Thrice

2015 AFL Draft: 1. Carlton: Jacob Weitering 2. Brisbane: Josh Schache 3. Sydney: Callum Mills (Academy selection - matched bid from Melbourne) 4. Melbourne: Clayton Oliver 5. Essendon: Darcy Parish 6. Essendon: Aaron Francis 7. GWS: Jacob Hopper (Academy selection - matched bid from Gold Coast) 8. Gold Coast: Callum Ah Chee 9. Melbourne: Sam Weideman 10. Carlton: Harry McKay (12. Carlton: Charlie Curnow - the only other player in the draft to go close to Clarry's impact) ---- Essendon were extremely keen on Oliver. One version of events had us trading up to Pick 3 from Pick 6 to get ahead of Essendon to ensure we got him.

Freakonomics podcast did a great series on CEOs a couple of months back. Both empirically and anecodotally in almost all cases it is better to recruit from within for a CEO. In a business sense, companies that do have stronger growth, shareholder confidence etc than those that recruit from outside. Those that recruit from outside tend to change the rest of the executive, and a whole heap of corporate knowledge, strategy and culture walks out of the door with them. Then people further down the organisation are left rudderless unless the change is managed well (always incredibly hard to do). The only attraction for recruiting from outside is if the organisation is a basketcase and the culture needs to be turned around. This was true pre-PJ but, at least from the outside, the opposite seems to be true. If Josh Mahoney or George de Crespigny are being groomed for the role and then we would be mad not to appoint them unless an absolute superstar candidate is available. Look at how the AFL has appointed it last few CEOs, by grooming through the head of football operations role, during the period where the league has expanded from a parochial Victorian league to the dominant sporting code in Australia: then compare that to NRL which recruits from outside and hasn't grown at anything like the rate of the AFL.

Yet he was 26.6 last year. It's in his head because his technique is actually quite sound as he demonstrated last year. Melksham has an 'idiosyncratic' technique that he seemed to be able to tame last year but is struggling with this year.

Tommy McDonald has only had 9 shots for 8.1. Petracca was in the top 10 most accurate last year, as was Melksham who has also struggled this year. McDonald and Hogan were also in the top 10 and look to have kept up their form (touch wood).

He looked underdone on the weekend and Saints put a lot of time into him when he was on the ball: I reckon that incident with the 50 was the frustration boiling over. It was the first time I'd noticed him commit an undisciplined act on the field in his career. He is a brash character off the field but tends to contain that very well on the field. Oliver and Hogan are far more hot headed than these two.

The way I see it is that he is that his role is highly structural. We want to play a territory game and he creates a contest every time the ball comes near him. If he doesn't take a mark he is quick at ground level and instinctively tackles to force a stoppage and reset. He rarely gets beaten. As his confidence and strength grows he will clunk a few more marks, he has decent timing in the air. His chop out ruck work is serviceable, which frees up Tommy to roam the wings when going through the midfield. I have a feeling the coaches would be quite pleased with how he is going.

There wasn’t an article on the AFL site this morning which confirmed that he has the worst conversion.

Actually we would’ve taken Brayshaw and Lever. Fact.

Does it help that this use of Dusty and Cotchin was first noticed by Daisy Pearce last week?

Balic is injured - hammy tightness. I wonder if Stretch is a clear in or designated emergency?

Joel Smith is a similar size and type and the coaching staff rate him highly as well. Has greater athletic talents too. It's great to have depth.

Nought supporters had it penned in as a win as well on BF, cos yannow, it's Melbourne and did you see they way we belted the Saints and they nearly lost to the Lions. Means nothing.

He got pushed aside by Acres pretty easily in a marking contest. Probably partly due to positioning but it would be the sort of thing that could play on his mind if he has doubts.

I'll go round again: Lever to Beaver is ready for another choke fest come finals

At the risk of giving this thread more credibility than it deserves, I cannot take any prediction serious that has Essendon missing the eight. Whilst it is likely we will be a better side in time they are a year ahead of us in development and just recruited three best 22 players.

I would be interested in a comparison with Jack Petruccelle who has been named in connection with our picks also and has a fair bit of pace / line-breaking ability. @stevethemanjordan I believe you've seen a bit of Petruccelle and might be able to add some insight?

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/afl-fixture-2018-saints-in-mix-to-play-on-good-friday-20171020-gz5e40.html The Pies have formally requested this. The proposal is tied to alternating the QB match and the season opener each season. You know you're doing something right when the pies are requesting 2 matches a year against you

He is already the highest rated mid/fwd in the comp by champion data in his second year. And also the second highest rated dee (behind Jones). We (dees supporters) talk him down a lot - anyone who follows footy closely marvel at his talent. He is the real deal and has the attitude to fulfil the talent. Even now we are demonstrably better side with him out there (as with Oliver and Hunt).

I respect that you have some cachet as an 'inside source', so to clarify for everyone: That is verbatim the Jon Ralph quote from the article posted by Abe yesterday.

There was no 'toss up'. Whilst he was available as a mini draft pick we were only ever going to take Hogan. We picked Toumpas over Wines thinking we were getting a Kelly-style player in him.

You heard it hear first...

I reckon Frost is part of the deal. It's the only plausible reason he would have put contract negotiations on hold till the end of the season. Frost, who would be around the mark of their best 22 without Lever, and out first round pick this year would easily get it done.

Baseball doesn't have uniform grounds either. 99% invisible did a podcast on baseball 'ball parks' just a couple of weeks ago: http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/in-the-same-ballpark/ I think it's great: it adds some uniqueness and favours certain players / games styles across the different grounds.

We were keen on Lever at 3, however that was if the Saints took Petracca at no.1. We would then have gone Brayshaw and Lever. Ergo, we rated him higher than McCartin; which would've been considered a highly left field choice (as was Clarry at no.4 a month prior to the draft). Taylor and co at very astute judges of talent.

Relax WB... He's covering for talking him down before he pulled on the jumper for us. He's right at the upper ceiling of expectations when he came in. At the risk of derailing the thread, Melksham's game tonight was at that level too: if he can maintain that then he's parked himself in the 22 for the rest of the year.