Machsy

Brisbane - I'd take Mayes, Aish, Rockliff or Rich off their hands. Carlton - I'd like Menzel plus serious change. Collingwood - I'd be happy with Sidebottom. Geelong - would want but never get Duncan. He is pure calmness and class. Like a second coming of Enright, but plays midfield. Geelong wouldn't give up adequate compensation. GWS - won't want talls except for defenders (Durdin?) but I'd look at Shiel, Plowman or O'Rourke. Richmond - would have to give up Vlastuin or Conca. Ellis is overrated. St Kilda - Jack Steven, or a kid like Billings. Can't see it happening. Bulldogs - I'd want MacRae, but he's their only class. Desperately need a decent forward as Jones is an embarrassment. Play hardball with them. Maybe Stringer, but I get a bad feeling about him.

Careful, Goddard looks scarily similar to Watts...

Dunstan has done well. But he's not a pick 2, as was being advocated. He's a Brock McLean clone, as I said at the time. Petracca is a HFF. Not what we need, and not good enough for pick 1 either. That's madness.

Petracca?! FFS...

Time is a flat circle, Saty.

You're right, we won't. Because I watched his kicking action and it was awkward, robotic and lacked penetration. Won't see him playing at Sturt for a while, due to wrist surgery, I believe.

Setting the bar pretty low to say he was an excellent kick. Salem, Watts, Strauss, Toumpas, Vince... These guys belong in that category. Not Taggert. Being a good decision maker isn't much use if you can't get your hands on the footy, even at VFL level. He was ok overhead from what I saw. It probably didn't help him being played out of position on a HFF, but even when we were short in the midfield he didn't seem to get a go. The brief stints he had in there seemed to be ineffectual. I missed the one supposedly spectacular game he played, and watched keenly at VFL matches from then on. I never saw anything to suggest the hype was justified.

Ask Mark Neeld. That's all it took to impress him. ... I wonder if Taggert being the only one to write him a letter says something about how much he inspired prospective draftees to want to play for him..?

I agree, and I can't for the life of me figure out what "weapons" he had. What were his outstanding attributes? Being a little bit taller than a stock standard mid? Letter writing?

I think all the midfielders we brought in (Vince, Cross, Michie, Tyson, Riley) were better than Taggert and he already couldn't get a game. Wasn't likely to this year. What would another year on the list do for him? It was a pretty weak draft though, not a lot of stars shining through just yet.

Put the moz on us with Frawley, is what you did! Not that he'll leave, but thanks to a nothing article we now have to suffer through all the incessant fear-mongering, woe-betide-is posting behaviour, and even worse, the fools who throw themselves forward in a desperate effort to be the first to vocally proclaim Frawley is a certainty to leave.

Ian Man?

Even if he were keen, I think there are better out there we should be targeting, and his type are easy to come by.

That hardly sounds like Connors is looking after Watts' best interests. In fact, it sounds like he has a completely different agenda.

Amazingly, after the events of the last week, I think I'd say we're actually in a better position than Collingwood to attract a guy like Taylor Adams...Although, don't be surprised if he chooses the Pies. Adams was playing U/16 for Vic Country when Buckley was their coach in between media stints. Adams was the coach's pet at the time. I know some kids that played in that team, and at the time they said Buckley consistently used Adams as the example of what the others should aspire to.

I don't want Watts to be a 70 goal season powerful gorilla. I want him to be a hard running player, BOTH WAYS, who goes when it's his turn and isn't playing to avoid physical contact. To date, he has consistently done the opposite.

I don't think Green as an example has any bearing here, but for a while now I've said this seems to often be Watts' problem. He skirts around packs in an obvious way like he has been told "you are so sublimely skilled, we want you to be RECEIVING the handball to kick it forward, not going in for the hard footy getting tackled" I'd have thought that is obviously only the case when it's a clear option to stay out and let your teammates get the footy for you, as in, when arriving late to a contest you're likely to win, but if needs it spelled out for him, so be it.

I thought the same thing. Typical Jack Watts, with soft efforts and laziness on display for all to see. But come the end of the game, I thought to myself "Christ, if Watts can play like that and finish with a lazy 4 goals, imagine what he could do if Roos turns him into a real footballer..." If Roos sees fit to persevere with him, I'll be pretty happy. If he'd rather use him to get a Selwood or Adams, fine by me.

I'd like to believe that you often write musings involving Handel on your iPhone, and as such autocorrect has altered your post. It's more entertaining to me than a simple pun.

Personally, I think coming back from hip surgeries and lack of a full preseason would enable him to still run hard, but deprive him of some quickness and agility, especially when working in tight spaces. Like was said above, he needs at least another 2 years. Same will be said for a kid like Aish. Sorry dees supporters, there aren't any quick fixes for us.

Last year in his first season, Chad Wingard, (a player that Toumpas has been frequently compared to pre-draft, although I don't necessarily agree) statistically had: - 5 games with only 6 disposals - 9 games with 11 or less disposals - 16 games with 16 or less disposals He really didn't set the world on fire, and I'd say some of his games were very average. He also wasn't coming off surgery on both hips. But look at him now. It really will be a great surprise if he is not All Australian.

Another thread that'll be hilariously bumped in a couple of years...

I don't think Betts works hard enough defensively. I think he is one of the players holding Carlton back, and we don't want that.

You sure Toumpas isn't the Cotchin of the draft, while Wines isn't the Rhys Palmer? We could make these stupid ill-informed comparisons all day.

Sometimes 2 players are different types of players, develop at different rates, and are both very good. Sometimes you need 1 type a lot more than the other. Sometimes supporters are impatient, ignorant and wear blinkers.