rpfc

If he is happy then that is all that matters - you don't need to play AFL. He told us now rather than during a season, and that is something. It's not ideal but sometimes 18 year olds start a career they don't see a future in. Sorry to harp on the point - but this would be less of chance to happen if the draft age was 20; he would have already spent time in a semi-professional environment while doing some study or working and he would be in a better position to know whether this career was for him.

The bottom clubs get the highest picks and raising the draft age will allow clubs to have a better idea of the talent they are selecting. The bottom teams get better players than those above them, and then are able to compete. And evenness of the teams is a bit different to the equalisation argument. Although it is linked. I was more pointing out that the number of blow outs affects the entertainment value of the game and having a greater spread of talent will of course help that.

Yes, but when posters are placing some kids above others - it is sometimes because of their talent at age 18, not when they are ready to deliver on their potential. The amount of times I have heard people exclaim that Brayshaw and McCartin are 'brutes, with bog bodies, ready from day one, or we should pick because they aren't skinny kids' makes we wonder whether people actually understand the obvious - the best players of this draft class will not necessarily reveal themselves for years.

I would do both. The AFL is constantly trying to improve the game, if they spent half as much energy improving the recruitment and contract infrastructure they would the game immeasurably by having more even teams.

'Best talent available', or 'who you think will be the best players when they are 22 that are available'?

I think Evans has more chance of a resurrection than Tapscott. Tapscott, I think, will be the real loser from the acquisition of Newton. If they were to rookie one delisted player, I think that player will be Evans. He can find the footy, has some courage, neat skills, but can butcher it at times. ND40 is going to be a speculative player but I still think the club will use that pick.

Do you?

He has something about him from that footage. Some big decisions and development ahead...

Hawthorn has that awful white number with the Hawk head on the left hip. If you don't get that red right, it is akin to the white in my opinion. I don't think 'our' red is a very light one. So if it a lighter colour we need, it might no be the answer. Decent suggestions though.

Why do we have to get rid of everyone? Jackson promoted Mahoney. Is that not a sign that our chosen saviour thinks he has promise? Is it his lack of experience that concerns you?

That is a Demonland myth from an erroneous match report. He didn't get a hit in the back in that Geelong pre-season game.

To be perfectly honest, I don't have any predisposition to any player; as I said - I have no knowledge about the kids. My point is, and has been since watching in horror our recruitment over the past decade, is that I don't like the club being boxed into a few certain players. If they break out of it and pick Laverde, Lever, De Goey, et al. all I will know is that they didn't just pick the bloke that we seem to be predestined to pick - McCartin. But I also see the nonsense of my own standpoint - what if McCartin is the best player to pick? As you allude - who the f knows - I just don't like being told what the club can and can't do. Try and pick the best player when they are 22. Do that and we are all happy.

I asked you a question and your answer was ridiculous. I didn't twist anything. I am a fan of a club that shouldn't just listen to supposed experts about who they 'should' pick. I have heard from everyone that Brayshaw and McCartin are the best talents at 2 and 3 and will tell you now, using the weight of probabilities and this Russian Roulette of an AFL Teenage Draft that we have here, that those two will be joined or surpassed by talents that we were not allowed to choose from because we would be 'reaching' for players; this one too small, this one too big, this one had a bad knee, this one has bad shoulders, this one is still at school, this one doesn't have elite speed over 20m, this one has wonky skills. All of these things should come into considerations but they are not reasons to forbid a club to pick someone. That is what irritates me. The club should choose who they think is the best player when they are 22, the fact some fans are already gearing up to dismiss the selection the minute it is made is frustrating to say the least. You don't know which child will become the best player - how one can be so dismissive in the absence of so much information is astounding. And I don't care for Jake's sake. I care for ours.

The top one looks like the Demon was late into the frame and they couldn't be stuffed taking a better picture. Steer clear of the caricatures I reckon.

How does that work? The club doesn't screw up this pick the second it says the name, that judgement waits for time to reveal it. Just as it has for so many of our previous picks. I don't know these juniors, my experience is of people telling me and my club - you choose this child, and maybe this other child - they are the best players and forever will be. And they have been wrong. If the club 'reaches' for a player they believe will be better than the ones they are 'supposed' to pick I would be pleasantly surprised. This Lever kid doesn't deserve the emphatic dismissal you have given him and if he is selected it will be because the club thinks he has recovered from his knee issues and that he will be the better player.

And if we pick him?

http://demonland.com/forums/index.php?/topic/34311-clash-jumper-bring-back-the-royal-blue/\ Already been done, dc. And it isn't great. That blue is darker than the RAAF blue too... We have been down this path before but when I sing for the 'red and the blue' - I am not singing for the RAAF blue or the burnt orange red we had a few years back. We are the dark navy blue and blood red. It just doesn't fit into the American civil war song we stole...

I don't think Tapscott will be on any list for the MFC for 2015. I think they will want to have at least one RD selection. Perhaps they feel Harmes and King are the kids to keep developing and Tapscott and Evans are ones to do a 'Jetta' but I think they would want to target someone with RD2.

I have this awful feeling in my gut that he will go to Collingwood at ND6 and in three years will be a quicker version of Sidebottom...

He was being flippant, CBD... Using ND53 will mean delisting TWO contracted players and rookie-ing them. I think the club will summon the gumption to do this to one player but the issue with using ND53 as opposed to Rookie Draft 2 is about 15 live picks. The club only has to give a 1 year contract for the kid at RD2 as opposed to ND53 and that might be incentive enough (with the contracts issue) to take one of those in the mix at ND53 at RD2.

Any watered down blue looks terrible to me... Yeah, I meant the royal blue. That ain't our blue.

Search functionality, man! Even Google could have helped you. Some people in the IT industry would call you a noob, but not me, I think that's rude...

Nutbean - ignore the guy and move on. The definition of crazy is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. You are not going to get self-reflection from picket fence, you are not going to get an exploration of his own logic. Best left alone IMO.

Here is the sense: the club might think he will be a better player. (Brain explosion)

http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2013-11-25/melbourne-passes-20000-members 25th November passed 20k last year. And we are 19124 as of sometime last week - the 6th? So we are tracking just ahead of last year.