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iPhone footage from training.

I went down for a short time. It was the second time this pre-season. The notable missing player for me was Aaron vandenBerg. I have seen Christian Petracca and he seems fine, just on a modified program, but I have seen neither hair nor hide of VDB and considering he has been MIA since the Collingwood game in June I hope he is OK.Actually seeing him in the picture above means he is at least around. Hoges was running laps by himself. Looked fine, all limbs in fine working order. They were doing a ball movement exercise when I got there. Split into 3 groups, attack, defence or off. The ball would be kicked down back to an attacker and the attacking team would try to move the ball the length of the ground and score. It was good to watch, lots of running, switching the ball across the ground and fast movement. Sam Frost is back in full training and was good in this drill. Ben Kennedy is possibly the smallest player on our list along with JKH and Viney but he looks very fit and strong and was doing everything he could to impress the coaches and his new team mates. All you could ask at this stage really. Jayden Hunt is very quick. He did a one two with Frost at one point off half back and burnt off his opponent then kicked truly to a leading forward. If they work out how to use his speed there is a chance he can make it. Oscar Mac is taller now than his brother. Looks to have put on height and weight quite naturally, his potential is sky high. The next drill they did was moving the ball the length of the ground via 5 small groups. As you kicked the ball to a player leading from the small group ahead of you you would then run forward to join that group and wait a go before leading, marking swinging on to your left or right and kicking to a player leading from the next group, then running forward to join that group they would eventually make their way down the ground where they would have a shot at goal and then jog back to the other end to start again. About 5 balls in play again there was constant movement. A lot of passes were going astray before I realised they had to swing at least half the time onto their wrong foot. Gus was good on both feet as was Viney. White was pretty good. The highlight was big Tom McDonald kicking on his left. You reckon he's bad on his right foot! Wow. He sort of jumped in the air and would kick the ball with both feet off the ground. Anyway before anyone bags him he was the only senior player there joining in with the newbies so all credit to him.

Parish at pick 3 by a country mile. Champion data has him ranked as the best available player behind Weitering and Schache if they're to go at one and two (exc. academy players). Both Parish's contested and uncontested possessions are above average. Some consider his shorter frame a knock, I don't. The shorter builds of Murphy, Mitchell, A. Swallow or even Jack Viney haven't hindered them. Now lets say "if" Parish didn't develop into that week in week out on-baller, having the likes of Viney, Tyson, Brayshaw and Petracca named in that position ahead of him. He would make an excellent outsider midfielder who's more than willing to put his head over the ball, nor shrug a contest when encountered (a rare attribute in outside mids) - thus the team wins more contested possessions. He has silky skills, excellent awareness and poised under pressure. He also leads the U18 stats with the most meters gained. I think there is very little risk with Parish, rather than selecting someone like Curnow that just "might" develop into a "bigger bodied midfielder" (that flavour of the month word). Parish is TALENT, and the best available at that (hopefully).

Thanks for the cricket reports.

I rate Quigley, Chris, Snoop Dog, and others ahead of the prolific Knightmare. But I hasten to add that it doesn't mean I wish Knightmare any harm in this life or the next. It just means I have an opinion of his opinion. And not losing "a nanoseconds sleep" over Emma's ratings doesn't mean I don't read her, respect her, or consider her opinions invalid, it means I have more faith in our full-time recruiting staff to get things right.

Not sure about training but good to see a few of the boys getting together to play some backyard cricket once the serious stuff finished. Oscar behind the stumps, Jesse batting, vanders, JKH and Salem all fielding and I think Petracca bowling (out of shot). Pic by Gus Brayshaw.

Just don't make a joke about it..........

Wish it was Parish & Weideman.

Dom hit the nail on the head. With Tyson, Salem, Petracca, Brayshaw, ANB, Stretch, Viney, Melksham, Vandenberg we're well placed for a dominant midfield in the near future. Add Jones, Vince, one of P3 or P7 and hopefully Trengove and it makes sense to use one of these selections on a tall to complement Hogan. It just makes sense.

It would be much easier if our club was still leaking. All this angst would be over (tongue firmly planted in cheek). I am really sad and follow this quite a lot. I spend a bit of time engaging with the 'experts' on twitter and read and watch a fair bit so here is my state of play: The expert (Andersen, Lambsberger, Twoomey, Edwards, Quayle, Knighmare, Snoop, TAC cup coaches I know, some inside other clubs info) consensus says there are 8 players for our picks 3 and 7: Parish Curnow Weiderman Oliver McKay Collins Mileria Francis No one has indicated that we are remotely interested in the SA boys (Mileria and Francis) so that leaves us with 6 players. For pick 3 it is between Parish, Curnow and Weiderman. With Wiederman's testing on Friday(?) we will know more here. All three had injuries this year with Parish coming back first. All 3 have shown they can match it against men, all 3 have been game winners, and all 3 have looked terrible at times. All 3 can play round 1 next year as Parish is an in and under (not just outside player) who like tackling and ripping the ball away. Curnow and Weiderman are great contested marks and can kick goals. Curnow's midfield time needs a bit of work (which I find odd as he was a mid first, then forward) but both of them can develop in the MFC 1's as we they would only get the 3rd-4th best defender. I'd see Curnow rotating with Petracca through the midfield and Weiderman would be more stay at home FF for the first few years. He is great on a lead though. All 3 will be good for us and will fill holes that we have. I expect that we will only get one of them although there is a case to be made that all could fall to 7 under different scenarios. Parish will have the biggest impact in 2016, Weiderman by 2018 and then after that Curnow looks like he will be the best of the lot. However, they should all play 200 odd games so we cant loose. Pick 7, now assuming that one of these 3 doesn't get to us, it leaves us with Oliver, McKay and Collins. All 'experts' have had us taking a different one here. I think Collins is great, but with T-Mac, O-Mac, and Frost, I dont think we need another young developing back (and that is what he is). Andersen is the only one speaking about us taking Collins and he hasnt talked to the MFC about it. I've watched Oliver move up the draft board and saw him the other day and he is much trimmer and stronger than what he was during the year. He has removed the puppy fat that was on him and looks like he will be a beast. He is a powerful inside mid, loves a goal and is rough at it, but he is my second choice here. He will be a good player but he is not going to be Oliver Wines (sorry). I think we will pull the trigger on McKay. McKay is young, to give you an idea, he would be 75 days younger than what Hogan was when he joined as a 17 year old. We all love Hogan, but McKay did more this year than Hogan did when we drafted him (obviously he doesn't have the aggressive traits of Hogan which is why we took Hogan). McKay isnt the contested marking beast of Curnow and Weiderman because he creates separation really easily because of his aerobic capacity. I'd love to see some footage of him taking a contested mark, but they tend to be on the lead. At 200cm and the possibility of still growing, he is 94kg which is great coming into the system as he is lean and the weight in muscle and height. If he was 7 days younger he would be the consensus number 1 pick next year. Right now, at 17 years of age, he is probably the 12th best player in this draft right now. In a year's time he might well be the best. I think he will need half a season at Casey but should be able to play the back end of the year at CHF. Andersen would be angry if I didnt mention Gresham. He's as good as Parish but shorter and doesnt play as hard. We're not taking him though. Everyone was quick to jump on this being a weak draft. It is as there are only about 50 players in here, but there will be only around 50 live picks. The picks from 35-50 will be guys that were highly rated at the start of the year but have fallen away through injury. The Top 10 can all be 200 gamers easily, now they wont be Petracca and Brayshaw but honestly that combo is something that GWS never got in their pointy end draft years. 11-25 are personal preference and could be anything or could be role players. I'd expect that in 6 years time we look back on this draft and quite a few are really good foot soldiers who have all played 100 games but aren't out and out superstars. And that is alright. Right now, gut feel I'd say that we take Curnow at 3 and McKay at 7 (10). My actual preference is the Parish Weiderman combo but I think they will end up at the Dons. Hope that helps.

I think this is absolutely correct and will come strongly into their thinking. But what will also come in is their evaluation of our list, where do they see Bugg, Melksham, Kennedy, Stretch, ABN, AVB, Kent, Petracca, Trengove, White, Harmes, JKH and perhaps most importantly King fitting in. What sort of forward line do they want to run? Two key forwards? Not many have that. Do they want a Curnow or a Weideman type? The Hawks are so difficult to defend because they can change their forward structure each quarter. Interestingly they are probably harder to match up on now without Buddy. Is two key forwards with a resting ruck viable now and in the future. Lots of ways to skin a cat. And how do the FD see limitations on rotations working. What do they think the AFL will do to reduce congestion? What sort of player does that favour? There has been some very good discussion about who we will take but this year I reckon there is so much we don't know that we are all a bit lost. I certainly am. Most interesting draft in years this year.

You want an instant fix. The club is building a list that will compete for a flag in 2020. Having a quality key forward to partner Hogan is part of that puzzle. I'll back the recruiters if they use P3 or P7 on one. Quality key forwards are nearly always drafted at the pointy end.

Was just listening to the podcast on the AFL website. I switched it off after Carlton's 2nd pick but it went... 1. Weitering - Carl 2. Schache - Bris 3. Mills - Syd 4. Parish - Melb 5. Hopper - GWS 6. Kennedy - GWS 7. Francis - Ess 8. Weideman - Ess 9. Oliver - GCS 10. Curnow - Melb 11. Milera - Carl Curnow and Parish would be an amazing result for us. Thoughts?

Like Geelong traded Duncan for Danger...

Let's put it this way: We get the first choice & the fifth choice out of Parish, Francis, Weideman, Oliver & Curnow. In terms of their chances of being a future A-grader (which, let's face it, is why we traded up to picks 3 & 7), there's not a lot to choose between them. We each have our own preferences, but they all show a lot of promise but a few concerns. In this draft, after these guys (and the first two and the academy picks) the chance of picking up a future star falls off a cliff within a few picks. So it's a good place to be.

saw GRAYSHAW kick a banana from the boundary at gosch's one day at training.. he looked around to see if hogan or garlett had seen it and they hadn't and he collapsed backwards and did a "snow angel" in the leaves on the ground..... from that moment on, he was my boy!

Who gave the AFL permission to observe? Might as well handed them Max's shoe phone to give to Ess.

Well that explains the lack of leaks as well.

I think that the difference between the depth in our mids and forwards is that we have a bunch of very promising midfield prospects. Besides Hogan, the same can't be said about our KPPs in the forward line.

I'd like to see them doing it Spanish Inquisition style... bring in the comfy chair!!

For me, what seems obvious is that there IS a big gap between the mids, but that there is little between the tall forwards, and much more likely that there will be a better KPF left at pick 7 than a high quality mid. I'd happily take Parish at 3, then wait for whoever is left of Curnow, McKay or (hopefully) Weideman.

These boys will want to see the journey together. I like this

Nice big backyard, clearly not in a new estate/house!

How? Freo can't get one, the Dogs have paid overs for one who could be a bust, the Swans paid overs for 2 and both could be a bust. Now's the time 'BB'.

I feel some maybe on the verge of some form of desperation as they make their way through this mire. We have an issue where we'd like to find a 'foil' a partner of some sort for Hogan and to just bolster our fwd line anyway. Thats fine for what it is. No one is really going to argue the point. Its a given. Then we have that there are a couple of KPP types in the draft. Neither is a truly standout type. Neither has lit the world on fire. Both can play though one has , for rmine, serious fitness/injury concerns. Both lads play(ed) in leagues where strapping young bigguns get to strut their stuff. They dont get an awful lot of attention from the defenders , not this the same way they will at the next level(s) With rare exception the era of being able to size up a absolute gun and pick him I think is over. There is far more scrutiny and attention paid to draftees than it wa back when Roughy Buddy etc were swallowed up. That was then and this is now. KPP notoriously take years longer to come on than utility/mids. How I see it is. Unless you are absolutely desperate for a fwd /back of any kind then you dont waste pointy end picks on a so-so player. Let another roll the dice here. Picks 3 and & will guarantee ( all but ) one of them will succeed and become at worst a decent b grade utility/mid. Chances are one will become an A grader. Possibly one might indeed become elite...Bargain... With luck both might turn out more than alright. But to me just using one pick on a mid is again roling the dice when you dont have to. Roos has long been an advocate of snaffling players a little bit along the path. Im with him. If you have the luxury of an already high functioning team/list yo can do what you like almost. We dont. We have quite a bit of talent, but a lot of the value sits on the 'potential' side of the ledger. It wont matter who the hell is in our fwd 50 arc if the ball is spending most of the game down the other end. Build a midfield that is hard at it and relentless....and do that first. We can fill that fwd spot in some fashion even if only temporarily until we can snaffle another player whos got a bit of experience. More a known item.as it were.. If you dont know what youre really getting....shy away.

Wright and McCartin have played for one season and you're already criticizing them? How long did it take tomahawk to find his feet at AFL level? The way hogan came onto the scene this year and dominated is an absolute rarity.

Not the kid we pick up at 3 or 7, that's for sure.

He can bat both left and right handed. He can part the seas, stop time, walk on water...........he can do it all!

Snoop Dog Phantom published yesterday: Snoop Dog 2015 Phantom National and Rookie Draft Lot's of detail, interesting picks for us.

Having strength in your left arm is fantastic for a right hand batsman because it eliminates the variable of the right arm (bottom hand) being needed for power on some shots - it will create a more stable shot. Kids usually go with their favoured hand for their bottom hand because they just want to hit the ball as opposed to direct it and the bottom hand supplies the power. Hence why it is a good way to learn with your dominant hand being your top hand.

I don't think enough is being made out of this guy. He was the no. 1 midfielder last draft. I saw a whole heap of PS training and I thought he looked a lot more prepared than Brayshaw did, and we all know how AB went. I seem to link this article a bit, but it's worth another read to think about how when CP debuts in 2016, it won't be like a first year player. It will be enhanced by the year on the sidelines like it was with Hogan. Back to back rising stars for us I reckon. http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/how-melbourne-built-jesse-hogan-20150427-1mukbm.html

CAS is a court, not investigators. I don't think it's correct to say that CAS wants "to get to the bottom of it". That's WADA's job. WADA has to convince an independent court, ie CAS, that what they found at the bottom requires CAS to take action. CAS should be dispassionate and come to the matter with an open mind.

Not sure of your point, Olisik. Lynden Dunn is not a tall forward. If you're trying to say that he can play as our second tall forward, he'll be 29 in May and surely won't have too many years left after that. He's not a long-term solution to our problem. We need to draft a forward with one of these picks. This draft could make or break whether we become a legitimate contender or another also-ran.

Yep, things may turn out that way. Although I'm not sure there's another mid available that complements our midfield like Parish. If there was then taking Curnow at 3 would be a no-brainer (assuming we rate him as suggested).

You're a dill, Stu. I've already explained that I wasn't knocking Emma. The only poster on BF who I believe is overrated is Knightmare and it's easy to form such a conclusion when I've had access to his posts for years. Just as I've had access to the others who I rate. Why do you need to be spoon fed the bleeding obvious, Stu ?

"KPP notoriously take years longer to come on than utility/mids. How I see it is. Unless you are absolutely desperate for a fwd /back of any kind then you dont waste pointy end picks on a so-so player." Your comments above indicate to me you don't want to take the time to develop a quality young tall. I'd add that if we do draft a tall we obviously consider said player a "quality" prospect and not some "so-so player".

Exactly this. I keep harping on about it. We don't just need midfielders.. People keep crying out that we have a weak midfield. We don't just have a weak midfield. We lack experienced and veteran midfielders. We don't NEED to draft another young midfield brigade. Look at the list that was quoted above ^. Which is exactly why we need a tall at 3 or 7.

Agreed it's unlikely for next year but we should be preparing the list for the future as well. If we pick up mids again this year we'll be in the same predicament in 12 months time potentially with later picks.

I would hardly call drafting a tall random panic. It seems as though the mids available in this draft are also relatively speculative with no clear standouts other than a couple that we don't have access to. It's known that talls take longer to develop, so now may be the time to draft a highly rated one so that by the time we're competitive he's ready to step in and play a role for us. We all know how expensive it is to try and lure a good tall via free agency or trade, and I think we'll have to develop our own if we're going to afford to keep all the young guns that we currently have. We really don't have too many tall forward prospects. King is very speculative. Same goes for OMac, and it seems he'll continue as a defender. Not sure what the vision is for Frost, but I think he's a defender as well. As has already been illustrated on here, the best KPPs go early in the draft. We've already given up our first rounder for next season, and hopefully by the time we're drafting in 2017 our pick won't be high. I see now as our chance to get a partner for Hogan to form a dominant tandem for the next decade.

We've been sorting out the midfield the last 2-3 years. Tyson, Salem, Petracca, Brayshaw, ANB, Stretch, Viney, Melksham, Vandenberg- these guys are all midfield talents brought in recently. We will also definitely bring in another mid with one of our first two picks. I am 100% certain we will take a forward with one of our first two picks- I'm not sure who it will be though.

As history shows, picking key position players at the top end of the draft is a difficult choice. They usually are standouts in their U18 season and their is no guarantee that they will succeed. Reiwoldt, franklin, roughead are a diamond dozen. Looking at previous drafts, we know that they take time to develop but apart form Hogan recently and Nic Nat: Boyd, Patton, Wright, McCartin. None of them have really stood up. Of course for some injuries have prevented that, but at this stage just small signs they may become ok AFL players. Melbourne took Lucas Cook who was considered All Australian- look where he is now. This year Weidemann and Curnow have only shown glimpses and haven't really dominated at their U18 level. Of course injury has prevented this, but still, there have only been glimpses of talent. Would we be willing to risk either one or both of these picks on highly speculative talls which may or may not succeed. Parish would be a much safer bet with another midfielder at this stage.

Vikes just keep on winning. 5 in a row now it's a weird feeling. Our defense is huge. Oakland didn't score in the second half and AP ran for 200 yards. It may only last a week but it's good to be on top. Dunno what is happening at Green Bay Mcarthy isn't calling plays this year I'm not sure if that has much to do with it. The Pats refuse to lose that was a great game. The saints are the most untrustworthy team going around. I think Rob Ryan just got fired as DC. Who is the favourite in the NFC the cardinals or Carolina?

I cannot stop watching this. Thank you.

There are rehab facilities for people like you RM.

In my books Michie has been an 'OK' recruit and good value at pick 54. Played 11 games this year and his match-day performance seemed to be building. Maybe his being delisted to be rookied is more a function of some 'generous' terms of contract duration given to a couple of other players whom I suspect will roll-off our list at the end of the year.

I'm really hoping Jack Trengove.... Would love to see him back and firing.

Do you rate Oliver?

Hands off!!!! The song must never change.