7 hours ago, nutbean said:

This is absolutely it - You look at the Hawks last year - they wanted big seasons from Roughhead, Mitchell, Lewis, Rioli. Our expectation rose and fell on the back of a 20 year old forward who was in his first year of football. 

except that Hogan ended up being the clear no.1 source of enjoyment/excitement.. so the anticipation wasn't really misplaced

14 hours ago, deanox said:

I suspect the crowd will stop obsessing about draft picks once:

 

a) we play some finals so we have other things to get excited about

b) we play finals so we don't have a top 10 pick (less exciting than pick 3)

c) we have 25+ regular senior players who everyone thinks are better options for round 1 than an untried 17 year old who gets drafted (will be accelerated if the 17 year old is ranked 10-15 rather than 1-7)

 

 

In response to...

a) Yes, I'm sick of not playing finals, hence my annoyance that we are still getting excited about top picks

b) We did actually trade up to pick 3, so we are making progress

c) I would not be picking any of this year's draft picks in our top 25

 

The fact we haven't played finals for 10 years, yet we are still relying on this year's top draft pick to help take us there, probably proves my point.  I'm over the amount of years it's taking us to build through the draft.  All due respect to Clayton Oliver but we should've had our "top draft pick" fill 2 years ago minimum.

 

I don't apologise for my patience wearing thin.

 

 

 

 

6 minutes ago, billy2803 said:

In response to...

a) Yes, I'm sick of not playing finals, hence my annoyance that we are still getting excited about top picks

b) We did actually trade up to pick 3, so we are making progress

c) I would not be picking any of this year's draft picks in our top 25

 

The fact we haven't played finals for 10 years, yet we are still relying on this year's top draft pick to help take us there, probably proves my point.  I'm over the amount of years it's taking us to build through the draft.  All due respect to Clayton Oliver but we should've had our "top draft pick" fill 2 years ago minimum.

 

I don't apologise for my patience wearing thin.

 

 

 

 

Probably longer ago except for the fact that the club was ruined by incompetent management from the board down.

No one is expecting Clayton Oliver or Sam Weideman to drag us out of the s...., this has already started but these kids will add to the structure that has now been started.

I will be disappointed if we don't move into the 6 - 12 region of the ladder next season and I think only injury will hold us back.

23 hours ago, deanox said:

I suspect the crowd will stop obsessing about draft picks once:

 

a) we play some finals so we have other things to get excited about

b) we play finals so we don't have a top 10 pick (less exciting than pick 3)

c) we have 25+ regular senior players who everyone thinks are better options for round 1 than an untried 17 year old who gets drafted (will be accelerated if the 17 year old is ranked 10-15 rather than 1-7)

 

 

There's no doubt you're right, however, I've always been excited by young players coming to the club - finals or no finals.

It's the regeneration of a club and a glimpse into the future.  I'll never tire of seeing quality players start their career.

As difficult as it is, i try and view the rebuild as only really starting under Roos, in his 2 years so far we have gone from 2 wins 58% to 7 wins, which should have been more like 10 a really strong core of talent that looks like taking us forward, slowly winning back respect and i think we can play finals next year if everything plays out perfectly injury wise.

Wouldn't it be nice if Clayton Oliver were to make his AFL debut off the interchange during the 2016 Grand Final!

On 5 December 2015 10:23:31 am, Unstable Dees fan said:

As difficult as it is, i try and view the rebuild as only really starting under Roos, in his 2 years so far we have gone from 2 wins 58% to 7 wins, which should have been more like 10 a really strong core of talent that looks like taking us forward, slowly winning back respect and i think we can play finals next year if everything plays out perfectly injury wise.

Roos and Jackson could very well go down as the two most important figures that this club has had in the last 50 years.

 

6 hours ago, Ron Burgundy said:

Roos and Jackson could very well go down as the two most important figures that this club has had in the last 50 years.

 

Definitely  two pillars upon which our new success  will have been built.

For us to be successful we need to whole team playing well, oliver and weideman will give us much better depth than those they have replaced on our list. oliver could initially be an update for cross and weideman in time will be a replacement for howe who for all his talent never really became that gun forward we expected of him.

 

These two guys will add some bite and skill to the team where we need it, on the ball and in the forward line helping Hogan.  

On 12/4/2015, 4:54:36, Curry & Beer said:

except that Hogan ended up being the clear no.1 source of enjoyment/excitement.. so the anticipation wasn't really misplaced

Agreed but he isn't the first key forward coming into the comp with high expectations and won't be the last.

When we are successful debut seasons from the likes of Brayshaw, Hogan, Petracca etc should be the icing on the cake - not the reason we are going to have a good or bad year.  

It was only an early glimpse, but I liked the look of him at training.  He reads the play really well at a stoppage and loves bursting clear.

A nice touch was Jesse wandering over under his own volition and joining in two or three stoppage drills with the newbies and Brett Allison.  After one of them he had the groups attention for 30 seconds or so as he gave some tutelage.  He then wandered off somewhere else.  He has an unmistakeable leadership quality.

 

I don't know if it's been posted before, but there was a nice little article on the lad before he was drafted in The Age.  Talks about his OP, struggles with fitness at the start of the season and the amazing work his parents did to help him out. 

Don't know what it is about this kid but I like him. I think it must be that he worked his arse off to get back into shape after a late start to the season. If he can keep up that sort of work ethic he will get the absolute best out of himself.

On 12/7/2015, 1:36:56, ProDee said:

It was only an early glimpse, but I liked the look of him at training.  He reads the play really well at a stoppage and loves bursting clear.

A nice touch was Jesse wandering over under his own volition and joining in two or three stoppage drills with the newbies and Brett Allison.  After one of them he had the groups attention for 30 seconds or so as he gave some tutelage.  He then wandered off somewhere else.  He has an unmistakeable leadership quality.

 

Jesse is captain material for sure, he doesn't settle, drives his own standards

Strange ideal. Star forward.Hogan is more J Brown.  Not a captain. Leave him be.

8 hours ago, beelzebub said:

Strange ideal. Star forward.Hogan is more J Brown.  Not a captain. Leave him be.

At least at this stage we seem to have a lot of young players that are driven to succeed and willing to lead by example that won't be forced into the top job before they're ready. It's nice to have a few potential candidates for when Jones is ready to relinquish the leadership, which hopefully won't be for another few years.

17 hours ago, beelzebub said:

Strange ideal. Star forward.Hogan is more J Brown.  Not a captain. Leave him be.

J.Brown was a captain.

10 minutes ago, H_T said:

J.Brown was a captain.

good point..lol

I still feel he'd be best left to just play footy..We've any number of captain types 

18 hours ago, beelzebub said:

Strange ideal. Star forward.Hogan is more J Brown.  Not a captain. Leave him be.

certainly not suggesting we make him captain anytime soon, but i think the race for next captain after chunk is wide open with the favourites imo being TMAC, Hogan Viney and Brayshaw

after Hogan signs his 8 year deal we will have all the time in the world to make him skipper

 

This is what Knightmare said of Oliver on his draft board on bigfooty a couple of weeks before the draft. Whatever you think of him it makes for good reading

“Others noticed Oliver before I did, but I may have been one of the few to move him up high earlier and move him up as extremely high as I have. And next update I'll even have Oliver ahead of Schache and my second rated non-academy player after only Weitering.

Just such an exceptional contested ball winner and stoppage player. Moves well. Ball use good by hand and foot. Can go forward and take a mark and offer scoreboard impact. He can be one of the very best in this draft.

I'll be interested to see at the end of the day where AFL clubs rate Oliver and whether anyone rates him nearly as highly as I do”.

And then the day before the draft he released a combined top 10 of the last two drafts. Given a number of players in this list have already played good AFL footy Knightmare has a fair opinion of our new mid.

“Clayton Oliver (VIC – MID)

Jacob Hopper (NSW - GWS ACADEMY - MID)

Jacob Weitering (VIC – KPD)

Christian Petracca (VIC – Mid/Fwd)

Angus Brayshaw (VIC – Mid)

Isaac Heeney (Syd – Academy - NSW – Mid)

Callum Mills (NSW - SYDNEY ACADEMY – MID)

Darcy Moore (Coll - F/S – VIC – KPF/KPD)

Patrick McCartin (VIC - KPF)

Joshua Schache (VIC – KPF)”

Pro Dee passed on from his brother. You have to love this description from training on the 11th Dec

 “Oliver was pitted against ANB, and Jones and Petracca went head to head.  Petracca and Jones pretty much squared the ledger.  Oliver beat ANB at least 9 times out of 10.  He was adamant it was that lopsided, such was Oliver's effectiveness.”

Surely it has to be time that the footy gods smile on us.

Our 2014 drafting is shaping to be possibly our best ever. If this years crop, particularly Clayton, can match it we will be well on the way to playing finals consistently in the near future.

 

Edited December 29, 20159 yr by fndee
Spacing/font issues

On 12/7/2015 at 2:09 AM, RalphiusMaximus said:

I don't know if it's been posted before, but there was a nice little article on the lad before he was drafted in The Age.  Talks about his OP, struggles with fitness at the start of the season and the amazing work his parents did to help him out. 

Yes very nice article.  It  speaks volumes about his character and the support of his family.

He has done it hard and that will stand him in good stead in the toughest aussie rules competition in the land.

 

Edited December 29, 20159 yr by Redleg

17 hours ago, fndee said:

 

Pro Dee passed on from his brother. You have to love this description from training on the 11th Dec

 “Oliver was pitted against ANB, and Jones and Petracca went head to head.  Petracca and Jones pretty much squared the ledger.  Oliver beat ANB at least 9 times out of 10.  He was adamant it was that lopsided, such was Oliver's effectiveness.”

Surely it has to be time that the footy gods smile on us.

Our 2014 drafting is shaping to be possibly our best ever. If this years crop, particularly Clayton, can match it we will be well on the way to playing finals consistently in the near future.

 

Doesn't surprise me. Have said on this many times, i am not yet sold on ANB. Yes i know he popped up and kicked multiple goals etc. but for some reason he just reminds me of a Bail, or a Pickles. Almost there, but never quite enough. Anyhow, happily to be proven very wrong, (or very right--although not happy with this) later down the track. 

Obviously it's very early days, but I'd love to get a feel from fellow Demonlanders who have seen him, about how Ollie is shaping up at training.  For example, how does he compare to Gus and Track 12 months ago ............yeah, I know I'm starved for a bit of post Christmas Melbourne footy news, but there's only so many times that you can watch the AGM interviews, or revisit the great training pics provided by 666.

33 minutes ago, The Song Formerly Known As said:

Doesn't surprise me. Have said on this many times, i am not yet sold on ANB. Yes i know he popped up and kicked multiple goals etc. but for some reason he just reminds me of a Bail, or a Pickles. Almost there, but never quite enough. Anyhow, happily to be proven very wrong, (or very right--although not happy with this) later down the track. 

Played 11 games in his first year on the list......Often as the sub which equates to a quarter here and a quarter there.   Did some very good things in matches and also panicked a few times as he got used to the tempo.    I feel that he will be a very good player for us in the future.   He is only nineteen.

Edited December 30, 20159 yr by Bossdog

1 hour ago, Deeoldfart said:

Obviously it's very early days, but I'd love to get a feel from fellow Demonlanders who have seen him, about how Ollie is shaping up at training.  For example, how does he compare to Gus and Track 12 months ago ............yeah, I know I'm starved for a bit of post Christmas Melbourne footy news, but there's only so many times that you can watch the AGM interviews, or revisit the great training pics provided by 666.

It's early days as you say 'Dee' so we will know more after the break but from what little I've seen he hasn't looked out of place. He's a competitor that's one thing for sure...