Bang Bang Bang

To be fair he nabbed Scott Thompson with pick 16 in 2000; Sylvia and McLean in 2003 (doesn't look good on paper - but look at those taken around them) and a few reasonable rookie and late draft selections. He completely bombed out in the 2001 superdraft as well as 2002, 2004 and 2007 so shouldn't be hailed as a genius. Prone to errors like the rest of us but only a middle-of-the-road recruiter for mine. Apologies if your reading this CAC1963

Craig Cameron picked Cale Morton. Jussssst sayin....

To the naked eye, Taggert appears unlucky. Very injury-depleted in 2012 and played some decent footy at Casey this year. I personally would have given him another year. But there might be more to Taggert than meets the eye (attitude, fitness, etc)

I was never blessed with much footballing ability,. Had OK athleticism and a reasonable left-foot but had a knack of being where the ball wasn't 99% of the time. My best position was in the backline where I could simply worry about my opponent not getting a kick. Only played low level underage club and school footy. It's hard to enjoy something when you're no good at it so I haven't played a competitive match since about age 15. Always preferred watching it.

I'd be happy with any of those 3 (Scharenberg will obviously be gone) or Dunstan. Meat and potatoes this year please, not high ceilings and draft camp kings. Agree Crouch seems to be undervalued a bit (although haven't seen enough for informed view). 38 ppg is outrageous.

To be fair we nabbed Fitzy with a pick in the 50s and Howe with a pick in the 30s those years.. but could have been so much better.

Just double checked. 2nd in the 20m sprint and 7th in the repeat sprints so I guess you're right. He definitely did a pretty ordinary beep test so maybe my original point still stands. Either way he has never looked overly quick on the footy field. For the record, Blease ran a 2.91.

One thing Neeld was probably correct about was "elite training standards", and the lack there of Jordan Gysberts showed. Most of us thought Gysberts was harshly treated in 2012 and was shipped off far under his market value. We sold North a lemon. And they sold us a lemon. Very mischievous from both clubs (we lose, because we have Pedo for another 2 years) ...

I agree with this. I'd say the repeat sprints they do (which, from memory he didn't do too well in) are a better indicator of "footy field" speed. As anyone would know it's hard to run fast when you're fatigued.

Actually Morton was a Craig Cameron pick. We got Grimes at 14 and Maric 21. Need to remember we all have hindsight on our side - Morton was hugely rated and universally considered a Top 5 pick at the time (some had him going ahead of Cotchin). I think Scott Clayton would have taken him at 1. What amazes me most is how good his kicking was at under-age level - you can argue he's under no pressure in that vid but turning the ball over under no pressure seemed to be his thing in the AFL (*Flashback to Queens Bday 2012*)

How good did Cale Morton look in his 'highlight' vid in 2007. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jp9k754zabQ Amazing how much of a spud he ended up becoming. Should always take highlights vids with a grain of salt, although they are enjoyable to watch leading up to the draft.

Precisely. In reality most of these kids will become good AFL footballers and some very good but Pendlebury, Black, SJ and Hodge are bonafide champions of the game. It's highly unlikely more than 1 or 2 of these kids will reach that level. Hogan I do have a strong belief could reach the level of a Brown, but then, it's October optimism time and I'm biased like the rest of us.

The top few selections normally get leaked to the media in the days leading up to the draft and from there the Top 10 pretty much goes to script. For instance last year GWS pulled a surprise overlooking Toumpas and taking O'Rourke at 2 and Plowman at 3 but it was still known a few days out.

Thanks for the info dazzle. One thing that seems to pop up every year though is at least one player who gets the "Scott Pendlebury" comparison.

He did play one good quarter that time.

Roos wants him to play a role similar to Mundy at Freo. Can't see Watts being that good (especially overnight) as Mundy's workrate is close to the best in the league. Jack's work rate is, well, y'know.

Fickle bunch we are. Dawes plays a good game "Make Dawes captain" "Worth every cent" "Collingwood should never have let him go" Dawes has a delayed start to pre-season "Dawes can't get on the park" "What a waste of a trade" "Did Collingwood get Grundy with our pick OMG" The article says he'll resume training before Christmas. Months and months before Round 1 is even in the picture. Take a chill pill. He may have only played 12 games this year but (to me at least) it's hardly wrist-slitting time.

Not sure Collingwood are going to be that dominant tbh. They've lost both Thomas and Shaw (two of their best players), Swan has 2 years left in him before he hangs up the boots and goes partying, Beams, Sidebottom and Adams all are loose cannons off the field (allegedly). Granted Pendlebury's an out-and-out superstar but don't think there's going to be any Collingwood dynasty any time soon.

In regards to Taylor Adams - what's stopping him doing a Luke Ball and nominating for the National Draft? Rightly or wrongly no club will go near him the same way no club went near Ball. You just don't use early picks on players that have publicly stated they don't want to be there. By the way - I find it absurdly arrogant that a relative no-namer like Taylor Adams refuses to even talk to Melbourne. Thought the same about Caddy last year (although he did play in a prelim this year so he's probably not losing much sleep). Talk about big heads on some of these kids.

We could always re-hire Neeld with offseason pearlers like this: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/lift-your-game-melbourne-mark-neeld-tells-jack-watts/story-e6frf9jf-1226193140413

Hope Vince doesn't have some of the same, hmm let's say alleged lifestyle choices of Swan. That tweet's a concern for me although not a big one.

B. Dunn Frawley Garland HB. Grimes McDonald Clisby C. Watts Trengove Vince HF. Howe Dawes Byrnes F. Kent Hogan Clark R. Jamar Jones Michie Int. Toumpas, Tyson, M.Jones Blease (green vest) Still looks a bottom 4 side and small-forwards are a worry (didn't want to put Byrnes in). If (sorry, when) Hogan's the beast we all expect him to be then Clark can play as the second ruckman. Lynden Dunn gets a gig because he's experienced. Terlich and M Jones will not be walkup starts in 2014.. full credit to them for what they achieved this year but neither are long-term solutions IMO.

I love the optimism at this time of year but there's the small problem that there are 17 other clubs (ok, maybe not St.Kilda) that are thinking the exact same thing (we will improve in 2014 mantra). These clubs were all light years ahead of us this year, even the crap ones. If Roos gets 6 wins next year he's done a good job. 8 and he is a genius!

Maybe but nobody could argue that their drafting in recent years has been very good.

Richmond used to be like us - terrible drafting based on picking skinny kids with huge "upside". But in recent years they've gone the safe-option, picking pure footballers early on with low-risk (Conca, Ellis and Vlaustin). These have all proven to be wise picks and the first two in particular were pivotal in the Tiges making the 8. I suggest we go for the same method.