Gator

Trust your eyes. While not express, he's powerful and far from slow.

He's averaging 21 disposals, 7 marks, 1.3 goals (30 goal season), top 30 in league for goal assists, and 90 ranking points (last year 67). He's yet to have a breakout game, but he's a very important player, who's performing his role well and bringing his teammates into the game with some clever decision making. McCartin on the other hand ...

Not asking about Brayshaw because not a person on this site would want him "delisted", but plenty thought Hunt's time was up. If you'd just said, "No, I was happy retaining Hunt", no further questions would have been asked. I can't be bothered searching the archives to make sure.

Did you "call" for Hunt's delisting ?

He didn't answer the question, Your Honour.

Petracca is yet to have a break out game, but you just feel it's around the corner.

Special ? Hogan is special. McCartin might be solid, or even very good, I don't see "special".

When people reference Petracca's "attitude" I believe it was more maturity than any arrogance. And supposedly he made great gains in this regard in his final year of the TAC, during which time he played a lot more in the midfield. He may not have done well in the psyche test, but from all reports he's loved by his teammates and probably continued to mature. We have some potential superstars on our list. The type of talent that plays in premierships. I've seen enough to be confident it's not a false dawn.

Salem doesn't have speed. I'd like a gut-running speedster who delivers well. Kelly would be perfect.

Isaac Smith, Josh Kelly, or dare I say it, even the gut-running Rodent, is the type of player that would round out our midfield.

He left in January 2012 and had no part in recruiting Hogan. Todd Viney can lay claim to Hogan. And me, of course. *Hanged*

I don't think it's fair on the true wingers from those days to be compared to the mids from those days or the mids from today. Their possession numbers won't be (aren't) as high and they'll be marked down when they shouldn't. Mids spent most of their time following the ball all over the ground and when they didn't they rested forward and kicked tonnes of goals. You can please yourself, of course, but when I judge today's mids I don't include Flower in those comparisons, because in my view it's not fair on him. He is though, in my view, the greatest wingman whoever lived.

I haven't just joined.

Greg Wells imo is the best mid we've had since Barassi and better than Todd Viney, etc. And as I mentioned earlier, I don't consider Flower a mid in the true sense of the word, as wingers weren't really mids in those days.

I'm going to make a massive call - Clayton Oliver will be our best midfielder since Ron Barassi (note Flower was a wingman in a very different era, so he's not included in my deliberations). When you work through it it's actually not such a big call, it's a logical call to anyone who's seen him play and is familiar with our lack of stars over the last 50 years. He's unquestionably Jason Taylor's best pick. To be pick 4 when you fail to make your U18 state team in the year you're drafted is incredible intuition and judgement by those that recruited you. The deal done to orchestrate two picks in the top 10 and make certain of the selection was just as brilliant, as it was the first time a deal of that nature had been done. We set the standard for other clubs to follow under the new points system. I'd say Hunt was his next stroke of genius in a long line of really solid or great decisions. And while there was a time I wanted to hunt Prendergast down he's done what virtually no other recruiter before him had, he recruited Gawn, who is a star of the game and should end his career as one of this club's greats.

Which is not what you said.

That's not my recollection.

The last product they sold us took a year to fix. They can wait a year this time.

I don't know enough about Smith, other than his impressive game yesterday, but I'd love him to develop into an Isaac Smith type wingman. Isaac Smith has incredible endurance and I have no idea how Joel goes in the endurance stakes, but Smith and Hunt running the lines is an exciting prospect. I actually want to leave Hunt in his current role, as I suspect he finds it easier playing behind the ball, so would be interested to know if a tall wing role would suit Joel.

Hibberd and Barlow came from the VFL, so it's certainly a reasonable pathway, but I think it's definitely harder for key position players. Keilty has a better chance than McInerney, but I wouldn't back on either making it.

Agreed. McInerney did nothing for me and I don't see an AFL quality kpp with Keilty. Liam McBean looked great at VFL level, but his AFL form exposed the gulf between senior and seconds football. Mitch Brown is a terrific VFL footballer and while he's shown a bit at the higher standard I don't project regular games at Essendon. He may get rookied, but I see little more than a depth player.

The great Dale Carnegie explained back in the 1930s that it's impossible to 'win' an argument. It is especially so when the other person is deranged.

Unlike some, including debates I've had with my Brother, I really do think we let down some previous draft picks with poor development. I suspect most were just bad selections, but development and a club's culture is ultra-important. I still believe that you can't make chicken salad out of chicken ***, but there's always that balance.

Not semantics, just a mistake. This business of people being "taken around" Hunt is an utter nonsense. Taylor only had access to players available at pick 57, not those taken before. Name ONE pick after Hunt that is any good. I'll disagree on Salem. He's a young player with tremendous class that is miles off his best. Let's talk when he's played 60-80 games. As for Kennedy-Harris and Neal-Bullen, neither does much for me either, but I don't expect him to nail every 40+ pick. Do you ? Steven Wells has plenty of failures. Taylor's record looks superb to me any way I want to slice it or dice it.

You do realise that none of those players were available to the MFC in the 2013 draft ? They were all rookie upgrades and selected in drafts prior to 2013 - Hunt's draft.