Jarka

Here it is again, I've mentioned this before with no takers but this issue isn't going away. There is a question mark over Watts desire for the hard stuff, and that is a big query. There's no point in having a Key Forward who is unwilling to tackle and put his body on the line, every successful gun forward has these attributes and I'm not convinced a player can learn them. The number one pick is not set in concrete.

I'm happy to do that, just make me a mod

That's ridiculous. Naitainui is not fraser and Watts is not Reiwoldt. This argument has no factual basis at all.

His best season so far, however he needs to continue improving and raising the bar. Right now he's filling a role with very little support, so you can't complain much about that. Once we get some talented key forwards he'll find it difficult to hold his spot.

I've been critical of Frawley in the past, but to be truthful he is a delevoping young defender who may or may not make it. The problem occured when we decided to pick him up in the first round of his draft (<_<), he was taken far too early which has put far too much pressure on the kid. We could have picked him up much later and then let him develop without the absurd pressure, if he was a thrid or fourth rounder then we'd probably be mroe satisfied with his form. Sadly his case is not isolated - Molan, Dunn, Frawley. All taken far too early which resulted in unfair pressure for them to perform.

I'm going to go against the grain here and I'll probably get flamed but I have a small query over Watts. Firstly though let me say that he's obviously a great talent with wonderful skills and is worthy of a top 2 pick, however there is one issue that just keeps bobbing its head up whenever I see an evaluation of his performance. It's the fact that he's not overly enthusiastic about the physical aspect of the game. Or to be more precise his unwillingness to go hard at the ball and put his body on the line, I haven't seen him lay many great tackles either. To those who know him better who have a different opinion please tell me that I'm wrong, but do so with examples, I haven't seen enough of him to really know for sure. If this kid had the desire to really hunt the opposition it would be pretty hard to go past him, but at the moment I'm really torn between him and Naitanui. I just love the Fijian's attack on the ball (and man) as well as everything else he does.

/agreed

There's a difference between playing in finals and playing well in finals. Melbourne hasn't done the latter since 2000, and let's face it, the current set up states that half the competition gets to play in finals, which means from time to time some very average teams get the chance. Our list and playing style just wasn't up to the level of finals pressure, and I'm amazed that this hasn't been accepted by our supporters. Quality teams step up in finals, we weren't one of them. Bailey inherited a list that lacked senior leadership, tall forwards, experienced key defenders, quality pacey midfielders and depth.

Hartlett is quicker than Rich, his kicking is just as good, he has great evasive skills and his inside handballing to a free player is as good as I've seen. I agree with you that every player is a risk though, which is the point that I was trying to make. Some people here are claiming that Rich is the way to go because he is a midfielder and is guaranteed to succeed, which in my opinion is flawed logic, precisely for the reason you just stated.

Where has this ever been mentioned? Watts is a skinny underage kid playing in the U/18's, I have no idea how you managed to come to this cnclusion Does this count as a [censored] hyperbole floating around the internet?

Rich is no certainty to become an elite player, in fact of the top 3 I believe there is more of a question mark on him rather than Watts or Naitanui, I also rate Hartlett higher than him but that's a different topic altogether. Rich is a big strong kid who is a good long kick, but he hasn't got the explosive pace that most of the elite mids have these days. There's also a big question mark about his ability to handle a heavy tag, but he main concern is how he is going to adapt to playing agains others who are at least as strong as he is. Right now his biggest asset is his strength, and this wins him alot of the ball. Next year this advantage is going to be taken away from him, does he have the footy nous to overcome this? He could easily be the next Sylvia and not the next Kerr. It appears that people are rating Rich higher simply because he is a midfielder and there's this belief that they are more of a chance to succeed, this is wrong. Evaluating this current top 3 by looking at previous draft results is a pointless exercise.

I'm not convinced that we have a surplus of inside mids: McLean - Our best Mid, inside or out - Definite keep Jones - Still young and supports McLean well, 2nd best mid - Keep McDonald - Was our best insider up until this season - Will have a reduced role next year in the backlien and retire Moloney - Not convinced he is an insider, more of a predator type waiting for the ball to be fed to him Valenti - I was really hoping he'd come on strong but I have my doubts Grimes - He might be our next big thing in the midfield but I'm just happy for him to play some consistent footy next year

The GC17 team will get draft picks in 2010, not 2009. Next year they will continue to be able to list Queensland U/18's and the draft will be untouched. If we finish last with less than 16.5 points then we will get the first 2 picks.

hmmm, he was with Paul Stoddart's Minardi team in his first year. I know Paul pretty well and was in the paddock and pits for that race. Basically the car was shite, but I'm not convinced about the driver either. It's all relative but I think Bailey will end up with a better career as an AFL coach than Webber will as a driver.

He's the one I was thinking of. If he continues to develop a forward line of Watts and Butcher would be....very nice

The biggest problem with Bate was that the majority of Demon fans decided he was going to be the next young gun forward of comp, which he never was going to be. He's an ok player with a great work rate but he'll never be a gun forward. for a club who have been on the bottom for a couple of year we serverly overrate our list.

I disagree, I think it's the work rate that makes or breaks a team. A team that runs hard to get to the contest to outnumber the opposition generally wins, Geelong does this well. Players makes mistakes when they're under pressure.

My understanding is that the GC17 team will get the draft picks in 2010, next year they'll continue with being able to select kids from the Queensland U/18 team. This means that next year if Melbourne or WC (presuming that they don't win against Hawthorn or Geelong) win less than 5 games then they will qualify for a PP before the 1st round. The main difference for next year though is that they are going to raise the age a bit. This means that next years draft will be at about 60% strength, however the top 5 kids are still very, very good. There's a KPP kid running around in Vic who looks every bit as good as Watts. At the end of the year Bailey will delist alot of the older players, this means some more of our depth will go. Our forwardline is still a work in progress, if we do get Watts I don't expect him to make a big impact next year. Robo isn't goign to make a alot of difference coming back from injury. Our defence is still developing - Garland, Warnock and Martin are still learning the trade. I don't expect them to start to hit their straps for a couple more seasons. While we have some good mids we still lack some speedy outsiders to balance them properly, still a couple of seasons away. Our rucks are ok but our current set up won't dominate at AFL, even if we get Warnock I don't expect him to dominate next year, afterall this is his first real full season. Alot will depend on how Bailey treats the list. If he does trade a player like Green, Rivers or Bruce then it signals a complete rebuild. I don't think it would be such a bad thing, the only thing that would majorly concern me is our finances.

That's just ridiculous - A.Jakovich at full back? pfft

Pick 6 for Green, 17 & 18? Hell no

I don't think he'll have to try too hard though

Posted on bigfooty for anyone interested. http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/showthread.php?t=481409 There will be alot of unhappy Melbourne fans if he doesn't nominate

Lock it in Eddie

Luckily we'll have a chance to get a pp before the 1st round next year, so all is not lost.

Spot on RR