Can't believe we passed up on bringing in an inside midfielder with questionable foot skills!

Any recruiter who picked Oliver deserves a lot of credit. There was a lot of shock and rage when that selection happened and well, aren't we all glad we didn't end up with the highly touted Parish (who is an OK player but is no Oliver)! 

Jason Taylor has a lot of runs on the board, both with early and later picks. I am more than happy to reserve judgement on selections until we see how they pan out.

I have no doubt we tried to do more pick swaps and move up the draft order on the night, but obviously just could not get anything done apart from the late pick exchange with Hawthorn.

 

2 hours ago, Wiseblood said:

I think we get too attached to players that are potentially coming to us through someone's Phantom Drafts.

Jason Taylor has the runs on the board, and if the club feel these are the players we need at our club moving forward, then I'll back that.

To be honest though I'm pretty ambivalent to it all right now.  As a supporter I want to get behind them as much as possible and give them the chance to develop and work their way into our side.  Too much water to go under the bridge yet - let's see what they're doing in 2023/24.

Spot on I could not agree more.

For those that are unhappy with the first two selections (mostly due to their size) consider the following:

21. Melbourne: Jake Bowey
Position: Small midfielder/forward
Height: 175cm    
Weight: 67 kg    

22. Melbourne: Bailey Laurie
Position: Small forward/midfielder
Height: 179cm   
Weight: 78kg    
 

Here are some of the players they have been likened to (at current playing size and weight):

Caleb DANIEL (pick 46 in 2014)
MEDIUM DEFENDER
24yrs
168cm
72kg

Brent DANIELS (pick 27 in 2017)
FORWARD
21yrs
170cm
74kg

Shai BOLTON (pick 29 in 2016)
MEDIUM FORWARD
22yrs
175cm
77kg

Lachie NEALE (pick 58 in 2011)
MIDFIELDER

27yrs
177cm
85kg

Tom PAPLEY (Rookie 2015)
MEDIUM FORWARD
24yrs
178cm
76kg

From the highlights I wouldn’t be surprised if Bowey plays off HB. He looks an excellent, probing kick. Something we majorly lack. 

and quick as well. 

3 minutes ago, DubDee said:

From the highlights I wouldn’t be surprised if Bowey plays off HB. He looks an excellent, probing kick. Something we majorly lack. 

and quick as well. 

Very true. Played HB and wing in his underage year and was setting himself for more midfield time in 2020. Laurie was forward and wing but setting himself to go into the middle in 2020 with no Rowell and Anderson for Oakleigh. So it’s really hard to know how good they are in a range of positions for us. But there is a half back, wing, and forward position there if they want it. 

5 hours ago, Pickett2Jackson said:

Isaac Smith wishes he was as athletic and could take a grab like the Ros Man

Fraser Rosman -  Plays like Adam Goodes

Fair call. Rosman does have speed and kicking style like Smith but better in the air. That’s a high bar to set to compare like Goodes.  

2 hours ago, Dee-licious said:

Very true. Played HB and wing in his underage year and was setting himself for more midfield time in 2020. Laurie was forward and wing but setting himself to go into the middle in 2020 with no Rowell and Anderson for Oakleigh. So it’s really hard to know how good they are in a range of positions for us. But there is a half back, wing, and forward position there if they want it. 

We need another winger and any one of the three with the smalls further developed. Half back is ok if Lockhart is used in BP and Riv and Hibbo/or Salem  HBF.

Personally I would like Salo on HFF but to Me both Bowery and Laurie Gould take a flank and wing. Rodman might need a few games At Casey to acclimatise but looks a forward also.

Suddenly we may have very good flexibility across Back wing and flanks with Rodman also a versatile tall as an X factor from centreline down. 

Good night And nearly had McCrae and Holmes but I wonder if we might just be much better balanced fir speed and skill with Bowery Laurie and Rodman.

Wonder also if we should have pick swapped early on to get MCcrae or Holmes especially.

But overall I am happy the route we went down and it ends hopefully  a long period of skill and speed Lacking.

Now with Kossie it's going to be a group of forwards and mids hard to pin down fir all the game and in various positions. 

 

1 minute ago, 58er said:

We need another winger and any one of the three with the smalls further developed. Half back is ok if Lockhart is used in BP and Riv and Hibbo/or Salem  HBF.

Personally I would like Salo on HFF but to Me both Bowery and Laurie Gould take a flank and wing. Rodman might need a few games At Casey to acclimatise but looks a forward also.

Suddenly we may have very good flexibility across Back wing and flanks with Rodman also a versatile tall as an X factor from centreline down. 

Good night And nearly had McCrae and Holmes but I wonder if we might just be much better balanced fir speed and skill with Bowery Laurie and Rodman.

Wonder also if we should have pick swapped early on to get MCcrae or Holmes especially.

But overall I am happy the route we went down and it ends hopefully  a long period of skill and speed Lacking.

Now with Kossie it's going to be a group of forwards and mids hard to pin down fir all the game and in various positions. 

 

Sorry Bowey and Rosman.

I know nothing about them, but good luck to all three of them. Glad to see we’ve brought in players with good foot skills and a bit of x-factor. 

From an article “HAUL OR NOTHING” by Sam Landsberger on the Herald Sun subscribers site (can’t find a link):-

MELBOURNE 

21 JAKE BOWEY 180cm, 78kg, Mid, Sandringham 22 BAILEY LAURIE 180cm, 75kg, Fwd/Mid, Oakleigh Chargers 34 FRASER ROSMAN 193cm, 86kg, Fwd/Mid, Sandringham Dragons 

The recruiter: Full-forward Ben Brown comes in and Melbourne uses its first two picks on two speedy great kicks of the ball in Jack Bowey and Bailey Laurie. They’ll help with the forward connection that has long troubled the Demons, and help Ben be more successful in that lineup . Particularly Bowey, as he can carry the ball, cut angles and hit targets at speed. Their third pick, Fraser Rosman, was speculative. He has endurance and size but is very raw.

Our National recruiting and talent spotters must have had an interesting year and exciting draft night,  in that we drafted 2 boys from Sandringham and 1 from Oakleigh.

Get rid of the NGA or give us a better zone or whatever before more top end talent destroys the reason for the draft and puts us further behind.

6 hours ago, Redleg said:

Our National recruiting and talent spotters must have had an interesting year and exciting draft night,  in that we drafted 2 boys from Sandringham and 1 from Oakleigh.

Get rid of the NGA or give us a better zone or whatever before more top end talent destroys the reason for the draft and puts us further behind.

The NGA is being heavily wound back over the next 2 years. Next year top 20 picks will be excluded. The year after top 40 picks will be excluded. Whether that's too little too late to stop the damage done I'm not sure but at least they are on the path to correct it. If they get serious about free agency and axe compensation picks - or at least early ones - they could get back to a draft where the first two rounds go 18 picks a piece more often than not.

2020 draft was terrible viewing.  5 mins per bid, apparently the bids were put in quick but held back until 30 seconds to go to build the BS.  They need to do a lot better - every bid 2 minutes with each club having 3 ‘extensions’ if a trade for picks is on the table.  These guys don’t need the time - they have all the time whilst others are making their bids to sort out any final selections or decide on trade-ups etc.  Listening to the ‘experts’ wears thin after 5 minutes, let alone 26 picks in a first round....

18 minutes ago, buck_nekkid said:

2020 draft was terrible viewing.  5 mins per bid, apparently the bids were put in quick but held back until 30 seconds to go to build the BS.  They need to do a lot better - every bid 2 minutes with each club having 3 ‘extensions’ if a trade for picks is on the table.  These guys don’t need the time - they have all the time whilst others are making their bids to sort out any final selections or decide on trade-ups etc.  Listening to the ‘experts’ wears thin after 5 minutes, let alone 26 picks in a first round....

Reckon the whole exercise is an example of when to turn the box off and go for walk, come back when the results are in... they'd have us tuning in to the grass growing on the G it they could...

Fight the power!! 

5 minutes ago, PaulRB said:

Reckon the whole exercise is an example of when to turn the box off and go for walk, come back when the results are in... they'd have us tuning in to the grass growing on the G it they could...

Fight the power!! 

Agreed - I had it on mute on the side whilst I did something else.  Only time I turned it up and tuned in was at our pick.  Could be a viewing experience, but they know how to ruin it 

7 hours ago, Redleg said:

Our National recruiting and talent spotters must have had an interesting year and exciting draft night,  in that we drafted 2 boys from Sandringham and 1 from Oakleigh.

Get rid of the NGA or give us a better zone or whatever before more top end talent destroys the reason for the draft and puts us further behind.

 

57 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

The NGA is being heavily wound back over the next 2 years. Next year top 20 picks will be excluded. The year after top 40 picks will be excluded. Whether that's too little too late to stop the damage done I'm not sure but at least they are on the path to correct it. If they get serious about free agency and axe compensation picks - or at least early ones - they could get back to a draft where the first two rounds go 18 picks a piece more often than not.

I just don't understand how the smart people in charge of the game couldn't see the holes in the NGA thing in the first place.

Enough of us on here could see it...

It was a dumb idea from the start.

30 minutes ago, rjay said:

 

I just don't understand how the smart people in charge of the game couldn't see the holes in the NGA thing in the first place.

Enough of us on here could see it...

It was a dumb idea from the start.

It was a series of bad decisions starting with the Northern state club academies - especially with the Giants getting the Riverina and Heeney on cents on the dollar, to the NGA, to allowing bids to be matched with a combination of late picks with stuff all value pushed together.

I think everyone agrees the AFL needed to do more to develop kids in NSW/QLD, and to keep the pathway of Indigenous players improving and to make sure new immigrants got involved in the game the same way as other Aussies have, but it really was the worst solution.

 

On 12/9/2020 at 9:13 PM, DeeSpencer said:

Someone needs to get fired for leaking the Holmes pick.

Unless it was Mahoney and then he needs to be sued.

Bad clubs leak. Good clubs don’t. That’s pretty much it.

This shambles of a club can’t keep making unforced errors.

Seriously, you're a very good poster but I hope you've re-considered this diatribe.

There is absolutely no evidence that we rated Holmes ahead of Bowey and Laurie and the fact that our interest in Holmes (along with a number of other clubs) was in the media could easily have come from his family or his manager.  We generally don't leak.

The actual upshot was that Geelong were so freaked out by the possibility that we might take him with one of our picks that they paid a high price and traded their 2021 1st rounder for him.  Note that we got both Bowey and Laurie for our 2021 1st rounder.

22 minutes ago, Pollyanna said:

Seriously, you're a very good poster but I hope you've re-considered this diatribe.

There is absolutely no evidence that we rated Holmes ahead of Bowey and Laurie and the fact that our interest in Holmes (along with a number of other clubs) was in the media could easily have come from his family or his manager.  We generally don't leak.

The actual upshot was that Geelong were so freaked out by the possibility that we might take him with one of our picks that they paid a high price and traded their 2021 1st rounder for him.  Note that we got both Bowey and Laurie for our 2021 1st rounder.

Nope I stand by it. We leaked last year with Jackson and Pickett. We leaked again this year. Whether it's deliberate by any individual or whether we are overplaying our hands by being too keen we make it clear for the world to see we wanted this kid. Stop kidding yourself that we didn't.

Geelong are good. They'll finish at the top of the ladder. Almost worst case scenario is they play finals given their home ground advantage. Whether they hand over pick 10 or pick 18 next year they won't be too worried.

Melbourne are every chance to finish in the bottom 6, hopefully we don't, but it's a possibility. That makes our future first far more of a risk and much more valuable. The Cats also knew exactly who they were getting. We went the early trade and were left with a fairly uninspiring collection of talent. 

1 hour ago, buck_nekkid said:

Agreed - I had it on mute on the side whilst I did something else.  Only time I turned it up and tuned in was at our pick.  Could be a viewing experience, but they know how to ruin it 

It was repeated on fox footy last night. Only a masochist would watch a re-run.

37 minutes ago, Pollyanna said:

Seriously, you're a very good poster but I hope you've re-considered this diatribe.

There is absolutely no evidence that we rated Holmes ahead of Bowey and Laurie and the fact that our interest in Holmes (along with a number of other clubs) was in the media could easily have come from his family or his manager.  We generally don't leak.

The actual upshot was that Geelong were so freaked out by the possibility that we might take him with one of our picks that they paid a high price and traded their 2021 1st rounder for him.  Note that we got both Bowey and Laurie for our 2021 1st rounder.

Geelong are welcome to Holmes. Rosman looks the better prospect anyways.

18 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

Nope I stand by it. We leaked last year with Jackson and Pickett. We leaked again this year. Whether it's deliberate by any individual or whether we are overplaying our hands by being too keen we make it clear for the world to see we wanted this kid. Stop kidding yourself that we didn't.

Geelong are good. They'll finish at the top of the ladder. Almost worst case scenario is they play finals given their home ground advantage. Whether they hand over pick 10 or pick 18 next year they won't be too worried.

Melbourne are every chance to finish in the bottom 6, hopefully we don't, but it's a possibility. That makes our future first far more of a risk and much more valuable. The Cats also knew exactly who they were getting. We went the early trade and were left with a fairly uninspiring collection of talent. 

Sorry DS but I’m with Pollyanna on this one.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Where is the evidence of the leak? Who is it that you think leaked?

What evidence do you have that Geelong traded specifically to take Holmes because they were worried about us?

Couldn’t you just as easily surmise that Melbourne wanted Rosman all along and feigned interest in Holmes to throw every other team off the scent?

21 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

Nope I stand by it. We leaked last year with Jackson and Pickett. We leaked again this year. Whether it's deliberate by any individual or whether we are overplaying our hands by being too keen we make it clear for the world to see we wanted this kid. Stop kidding yourself that we didn't.

Geelong are good. They'll finish at the top of the ladder. Almost worst case scenario is they play finals given their home ground advantage. Whether they hand over pick 10 or pick 18 next year they won't be too worried.

Melbourne are every chance to finish in the bottom 6, hopefully we don't, but it's a possibility. That makes our future first far more of a risk and much more valuable. The Cats also knew exactly who they were getting. We went the early trade and were left with a fairly uninspiring collection of talent. 

You still haven't provided any hard evidence to back your extraordinary claims here..

24 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

You still haven't provided any hard evidence to back your extraordinary claims here..

There's no evidence required, it's clear as day.

Cal Twomey had 1 correct match in the draft after the 2 top picks in his phantom. He had no idea who was going where. But he seemed very strong on Holmes to the Dees and it was consistent across the other phantoms. Even Paul Amy had it. The word was out. Then Geelong trade in right ahead of our pick and grab him. Don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to work that one out.

The top 20 was pretty much all players who dominate in SA/WA or had produced great bottom age years in 2019 (or 2018 under 16's for Bruhn). Outside of Angwin who the Giants saw as a need and had the Duursma tick of approval it was a night for proven performers at the top of the draft. Clubs wouldn't have been lining up to grab a guy with 1 nab league game and a good trial game early, they would've tried to sneak him in as late as possible.

I don't know why I'm getting criticised for suggesting this basket case of a football club that hasn't won a premiership in a million years might not be great at their jobs?