Axis of Bob

Really gives you some sympathy for those players going on post-B&F benders.

No, your summation of Jason Taylor’s words isn’t good. Taylor saying that “testing isn’t the be all and end all for determining that player’s draft selection or his footballing ability” is not the same as saying that it “barely makes that much of a difference”. I’ll take Taylor’s opinion over your incorrect interpretation of it. As for the rest of it, I’m happy with old55’s assessment. We all have different ideas of players in the lead up to the draft, which is what makes it interesting. I will say though that there have been very few slow midfielders taken in the top ten since that 2013 draft, and even fewer successful ones. That doesn’t mean that he can’t make it but it does probably mean that he’ll need to be special.

That’s not a good summary of the value of testing. The testing just shows what they’ve probably already seen in the field. They know Langford is slow in the same way that they knew Windsor was quick, but that certainly doesn’t mean that being slow vs quick “barely makes a difference”. Athleticism is important. It’s also more important for some than others, which is why all the other slowest players at the combine are talls/rucks. It’s rare to have midfielders be the least athletic players on a team. They need something special to compensate, which recruiters will have assess with Langford.

I didn’t say he wasn’t a good player, nor that he won’t be a good AFL player. But being able to run is important, particularly in a game that is quicker than ever and an emphasis on transition running. Bont is able to overcome his lack of speed with his brilliance of touch and skill to be able to win and distribute the ball under the huge amounts of physical pressure his lack of speed brings him. Similarly, Langford will need something to help him succeed under the highest amount of pressure because of his lack of natural athleticism. Will he have that ability at the next level? Time will tell. FWIW, I don’t see a Bont comparison. I think a fairer one is a 6’3 Matt Crouch. Still a very good player but more of a straightforward footballer like Crouch than a mercurial one like Bont.

You know who else did all that? Greg Williams. 😁

This is going to be like when every plodder junior got some support on fan forums because “Greg Williams was slow”. Turns out that none of those players was Greg Williams. We’ll see if Langford can buck the trend and be Marcus Bontempelli. He’ll need other traits that allow him to dominate in spite of being a plodder.

That's definitely true, however when you have a top 5 pick your expecting that the midfielder you are drafting will be worthy of being frontline midfielder. It's not like we're drafting James Jordon with pick 5 and forcing him to play outside the centre square, we're clearly expecting to draft a better player than that. The only current player I'd say is a full time midfielder for us is Oliver, with Petracca and Viney both being potential forwards for us. Versatility is good but it's much more important for lesser players rather than the good ones because you want your good players near the ball as often as possible.

What's your plan for a Gawn injury? Tom Fullarton?

🤔

It'll depend on how we rate the draft. If we think there's a top 4 or 5 in the draft, with a gap behind it, then we'll probably take one of them no matter the type. Taylor talks about talent 'cliffs', which was why we spend heavily to get our second pick into the top 12 last year. So much will depend on where he sees those cliffs. As for Smith, he's a good player. I think his contest work is underrated by most on here because he's light, but he has great ability to win the ball at the source. His games at the end of the year were his best, IMO, after he had a run in the VFL. He was able to play as more of ball carrier rather than solely an accumulator, which is a good sign for his AFL future.

Because they were fleeced by noted masters of trading and negotiation ..... Fremantle. 😁

Ignore them paying pick 10 and 34 for Lachie Schultz and giving Ginnivan away for nothing last year.

Cam McCarthy too. He even moved back to WA and sat the year out from football.

Can you demonstrate this by deleting your Demonland account?

Open letter written by a random member? Journalism! I’m sure they’ll treat it with the full respect that open letters deserve.

So you don’t know. But you’re comfortable stating that the reason why he’s possibly maybe not coming to Melbourne in a future decision he’s not publicly stated is because our club is ‘a burning building’?

Did we offer him the best contract?

Would you have rather lost them to free agency? Because that was the alternative.

#thingssuccessfulclubsdo

Carlton got hold of the pick on draft night and selected Lachie Cowan with pick 30.

Yep. The Gold Coast and Brisbane picks will be available but they'll each want very different things in exchange for them. Gold Coast will want future picks and Brisbane will want 2024 points. Luckily we have both. If we get 25 for ANB then we'll have pick 5 plus 1976 additional draft points. Brisbane currently have 1281 points in total and would need 2014 points to cover a pick 2 bid on Ashcroft. So they will have to get about 750 points from somewhere (about pick 25 worth) for this draft. A deal like 25+38+45+50+61 +F2 for 17+F1 would probably work out for both parties. We'd end up with a top 20 pick this year, plus slide up a round next year, and Brisbane would have enough draft points to cover Ashcroft whilst not destroying their draft hand next year. If that doesn't work then we could keep 25 and just trade some of our late picks to Brisbane for a future 2nd and 3rd.

Gold Coast has the Bulldogs' first rounder, which is currently pick 12. That's probably just after they'd expect to get a bid for Lombard. They have enough picks after that to easily cover that bid, so it could be something like 25 + F1 for 12 + 20, or just F1 for 12.

Wait wait wait!!! I found it!!! 😁 I have amassed two posts on Demonland about Hayden McLean. They were both in August 12, 2022. The first one literally listed the statistics of McLean and Sam Weideman without judgement. This was the second: In response to your argument that McLean could be a number 1 ruckman, I responded that he hasn’t been playing ruck in the VFL, but rather that he’s a tall forward and listed the stats showing that. The post shows that I listed these without judgement of McLean’s quality, simply that we need to make sure we don’t overrate opposition players just because we don’t see them much. Funnily enough, Sydney then recruited Grundy as a ruckman rather than use McLean as the ruck, and McLean has averaged less than 7 hit outs a game this year. No offence but this is a super weird beef to have carried around with you for two years. I’m incredibly disappointed to go back to my posts and find that I was being so neutral and passive, as I thought I must have unleashed some incredibly brutal zinger that had buried itself so deep in your soul. Alas, I again find that I’m less interesting than I wish I was. 😢

Typo. Adelaide wanted Stengle out. They delisted him. Nobody picked him up. These are true. Nobody is arguing that they aren’t true. There were good reasons why those clubs wanted those players out. But SONS argued that we shouldn’t recruit players that other teams don’t want. I used these examples, which you agree with, to show that this wasn’t a good argument. I appreciate your support. Did I? I honestly don’t even remember discussing Hayden McLean nor having any particularly strong thoughts about him (past or present). Obviously you do and it was, apparently, quite important to you. 🤷‍♂️

We wanted Grundy out. Geelong wanted Stengle out. Gold Coast wanted Chol out. Port Adelaide wanted Teakle out. Gold Coast wanted Bowes out. Hawthorn wanted Mitchell out. It's not a good argument. We have paid peanuts to get depth players to complement the strong list we already had. Hawthorn paid a lot of money because they had salary cap to burn due to their terrible performances whilst we had a list with the contracts of Petracca, Oliver, Gawn, May, Lever, Brayshaw, Salem, Langdon etc on it. You're comparing apples with oranges.