24 minutes ago, rumpole said:

What number does he get?

Surely the club will hold Gus’ # 10 for a season.

I’m looking at the number 34 which is vacant.

2024 Melbourne numbers —

1. Steven May 
2. Jacob van Rooyen 
3. Christian Salem 
4. Judd McVee
5. Christian Petracca 
6. Caleb Windsor 
7. Jack Viney 
8. Jake Lever
9. Charlie Spargo 
11. Max Gawn 
12. Lachie Hunter
13. Clayton Oliver 
14. Jack Billings 
15. Ed Langdon 
16. Bailey Laurie 
17. Jake Bowey 
18. Jake Melksham  
19. Josh Schache
20. Adam Tomlinson 
21. Matt Jefferson
22. Blake Howes 
23. Shane McAdam
24. Trent Rivers 
25. Tom McDonald
26. Jed Adams 
27. Marty Hore
28. Will Verrall
29. Joel Smith
30. Alex Neal-Bullen
31. Bayley Fritsch
32. Tom Sparrow 
33. Tom Fullarton
35. Harry Petty 
36. Kysaiah Pickett 
37. Kade Chandler
38. Oliver Sestan 
39. Koltyn Tholstrop
40. Taj Woewodin 
41. Kynan Brown
42. Daniel Turner 
43. Kyah Farris-White
45. Andy Moniz-Wakefield 
50. Ben Brown

Leave 34 vacant for Kalani White

44 is my bet

So if Luker can make it, it frees up JVR to stay a KPF only and we gain someone who can play as a KPF/2nd ruck.

Turner is a forward for this year I'd say, but next year Luker goes forward and Turner goes back.

Be interesting to see if they think he can play this year. Doubt it, but we'll have to wait and see.

Edited May 29, 2024May 29 by Binmans PA

I find those moaning about their dashed hopes of snapping up Chris Judd with pick 11  in the mid season draft, a midfield gun who, with zero AFL preseason will outperform players who’ve been on our list for several years,… frustrating and delusional. 

Luker looks like a classic MFC pick, in this our golden age of recruiting (all praise JT), in that while he has attributes that needed more development, he has the MFC signature qualities of aggression in contest, demonstrated willingness to work hard and earn his place in the big league.

Welcome aboard young man! And congratulations. 

Go Demons.

20 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

You'd be delusional to think that our midfield doesn't need topping up.

It's still absolutely an issue and will need to be addressed over the off season. A win again a bottom 4 side only puts a band-aid over the cracks for now.

Ps, I actually like this selection a fair bit.

I'm a little disappointed because I thought Saad would be good fun and had some chance (even if a small one) to come in and give us something by the time finals started.

I'm always a little skeptical on key forwards taken outside the first round because the hit rate seems incredibly low and if you are rolling the dice I'd generally prefer a super athletic option because they need less overall skill and have a higher margin for error. That said, this kid does seem to at least have a touch of athleticism and being comfortable using his body against men is a positive too.

The other young talls we were linked too looked stiff as a board and didn't seem to use their bodies at all well..

4 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

I'm a little disappointed because I thought Saad would be good fun and had some chance (even if a small one) to come in and give us something by the time finals started.

I'm always a little skeptical on key forwards taken outside the first round because the hit rate seems incredibly low and if you are rolling the dice I'd generally prefer a super athletic option because they need less overall skill and have a higher margin for error. That said, this kid does seem to at least have a touch of athleticism and being comfortable using his body against men is a positive too.

The other young talls we were linked too looked stiff as a board and didn't seem to use their bodies at all well..

As I said a little earlier:

I see this as 'buying low'. No doubt it's expected as he improves over the rest of the year that his draft position in the ND will increase, and like many decent KPF prospects, will not be available at our picks.

This way we can get 6  months development into him and look to draft mids at the end of the year.

Astute

What i can say for sure is that Luker is more of a competitor than Weideman is now and he's been in the system for 8 years.

Good start to go by. 

8 minutes ago, Left Foot Snap said:

As I said a little earlier:

I see this as 'buying low'. No doubt it's expected as he improves over the rest of the year that his draft position in the ND will increase, and like many decent KPF prospects, will not be available at our picks.

This way we can get 6  months development into him and look to draft mids at the end of the year.

Astute

Probably a smart move as the 2024 draft is full of mids.

How long to a Kentfield to the backline thread? Oh wait… 

1 hour ago, Binmans PA said:

So if Luker can make it, it frees up JVR to stay a KPF only and we gain someone who can play as a KPF/2nd ruck.

Turner is a forward for this year I'd say, but next year Luker goes forward and Turner goes back.

Be interesting to see if they think he can play this year. Doubt it, but we'll have to wait and see.

It would be miraculous if he played this year, as he most likely does not have AFL level fitness, or any knowledge of our game plan.

3 hours ago, Demonland said:

They listed his weight. The WAFL will be cancelled by the morning. 

30 minutes ago, Ethan Tremblay said:

They listed his weight. The WAFL will be cancelled by the morning. 

Too right.

I cancelled my scales this morning!!

Plays like a bigger Dean Kent, but can cover more of the field

4 hours ago, poita said:

Another key forward who won't help the side push for and win finals in 2024. On that basis, regardless of what he does in future, this is a disappointing selection. We're only one injury to a starting midfielder away from a full blown crisis in that part of the field.

You might be right about midfield depth but were we realistically going to find a midfielder in the MSD who would make a significant difference to our 2024 fortunes?

A good pick up and offers a point of difference from the rest of our tall forwards at Casey 

JT also has a great hit rate with recruits from WA so I’ll back him in, plus it doesn’t hurt that he’s friends with Kolt 

And to people thinking we were going to find a bonafide midfielder who could play genuine minutes this year - you’re dreaming 

We’ll be bringing in LDU for that 😉

Edited May 29, 2024May 29 by demoncat

Welcome to the Dees Mynameis

7 hours ago, poita said:

Another key forward who won't help the side push for and win finals in 2024. On that basis, regardless of what he does in future, this is a disappointing selection. We're only one injury to a starting midfielder away from a full blown crisis in that part of the field.

Maybe as @DeeSpencerobserves there was no-one available who could come straight into the 22 and make more impact in the 2nd half of the H&A and finals than Laurie, Spargo, Woewodin, Howes, Billings, Tholstrup and K.Brown.  Perhaps Luke Dunstan or Moose are interested in resurrection?

8 hours ago, rumpole said:

What number does he get?

Surely the club will hold Gus’ # 10 for a season.

I’m looking at the number 34 which is vacant.

 

I reckon 34 will be left vacant this season and next #kalani 

Edited May 29, 2024May 29 by Lil_red_fire_engine

9 hours ago, poita said:

Another key forward who won't help the side push for and win finals in 2024. On that basis, regardless of what he does in future, this is a disappointing selection. We're only one injury to a starting midfielder away from a full blown crisis in that part of the field.

Which player would you have selected in you were Jason Taylor? Put it on the record so you can gloat when that player smashes it in the next 6 months and you will get all the kudos on here for a few years.

This argument over what type of player is the correct type is tiresome. Every team has holes in the list. Tall forwards is our most pressing need in my opinion. It doesn't mean I don't worry about our inside midfield depth, our aging key defenders or our sole reliance on Max in the ruck.

We were never going to solve any issues with one pick in the mid season draft.

The WA scouts have been on a roll, hopefully this is another gem they have plucked. Reserving any judgement for 2.5 years. 

12 hours ago, Gouga said:

A key forward???

gee what a surprise  and not skinny either Well done Dees

5 hours ago, John Demonic said:

Plays like a bigger Dean Kent, but can cover more of the field

Wow thats great😁

2 hours ago, old55 said:

Maybe as @DeeSpencerobserves there was no-one available who could come straight into the 22 and make more impact in the 2nd half of the H&A and finals than Laurie, Spargo, Woewodin, Howes, Billings, Tholstrup and K.Brown.  Perhaps Luke Dunstan or Moose are interested in resurrection?

Indeed.

Of course we need to strengthen our midfield. We lost a starting mid, a top 3 draft pick no less, after (understandably) trading a possible staring mid in jordon and depth in harmes.

As you suggest we have some options, though of that list I think only laurie, the kolt and woey are any chance of being regular starting mids.

(by the by, the fact that none have been rushed into the side, particularly laurie who is AFL ready and played a full season as a mid at Casey, show the level of concern currently about our midfield. Compare and contrast to the decision to bring a defender, Turner  in as a forward).

Kolt looks ready made as an inside mid and might be pushing for a spot next year.

I wouldn't have previously thought woey was a mid option - he hasn’t played as one at Casey or in the ones - but I've been impressed by his contest work and physically he is becoming a bit of a bull, so he might be a chance of becoming a decent mid.

So we have got options going forward.

But with our draft picks it is very unlikely we will draft a kid good enough to slot straight in to our midfield next season.

Which leaves trading in a mid.

I have no idea who might be available. But there is zero point trading in a mid who is not an automatic starter, ie we don't need another depth player.

In a similar vein to your comment old about there not being an AFL ready mid kicking around in the WAFL, VFL or country leagues, it's not as if there's a surfeit of gun mids playing AFL who are both good enough to slot into a top 4 team's midfield and available (not to mention affordable).

The trade whispers about who we might be targeting will give us some insight into how big an issue the club thinks our midfield is.

Edited May 29, 2024May 29 by binman

Welcome aboard LUKER

as the age reported 

“Melbourne will hope they have found another weapon to use in attack after drafting 194-centimetre target Luker Kentfield out of Subiaco. The Demons have experimented with various players up forward across the past few years, so Kentfield joins that eclectic mix.”

At 19 we know big lads take time to develop and hopefully Luka can mould into a handy fwd/ruck option.

Edited May 29, 2024May 29 by Jibroni

10 hours ago, monoccular said:

As of 2145 Wednesday there doesn't appear to be anything on our club's website, which if I am looking correctly is pretty poor.

Yep, still nothing. The clubs socials are pathetic and have been for a long while. Every club with a selection posted their player being drafted almost instantaneously. Melbourne didn’t post about the kid for over half an hour. Embarrassingly average and still a 8:30am the next day, there’s no write up on him or any comment from Jason Taylor.