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Young has always been a midfielder until he went to the Rays. It was a part of trying to teach him other roles and responsibilities as often happens with really talented kids. Having seen the boy play since he was 10, coaching against him and knowing him through junior rep cricket as well as footy, I can guarantee that he is a genuinely multifaceted footballer. His pace is good (not express), he is courageous - going back into packs is not a problem, he's a great mark for his size (can play a bit taller than his 188 cm) and his kicking is elite. He can find his own ball and is also great on the outside. He may play some defence, but I think ultimately he'll work between half back and the midfield, like Whitfield. If we don't take him at 3 then whoever we do take had better be bloody good because they'll be hard pressed to carve out a better career than this bloke will.

Nancy’s pretty rotten at the moment and quiet frankly, I’m not much better. Thanks for asking though.

Everyone is in raptures about the Saints’ recruiting to date but they’ve lost some handy footballers as well as having no presence left in the draft. This suggests to me that if a couple of their recruits get injured or don’t meet their expected standards, the club could end up with egg on its face.

Definitely a stage by Dean. Both players were on the ground. The incident took place near the centre at Punt Road. Despite the Demons having a great season, the Tigers were throwing everything at Melbourne players by fair means and foul. Roger the Dodger was in everything on a slow muddy surface. He did not play by The Marquess of Queensberry rules. From memory, it was the 3rd quarter. Dean was holding the ball onto his chest and Barass had him wrapped up and was trying to punch the ball away. The game was tight and the great man was vigorous in his attack on Dean and the ball. There is no doubt that he was trying to punch the ball away out of Deans grasp rather than punch Dean although that would have been justified. Dean made the most of it and fell back holding his head. And the ump immediately took Rons number. The thing that outraged Demon supporters was that everyone knew how tough Ron was but everyone also knew that he was not a dirty player. His physicality was like no other but he did not swing punches. Tough but fair. The reaction of Demon supporters was one of dismay. It looked bad and with the finals ahead everyone realised the significance and threat posed by the report. It took over the news headlines all week as the Demons were red hot flag favourites. The TV replay supported the assertion that RDB was trying to punch the ball away but in doing so his fist made contact with Dean. Ron’s suspension was a massive blow to Norm and the team. The team lost its Warrior Leader and lost its morale. The Demons were not the same without Barassi. From memory Deans evidence to the tribunal did not help Ron. Possible it cost us the flag. It definitely slipped away.

I’m not a close draft watcher, but I’m pretty sure this will be a draft like most before where number 1 and 2 won’t both turn out to be the best picks over time. Is rare they both are. Highlights packages don’t give us the full story, but I personally think from the highlight packages you can see whether players have something that is absolutely elite that can’t be taught. The deficits in 18 year olds can be improved to be AFL standard but elite can’t be taught. Young’s kicking looks elite and directly creates scoring opportunities, and Stephens with his ability to accelerate even while going quick and elite endurance are the two for me. Some others touted as top 10 I just can’t work out.

I’m at the Byron Bay hotel all arvo.. I will be cheering this multi home like there’s no tomorrow (might be no need to worry about tomorrow with odds like that haha)

I remember him as much smaller, paler, and although fast, only running on two legs. Still had a mane though.

lovely wrap up on the kid it's funny watching kids play footy as they grow up - there's a girl who plays for my local footy club, who i've known since she was 5, who is just an out and out jet sadly i doubt we'll ever see her in aflw because she'll be playing for the opals and the wnba

I may be in the minority but I kinda hope we take Stephens over Kemp (as unlikely it is we'd get the choice between the two at pick 8 )I'm surprised he's not getting more love, he seems like a perfect fit

I was close to doing a 3 horse multi but stuck with a all in approach. But tbh I reckon in future I’ll do one of each. I like seeing what you guys think and if I think the same, as I did with Humidor and Sikandarabad so I would have prob lucked out anyway ?

I nearly always do poorly at MV and today was no exception. on a brighter note I’m alive and still $150 up so that covers sat and hopefully the cup.

Simply an outstanding win by Lys Gracieux. Big fan of Craig Williams, loved the early move on Castelvecchio and it took a champ to run the 3yr old down. Lucky enough to grab a percentage of the F4.

You realise that if the MFC/Swan bids on Tom Green at 3/4 and is matched by GWS then we remove the GWS between 3 and 8 thus giving the MFC a better chance of selecting Kemp/Stephens etc

Dont worry, we bounced back with Race 3 Adelaide FF......!! ....ok yes there was only 4 horses....

Well I recked everyone’s multi. My bad ?

Nice one JV7....hows the Byron pub today? Havent been up for a long time......have a good one.

Dead heat in the third! Great run by both, tiniest margin in that pic.

Remember in 2009 pick 1 and 2 came to melbourne but the best player in that draft was Martin (3) so there is never a certainty when drafting there is no science only a recruiters gut feel. See Clayton Oliver and Darcy Parish we selected the player we felt was best. In 2013 we selected Salem my gut told me we should pick Patrick Cripps but I was not on the selection panel. My gut feeling is Young/Kemp are the best 2 players in this draft in the long term.

I'm not in the slightest bit disappointed to be using our first pick on an elite HBF if that's what he turns out to be and that's who we pick. We are pregnant with midfielders but our small back situation is close to dire. Hibberd is finished, or close to, Jetta is getting on, Salem is the only small back with a good period left to play and I'm not sure who else we've got. Whoever it is will have to either move from a better position (Harmes, Brayshaw, Fritsch) or jump out of the pack - Lockhart, Sparrow. Good distributors from half back are gold as Redleg is saying, just look at Whitfield, Sheppard, Hurn, Houli and Haynes. I'm all for getting someone of that class.

Luke Hodge spent a fair part of his career playing off half back with plenty of rotations through the middle as did Jarrod Mcveigh

You’re welcome to your opinion. I’m personally very excited to be drafting the next Luke Hodge!

Young will be taken with our first pick. Source: recruiter at another Victorian club. It’s apparently already widely known amongst AFL circles that we’ll be taking Young with our first pick. Unknown yet if we bid for Green, but Sydney will definitely bid for Green if we don’t. Cant wait to see Young in red and blue commanding the half back line for the next 10 years!

My expectation is that this will be an almighty whingefest, despite the fact we have pretty much dug our own grave.

Yeh nah you’re Range Rover.

Yep i took the 3 in a multi, so that got me up on the day. Thanks to the brilliant selections from the team!

Well we went 3 from 6 today which is a vast improvement on last week (zip) All 3 that got up tightened in the market but 3-1 could be had on Lys Gracieux (BM) & Amangiri early doors. And Master of Wine (DZ) was a moral. I coffee outlay on all 6 races could have returned 10 coffees. And the 3 that won was a standout multi within the multi. Especially Lys Gracieux & Master of Wine. This week 6: 3 - 0 - 0

No Demon has ever been a 4 time AA. One more for Max Gawn and he will stand alone. I reckon he has a couple more in him too.,, maybe even a few.

Lys Gracieux a class above ... thought Castelvecchio had stolen a march with the lightweight but the winner was far too good in the end. Winx-like acceleration over the last 2 furlongs. Seemed like a cleanly run race and there weren't too many hard luck stories.

Not to worry Wadda, the run was good considering. Slow tempo, crikey we could have walked and beat them to the 1200m mark. The jock wanted to be closer to speed I felt but was sitting a little wide early and rather than staying trapped decided to take it back which I thought was a good move at the time.

Yep Humidor no good, 4th only....ran ok though i thought. Winner was excellent and Ryan Moores first rid this Spring....he sure is good.

I think we should send our stayers to Europe during the spring. While the good overseas horses are here we can try and pick off a few staying races over there. Good win by Hunting Horn, is it in calculations for the Melb Cup? You wouldn’t think a stop start tempo would suit in a small field at the Valley but there you go.

Definitely something there with Oscar B. Has vision and the abilty to use pace and side step to give himself extra time. They're good qualities to have. Also seemed to deliver the ball quite well. Seemed quite comfortable on the field and would expect to get beter with more game time.

I was pretty much convinced about Young from the day I saw him playing for the Aussie squad v Casey on television early this year. Thought him on a par with Noah Anderson and not that far behind Rowell. On that basis, it’s pretty much a no brainer that we take him with pick three. Splitting the pick shouldn’t come into consideration unless something out of the square or absolutely spectacular is presented to us.

It’s a great field which makes it hard to pick. I have four I like for my Trifecta, so either gotta cut one or pay up. But still might take all 4 in a f4 bet.

Jeezus, I'm not sure I'd treat a horse or dog like that Pennant!

The Cox Plate field is a very good one too ... much better than the last few years with the skinny fields and Winx dominating. I'm with BM's tip of Lys Gracieux although luck always plays a big part at the Valley. The horse will at least avoid getting locked in on the fence being from an outside barrier. A few of the pundits are predicting that the horse will race on the speed. Class should prevail. My preference is a wide exacta with 1 or 2 value winners and 1 or 2 value runners to get into 2nd. And a 'Spec' F4 just because it could pay a small fortune with the right combo. My value runners are Te Akau Shark, Verry Elleegent, Avilius & Magic Wand. But there are any number of chances with the Japanese horse on top. It is a very good field

how many years has it been since he got through a season of football? we already have three injured for the entirety last year - four if you count kk we can't afford the risk of picking a player who is often injured when list spots are at a premium as we have four players from last year under contract who barely played, if at all pass

Is this the ad you are referring to? * not a paid promotion ** gamble responsibly

The point I was making is that these blokes are good footballers who play mainly off a hbf and contribute to their team's success. To say you wouldn't use pick 3 to pick up a top hbf, who can set up play for you, seems misguided. It doesn't have to be used on a FF or midfielder. Pick 3 should be used to get a player who hopefully can play 200 games of good footy with us and this bloke looks a good chance of that. In other words you pick the best player available at our pick.

That's a capital C and that rhymes with P and that stands for Premiers!

Houli: pick 42 (then preseason draft) Stewart: pick 40 (mature age) Mills: drafted as a midfielder at pick 3 Geary (really?): pick pick 58 Sicily: pick 56 Hurn: pick 13 McGrath: pick 1 Williams: pick 54 in the rookie draft. So I’m not exactly sure what point you’re making in response to concerns about drafting a half back distributor at 3.

He’s looking super-fit. I’m only suspicious because the Pies delisted him not too long before his suspension was due to expire.

Not saying you are wrong, but I am not sure we have decided 100% yet, nor told anyone. To be widely known among other clubs seems very strange, unless, they all agree Young is the next best player in the draft and they are assuming because they would take him, we will too. Whatever, thanks for posting your info and I hope you are right. Now we need to nail pick 8.

Pick 3: Young Pick 8: Kemp. Take it to the bank.

Sound like youre the only one whining buddy

True. But also clubs like Carlton and Essendon, have dug their own grave in no less significant ways and still have never suffered poor draws like we have. Yes I know, big clubs and so on and so forth. Hard to become a big club with this level of inequality though.

I'm team Jack. I love his attitude, i love his desire, i love his aggressive nature. I think it takes a while to be a good captain, and i think he can be that, he has plenty of footy left in him and i think he will thrive now that there is no Nathan Jones, it's his capatincy now, Max might join, but its his. Go back and watch his finals in 2018, coming off hardly any gametime or prep, he was huge.

Awesome write up @hemingway!

fwiw, I reckon a key reason for our fitness problems this year was losing Rob Jackson early in the 2019 pre-season. In the preceding years I recall a number of our players did extra work at his gym. In the 2018 pre-season there were a lot of mfc articles about the extra work players did. Don't recall such articles in the 2019 pre-season. That may or may not have anything to do with Rob Jackson leaving but he left a gaping hole at the club and the way 2019 played out I'm not sure we ever filled it.

I don't get the fixed view that some hold regarding Harley. When was the last time he made a mistake? Injury aside. A long time ago. People change. Harley has a small family. His mistakes are in the past. Injury is the only concern, but I'd jump at signing him on a one year deal to see if he could get his body right. The Richmonds and Collingwoods of this world seem to have little issue giving players a second and third chance. (Cousins, Kraks). And even though some don't work out, they remain strong as clubs and continue to perform. Meanwhile, we have supporters who would rather the feel good Billy Stretches and ANB's of this world. Great characters, professional trainers. Yadayada. But will do very little for us in the way of influencing a game. Every team is trying to get a leg up on the other. It's about time we tried something against the grain.