to that the fact that recruiters get hundred's of "tips".

Recruiting is not easy.

I agree Baghdad we wouldn't have grabbed Jetta at the time but I wonder how much due diligence we were doing between 2007 and 2010 under BP. I would have been happy for Barry to just have read Emma Quayle's thoughts on the top 20, we would have done better that way than whatever due diligence he did.

[The Chazz 4,077]

I agree Baghdad we wouldn't have grabbed Jetta at the time but I wonder how much due diligence we were doing between 2007 and 2010 under BP. I would have been happy for Barry to just have read Emma Quayle's thoughts on the top 20, we would have done better that way than whatever due diligence he did.

Can you please post a comparison of what we picked compared to what Emma believed during that period?

Thanks in advance.

[Little Goffy 14,027]

Well, I did some digging for Emma Quayle's rankings. Found a link to 2010 right here on Demonland,

http://demonland.com/forums/index.php?/topic/23650-emma-quayles-top-25/

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/the-golden-boys-20101113-17s03.html

Was keen on Darling for the Demons, in the discussion. :/

Not quite in the scope, but I found 2012 as well.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/the-pick-of-the-crop-20121117-29jct.html

Love her description of Viney, and I'm sure plenty will shed a tear over her perfect assessment of Wines.

Hard to find any others. The Age has archived the articles and the only other breadcrumbs are from places like bigfooty and talkingcarlton, and I just won't take that hit for the team!

Edit - found a link to 2009, again on Demonland, but the link is dead. However 'Demonland' the poster very sensibly added the list a few posts down the thread.

http://demonland.com/forums/index.php?/topic/18343-emmas-top-25/

One thing it really highlights is what a cr4p draft 2009 was!

Edited June 7, 2014 by Little Goffy

[KingDingAling 3,740]

Rockcliff was a first rounder for mine, he slid to the Brisbane for nothing.

We had our chance - as did every other side. Let is go.

[Juicebox 628]

Should we thank Leppa? Uhh no.

Rockliff is a gun. Tyson looks like he is going to be a gun. Salem looks very, VERY promising. Josh Kelly also looks like he'll be a hell of a player.

I think all three clubs are very happy.

[Bring-Back-Powell 14,383]

I reckon Tyson will be better than Rockliff

[deeko 952]

One of the misconceptions is we got Salem for "free". We didn't as we traded pick 20 and 2 for Tyson and Salem (9).

It's still a huge win for us IMO and I thought so at the time. The upgrade from 20 to 9 is very significant but none the less we did "pay" for Salem.

Thanks for this Bob, seems a lot of people forget we gave up pick 20 as well. Who know what we may have done with this? Traded for another established player or maybe pick up someone like Matt Crouch which at the time I would have been all for not realising how good the dominator would turn out.

Should we thank Leppa? Uhh no.

Rockliff is a gun. Tyson looks like he is going to be a gun. Salem looks very, VERY promising. Josh Kelly also looks like he'll be a hell of a player.

I think all three clubs are very happy.

This is it. All three clubs would be very happy with what they have gotten out of there trades here (or in Brissy's case not trading).

Still if I had pick 2 I'd trade a player who has the potential (Kelly) to be a great player for someone who is already proven (Rocky) everyday.

[wattsjurrahdunne 88]

As long as we all remember it wasn't just Pick 2 for Tyson & Salem.

It was Picks 2 & 20 for Tyson & Salem. Let's not overlook the fact there seems to be some very good players have gone at 20 and beyond.

Very happy with the deal but maybe too early to call it the deal of a lifetime.

[rjay 24,615]

As long as we all remember it wasn't just Pick 2 for Tyson & Salem.

It was Picks 2 & 20 for Tyson & Salem. Let's not overlook the fact there seems to be some very good players have gone at 20 and beyond.

Very happy with the deal but maybe too early to call it the deal of a lifetime.

Just a very good deal and for us the right one at the time. Forget about lifetime deals, they're usually not as good as promised.

[Bring Back Barassi 552]

Really, it was an all round unbelievable trade period...

Vince for Sylvia

Tyson and Salem for Josh Kelly and Jack Leslie

Daniel Cross for free

[Adzman 2,153]

I think we did well, but if we cast our minds back far enough we have really stuffed up at the draft table. I think this deal looks particularly good because we have drafted so poorly in recent years, and actually appear to have added not only two quality players, but players who might ascend to the top of our playing list for the next decade. A very exciting change from years past, but we can't get too ahead of ourselves yet. Salem has a lot of learning to do. Dom looks a million bucks right now, but his form is no doubt going to taper off late in the season being that he is young and hasn't played a stack of footy at this level.

The next two trading and draft periods are crucial. If we can find a few more win-win deals then the dees will be positioned to climb out of the cellar. Enjoying Dom and Salem so far.

[JackVineyForPresident 310]

Really, it was an all round unbelievable trade period...

Vince for Sylvia

Tyson and Salem for Josh Kelly and Jack Leslie

Daniel Cross for free

Dont forget Riley for free (who is young and looks impressive IMO) and Michie.

This adds alot of depth and they have instantly become the better of our younger players who cant yet consistently crack the team.

[Whispering_Jack 29,240]

Just a few comments on Tom Rockliff and the fact that we didn't draft him in 2008.

Rockliff won the Murray Bushrangers' Best and Fairest award, was the leading goalkicker in the TAC Cup with 59 goals and kicked four goals in the Bushrangers' 2008 premiership team. He was overshadowed in the grand final by Steele Sidebottom who kicked 10 that day. The knock on both players is that they were slow but that didn't stop Collingwood from taking Sidebottom who has become one of their important players in an outstanding midfield. It didn't stop Rockliff in the end because he's now VC at the Lions and one of their best players. He was however, overlooked in the main draft of 2008 and subsequently trained with Melbourne.

I was at the club's training run at Casey Fields the day before the pre season and rookie drafts. There were two young invitees who both impressed - Rockliff and Jordie McKenzie. Since we had first pick in both the PSD (where there were six live picks) and the rookie draft, there was every chance we could have taken both of them but then the news was filtering in that we were keen on Liam Jurrah and he was keen to come and nobody questioned the selection afterwards until the wheels fell off badly for Liam two years ago. Anyway, Brisbane swooped on him at pick 5 and because Richmond was always going to take Ben Cousins with pick 6, we effectively missed out on Rockliff by one selection and we took Jordie instead. McKenzie had been a good pick for a rookie selection and obviously, Rockliff would have been a sensational pick if available but you really can't blame anybody.

Nobody had a retospectoscope to predict the future for Jurrah or the rate of progress of the slow midfielder/forward who was overshadowed in that TAC Cup final.

[DeeSpencer 24,784]

Tyson and Salem

OR
Rockliff and keep pick 20 (could've been Billy Hartung, Lewis Taylor, Z Merrett, M Crouch any number of decent prospects)

The reality is either option is great. Rockliff is a gun. Underrate him at your peril. He racks up disposals, kicks goals, wins clearances, is a willing tackle. He'd be better than Tyson has been this year for us but Tyson has been amazing and who knows how good he will be.

Either way we found a ready to go player and pick 20 or pick 9 either would've had us in the draft at an acceptable position which was the aim.

[jnrmac 19,905]

I think you are missing the point. We didn't give up pick 20. We upgraded pick 20 to 9.

Thanks for this Bob, seems a lot of people forget we gave up pick 20 as well. Who know what we may have done with this? Traded for another established player or maybe pick up someone like Matt Crouch which at the time I would have been all for not realising how good the dominator would turn out.

[dee-luded 2,959]

http://m.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/brisbane-lions-coach-justin-leppitschs-first-job-was-to-talk-tom-rockliff-out-of-taking-melbourne-trade-offer/story-fni5f5nx-1226946151477

Looks as though we offered pick 2 for Rockliff (don't recall that potential trade being mentioned at the time - could be wrong though!). If they had accepted it, we wouldn't have got Tyson. I'd imagine the Lions' first round pick would've been part of the package.

So, should we be thankful that Leppa stopped the deal? I probably don't know enough about Rockliff, but I know Dom's a bloody beauty and I'm glad the MFC is his home and not somewhere else!

I reckon we should be happy with the Lions, & feel respect for them as a great new club up North.

I think that we should work to have a healthy relationship with them, And feel for their current plight, Re they're rebuild, & also IF they have a player who wants to return to Melbourne,,,, then just maybe, we can do business with them in the future, working out a Win/Win deal with them, for any we are interested in ?

Edited June 8, 2014 by dee-luded