Leaderboard

If we take Parish over Oliver we don't get near finals If Smith and Spencer don't get injured against Richmond we probably win and play finals If St Kilda took Trac instead of Mccartin we struggle to win QB It's full of what ifs Thank god the FD looks forward not back

Bucky's thoughts from the Hun: BUCKENARA SAYS: In my Melbourne list analysis column for the Herald Sun during the trade period I wrote the Demons needed a small forward to help Jeff Garlett and they’ve got that in Charlie Spargo. He can play through the midfield but I think his position at AFL level will be as a small forward who loves to tackle and pressure the opposition. I really like the selection of Harrison Petty. I had him rated at 22 in my top 50 so to get a potential key defender of his quality at 37 great value. He reads the ball really well in flight. The Demons have a bit of a history of taking mature-age players out of second-tier competitions and they’ve done it again with Bayley Fritsch who kicked 42 goals for Casey this year. Melbourne also need some more outside pace and they get that with Oskar Baker. THE VERDICT: Melbourne came into the draft last at pick No.29 but would have walked away pretty happy. They’ve addressed list needs so that’s a tick from me.

SIMON GOODWIN’S SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS by Whispering Jack Melbourne’s selections during the 2017 AFL Trade Period and at the National Draft bear the imprimatur of Simon Goodwin and clearly demonstrate the direction in which the club’s head coach intends taking the club into the future. To be clear, the final decision as to which player was taken with any given selection was made on draft night by national recruiting manager Jason Taylor but the direction was laid out by the coach and his coaching panel. The emphasis is firstly on players with pace, good skills, especially in terms of disposal and decision-making and most importantly, on character and competitive instincts. And in the main, the club’s recruits are not the sort players who have been given an easy ride into the elite level of the sport or on a silver platter but rather, they’ve done it the hard way. Jake Lever spent his draft year recovering from ACL surgery and was forced to watch from the sidelines as his Calder Cannons and Vic Metro teammates went through an entire season in the hope of catching the eye of an AFL selector. It’s well documented how hard he worked on his rehabilitation and that he used that time to learn as much as he could about the game from being around his club. Harley Balic came out of the same TAC system but a serious wrist injury that required surgery followed by bouts of homesickness and a hamstring tear which soured his time with Fremantle but it’s clear that commitment to improving his game never wavered. Melbourne’s selections at Friday’s draft meeting in Sydney were - Round Two: 29 Melbourne – Charlie Spargo (Murray Bushrangers/Allies) 31 Melbourne – Bailey Fritsch (Casey Demons/VFL) 37 Melbourne – Harrison Petty (Norwood/South Adelaide) Round Three: 48 Melbourne – Oskar Baker (Aspley/Queensland) Twelve months ago, the diminutive Spargo who hails from a strong footballing and professional athletics background going all the way back to great-grandfather Bob Snr. appeared headed towards the Giants via their Academy but the AFL changed the GWS zone and he became available to all comers and would have been a top ten pick but for a shoulder injury that kept him from producing yet another consistent season in junior ranks. Fritsch was considered too slight of build to get into TAC Cup ranks but his perseverance with local club Coldstream finally earned him an invitation to play at Casey. After two injury-riddled seasons he had a standout 2017 to win the Fothergill-Round Medal - the VFL equivalent of the rising star award. Harrison Petty wasn't really on the radar as far as many SA judges were concerned earlier this year but a superb national championships saw him win All Australian status and an MVP for his state. Oskar Baker was dropped off the list at the Brisbane Lions Academy so he walked into NEAFL club Apsley where he was given a rookie position at the start of 2017. He took his opportunities there, made the senior team and starred kicking the goal of the year and producing some breathtaking football. The commmon thread among the four Demon recruits from this draft is hard work, competitiveness, pace and good disposal skills. It won't be easy for any of them to break into the AFL straight away but the fact that they have all come through the school of hard knocks should hold them in good stead.

Some BF profiles of Chugga... https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/snoop-dog-2018-phantom-draft-incl-rookie.1182255/ https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/knightmares-2017-draft-almanac.1161261/ https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/2017-official-big-footy-phantom-draft.1181789/ https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/young-talent-time-2017.1161935/

This year’s NAB AFL Pre-season and Rookie Drafts will be held tomorrow. The Demons currently have no vacancies on either their primary or rookie lists and will not be taking part in either of the drafts but the opportunity still remains for them to secure additional players from certain avenues through signing them as Category B rookies. The AFL rules allows clubs to add up to three players in this category. The player in question must be one who: • has not registered in an Australian Football competition for three years immediately before inclusion on the Rookie List; • is an international player, meaning he is not an Australian citizen and has not lived in Australia for a substantial period; • is a former NSW Scholarship player with that club; • is a former International Scholarship player with that club; or • is a rookie Zone Selection for clubs based in NSW or Queensland. Clubs can list one Irish player as a Category B rookie but for each additional Irish player rookie listed, that player will be deemed to be a Category A rookie. Clubs can list players as Category B rookies from the AFL's indigenous and multicultural academies if they were overlooked in the drafts. The club’s last two Category B rookies were former basketballers Joel Smith and Corey Maynard but both have been elevated, the former straight into the primary list while the latter is now a Category A rookie. Maynard’s recent rookie elevation to leave the club without players on the B list has raised some speculation as to whether the club has some further prospects in mind for future selection - perhaps a player from another sport or from the indigenous or multicultural fields. There have been no indications to date but let’s see what happens.

Ummm, aside from their height - those are two very different players...

And now ... the family connection. Charlie Spargo’s great grandfather Bob Spargo Senior played with the Melbourne Football Club, although it was just for two games during WW2. Bob Snr. stood at 175cm and weighed 69kgs. He played most of his career with Footscray (1934-41) before moving to the Demons in the twilight of his career in 1942. He was a professional athlete who finished third in two Stawell Gifts (1936 & 40). His sons Bob Jnr. and Ricky also represented the Bulldogs and the latter was fifth in the 1974 Stawell Gift. Bob Jnr. played in the team's 1961 Grand Final loss to Hawthorn. Bob Jr's son Paul Spargo played 81 games with North Melbourne and 9 with the Brisbane Bears. During his time with the Kangaroos he was a teammate of Mark Brayshaw, father of our own Angus Brayshaw. He was an assistant coach at Richmond for a while and had a great record coaching in the Ovens & Murray Football League with involvement in multiple premierships. Paul Spargo is Charlie's father. With a great pedigree in football and foot racing, Charlie had a fantastic junior career and two years ago was outstanding in the national carnival. A year ago, he was one of the most highly ranked of the country's draft prospects and headed for a possible top ten selection until shoulder surgery curtailed his season. Don't let his size fool you - Charlie Spargo can play and it's in his blood.

Let me simplify it for you... Maybe none of these players are good enough. The FD would seem to think that's the case. We don't need more list cloggers but we can develop quality for our own needs and for future trade bait. You are looking at things in a very one dimensional way and we are far from done and locked out of trading or drafting in 2018...

I see people are including Pedersen in their teams. If we're fit and healthy I'll be shocked highly surprised if Pedersen is playing AFL.

Goodwin seems to value ruthless desire and competitiveness. Oliver, Viney, Hibberd, Lewis, Lever, Hunt, ANB, Jonesy, Brayshaw Jetta and more. The draft picks seem to fit the mould and Spargo in particular looks a likely type, if he can handle the physical side of it. Building a strong group with a ‘win every week’ attitude. A few less injuries and a bit of luck and we will be trouble for anybody IMO.

I would have thought, with the recent success of some smaller players, that we wouldn't be so negative towards a players height. Let's give the kid a chance and a few pre-seasons before we start judging him purely on how tall or short he is.

Trading for a star player affected the moves we could make in the draft but with two kids and a couple of boys who have played some senior footy at a decent level at least we have provided the current team with some more options. It is definitely true that improvement comes from the players you have - Lever will make that a rule excepted. Fritsch, Balic and Baker will provide some competition for spots in the bottom 6 of the team in 2018 and that will be valuable assuming our best players are fit and healthy.

We haven't played finals for a decade mate. Question everything the football dept do. If Goodwin plays Pederson early last year ahead of Spencer and Tim Smith, we play finals. If Taylor calls out Charlie Curnow instead of Sam Wiedeman a couple of years back, we play finals. They are not always right. Too many sycophants on here.

I reckon it is because 99% of posters have no idea about the draft crop, so they just look at the things they can easily digest, like someone's height. I wouldn't read anything into what most posters say about the draft.

Hogans forward pressure is non existant, and easily the weakest part of his game. He is Russell Robertson like in his ability to give up on a contest once he has lost the ball. I remember someone saying that Tom McDonald was a major underachiever in this area last year also. With these two guys forming our starting key forwards, we have a lot of ground to make up to catch the leading sides. If only our blokes could get it through their heads that we have some amazing ground ball players in the forward line, who can carve sides up if given repeated opportunities to get their hands on the ball. Hannan, Garlett Petracca and Neal_Bullen have great goal sense, both in scoring, and score assists. Just a handful of extra opportunities per game could change our ladder position dramatically. I think this might be one of the attractions with Weideman, as he shows a willingness to throw his body into defensive situations.

This is the key ingredient to the last two flag winners' success. Hogan and TMac are the talls, with Hannan, Petracca and a Spargo providing forward pressure. I'd consider moving Hunt forward at times again too. His pace and marking overhead are handy and as Richmond's smalls showed, if you work hard, tackle and tackle, and work to keep the ball in a dangerous area, you will eventually get just reward for your toils. One of the major deficiencies of Hogan's game I'd be looking to rectify over the off season is his inability to lay tackles or chase. He needs to build his tank and improve like that pill Riewoldt did. TMac has enough aerobic capacity to put enough pressure on too. Another pre season with Petracca will also hopefully see him improve in this pressure area. If our forwards can lock the ball in better and our backs can repel consistently (Lever helps in this regard enormously), we will finish top 4. Our midfield (with a fit Gawn) is dominant enough to beat any opposition. And if our forward pressure improves and Lever continues intercepting everything in sight, we really don't have many weaknesses.

Probably 30 years ago a player who was less than 178 cm (5 foot 10 inches) and less than 78 kg would not get a look in at AFL clubs because they were considered to be too small but last 2 years the mindset has changed by coaches and smaller players who put on tackle pressure and dispose of the ball well have become the norm not the exception. Both Richmond and Western Bulldogs have created the current trend with smaller quick players playing a roll in the forward line where tackling pressure has allow the ball to remain in the forward half putting pressure on the defenders to make mistakes which result in scoring opportunities. I am not saying Spargo will make it or not but the Football Department has selected him and we should back their judgement for the time being before criticizing them. If you were told that Charlie Spargo was a top 5 - 10 selection before you knew how tall he was you would compliment the Football Department on their astute selection.

Spar go -> Hit run...

I spoke to someone who is quite involved with talent scouting particularly up in the north east vic area and he said to me Charlie has every attribute of a top 5-10 pick but his height drops him down. I think he'll be a great addition to our forward ranks.

Agreed....however in order to keep the associated poker machines ( and licenses) you have to transfer them to somewhere in the geographical boundaries specified by the Govt ( Gaming authority), or you lose them. So you need to buy something else close which will generate similar traffic, or the exercise is pointless. Bottom line is that you will need $20M+ to do all of this sort of thing, and the proposals in this thread to date about how to make more money are simply chicken feed. It takes time to build the necessary capital to engage in any serious money making ventures, and that's not the aim of football clubs....it's to win football games. Occasionally and opportunity arises and if the right people are in charge something can be achieved. Ian Dicker at Hawthorn, Joseph Gutnick at Melbourne, Paul Little at Essendon, Frank Costa at Geelong and Bruce Matthieson at Carlton, all put in substantial amounts of their own money to create external revenue sources for their respective clubs. That then creates the genuine continuous cash flow to help the on-field activities.

He will be a better forward than Watts.

As long as they are all competitive beasts, bring their own skillset to the team and make competition for spots fierce we should be happy. They are part of the MFC family now and good luck to them, hopefully a couple of them surprise us in the upcoming season.

One the whole - yes, I am, although as with anything only time will tell. What I do like is that the club was able to fill a few gaps on our list - Spargo and Baker gives us some pace, Fritsch is the forward to replace Watts (not direct replacement, but you get my drift), while Petty will either develop nicely at Casey or replace someone in our backline as we send Tom McDonald forward. The only slight gripe, if I could call it that, is that we didn't take a ruckman. We must be happy with how King is tracking with Pedersen and McDonald able to fill in where needed. I'm happy to back them on that one. Edit - we also need to remember that we effectively got Lever as our first round pick, while we got Balic in the fourth round as well. We did everything we needed to do.

Welcome back DA, missed you on the boards. Hope you’re doing ok

Check out WJ's 2017 draft prospects thread from last year. Few concerns that GWS would get a top-five pick because he was in their academy at the time. Our own Chelly had him going at one!

I find it amusing how Taylor looks like he has just had a wisdom tooth pulled after every pick. He actually looks sick. He is the master of the deadpan. While some clubs nearly do handstands on the table after picking a player, Taylor looks like he is about to be tortured. He certainly gives nothing away.

2 members of the Wilburys. It will be the end of the line for opposition key forwards. He'll handle them with care.

I know the stats have him at 172cm but he plays like 174cm. So that's a win.

Tomorrow will be draft number 34. Here are games averages for various draft picks. Picks 20-28 Ave games played = 58.3 Picks 29-37 Ave games played = 59.5 (Melb picks 29, 31, 36) Picks 38-46 Ave games played = 53.7 (Melb pick 46) Effectively we could have picks 20, 21, 22 and 23 (ave games 56). Statistically at least there seems to be bit of a lucky dip after the first round. Given that we now have a recruiting team who know what they are doing you would we should end up with at least a couple of very handy players. Get excited about tomorrow!! PS. Favourite stat is pick 53 that gave us both Tom and Oscar McDonald (whose combined jumper numbers equals 53) averages ............... wait for it ............. 53 games.

Power and Gas Bills are going to get all my extra money from Jan 1st

Absolutely nothing. Sorry. They are a commercial entity not a charity. I await the howls.

No you're talking in circles because you keep shifting the goalposts. That's your MO, once you get called out on one thing go on to another. Next cab off the rank, blaming Melbourne supporters for missing the finals in 2017 ?

I have a family member who lost everything on the horses. And i mean everything. There is no difference between forms of gambling. The results are the same. Do not tell me how to think Dr. W

Albury star Charlie Spargo drafted by Melbourne at No.29

Suggest you need to go and get the information for yourself - I had too so I dont see why I should do the work for you. Nice call - I sometimes wonder if you could say, I think it’s proof that soon the only thing between Cameron Schwab and Peter Jackson is a slightly more personable public persona - except one was a politician and one is a professional football person. Now I've been fortunate, I worked with both and although I firmly in the Jackson camp ( Im a football person) I can see the good in other people and I accept in some debates I will win and some I will lose. But at the end of the day both do what they think is best for the MFC - so that is good enough for me. You probably wont believe this but I think Eddy & Jack always did what they thought was best for their footy clubs & I respected that and would not be out of the question I could agree with both or disagree with both, but if I thought it was bad for the MFC I would work with my "mates" to get a compromise where we reached a win-win scenario. I dont mind walking a mile in a man's moccasin's to understand why they think like they do.

Palms are sweaty.

And what are these many reasons apart from what is in your imagination? Put up some real facts or shut up. Apart from one 1.4 million dollar grant in 2013 (which is quite minuscule in the whole scheme of things) I can't see any other real evidence of any other extraordinary help. It's all there in the annual reports unless you believe that PJ has laden our annual reports with mistruth's. 8 profitable years in the last 9 years - there's some real facts for you. Where are the handouts? It's easy for a troll like you to throw out your lies but you can't back it up. You again zero in on those who might share your unsubstantiated accusations. And you'll avoid the questions I've put to you ... it's easy to run and hide on the internet. I'm surprised you're still here.

The sooner the MFC can have it’s own TV Station that we as Members subscibe to as part of a Membership the better off we will be. Channel 7 is a dead organization walking ?

What is the difference? ” I gamble with this money that i will make more..” that is the bottom line. The vehicle of this exchange is immaterial...

Kid’s 17 years old, will probably grow a few cm in next couple of years. And anyway 172 cm is a very nice height indeed (especially for an opening bat)?.

Love the fact this exercise gets more difficult year after year. FB: Jetta O.MacDonald Lever HB: Hunt Frost Hibberd C: Jones Oliver Lewis HF: Brayshaw T.MacDonald Neal-Bullen F: Garlett Hogan Petracca Foll: Gawn Viney Tyson Int: Salem Vince Melksham Hannan Emerg: Vandenberg Harmes Stretch Our depth is scary if we can stay healthy. Slight preference for Hannan over Harmes. Rate Vanders but he will have to prove he can get back to his best. Stretch also unlucky but so are a handful of players who miss this list. I'd also like the ability to hibernate and wake up for round 1.

Also someone said he should go to the Saints where they have J. Bruce.

The selectors may have decided that he is a good get now in comparison to next years crop. We may be loading up on mids and another ruck next year? There seems to be some angst about kids needing time in these posts. Not all the players can play round 1 next year. We need to trust our development! Hard to do, but im more confident in their ability these days!

Watching his highlights against Vic Metro you can understand why he was SA's MVP.

Could've had him at 37 if West Coast were scared off as well. Unfortunately the talks of substances, nights out and defects only made them keener.

I think we did well to get him in the 40s. As @Deeoldfart mentioned above, he is clearly a bloke who has worked extremely hard to get himself back into draft contention and he has pace to burn. I don't expect him to play much next year but he has time to develop a bigger tank so he can involve himself with more consistency.

No Jake Melksham, Weideman at CHF. Terry Wallace is clueless.

Sorry cannot stand this stupid response. In what way is caring about the jumper we wear in conflict with us winning games or not? It's not like it's a mutually exclusive propersition. I can thint of a lot of things I care less about posted on Demonland (like Ty Vickory) and this time of year, few more that I care about than seeing our club properly address this issue. I mean obviously there is the draft, but until it happens, it's like throwing darts at a dart board. And even then, until those players that are drafted actually produce on the feild, it's more an act of navel gazing for us mere supporters. And it's not like directing some of the club's management staff to take this issue up with the AFL and get an appropriate outcome is distracting our playing group, coaching or recruiting staff. Getting a good outcome for our footy club could also help to recruit and retain more members. Beyond all, when our team wins, I want to see it happen in a jumper that actually looks like our teams, not some crappy half baked version that looks more like a Sydney jumper than a Melbourne one. Every Heart Beats True for the RED and BLUE

I wonder if this kid will even make it through to our second pick. He does look the goods, and he wouldn't have went unnoticed among other clubs this year.