Jarka

At one stage in the game on the weekend Morton received the ball in our forward 50 in traffic. He moved forward, sold a dummy and side stepped a defender, then ran a couple of metres and calmly kicked a goal. He's demonstrated that he has the skills and composure, he's only inconsistent because of his age and experience, but thankfully most of us realise this.

It's a great point wj.

Disagree, Franklin and Roughhead were both rated extremely highly. They were not picks satisfying 'for type' mentality, Franklin in particular was considered to be a great talent, the question mark being only with his attitude, which has proved to be false.

Woah, let's not get too carried away. Let the kid play for Sandy first, then break into Melbourne's team before putting too many expectations on him. I highly doubt that he'll be as good as Gibbs, who will be an elite player in the future, but hopefully he'll develop into a consistent midfielder.

From those who saw the game how did Frawley go?

At this stage Hartlett, without a doubt. Vickery has improved his value over the carnival, if he continues to build on that form for the rest of the season it will be interesting.

Having another look at this thread the next day and it's still absurd. Joeboy, I generally like your work, I don't agree with alot of things you post but I like the fact that you're prepared to put your thoughts out there. Morton was not my preferred option for pick 4, and yes if you judge him right now he has several holes in his game, but he's still very young. Give him time for his body to fill out and for him to adjust to the tempo of the game. He was never going to adapt to the pace of AFL as quickly as Cotchin, Masten or Palmer because of his build, once this team develops and gains experience they'll play alot better. Right now we have a bunch of kids with very little support from the mature, experienced seniors. They'll get better (I hope)

Turning the ball over is genetic? Now I've heard it all. Give the kid a chance, don't make a judgement until at least the end of next season

The only reason why I would have Jamar in the ruck ahead of PJ is because PJ is much better around the ground playing other roles, whether down back or up forward. Hopefully we'll get Warnock so niether will have to be our number 1 ruck.

I disagree with most of the views in this thread. I believe that Prendergast should pick the player who he thinks is the biggest talent and has the greatest potential. He should not, under any circumstances, make the choice on position only. I also think that the choice is out of four - Watt, Rich, Naitanui and Hartlett - not three. I'm not prepared to give an answer on which one I'd choose simply because I haven't seen enough of all of them to make a valid answer, I also suspect that my skills in identifying talent are suspect. To provide evidence of this when I first saw Glen McGrath bowl I thought he was a hack and wouldn't make it to 50 tests

That's a great story Colossus, well done mate!!

Going forward I think the midfield group will look something like this: C: Buckley Grimes Morton Ruck: Jamar McLean Jones Additional players who will get rotated through: Dunn, Valenti, Moloney & Davey. Guys like Green and Bruce will play a more supporting role at either HFF or HBF, of course this depends on who we draft/trade at the end of the year. If we snare Warnock then you can pencil him in, ditto for Rich or Hartlett.

Roll on 2009 and an end to this madness

My initial comments re the game plan was a not so subtle swipe at the previous coaching group, which was definitly based on other teams, it just so happened that the the team it was based on changed every year....

Dude. Now you're saying that you change the game plan to suit a player? You're going to have a better chance of recruiting an elite player by drafting the best talent rather that drafting a kid suited to a game plan, and where the f#(k did I say anything about developing a game plan around kids who lack ability?

That doesn't make sense though. In modern footy game plans change rapidly, just look at the style of footy that Brisbane played in their three peat compared to the current Geelong team. So you recruit a bunch of kids for your specific game plan. They're going to take, what, 3 or 4 years to mature and become regular contributors? Chances are the style of footy needed to win fianls will already have changed in that period, so your stuck with a bunch of kids suited to a different style of footy and ythen ou need to restart the whole process. I believe Melbourne made this error over the last decade. Football is a dynamic sport, more so now than ever. You recruit the best talent, kids who can adapt to different styles of footy, and then you play to their strengths.

If you're going to judge Morton on what he's doing this year then of course you'll be dissapointed, but if you take into account that this is his first year at AFL level going from u/18's then you'll have a more balanced view on where he's at. In reality we really shouldn't be making a decision on him until his 3rd or 4th year, he's a reasonably tall lanky kid, so he'll take time to adjust to the tempo and time for his body to mature. He's shown glimpses of what he can do, at the moment that's good enough for me, I don't expect him to immediately dominate.

What was the injury? *Please don't say groin*

Diablo, I understand what you're saying, but the reason why I want to beat Freo is that I don't think there'll be much difference this year if we finish last or 3rd last. The top 3 or 4 picks are incredibly even and we'll end up with about 3 (hopefully 4) picks in the top 22. This draft is quite deep, top 30 being good so I don't think having picks 3, 19 & 22 will be all that different to 1, 17 & 20. It would be nice to end the season with a couple of wins, if only to give the club with our crowd size, boost some cash coming into the club in what will be a disastrous year financially.

I'm really torn this year in regards to building the midfield first over taking a key forward. Anyone who has been reading my posts over the last 18 months will realise how desperate I want a power forward in the team but guys like Hartlett almost look too good to pass on. We've picked a good year to be down, it's a good problem to have. Diablo, from memory Hannabal is also big on Hartlett.

I was going to post the same thing, kick and hope was left behind in the 90's.

Reimers looks the goods, did you just forget him? Melbourne are clearly down the bottom of the pack in terms of rebuilding. We're having to rebuild our defense, forward, midfield and ruck stocks all at the same time and the only reason why we won't finish last by a long way is because a couple of clubs out west want the first pick. Edit - You're also correct about our forward issues

I'd be happy if we missed out on the big 3 (Naitanui, Watts & Rich) and got Hartlett.

Yeah, I agree. The club is run completely different to what what happening in the last decade.

That's brilliant, love your work I would have thought Sylvia was a better candidate