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I confess that while I've retained a keen interest in this year's draft pool almost from the moment last year's drafts took place (see the opening post here and I like to read up on the opinions of the draft experts in the media, I continue to maintain that the best way to assess the players is by seeing them in action. The best way is in person but in that regard, I've seen a limited number of games this year - the two TAC Cup semi finals and an Oakleigh Chargers game I happened upon where they didn't have any records and I couldn't identify a single player (ironically, they won the premiership in the end). I did manage to tape (on Foxtel IQ) the seven Under 18 National Championship games they telecast plus the TAC Cup Grand Final and I watched some other games streamed on the AFL site (one of the U18 champs games and the grand final curtain raiser) and I hope to revisit these in the lead up to the draft. I want to add one thought about a few of the players said to be among the leading candidates to be drafted in the top 10 range. Don't necessarily take what you read as gospel. I know there are some great wraps about Charlie Curnow and how he's a 191cm forward who could potentially become a midfielder but I've seen him play and on what I saw, he's a long way from being a midfielder. Put it down to him having a bad day in a losing team (the TAC Cup semi) or not fit enough for the high pressure of a final after missing part of the season to injury but he was a long way off the pace that day. The dropped marks and poor kicking didn't remind me of the Bont or Stringer in any way, shape or form. The same can be said of Aaron Francis. He looks to be versatile and he's tall but there's no proof that he will be an AFL standard if he went into the midfield. On the other hand, given that we continue to be deficient in the midfield and we spent credits in the trade to get pick 3, I can't go past Darcy Parish for that selection. In that losing semi final, Parish might have lowered his colours on the day but he is all class and will bring the outside running quality needed to complement our once third world midfield. We have no control over what happens with the next four picks. My choice of player who I think might be around at 7 is Rhys Mathieson (ironically the first player mentioned in the post I quoted in December 2014. Here's what I wrote about them after that semi final:- UPSETS IN TAC CUP "Darcy Parish wasn't prolific but he is all class, can play inside and out has a great future in the game. His partner in crime Rhys Mathieson has great presence, works hard and can hold his head high despite his team's loss. Although they played in a losing team, I've seen enough of them in the middle for Vic Country in the Under 18 National Championships to be able to say that, along with a couple of northern academy midfielders (Mills and Hopper), they are the cream of the crop in this age group. The third of the noted Falcons Charlie Curnow had a poor day after a solid start with some early marks but his kicking let him down." Finally, the two Geelong midfielders look like they will be able to work together on and off the footy field:- Parish and Mathieson's perfect double act

Collins is a gun with a senior body already. I wouldn't pick him up though as I like the T.McDonald - Frost future we have. We have Dunn and Garland as 3rd and 4th talls until O.McDonald is a regular. We need a speedy mid and a tall forward, which 2 top 10 picks should fill nicely. I'm a big fan on taking best available, but I think this is the last year of the so called rebuild, so we should fill spots of need. If we make finals from 2016 onwards, say goodbye to top 10 picks, so I reckon lets get what we need, then the boys can grow together and towards our 13th premiership. Gee, I can't wait for the day!!

Gee. How unpredictable that this turned in to a pointless abuse thread.

Believe it or not one can get a little frustrated at times reading some of the posts on Demonland. However in this thread it seems most of us are getting what the new look MFC is trying to achieve and have earned our trust and belief rather than just blind faith. They have articulated to fans what the plan is, recruited on and off field well and have been steadfast in sticking to that plan that has to be years in its realisation. By naming the qualities they recruited for they explained why JH will not be a loss and why other current players need to further add to the one or two steps they may have already taken in 2015 to be a part of the future (JW etc). There is no doubt our club understood the opportunities this new world draft offered better than the opposition and shocked the other clubs in improving our list and draft picks simultaneously. The last day flurry of exchanging of draft picks from other clubs proves this but it was to little too late in most cases because we got the cream in an almost underworld hit style the previous day. As has been stated, we are building real depth now and we will soon no longer fail the bottom 6 theory to success. The club knows what they doing and they do it without leaking like the proverbial sieve. Stick with it Demonlanders.....we are about to be rewarded.

To all the posters that are underwhelmed by whom we picked up I ask you to nominate which players out of the ones that were traded and were gettable by our club (ie don't include Dangerfield or Treloar etc that only had eyes on one club therefore not gettable) would have suited our needs? I can think of one, Jed Anderson and thats about it. I think Demonland would have gone into meltdown if we selected Henderson or Yarran. You could argue Troy Menzel, Craig Bird, Zac Smith or James Aish but what would have we needed to give up to get those players and do they really suit our needs at this current time? I think we have recruited players that exactly suit our needs and just as importantly positioned ourselves perfectly in the upcoming draft. I don't think we would have achieved this outcome if we selected any of the above names.

Edited

We take Parish at 3 which is an absolute lock. Essendon are big fans of Weideman, they want to stock up on another key forward to team up with Daniher for the next couple of years. With Carlisle now gone that really leaves then thin on talls. There is also a very good chance Francis goes to Essendon aswell. With Goddard coming towards the end of his career its a no brainer. Now dont rule out GC going for Milera at pick 6. They rate his class and outside work and given the loss of Harley Bennell this is also a no brainer. I am certainly sure thats another reason why they down graded aswell instead of using a high pick for him. Now with GC still stocked with forwards they see Peter Wright as the direct replacement for Charlie Dixon which then leaves us with selecting Charlie Curnow!

In the first few picks all this "cloak and dagger" stuff is silly. The draft order is now set. Nobody can do anything about who we pick at 3 bar Carlton and Brisbane. We will just rank the players in order and take the best available at 7. We are not going to let the player we want go at 3 with the hope they get to 7, that would be dumb having gone to all the trouble and cost of getting 3. And I don't think we will necessarily take a tall for the sake of it. We'll take the best available. If that's a tall so be it. The way Hawthorn structure their forward line is just to have as many goal kickers as they can in there. Doesn't matter about size. Even Roughy plays a lot around the ground. They succeed because they are unpredictable and don't have a go to target. They are arguably better without Buddy. Our danger with Hogan is putting all our eggs in one basket. It can go horribly wrong as it did for WCE in the GF. We need a team and system that kicks goals and a set formula of "two talls" is yesterdays philosophy I reckon. Best available. Players able to play multiple positions and roles. That's what we should be aiming for. And I reckon we've got the second tall on our list already in Tom McDonald. His kicking is an issue but no more so than coming out of the backline. He can run, mark and finds the ball. I think he will play forward a lot next year.

You said Pedo "kept Dawes in the VFL" which isn't just an overstatement it's completely incorrect. Dawes was injured and was brought back via the VFL as happens all the time. In all likelihood he would've come back the following week regardless of Pedo's wrist injury. Done with talking about something this minsicule.

I've just re-watched Melksham's efforts in round 1 and 2 this year and was impressed with his efforts. Against Sydney he went head-to-head with Hannebery at stoppages and had 20 disposals (10 contested) at 60% effectiveness and laid 9 tackles. Against Hawthorn he went head-to-head with Jordan Lewis at stoppages and had 26 disposals (4 contested) at 57% effectiveness. He also had 12 inside 50s including the key centre clearance that led to the match winning goal. I chose to watch these games because they were against quality opposition and came before WADA re-opened the investigation. In both matches he was playing more of an outside midfield role and generally only got involved if the ball spilled out or a teammate found him by hand. His accuracy is one of the biggest knocks against him but when he had space he managed to find a target effectively most of the time. When under pressure he blazed away by foot though not necessarily in a bad way - as his inside 50 count against Hawthorn suggests. By hands he was good at finding a teammate and it was encouraging to see him provide a shepherd after he'd offloaded it. He showed a lot of toughness and went very hard at the contest. A couple of times he was roughed and he didn't back down (even from bigger players like Tippett). He tackled hard and was quick to get back to his feet in order to stay in the play. I got the feeling he wasn't applying a hard tag to either Hannebery or Lewis and it was more of a head to head match up. As it was, particularly with Hannebery, Melksham often trailed behind him and probably lacked the pace to stick with him (as do most players). I think he'll fit in nicely in our midfleld and having watched these games I'm more confident that he'll be in our best 22. I recommend checking these games out. I used my AFL live pass. I'd love to track down some footage of this 3 vote, 29 disposal effort from 2011 in a win against Geelong but I can only watch games back to 2012 with my pass.

Pick 25 for a player who could potentially miss the next 2 years of competition. A huge risk. I hope a plan B is part of the deal if a verdict of guilt is given It is a disgrace that ANY Essendrug player was able to enter in to any trade deals. Means only that Essendrug wash their hands of responsibility one by one....

With Dunkley and Rice going 22 and 24 respectively - our ND40 is now the 33rd 'live' pick in the draft. If there are kids at BL and GC rated in the 30s - we will have the 31st 'live' pick and suddenly that 29 we gave GC - still the 28th 'live' pick - is completely redeemed. I am just so impressed with Mahoney now - the MFC was prepared for this - we knew exactly what we were doing. 25 for Melksham is fine when it has only come forward 1 'live' pick but your ND50 is potentially the 36th 'live' pick. TL;DR version - we will get the 3rd, 7th, and ~31st ~36th picks in the draft (excluding the FS and Academy players).

I know its a highlights package but have a look at this kid. Huge legs and hips, good hands, good pace great kick and appears to be a natural attacking footballer. Strong over the ball and hard to bring down. Does that ring a bell? Whether he ends up a forward or defender, who can tell, but he seems to have an attacking instinct. I love the look of him. Each of the picks we are looking at has a flaw. Parish is smallish and his kicking doesn't look brilliant, but he is touted as a good user. Curnow is an unknown quantity. Weideman looks good but may be a bit one dimensional (there don't seem to be any highlights package to view). Matheison's kicking is really sus. He is a definite goer but lacks polish and I think we have enough of that type. I will be rapt if we pick up Francis but I also acknowledge that he is not the tall forward foil for Hogan or a genuine mid (I could be wrong). Whether he is exactly the player we need at the moment, I don't know but I just think he looks like a super footballer and it is hard to go past that.

They have delisted him and picked up Fitzy....,

I like Oliver. He ll be a bitter. Oozes leadership and is right down Roos alley

All accounts have Parish as the best mid. We need mids, so no brainer on Parish for pick 3. I like what i hear, that he's a tough, inside/outside mid who tackles and is lippy... I even like his prince charming locks, shows he not affected by others opinions of him, is confident in himself. Pick 7 I'm not fussed between the various options, as my confidence in the FDs ability to nail this pick has risen markedly the past couple of years, I believe they'll nail this pick and have most likely all four of our preferred draft targets, subject to variables. The fact they stretched to minimise the variables in the first 7 picks indicates they know who they want... Which I like the feel of.

The Dawes deficiencies are clear cut. Can't mark, can't kick. Exactly what you don't want from a key forward. Pedo is no superman, no one on here thinks that, but he can take a strong mark, is a neat kick and can pinch hit in the ruck.

I agree with some of your points WJ but i hope we steer clear away from Mathieson to be honest.. First of all his decision making and disposal is on par with Jordie Mckenzie, its really that bad. He rushes his kicks to often to the point where he will just blaze away without looking whats ahead. His skinny frame while loves to burrow in gets pushed off the ball way to easily and gets brushed off with ease and also he is not clean with the ball, he just fumbles way too much at crucial stages of the game. The only positive i have with him is his ball winning ability, other then that there is not much at all. In fact i will be very very surprised if he is picked top 10. I expect him to slide out because atm personally he hasn't got the required tools to be an AFL elite mid.

Seems logical Dazzle.. Don't forget though GC still have Jack Martin & Jarrod Garlett. Too many of the same type of player maybe? Not sure if they would need a bollocking inside mid or not to help out the likes of Ablett & Prestia. I hope one of Curnow and Francis slides to us.

caveat emptor

A very hurtful and I must point out, inaccurate slander against my good name. For a start, I no longer do idolatry. I suppose you could replace that with drunkenness and I'm usually , sometimes .... skip honesty for the moment. But if I was totally honest, I'd say add gluttony and of course lust. Then there is avarice, indolence and is incontinence sinful? Best I stop now.

Well I'll make sure that I won't look at any more of 'Chris25's' Phantom Drafts. If he thinks that Brisbane will pass on Schache at pick 2 then he clearly has no idea.

These three are not in our best 22. None of our players are. Preseason begins in about 6 weeks, every player should start from zero. They should work their butts off to earn a place in the team. No one gifted a spot any more. You earn it, or play at Casey. These three have the same chance as everyone else.

Here are a few phantom draft top tens to give an indication of the thinking of the draft devotees - Callum Twomey 1. Jacob Weitering 2. Josh Schache 3. Darcy Parish 4. Aaron Francis 5. Sam Weideman 6. Charlie Curnow 7. Harley Balic 8. Wayne Milera 9. Ryan Burton 10. Darcy Tucker Knightmare 1. Jacob Weitering 2. Josh Schache 3. Darcy Parish 4. Sam Weideman 5. Aaron Francis 6. Mitch Hibberd 7. Charlie Curnow 8. Rhys Mathieson 9. Harrison McKay 10. Darcy Tucker Chris25 Phantom Draft 1. Jacob Weitering 2. Aaron Francis 3. Darcy Parish 4. Josh Schache 5. Kieran Collins 6. Ryan Burton 7. Harley Balic 8. Charlie Curnow 9. Sam Weideman 10. Darcy Tucker

Phht............not so special. I ran a whole hour longer to do mine

Most of it's been covered, but here are the points: - Not counted as part of the list for the purpose of player numbers (ie he's not one of the 44 listed players). - His wages are not counted in our salary cap. - We have him for an initial contract of 2 years. If we like him we can then add him to our Rookie list for a further two years. - The same rules apply for upgrading him as for any other Rookie. To qualify as a Category B Rookie a player can not have been a part of any Aussie Rules List for three years (pretty sure that's the limit) and I think they have to be playing another sport at the elite level. Playing Basketball for Australia obviously qualifies him. Blicavs at Geelong was trying out for the Olympic track and field team as a steeplechaser when he signed with them. There was a bit of talk earlier this year that Alex Keath wanted to get back into AFL. This is the route he would be taking as well, and I think he'd have his pick of pretty much every club in Victoria if he decides to do it. So basically we get to sign him outside the drafting system, pay him whatever we like and he doesn't cost us anything in terms of salary cap or list composition for two years while we train him up and see if he can really play.

Ya if we are going to get through to a final let alone get within a bulls roar of the ABs (even though it is the SAFOs they are playing it would be a massive boil over if they lost) in the final we need Pocock and Issy fit and firing. Can't wait to watch both games, lucky I have a new born so I am getting used to late nights with little sleep.

His Dad was one of the most gutsy players I've seen......not just a spectacular mark.He was prepared to stand in "the hole" and be crashed by the on rushing pack, time and time again( a bit like Steven Icke.

Just to be clear, the pic on his Instagram is of three blokes standing on the balcony of what seems to be a waterfront mansion. Jesse's comment is: The story of the 3 pigs. Somebody else has commented: #firsthomeowner How anyone can surmise anything from that is beyond me, especially given the way these guys talk sh*t on social media. Also, the post is more than a week old. If Jesse really has bought a huge riverside mansion in WA, we would have heard about it by now.

Everyone seems to think the top 7 is set aside from order. That is very rarely the case one month out. We still lack outside polish and its not like Parish is small he is a standard mid size and by all reports also fits the competitor non negotiable we appear to be carrying through. If he is the best pure mid I would snap him up at 3 and just take the player we think has the highest ceiling at 7 that is available and back in our development process to make them realise their potential.

As a club, we shouldn't make decisions based on what a player may or may not do in 2 years time. Let's just fake some confidence in ourselves shall we?

They're always pretty kind to us in Round 1. Should be a good game but I wish we could start against Essendon or Carlton.

No doubt it will be Howe's opponent. And Kennedy will give the assist after a long kick from Lumumba. Followed by a Bali holiday advertisement featuring Bucks on the big screen, in front of 94,565 fans watching on.

Ha ha this is a beauty, he happens to be the boyfriend of one of my daughter's best mates. Seen him play basketball quite a few times and he has won best a couple of best and fairest with one of our local footy clubs. He is lightning quick for his size and has a huge leap on him, top kid too.

Shaun Smith was just interviewed on SEN and his comments about Joel were: - Played under 16's football; - Dropped footy to focus on VCE and basketball; - In the Dees' sights for nearly a year; - Dees liked his athleticism; - Last year he did some trials and kicking with the Dees; - Being son of a former player appealed; - MFC left it up to Joel to think about it for a year; - with Jeremy Howe going, it provided an opportunity for someone like Joel ... he alluded to maybe taking high marks like Howe; - Joel is 6'3" and Shaun sees him as a forward, has endurance and a tank. Sounds very good ... I'm dreaming that he could be the forward buddy we are looking for Jesse. Long way to go but he will be another Son of ... to enjoy watching in red and blue!

I like the look of 200cm Max King. He's a forward/ruck. Played 8 games for Casey this year kicking 13 goals and taking 30 marks (15 contested). In fact, he's a really good mark and has neat kicking skills for a tall. He's not quite ready. 1-2 years. Plays all of next year as a 20 year old. Callum Sinclair came from Port, is 26 and has played 29 games. Sydney were very keen to take him off West Coast's hands. Like King, he's not a number one ruck, but more a forward/ruck. It can take a while, but Max is tracking exceptionally well.

Happy days! Time to celebrate.

Arguing over whether we should have used 29 (which we didn't have yet) instead of 25 just reeks of whinging for the sake of it. Practically speaking the chances of that changing the player we select in the draft very remote.

My young PE teaching informants who have both interest and connections in junior football inform me that Parish would be a quality pick up. They claim he is tough and can win the wall despite not being overly big.

Incredibly fortunate IMO to be in Melbourne for Round 1 again. Also quite lucky we get Easter Saturday whilst the Dogs are given a home game on Easter Sunday instead. Already cannot wait.

Forget the payment. How will the afl or essendon compensate the dees for the draft pick/list spot?

Without knowing much about this year's draftees, if Parish is the best mid available and can win a contested ball as well has class outside then we need to get him. We've had problems drafting "skinny outside" types in the past but we didn't have the foundation of contested ball winners we have now and they also didn't have much of a contested ball element to their games. Previously we recruited these "outside" mids and just threw them in the deep end without support and expected them to do the leg work for the club. With Jones, Vince, Brayshaw, Viney, Petracca, Salem etc already there to provide some grunt we can handle getting an outside classy type to complement them anf hopefully help deliver the ball on a platter to Hogan.

Frost is one to be watched in 2016. If he can nail down that backup ruck/forward role it could spell trouble for Dawes and Pedo. I can't see one team consisting of all 3 of Dawes, frost and Pedo unless hogan or tmac are on the shelf. Not much love for trenners. It has been forever since he was fit and firing, but if he is fit then he is in our best 22.

Is that another name for Burswood? Or that place in Melbourne suboring?

Don't you think that our FD discussed this at length when GC agreed to exchange picks 3 and 6? I am sure that we came to an understanding as to who we both were going to target. (Not so confident about Essendon playing ball though!)

Geez Dazzle you're on the sads about Hogan today - in two different threads. Though both relevant. Hogan will stay at Melbourne over Freo because it will be a career path choice between emulating Norm Smith or Matthew Richardson. (For the record, Richardson has played in just three finals, for one win, Norm Smith played in 16, for 10 wins, 1 draw, 5 losses, including a triple-premiership which he was a decisive factor in. Just in case anyone forgets!) As for the complex issue of who fits where, personally I wouldn't mind a structure of 2xCHF and one resting ruckman at FF. I think the 'modern game' demands a workrate from CHF that is more than any one player can contribute. By alternating who goes for the searching lead and who lurks menacingly in and out of the forward 50, both CHFs are always offering a target while also allowing for variation in the intensity of effort/comparative rest. I think it would be very good, especially for a young team, to have certainty that there will always be someone there to kick to when they look up.

From the HS: The Demons were one of the big winners, converting a package of four draft picks for Nos.3, 7 and GWS defender Tom Bugg. Football boss Josh Mahoney told the Herald Sun the Dees identified the loophole about a month ago and planned to exploit it to rise up the draft order. “That was one of the things we spoke about and we’re really happy the plan has come through,” Mahoney said. “The key thing is you’ve got to learn how the system works and how the points work and I think as the trade period has gone on the influence of points is certainly coming through.” Good to see the club actually was ahead of the curve in recognising the opportunities that the academy points system provided as well as the trading future picks. We have to improve immediately. Its been 10 yrs seasons we played finals. This year should have seen us improve more but we were held back by players that either didn't have the talent or didn't have the competitiveness required. To lose four first quarters/first halves we did from rds 19-22 in the manner we did was simply unacceptable and we needed players that would stand up when the chips were down. Hence the drafting strategy this year. We also needed talent and are in the position where the Dangerfields of this world dont want to come to us (hopefully prestia will). Our talent simply has to come from within and with 6 top 10 picks from the past 3 drafts we will hopefully have filled that home-grown talent requirement. ONly after real improvement and a genuine sustained chance at finals can we see external talent pick Melbourne as a club to want to come to. I think this draft sets us up if we nail the top 2 picks. We can win 10-11 games if we eliminate the pathetic quarters from our game and create belief within the group. The Dogs have shown how momentum is so important for belief. We have shown in patches how the opposite is true. Trading a future pick was a necessary strategy for us. In essence we have used the pick for this year to target someone that we clearly want. If we can get trengove on the park and petracca shows us what he is capable of we will be a much harder side to play in 2016 than we were in 2015.

Can they arrest a run on? I understand a rampant Dogs outfit barking at September - but Carlton? 72 - 9? Carlton.

They are an improvement on the likes of Bail, M. Jones, McKenzie and Terlich. They will provide greater competition with players like Newton, Michie, JKH, Stretch, ANB and Grimes which is a good thing and they are all competitors which is what we need. The key to this trade period is picks 3 and 7, this is where we are more likely to get top-end talent from.

If the following kids go in these spots; Hopper (GWS) at 4, Mills (SYD) 5, Kennedy (GWS) 11, Hipwood (BL) 15 and Keays (BL) 18 (pulled from a phantom on Big Footy) then the draft will look like this: Hopper burns through 10 and moves 34 to 42 for GWS. Mills burns through 33, 36, and 37 moves to 61 for Syd. Kennedy burns through 42, 43, and 53 moves to 72 for GWS. Hipwood burns through 38 and moves 39 to 72 for BL. Keays burns through 40 and moves 41 to 64. This needs to be cleaned up when I know how it functions in a bit more clarity but essentially, our pick at 46 is now 35 and 50 is 39. So people feel better with 3, 7, 35, and 39?