To be honest Deano, its more a case of filling the gap he left in the team. Based on last years form when he played up forward I don't think its a major loss. Even when he was down back he had days when he was no more than serviceable. To me a leader is someone that plays his heart out irrespective of the scoreboard, runs and chases all day, can lift his game when required, and can inspire his team mates. The obvious example is N.Jones. Our problem is that Jonesy is our only true leader on the ground. Chip Frawley was never a leader.

agreed. I thought Deanox's post was meant to be ironical.

Based on last year, 50% of the top 10 draftees were regulars (Billings, Bontempelli, Kolo, Aish, McDonald). Plus Feeman and Scharenberg had season ending injuries. So yes, many top draftees like Brayshaw are regulars in club's best 22.

The OP didn't say "top 10 draftees". It was a sweeping generalisation about first-year players in general, with the implication that "many" of them were regulars in the first 22.

Happy for Brayshaw to play where the coaches see fit, imagine he'll get a chance at some point.

Recent years...

Aish, Dunstan, L. Taylor, Wines, Mayes, Vlastuin, Couch, Heppell, Macrae, L.McDonald, Brandon Ellis, O'Meara, Wingard, Liberatore, ...

And if we go back beyond the past 4 years we get to Martin, Joel Selwood, Thomas, Judd, Sidebottom, and the list goes on and on and on.

And I avoided GWS for obvious reasons.

There are what, 120+/- players who come on to AFL lists each year for the first time, around half of those as rookies. If we go back over 4 years, that's 480 players, say 240 not on rookie lists. And in that time, out of all those, you've listed ... 14.

Even allowing for GWS, you're making sweeping generalisations. Most first year players do NOT have the tank to play regular AFL footy (apart from the skills and know-how).

Sorry guys. I forget deadpan doesn't work on the internets.

There are what, 120+/- players who come on to AFL lists each year for the first time, around half of those as rookies. If we go back over 4 years, that's 480 players, say 240 not on rookie lists. And in that time, out of all those, you've listed ... 14.

Even allowing for GWS, you're making sweeping generalisations. Most first year players do NOT have the tank to play regular AFL footy (apart from the skills and know-how).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_AFL_draft

Most of last years top 30 played, with more than a few playing regularly including Luke McDonald, Bont, Aish, Zach Merrett, Dunstan and KK at least being clear best 22. Some of those in finals teams.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_AFL_draft#2012_national_draft

2012 was a bit more hit and miss. But Stringer, Macrae, Viney, Wines, Mayes, Brad Crouch and Jaeger O'Meara all played a lot of footy. GWS started to have the opposite effect whereby they had so much young talent from the years previous they didn't throw them in as much.

You shouldn't judge a guy from his draft position. We made that mistake with Toumpas, although I have big fears his problems are much more a lack of talent than a ruined psyche. Nor should you play a kid all 22 games unless he's a freak and certainly not all 22 in the rough and tumble.

If Brayshaw really has been impressing at Casey then we are wasting everyones time by not getting him in the senior team. But I understand the need to protect him, especially as he managed a few head knocks in early trainings and the intraclub. I hope to see him play some time in April and I hope he's up for AFL and can get through 10 games at least. It's not impossible to tread the balance between throwing a kid in early and anointing him the messiah and also just dumping a kid at Casey for no good reason.

There are what, 120+/- players who come on to AFL lists each year for the first time, around half of those as rookies. If we go back over 4 years, that's 480 players, say 240 not on rookie lists. And in that time, out of all those, you've listed ... 14.

Even allowing for GWS, you're making sweeping generalisations. Most first year players do NOT have the tank to play regular AFL footy (apart from the skills and know-how).

I'm not sure if you're serious or cracking a gag.

Your original question was "How many first year players are regulars in their club's 22?". There weren't any follow up qualifications to this question and I gave approximations accordingly (without realising you'd count), and now you're listing 480 new players in to the system over 4 years and stating I only came up with 14 ? Do you remember the question you asked ?

How many new players from the 480 over 4 years did you expect to be in their club's "best 22" ? It's a trick question, right ?

On another thread, a poster (Samael) suggested that he had heard that Casey was playing a different game style to Melbourne. I replied to his post as follows:

"As regards the Casey alignment, I think that you might find that the coaching is more integrated than you realise. Not only is the senior coach, Plapp, on the payroll of the MFC but assistant (playing) coach, Shannon Brynes and Line coach, Brad Miller, both former MFC players are also paid by MFC. With some of the MFC pre-season practice matches and training sessions involving Casey players and with half the Casey team each week comprising MFC players and rookies, I am sure that Roos and Goodwin are managing it closely to see that the respective game plans closely align."

I could be wrong about this and maybe KC or someone else close to the Scorps may like to either confirm or refute this?