old55

You're usually a good poster well worth reading, but your train is off the tracks in this thread.

I reckon you're in for a surprise.

How quick is Phil Davis? You can't be slow but I don't think Weid is.

I think there's no coincidence that our strong run at the end of 18 started around the time AVB got going. I'd like to see Dusty try the "don't argue" on AVB on ANZAC Eve.

I like the idea of Weid and Petty swapping roles. I think Weid could be very good as a tall back. FWIW I still have faith in him as a forward but with Petty and now Jackson he's got competition for a spot there. OMac will be in the starting 22 as a key back, but if he can't turn around his form this year then we've got a vacancy there and Weid would be very good I think.

You'd benefit from reading the training reports and the groups players are training with. Petty with the forwards, Harmes with the backs, Petracca with the mids.

This is a simple observation that Taylor will be held accountable for his performance as he absolutely should be, he's a highly paid professional in a sought after job. But his critics will never really be held accountable. I am pleased to see that the release of a couple of short highlights packages have moderated the rhetoric post-draft. One veteran U18 watcher here posted pre-draft that he'd be "disgusted" if we took Jackson and Pickett. I'm not seeing that pointless vehemence now.

Fair amount of same old from the doomsayers too. Maybe take a leaf out of @Demon3 's book.

Sounds like Rivers is a very similar player to Young. Young would need to be a hell of a lot better than Rivers to justify picking him over Jackson.

It was a bit of a shock last year when all the draftees DoB were in the 2000s

You and others like @SFebes can't lose. If Jackson and Pickett are duds you'll tell us so and if they're MFC premiership players you'll be celebrating. Well played.

There is no reason Freo would pick Young ahead of Serong on draft night if they rated Serong higher. They picked in the order they rated and Young was gone at 7. Freo couldn't gift us Young in some deal without losing their 2nd pick because Carlton bid Henry at 9. Your plan looks like this: 7 Freo Serong 8 MFC Young 9 Carlton bid Henry Freo lose pick 10. Or if we do the trade with Freo and they agree to let Young through then Carlton can pick him at 9. You're clutching at wet straw. We had the alternatives covered and got the result we wanted.

Young went at 7 to Freo. 7 is before 8. It's likely we knew this was going to happen, next we wanted Pickett, knew he'd be there at 10 and got Rivers for "free". Your post makes no sense.

Probably not. I was just plain wrong with my reading.

not bad on the left hand handball too

I really like the Adam Goodes comparison that @DeeZee made today in this thread. If we take Jackson we think Goodes is the type of player he might become. Better role comparison than Grundy or Buddy.

Pick 3 wasn't involved in any deal.

For Port to make that trade they need to believe that Hawthorn will take the player they want at 11.

Not many of them have the opportunity to secure a job that pays $500k+ per year for the 3 years if they can get it together. That's a fair incentive.

Most players stick around for a flag or two. If Jackson wants to go to Freo after he has won a couple of flags with us then I'll take the 2 1st rounders and rights to all Fyfe's kids trade.

This is exactly right. The fact that the gun small forwards have been drafted late is a fault of drafting. It's that recruiters have been unable to rate them correctly. It's not that they are not worth drafting early. If we draft Pickett early it's because we think he'll be a gun and if he is it will be worth it. Clubs that continue with the current model of only drafting small forwards late because they can't rate them properly will eventually get left behind. BTW, exactly the same argument applies to drafting Jackson at 3.

At the Members Forum

To be fair pick 10 is our 2020 1st rounder only. We got 28 which is close enough to the same as 26. And 50 is not going to be used.

Hope Petracca doesn't catch that - definitely season ending.