Skuit

Was going to say something similar. We tried Bradtke in a cat-B spot for a few years. It didn't work out. But let's not go and blow all our draft cookies on a developing ruck, or give up on the concept. There have been some amazing finds and a lot of failures bringing people into our sport. We were the pioneers, and scored a Brownlow and club champion from it. Maybe scour the American college basketball leagues for our next prospective ruck?

One of the aggravating factors during our time at the bottom of the ladder was that it coincided with the introduction of two new clubs, and massive draft concessions. Even as recently as 2019 we were robbed of pick 2, and thank [censored] for that. But it's pretty good to be premiers when there's momentum for a Tasmanian and maybe even a northern team. Right now, it feels like WGAF.

I didn't include the Northern academies in my assessment. It's a complex issue and I'm not sure what I think. My best solution for now would be that those clubs north of the Barrasi Line had a joint, independent academy (possibly by state). And then they can all fight over them in the draft, with some sweeteners.

@dazzledavey36would be great. Uncle Bitter can't be trusted to take the process seriously, or around much else to be honest, but I would love to see one of our students of the game put their hand up, maybe @binman, @A F, or @Axis of Bob- just to balance out the personalities.

I find it particularly infuriating that as we probably get shut out from our first ever real NGA prospect, in rules that were practically instituted by the AFL overnight, the Pies and Dogs will get a top-five father-son dip this year - those two teams being the ones which have benefitted the most from NGA along with North. Still can't believe there wasn't a better phase-out of the system put in place, with points-matching of the picks which have come before. I love the father-son clause and hope it lives on forever, but in a competition which prides itself and thrives on equality, it's ridiculous that Footscray got a #1 freebie last year and Collingwood get to pick up Quaynor and the 'Filipino' Reef McInnes for next to nothing. North and Freo have also scored top-ten picks in Thomas and Henry. I'm staggered that our club and others might have signed off on the abrupt rule change, rather than a more gradual phase out. What sucks the most is that there were some decent ideas behind the concept, but when the loose rules were exploited by the clubs, the AFL just threw everything out the window. These were the rules that the AFL set up themselves,

Adonski signed up! One more. I have the feeling that you were the one @adonski who got me geared up for Laurie last year? Someone promoted him, and then I got fixated, and was over the moon when he came to us. Still huge hopes. And now that repeats with Goater. If so, I really respect your eye for talent. So it's @picket fencevs @WERRIDEEvs @adonskivs one more . . . @Whispering_Jack: the thread title referred to Picket Fence, not Kasaiah. Once we get another volunteer, I'll flip the coins, and then you can all pick your teams.

Perfect. Lock it in. Picket vs WERRIDEE vs . . ? Just need two more challengers.

This is my 5,000th post and hopefully swansong, as I try to ween myself off my dependency on this wonderful site and all you crazy friends and strangers. As a break-out from another thread, let's have an old-school school-yard pick-for-pick to see who can draft the best team. Change thread title as applicable. One of my all-time favourite posters in@picket fence is in. I propose three more challengers, and the cockier and more prominent the better. I think 25 picks each, including three emergencies, with one later chosen as sub in the final teams. That works out to the top 100 players in the league. Put your hand up if you want to challenge Picket. It might need a poll of its own, or could just default to seniority based on post-count. The rules are as follows; draft order is determined by coin-flip. Two semis (1 v 4 and 2 v3 in order of who comes on board first), a final, and a run-off. Each participant then gets to choose current AFL-listed players in order. Picks can be traded or swapped at any time throughout the process. That is, before or during the selection phase. But all pick trades have to be offered publicly. Other posters can comment, and give their worldly advice. Then, once all the players are selected, arrange them into a team-sheet, and we can set up another poll and argue about who selected the best team Until February.

Could definitely set up the swapping/trading of picks, but maybe better with three of four participants to make it more interesting. DeeSpencer however got jumpy and gave away all of his drafting intel.

Assuming that it’s a current Melbourne-listed player as your anonymous source, then I’ve narrowed it down to the following suspects as follows: It’s not these folks talking about themselves in third person, hopefully: Ben Brown Bayley Fritsch Luke Jackson Christian Petracca Jake Bowey Christian Salem Steven May While some paraphrasing is to be expected, based on the comments on Jackson – “could be anything that boy” and Petracca – “incredible development since being drafted” – I would deduce that it’s not any of our younger players, further ruling out: Kysaiah Pickett Trent Rivers Tom Sparrow Toby Bedford Kade Chandler Kye Declase James Jordon, Bailey Laurie Fraser Rosman Daniel Turner Deakyn Smith On Ben Brown: “a steadying factor for us”. Luke Dunstan has been with the club for all of a week, and wouldn’t be referring to the MFC as ‘us’ in past assessments. On a similar note, there’s probably a couple players who would likely feel more comfortable referring to the grand-finalists as ‘the team’ rather than ‘us’, having not contributed much to the season. Luke Dunstan Majak Daw Marty Hore Mitch Brown Oscar Baker On the flip-side, I imagine the hard-luck stories who did contribute to our season, but missed out on a medallion through selection, would still be a tiny little bit bitter and not so effusive in their all-round feel-good praise; Jayden Hunt Jake Melksham Joel Smith Sam Weideman I love them all to bits, but our other core midfielders can barely string a coherent sentence together, let alone the eloquence of describing Trac as a “consummate professional” Clarry Oliver James Harmes Jack Viney That leaves a group of just ten suspects. I’m going to rule out Tom McDonald, on the grounds that I still sense some ideological and dietary tension with Brown that doesn't gel with the "incredibly nice person" assessment, and Charlie Spargo in that he doesn’t seem the type to speak out of school, if at all. Harking back to the Petracca comment, in having learned to “re-set” after setbacks, sounds very much like Goody-speak coming from a more senior leader, so I think Harrison Petty can be struck off too. Yet, judging by the array of comments, half specifically referred to the competitive nature of our defenders, including knowledge of and reference to May’s hamstring tear, as compared to more generic comments on others, so I’m going to guess it was possibly someone stationed in and familiar with the back half of the field. The source also felt Fritsch was “stiff to miss out on the (Norm Smith) medal”, which I doubt anyone in the near vicinity of Petracca or Oliver would express, unless they were being magnanimous for some reason or other . . . Ed Langdon, Alex Neal-Bullen With Angus not ruled out due to his consistent efforts deep in defence (as well as you having quoted him from the "horse's mouth" in the past), that leaves a pool of only five remaining characters on my Guess Who board, together with Hibberd, Lever, Tomlinson and Gawn. My first question is, does you mystery player have a podcast?

I nominate @DeeSpencer and @picket fence to undertake an old-school school-yard pick-for-pick selection of teams from currently-listed AFL players, and then we can add a poll and the rest of us get to decide and argue endlessly over which is best. I just flipped a coin, and heads, Picket gets to go first, suitable karma for having 'Picket' in his handle before the drafting of Kysaiah as opposed to Spencil. A full 23-man squad, with consideration given to team balance and playing spots. @WERRIDEEcan arrange the selections into final line-ups before we vote. Other challenger match-up suggestions are welcome, or even the inclusion of a third or fourth party to make it extra interesting.

You're probably right - and I just got it straight up backwards. The sentiment remains though: we've paid a lot less in capital than what might be expected to trade in to current first rounds.

Thought I’d do a spot of analysis on what our ‘Afterpay’ strategy has cost us to date in terms of interest, as our ‘get-em’-in-now-and-develop-them’ philosophy necessitates that any club we trade in future markets with knowingly sacrifices that opportunity – logically requiring sweeteners to get these deals done. There is an element of gambling on finishing positions, but I’ll try to be as straightforward in my analysis as possible, and attempt to go light on the players actually selected at these picks – although some have undoubtedly been targeted. 2015 In the first year of future-round trading, we traded out pick 6 and 29 plus a future first-rounder to Gold Coast for picks 3 (Oliver), 10 and 43 in return. That future first ended up as pick 9 (Will Brodie). According to the draft points system, we actually came out on top by about 150 points, to the equivalent of pick 62. I can’t recall GC’s exact circumstances at the time, but it seems similar to this year, some sort of list management issue to spread their squad. We finished 11th in 2016, which was about expected, so I don’t think it was a matter of gambling on our failure. Notes: GC ended up taking Callum Ah Chee at 6 in 2015, and didn’t have another selection until 20, and then 34. The year after they took four players in the top ten. We, meanwhile, in a very busy 2015 trade period, cut another deal oddly in our favour with GWS – maybe due to similar circumstances – swapping pick s10, 43, and 64 for Bugg (whatever you think of him) and pick 7, which got us Weids (whatever you think of him). Our first move up was obviously to secure Oliver, and the second move likely had Weideman in mind too. 2019 While in the intervening years (Hannan, at 46, was our first pick in 2016!), we spent our first-round draft cookies on Lever and May (and how glorious a plan that turned out to be), in 2019 we returned to our now-first philosophy (taking advantage of our [censored] year, as stated by Lamb and Taylor, to bring in groupings of elite young talent to grow together – an approach possibly designed but definitely now echoed by Mahoney at Essendon). It should be noted though, that even in 2018 we selected the underager James Jordon, with the notion of an extra year of development. Futures start to get especially messy in 2019, with second- and third-rounders bouncing between multiple clubs, but I will try to focus on the specifics of the first round. We traded picks 26, 50, and our future first to North in exchange for pick 8. Our first-rounder had a post-slide value of 13 (spent on some guy named Tom Powell), adding up to a loss of close to 670 points, or around pick 29. We split that 8 again when we thought we could get Koz cheaper, and basically gained Rivers for ‘free’. 2020 Back at it again. But the crazy series of moves to ultimately land us Bowie and Laurie in consecutive picks 21 and 22 makes it seriously difficult to prise the value apart. First up, pick 43 and Brisbane’s fourth-rounder for MFC pick 53 and a third-rounder (and from here I struggle to follow the trail). Ultimately though, we swap 25, 68 and 69 plus a first with the same club for picks 18 and 19 and a second. That first will be pick 18 before sliding, as we’re the now the AFL champions of the universe. I roughly calculate the loss of points to be the equivalent of pick 29. 2021 More swapsies to get into the first round, and half way through trade week we are still looking to maybe elevate again if the option presents, according to Tim Lamb’s interview with SEN (and I love how he follows in the real straight-up tradition of Mahoney). At this stage we traded out a bunch of picks for some others in return – 33, 45, and a future first for 17, 37, and 49. Let’s put a generous pick 12 floor on the future first, as we are the now the 'AFL champions of the universe' but I’m feeling somewhat magnanimous, and it’s another loss of around 400 points – or the equivalent of pick 43. Conclusion It’s highly likely that some of my inputs are wrong, but on a basic level it looks like we’ve traded ahead at the cost of two picks at 29 and one at 43, with a 62 coming back our way. While a highly dodgy measure, on draft value that deficit adds up to around pick 8. More immediate is the knowledge that Taylor has nailed so many picks in that 30 to 45 range. The answer is pretty clear as to the worth of the strategy – as we just won the flag – but we maybe have given up another ‘Fritsch and Spargo’ on the list to get ahead of the game. Will it come back to bite us? Who cares really, but most probably no.

Anyways, time for me to bow out. The approaching 5,000 posts seems like a reasonable effort over the journey. I know I kicked up a big stink late last year and stormed out of the forums due to a plethora of negative [censored]-stirring posters, only to be dragged back into the fold - but I'm glad that it happened and I got to experience a flag with you all, with a special shout-out to some of my favourite members who have held their nerve over the past four years, as well as those who I have been lucky enough to meet in person, thanks to Demonland (so much appreciation), and those who have reached out online for various reasons over the course (and of course you all know who you are). I will probably stalk a bit until I can fully break the D-land habit. But best of luck to everyone though - please be nice to each other and you're welcome contact me at [email protected] for any reason. And long live the Dees!

So who else should we add to our list? A pick 35, and maybe 45 and 55, and then possibly a couple of rookies (could be either of our NGA/Father-son prospects in either intake, or not at all). Then comes the supplemental period, waiting for someone better than Dunstan to get cut post-drafts? You can still invest mid-rotation time into Sparrow and Jordon, or make them fight for senior spots while we try to snag another flag with more mature players. Those kids will earn a gig in the team on merit, compelled to get better. We're not in a youth development 'get-games-into-them' phase anymore, and the talent pipeline looks pretty good for a recent premiership team. We have seven spots to fill: take the best of the delisted free agents now, while they are still available.

Also, for those who haven't opened the recent interview-article on SEN and sitting here pondering Dunstan's motivations as to senior playing minutes vs success etc, this is what he personally had to say (after noting that he would be reasonably content to walk away from the game rather than continue at the Saints); “For me it’s just about being in a happy environment where you feel valued as a player and as a person, and just feel a part of something would be the biggest thing . . . I wouldn’t put any limitations on it, I’d be happy to go anywhere. I’m really keen to try and go somewhere else and get a bit of a new lease on life.” A caveat: he did also agree that Essendon could be a potentially suitable destination, so some psych testing wouldn't be out of order. Otherwise, if we do want him for cheap, I think we will get it over the line. On the surface at least, the MFC is definitely a happy environment at present, with all our players made to feel valuable and a "part of something".

All this tedious think-bucketing. We have a couple of NGA/Father-son prospects and very few draft cookies (just three in the mid-30s to 50s), with little apparent prospect of trading up - while having to fill at least seven list spots and counting, including those vacated by hardened midfield bodies in Nat Jones and AVB. Dunstan as a delisted free agent seems a no-brainer - let him worry about breaking into the team, and who cares about whether he supposedly 'stalls' the development of Jordon and co. We are smack-bang in the opening phase of a premiership window. We might add a couple rookies, but the delisted F/A list isn't going to get any better.

I got to a couple Nightcliff games earlier this year (unaware that we had an NGA prospect running around), but nothing really stood out. A kid against men though.

A round one home game and flag unfurling is almost a guaranteed massive crowd (Covid or any other major calamities withstanding). No need to fixture a blockbuster. Hawthorn will do. (An easy first-up kill would be nice too, but yeah . . .)

Should relocate the club to Adelaide for a year. Being in Perth seemed to work.

This guy could be a coach in his own right. I’ve said it before – pay him what he wants and he can work half-time. We now live in a Zoom era, and it’s a half an hour $50 flight from Adelaide to Melbourne. It doesn’t impact our soft-cap and keeping his IP off our opposition is worth the investment alone. It feels so good having the confidence that we will run out any game. How can we keep Burgo?

I've always though of Ben Brown as a goofy labrador. Pickett then is our Jack Russel. Endlessly running to where ball-carrier is in the small hope he will get a bite.

Can finally read the 'The Great Deepression'. Been sitting in my poor mum's house for the past five years, and survived her Marie Kondo phase. Thanks @Supermercado.

Love the composition of this one:

The David Attenborough-themed assessment of the last minute of the third quarter: Petracca a bull with the finesse of a gazelle. Evolution! Sparrow (!) gave some deer antlers/devil horns after his goal. Cheeky monkey. Tomald wrestling with Cordy like a moose on heat. Luke Jackson. Our fine young stallion. Jack Viney. Just an animal. Any animal. Clarry. An annoying and insistent Red Heeler. English and Treloar looking like confused llamas. In summary: