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Young Billy is happy! Billy Stretch @billyjstretch · 17m 17 minutes ago Cannot believe that my best mate @anealbullen has slipped through to the dees at pick 40!!! Cannot believe it!! Brothers reunited!! Unreal

I'm a self confessed clueness nuffie when it comes to draftees, but I love this from a personal perspective. Happy times in the McDonald family tonight I reckon.

WOWEE!

This was on bigfooty from a Saints supporter and made me laugh. After I stopped laughing I figured out he was 100% right. "In 9 hours, we find out if Petracca is a very driven, highly talented gun and McCartin is a fat, one dimensional lump, or if McCartin is the second coming of Plugger and Petracca is an arrogant [censored]!"

awkward

It's not often I am affected by the death of someone I don't know, but this one hit me and I have to admit, a tear was shed. I agree with BB on Sean Abbott. The pain he'll be going through will be immense and I expect long lasting. I hope he gets the support that he will need.

No

Given a choice of Saty and his unwavering support and love of every player on our list as opposed to many other who see "spud" and "never want to see him in a Melbourne jumper again" for every player on our list - I'm going with Saty....

If it's the same that Steve Milne, Andrew Lovett, Sam Gilbert and whoever set the dwarf on fire passed then I think we will be ok

From Paige Cardona The winners in this draft...... 1 .MELBOURNE 2 Daylight.....

Mc Oz I hereby copyright the nickname

Listen, the amount of derision Saty seems to attract is for the most part unwarranted, in my opinion. If you don't like the fact that he sees fit to support and defend players he thinks are unjustly maligned, then don't read his reports... simple. I for one appreciate his efforts and have no issue with his level of support; and I would guarantee that if you came under the amount of "attacks" he is the target of, I'm pretty sure you would be cracking a case of the sads as well.

From TJ in 97 through to Jimmy Toumpas - I've learned to cool my jets over the years

There's just something about landing Petracca that is so un-Melbourne like and it utterly excites me. I cant put my finger on it, but he is exactly the type of player we were never meant to have landed. Hes the type that goes to other clubs...surely... Best draft i can remember in such a long time..if ever..as it stands.

There is no such thing as too many mids. Welcome Alex.

I don't care about the draft anymore.

Just heard as well. I feel sick. Heartbreaking. Sparing a thought for Sean Abbott as well.

This thread is designated to all things draft on this day of days for recruiting. I'll kick off with this recent article about the opinion of Kevin Sheehan on the top draft candidates. "Shifter" is the godfather of drafting ~ Shifter's top 40 draft players I'm liking Brayshaw and Petracca for 2 & 3 and given those selections I wouldn't mind Dean Gore and Reece McKenzie if available when the time comes. My certainties are Billy Stretch at 42 and Neville Jetta as the rookie upgrade

I know this should be in the other sport thread but many don't read outside the football forum. Phillip Hughes has passed away this afternoon. Very sad. RIP

Great interview with Christian and Angus. http://www.afl.com.au/video/2014-11-27/petracca-and-brayshaw-bolster-dees-midfield

So Melbourne takes five picks to the draft. We use 2 and 3 on the players most regarded as the best in the draft, with the exception of the unavailable Heeney. With our next three picks we take players who by consensus in mock drafts were rated at least 15 spots higher than where Melbourne took them. I doubt that has happened in Melbourne's draft history. The Dees also had sentimental wins with a father-son and the brother of a current player. Even if as a Melbourne supporter you're tempering your enthusiasm and not breaking out the bubbly, you can at least crack open the Maison tonight. It looks on paper to be Melbourne's sharpest, most sensible draft on record.

Agreed. He's dynamic and physically dominant, which gives a point of difference with our other midfielders.

We all appreciate the reports of OUR club and we should all realise that reacting to belittling with more belittling is pointless and self-defeating. Saty can ask the players whatever he likes, the players can politely ask him to GAGF or talk to him, posters can have any (non-defamatory) opinion they wish, and all of this can happen without this BS.

Anyone who wears a live dog shawl is alright by me (is that why he failed the psych test?)

Melbourne should introduce a draft day breakfast.

That smother

It's been many years since we had McDonald brothers playing together at Melbourne.

Unbelievable. Both picked at #53 overall too.

Your mail wasn't all that flash.

PETRACCA AND BRAYSHAW COMBO!!!! YYYEEEESSSSS!!!!!111ONE!!!!!!

RIP Phillip Hughes. My thoughts are with his family and Sean Abbott as well.

IMO yesterdays fan club meeting at the HUN is due to the coming board election at the EFC. Perhaps Mr. Little can smell a changing of the guard and is trying to get the members via the HUN.

Think about it P-man, I'm not agreeing or disagreeing on Petracca but everyone whose opinion is worth more than a pinch of muck rated Tom Scully as a number 1 pick and his kicking is pretty ordinary.

That's one hell of a highlights package. Gee I hope this kid is a Demon within the next 24 hours.

There is a "highlight" package of his which shows a few shanks. Try this one instead to see how powerful and skilled Petracca is. If we land him and Brayshaw it'll be a great draft for us!

We nailed this draft. This is the first time in a few years I can look at every single player we took and think we got it dead right. Petracca and Brayshaw give more confidence than previous high picks purely because they're beasts! They're both already 90kg and would love to smash into a pack and do everything they can to tear the ball out. They'll both be decent players at worst purely due to their size and aggression, but it just helps they're both very skilled ball winners and goal kickers too! Neal-Bullen and Mcdonald both slid and are good pick ups. NB is a beast, and while he's not as big as the other two high picks, he's as tough as they come and loves tackling and ripping the ball out of others hands. McDonald will wind up just like his older brother. And then Stretch adds elite endurance, agility and skills off the wing. He'll hopefully turn into a running machine like Isaac Smith or Brad Hill. Then we already added a giant monster in Frost, and two damaging runners with senior experience in Lumumba and Garlett. Seriously stoked with this draft. Best draft period I can remember! 2015 looks a bit brighter now!

We've just added 5 babies to our list; I'd be putting the declarations of a complete list away for a while. If any more than two of them are in or near the side in round 1 I'll be surprised. One or zero more likely I'd think.

I guess history will be the ultimate judge but what do those that were miffed we gave up ND23 for Frost, 40 and 53 think at this point? We look to have secured Frost, Alex Neal-Bullen (an impressive inside mid the 'experts' say) and Oscar McDonald (and impressive tall the 'experts' say). All for ND23 (and Barry and Evans of course).

What a draft! We acquired the two highest rated mids, one arguably the drafts best talent. We then stole Neil-Bullen, arguably SA's best midfielder in a team that won the National Carnival. Knightmare also ranked him at #24. Then again another steal with a tall in McDonald who Knightmare also ranked highly at #26. This is the exact kind of thing I love and ask for. The recruiting team selected the best available and then played the odds to our favour by selecting players with excellent preexisting outputs. Well done to the recruiting team my hat goes off to you! and congratulations to our new draftees - let the hard work begin. GO DEES!

We should be very happy with what we picked up. Really consolidated our midfield depth (and talent) and got the developing key back we needed.

Locks tom in as a dee for his whole career you would think, that's a win on it's own

Not much to add other than I hope Sean Abbott gets all the support he needs.

Really ? the last time was Lucas Cook at pick 12..... eww

If you promise to give them some breathing space and let them acclimatise to the club and their new surroundings for at least a couple of weeks, before you begin your usual oldest fanboy in the world routine and pester them from the boundary at training, then we promise not to judge them in their first few weeks of football..

The claim that the players are pawns in a political game is completely disingenuous. They are certainly pawns and have always been such but the game is not political. Rather, they were pawns in a supplements programme established by the football department to improve the team's performance and, on that basis, if two Essendon players are found to have taken banned substances as part of the programme, here are the potential consequences:- Are the Bombers inviting that sort of sanction on themselves?The world anti-doping rules clearly apply to individuals within team sports and those individuals constantly receive education on what is expected of them including reminders that they are responsible for what goes into their bodies. The fact is that in this case, the players signed consent forms for the injection of (among other things) thymosin. The records of those substances have mysteriously disappeared and there is no explanation given as to how this occurred although the claim is made that the players were not given ThymosinB4 which is banned but some other form of thymosin or thymomodulin which are not banned but are variously used for different purposes that you wouldn't expect to be used in connection with professional footballers. Stephen Dank, the scientist in charge of the programme is quoted in an article with Fairfax journalists Baker and McKenzie as stating TB4 was used on the players but later recanted when told by his interviewers that TB4 was on the S2 banned list. The invoices showing what was purchased by the EFC as thymosin are said to exactly match dosages used for TB4. It's a circumstantial case but on my reading of the available evidence, it is likely to satisfy the evidentiary tests required to find to the reasonable satisfaction of a tribunal that the players breached the AFL anti doping code. When you consider the list of items on the consent or waiver form signed by the players, there was sufficient information to alert them to matters of concern. Their education as AFL players taught them in those circumstances to refer the substances to others like parents, managers, doctors and other professionals. A simple Google search on thymosin would have told them that something might be amiss. Pawns?

Gees Dieter a bit harsh, I watched his package and he seemed very deft in delivery! If what we believe is true and Mc Cartin goes at 1 sheeeeit Our Midfield will suddenly resemble a battery of Cybermen!! All programed for just one thing.... Get the footy! I love it and if the rumour Mill is wrong I won't despair with Brayshaw and Mc Cartin not in the least. In fact St.Kilda are under more pressure than a hot air balloon in zero gravity! The best thing about the possibility of snaring Petracca and Brayshaw is that it means we free up some playmakers across half back and forward and create multiple options for game plans and stylised play making! Not only that real pressure for spots in the side creates very heatlhy competition! Wundabar!

Bit of trivia for you boys. Christian's mum is an ex marathon runner. At the start of this year he asked people in footy what hus weaknesses were and then went out according to bewick the eastern rangees coach worked like an obsessed madman to try and fix them. The coach described him as the best talent he has seen. Self belief is apparently not arrogance but genuine honesty. the rumours abput degenerative hips on sen and the saints pages (there are nastier rumours as well) are apparently all bulldust.