DubDee

Even the profit we posted was talked down by the herald sun. in the title it said something about how equalisation was helping the Dees manage a profit. fark me. might be the case but free agency and the fixture certainly dont help! that paper is a disgrace - if you want to know which player has new tatts or a new hairdo then the herald is your paper

I still think Other has a good chance

I assume they have done away with the 10 -1 count down which sucked and will just call them out starting at 1? the coverage couldnt be worse than last year - but I back them to somehow lower the bar. lets talk to some kids' parents while pick 25 is being read out and we can't hear it! arrg!

im wondering if it more the trend of inside, strongly built mids being a safer bet with a high pick. Guys like Toump, O'rourke, Aish that are elite users of the ball and that killed it in the juniors just dont seem to have as good as strike rate as the more inside bigger guys - Brayshaw, Wines etc. not saying it is that cut and dry but it may be a trend. all about risk and reward I guess. we would have argued in 2012 that Wines will have a impact straight away but his ceiling is not very high. but these days you dont need too many elites users of the ball - once you can kick well, its all about the stoppages

Stretch is still small as he has a small frame - although he has bulked up some and looks toned/fit. he would not last long in the centre square. but he'll be fine on the wing you cant say every player if they work hard will end up like Fyfe. some guys just dont have the frame and thats what the Dees will be looking at with Parish. genetically, is he more of a yze/bruce/fletcher or will he develop significantly with hard work - get that barrell chest and and broad shoulders you need to break a tackle

Happened with the Bont and that has worked out pretty well for the dogs. he got noticed in his last few games but it wasnt until the week before the draft that the rumours circled that he might go top 5 him being 'ranked' as 12 is the media and pundits/fans. the clubs know best and leasks start to come out in the last week. maybe sometimes on purpose to throw other teams off the club will just do their research and pick the best lad and ignore all the gossip

Can't believe its two days away and we aren't even sure who pick 3 is let alone pick 7! Man I would love to see how te dees rate the top 10. Maybe we didn't have one player ear marked for pick 3 we just judged the talent to drop off around pick 8-9 so we wanted to grab two good young guys.. I know two years ago we seemed to rate the top 10 differently to other clubs. Alluding to the fact that we wouldn't have picked Kelly at 2 and we rated Salem higher etc. such an even group I think it is unlikely we will get a grade A gun but hopefully we get 2 very good long term players Can't wait!

thought id look back at KPFs taken early between 08 and 2012 2008: 1 Watts 8 Vickery 2009 8 Butcher 19 Grifiths, 24 Carlisle 29 Gunston 38 S Reid 2010 2 Sam Day 11 Lynch 26 Darling 2011 1 Patton 9 Tomlinson 2012 10 - Daniher I quickly scanned the top 50 of each draft for KPFs - there was surprisingly few! Although I probably missed some. I think it shows that they are almost as likely to come from later picks than from top picks. Patton is a gun but injury prone. 2009 where butcher was touted as top 3 and then all others ended up being better than he is. Sam Day hasnt done much. Unless there is a standout, use the high picks on mids as KPF are risky business. and YES i put Watts down as a KPF as that was what he was drafted as.

The under18 Talent dude was on SEN this morning - he is also affiliated with the geelong falcons. sorry didnt hear his name or title properly as my 2 yo was yelling nonsense (takes after his old man) he was a massive wrap for Parish. paraphrasing: most complete midfielder, will go in top 5. likened him to Joel Selwood! and this is not a he might turn out like selwood - he said that at the same age they are very similar. Andy M asked about the knocks on him not being as super competative as Selwood and he said Parish is a country boy and is hard at it and driven to succeed. he mentioned, curnow and mathison as well and was positive but not nearly as glowing as for Parish by the end of it I was pretty keen on parish!

that would be sweet. but i dont reckon he has the class of Le Cras. he is tough though. i expect him to be in the midfield before long

i like your confidence mate. you've convinced me!

i wasnt saying we dont need forwards I was just addressing that saying we dont need midfielders is ridiculous. most of the year we had Jones, Vince and Viney as our only strong performing mids and we need a heap more than this. we have high hopes for our good youngsters obviously. Tyson/Vanders in particular might step up next year fwd line depth, we have Hogan, Dawes, Pedo, Kent, Garlett, Pecracca. maybe include Watts id say the depth is comparable between mids and fwds for us. average for both. big upgrade from pathetic which our midfield was 2 years ago pick best available. dont want us to take a risk and end up with a Gumby or Butcher when a quality mid was out there. im not against a fwd at all, we need one. once we dont overlook a better option

this we can certainly agree on!

Are you kidding?? suddenly melksham has been added to our great midfield, hows things have changed. he got dropped twice this year from the dons terrible midfield. I dont want to bag a Dees player and I want him to succeed, but he has been quite poor to date despite some decent games in 2013. and ANB/Stetch show potential but can we say both will be 200+ game midfielders for us? no. and with JT and other injuries we need a lot more midfield depth! just look at port, hawks, sydney etc. our midfield needs a lot of quality added to it. even if our young guys develop as we hope

I see a need for an uncompromised draft - at least as much as possible. If that means a few QLD/NSW guns playing interstate well its not ideal but its worth it for a fairer drafting system. If sydney keep getting guys like Heeney (stand out No 1 picks) that will never be out of finals. even though they would have to give us 2 and 3rd rounders. i know what id prefer. The gun number one draft pick I dont see why the AFL complicates things so much but we clearly have different view points so maybe we'll just leave it at that

I started supporting the dees when I boarded a plane from Dublin in 88. I was reading a magazine, something like 'so you're immigrating to Australia' and there was actually an article on the dees. Talking about Wight and jimmy being Irish. I figured we were moving to Melbourne so who else would you support? And the Irish connection was a bonus. Highlights were the day farmer and yze debuted. We had some good seasons in the 90s Lowest point was when port smashed us in round one a few years back

yeah, agree. didnt mean scrap them completely

I dont see it as a necessity to have academies. Sure it would be great to have local lads playing for your team, but its a national comp. I reckon the QLDer's didnt mind cheering on Jonathon Brown I think the fairest option is to scrap the academies and give each team a crack at the years best talent

Viney and T Mac to be our first AA's for 6 years. If Viney plays 22+ games, watch out AFL. he was our best player in the last month of two of this season smokey: Newton to work on his tank and defensive game and become a regular in the 22.

the best scenario? how about no academies and everyone on a level playing field? im tired of the extra assistance the northern clubs get, especially when they have been dominant, successful in recent times (eg brisbane, sydney). and i get the new system but gun players are rare (~number 1 draft picks) the difference between pick 35 and 55 compared with picking up one of the 2-3 gun players of the year is significant

of course not. I just take her opinion into account

i have to admit it is concerning that EQ think Parish is the 14th best talent (best available) in this draft and we may take him with 3. I have no clue about how good these kids are but the one thing I have noticed is that Parish is not often referred to as hard/tough or massively competitive like a lot of the others in the top 14. also his slight frame has been highlighted. I know we cant have a team of Vineys but these outisde players seem riskier than the Brayshaws of the world. tough choice! it would be fascinating to know if the Dees already knew who we would take at 3 when we traded for it or the plan was just to have 2 top picks

Who's this Hipwood chap at 6? Another nsw academy kid? So 3 and 7 in reality is pick 7 and 11. Going by Emma Q. These academies are getting out of hand! Seems completely unfair that Sydney would keep getting top 5 picks when have won two flags in last 10 years and are generally in the top 4.

Capt Jones. LG = Dunn, Viney, T Mac Not sure I agree with the many that want Vince in the LG. he has never been a natural leader - despite being a very good professional for us and playing very well. guess is says more about our lack of senior leaders Adding T Mac and Viney is a great way to start transitioning to the new generation and for the young group to feel represented. those two are so driven they would not let us know no one else comes to mind. they are either too young or not performing on the pitch. so i would add the next highest rated by the players and leave it at 5.

i wouldnt worry too much about the comparisons. Knightmare lived up to his name when he compared Toumpas to Luke Hodge