sylvinator

If we get pick 2---which is most likely--- WCE will take Rich for 3 reasons 1) they are desperate for midfielders with Judd and Cousins gone 2) Rich is from WA 3) Rich is gonna be a brownlow medal winning star. he is a safest bet in this yrs draft. He has the score on the board, ppl shouldn't base purely on National championships. many highly rated recruiters have considered him the best midfielder to come out of a draft in years. In that situation, we will pick up Watts with pick 2. This suits us quite nicely because Watts is the key forward we need!!! If we get pick 1, i'd pick Daniel Rich because with pick 1 you have to go best available. With either pick 1 or pick 2 it would be gutsy to go with Naitanui. But if they go with him i'd respect it, because they are backing themselves to turn his athletisism into superstar football ability

in the afl.com.au teams it was Wonaeamirri as injured, not dropped. but i wouldn't really be surprised if he was given a rest. he's been very consistent this season

COME ON MR PRENDERGAST TAKE "ZAHARAKIS"

Am i the only one here who is getting VERY VERY inpatient. apparently we are going to have our new summer training base at Casey fields---- still no confirmed deal. apparently we're going to have olympic park bubble dome--- now apprently not. now whispers about home base admin at the Mcg--- still no real word on this. All i want is 1) one permanent ground to train on in the summer 2) our admin in one quality facility, in close proximity to our training preferably 3) a stable board and staff with a low turnover. i'm sick of hearing a sacking every day. a business with a high taff turnover is a bad business! these are 3 pretty reasonable requests and i've been waiting for 3 [censored] years. why cant someone just figure these problems out already. i know Jimmy is new to the job, but enough is enough. GET ON IT ALREADY

If MFC do not win a premiership in the next 20 years, we will 100% have folded as a club. The only real way to turn our situation around is through on field success. There's a reason why we have an aging supporter base. most of our supporters grew up when we were a powerhouse. Young kidz want to support the best team. I guarantee you if MFC won the next 3 premierships, our financial position would turn around completely and every auskick kid would want to support us. So, the idea of focusing on getting a champion player that can turn around our onfield fortunes is not as silly as it sounds. However, I believe we are more likely to gain on field success by relying on our own drafting than by trading. so in that sense I disagree with McNamee.

i think this team is more focused towards the future.... which is great! 1) I personally would only have 3 key defenders in my starting defence because that's pretty top heavy- Martin to bench, Rivers to CHB and Wheatley half back. 2) I don't see Robbo playing again unfortunately due to the seriousness of his injury and his age- and i would put Pettard in his place--- i rate Pettard extremely highly i think he's one of our most talented youngsters. 3) S.Valenti has been promising, but Lynden Dunn gets the place instead of him on the bench for mine 4) S. Buckley looks a player of the future, but Newton is on my bench. i see signs in him, and we only have 1 true KPP in this team in Miller, so Newton becomes more important in the 22 than Buckley. Emergencies for me: JMac, Frawley, Bartram, Buckley, Valenti, Bell--- all very unlucky to miss, and all could justifiably be on the bench or take the 17th or 18th spot on the field.

1) Jolly wouldv remained a back up ruckman at melbourne until this season. he wanted to be traded and so be it. It's not like he's a dominant ruckman in the comp. he gets his 14 possies and 25 hitouts a game. he's a solid player and NO star. Jolly traded for pick 15- Lynden Dunn..... i hardly see that as a bad trade. 2) T.Johnstone- he's turning 29. he's old and he's inconsistent. He's played some great games for the lions (as expected) and will play some blinders in the next couple of years, however when he retires and Jack Grimes is ripping it up at 21 yrs old we will be the winners. Johnstone for pick 14- Jack Grimes... great trade imho. 3) S.Thompson for B.Moloney---- devastating trade that sets us back massively. Moloney is decent and will play good footy when he gets back to his best, but S.Thompson is an AA midfielder on this years form. However he wanted to go home so there's nothing we could do. we were always going to get done on this trade, and it's no one's fault!

some good points.... Much about recruiting is luck. Rich, Naitanui and Watts may all be equally rated now, but in 3 years, one of them may be miles ahead of the others. a couple of years ago Richmond recruited Deledio and Tambling, while Hawthorn recruited Buddylove and Roughead. Sure Deledio's gonna be great, but Hawthorn are CLEAR winners by a country mile and have set themselves up for the next 10 years. Pre-draft noone would have guessed that this would be the case. When we got our priority picks we got Mclean and Sylvia. in a different draft we couldv gotten 2 duds, while with some luck we couldv landed Buddy and Roughy. i hope that luck falls our way this draft because whatever the result, all on demonland would agree that this draft will have a big say in determining our future for the next 5 years, espcially considering the new teams stealing all the picks in years to come.

pretty good side~! the only real difference between that team and my personal best 22 would be: Bell, JMac, Wheatley and Dunn i find a place in the starting 22... While Frawley and Pettard are in my emergencies... However at the end of the day, all the players i mentioned would be vying for the 15th-22nd place in the team, and none are core players, so i guess it's debatable... I think it's worth mentioning that i have severe queries on whether Robertson will ever play again. He sustained an extremely serious injury which has ended many careers... he is 29 and relies on his spring.... we can only hope i guess but i personally am pessimistic.

Thanks for the report.... In terms of players of the future (i.e. players who are young and will keep a place on the list next season) i see only Pettard, Frawley, Maric and Grimes. All of whom are 1st or 2nd year player and all were 1st or 2nd round drafts picks (i.e. highly rated youngsters). This shows how much youth and inexperience we have playing at senior level, but also shows that we have 4 extremely talented and quality youngsters to bolster our youth. I expect all 4 to be permanent starting 18 senior players by the end of 2009. If a credit to Carrol, Yze, Holland and White that they are playing consistent footy at vfl level. However none of these players will be on the list next year, so unfortunately, in thinking towards the future, none of them should really play another afl match.

the worry for everyone on demonland should be this... if we pick up Watts, we are certainly picking up a player based on our dire need for a KPP and not on best available talent. Because from what i've been hearing, Rich is the best midfielder to come out of a draft since 2001. And Naitanui, though possibly a risk, could end up being the best playing to ever be drafted. Even if he doesn't develop the way a club would like, he'll 1000% become the most athletic player ever drafted into the afl, and the best clearence player in the afl. his tackling and clearence ability at centre bounces is scary

He can nominate for next years draft... the goldcoast only has picks in the draft in 2010!!! We are almost certain now to get 15th or 16th. Freo will beat WCE next week. they will have 4 wins and tons of % on us. that means only way well come 14th is if we get 5 wins and they dont win another game. that's not gonna happen. with pick 2 we can get Rich or Naita if Watts doesn't nominate

we're coming last so clearly we are going to be ranked last in almost every stat... not reallly a big deal... our midfield is clearly lacking- Daniel Rich solution?

i defend 1) Colin Sylvia- he shows great signs each week with 12-15 possies a game. he lays a couple of great tackles, takes a couple of great grabs and shows great kicking skills. however, clearly doing this only 12 possessions in a game is going to end up leaving you as an ordinary/ average player. my hope is that one day it will just click with Colin and instead of doing it only in parts of games, he'll start getting the ball 25 possies a game. i think most would agree that with the quality of possessions you get with Sylvia, the only thing stopping him becoming a great player is his inability to play well throughout an entire game.' My precedent- C.Johnson- he clicked one day and decided to rack the ball up. So why cant Colin. 2) i also vigorously defend J.Frawley bc like Sylvia, he is extremely young and shows signed that one day it could come together and he'll become a great player. if people dont believe this happens to young players---- C.Johnson, C.Garland etc. In fact, i'll defend any player who's written off too early.

its almost like some posters don't want to improve and develop our list for next season. White, Carrol, Yze and Holland will 1000% NOT be on our list for 2009. Therefore they should under no circumstances be given game time. This happened at the end of 2007 when Riley put a number of games into Ward, N.Brown and Picket in the last 8 rnds when they werent even on the list the next year. This was a big mistake and a pointless practise. McDonald is the only old player i'd be giving game time to, firstly bc he is the only old player who is genuinely in our best 18 players, and secondly bc he will be playing most probably next season.

people on demonland consistently write players off too early. its actually a bit comical if the posters weren't so serious... People wrote off Garland, the same people wrote of C.Johnson, and the same people wrote off Miller. Newton is not gone. he may turn out to be a dud, but he will be given time like all our players should.

this has got to be the most rediculous thread ive read on demonland... and that's saying something

i'll be genuinely unhappy if we win 5 games this year. a priority pick would be just reward for the terrible season we'v had. It could really kick start our rebuild. i don't mind if we finish 14th, just dont win 5 games.

that's true... neways... about the idea of getting Prismall PSD and offering 2nd rounder for Warnock (pick 21)... i like the sound of that. However if we don't come 16th then all plans go out then window bc westcoast will have first crack at any uncontracted player. They will then most likely pick up Prismall if he nominates...

It doesn't really matter that much...as long as we win less than 5 games, that means we get pick 2, 18 and 21, as opposed to 1, 17 and 20. In this years draft there seem to be 3 genuine contenders for the number 1 draft pick (as was in 2001). 1 is a KPP (Watts), 1 a ruckman (Naita) and 1 a midfielder (Rich)/ So either way, pick 2 we will get 1 of these 3 which we will all be happy with. As for the consequences in the PSD of coming second, i highly doubt WCE will pick up Warnock in the PSD considering they have Cox and Seaby. Seaby is a quality young ruckman who is playing a lot of footy in the WAFL because WetToast dont have room for him. they dont need ruckman, they will most likely look for a player like Prismall... which leave Warnock open to us anyways

When you think about it, superficially Watts fulfills our greatest need- a power forward. However, looking deeper, it could be argued that midfield class is our real greatest deficiency. in 2 years, our midfield will consist of: Jones- workhorse Mclean- workhorse Valenti- see above Moloney- see above. Also, Morton (winger/flanker), Pettard (flanker), Grimes (workhorse). We certainly have some young talented midfielders coming through, but we lack a dynamic, highly skilled, classy midfielder. Maybe Rich is the answer? at the end of the day, Rich is by far the safest bet. from all reports he will 100% become a gun midfielder. Naitanui and Watts are way more risky, and arguably, Rich fulfils our greatest need

Forwards: talls: Miller, Newton, (PJ resting ruck?) mobiles: Bate, Sylvia, Robbo Smalls: Wonaeamirri, Davey, Maric Garland for me, could be the surprise packet. if we continue to develop 4 other key defenders (Martin, Frawley, Rivers and Warnock), it would be well worth giving Garland a go in the forward line. hes so quick, agile and versatile that it could pay off big time...

Sherman is an average player at best. when u trade, you should do so for 2 reasons only. 1) to bring in a topline quality player onto your list 2) to bring in a good player who fills a specific hole in your list. Sherman fulfills neither reason, and therefore should not even be looked at. People should think before suggesting players MFC will realistically trade for.

do NOT trade him bc his value is lower than his worth atm. just the kid time. 19 yrs old. another typical example of demonlanders calling for a teenagers head before they have reached 20 games. KP defenders take time, and he has barely had 1 preseason in the gym. I believe Martin, Warnock, Frawley and Rivers will be the 4 KP defenders of the future, and i must say i agree that Garland could have a future in the forward line especially as he was drafted as a forward. Garland is the most versatile of the bunch, and if we have 4 good KP defenders, why not give him a go. Either way this is a good problem to have.

So, We all know that our ruck division in looking pretty thin at years end despite having a few ruckman on the list. White= will/ should retire at years end having shouldered the ruck for 10 yrs. Meeson= looks a dud to me, happy to be proved wrong. is a weak player at vfl level. Spenser= speculative rookie listed ruckman playing vfl ressies most weeks, so surely cannot expect him to make the grade. if he does, its a bonus. P.Johnson= will be a great 2nd ruckman/ resting forward. has great agility and good around the grounds. but will not be a number1 ruck imo. That leaves only Mark Jamar as the number 1 ruck for next season. Bailey has given him the responsibility of number 1 ruck the last 2-3 weeks. 2 Qs: 1) how is Jamar going with the added responsibility. 2) is is crucial we look for ruckman come years end (Naitanui? Warnock?) or can we rely on our ruck stocks and go for midfielders/KPP in the draft?