Whispering_Jack

He's certainly a favourite with me and even more so after reviewing the vision of his games for Vic Country in the national champs. I'm sure if he comes to Melbourne he will get a good grounding under the current coaching regime but I suspect that he won't end up as a defender. He's too good for that and besides, the only disappointing game I've seen from him is the one v SA at Simonds Stadium where he was played off half back and was rather subdued as if he had to contain his usual flair. He was kept down to 9 possessions and was brushed aside a couple of times by Aaron Francis but there were enough positives from his limited amount of touches to know that he is going to be a very good player. I haven't been so excited about a potential draftee since Jimmy Toumpas ... oh.

Settle down folks ... please stay on topic

OK. I know nothing about horse racing but I feel compelled to share my omen bet with Demonlanders. No 5 Big Orange can't lose with Jake Spencer on board Now if that doesn't work, former skipper James McDonald is riding Hartnell. And Criterion has the evergreen Max Walker who once played ruck for the Dees and then bowled medium pace for Australia is the jockey.

Yet another Phantom Draft ~ RIDS 2015 Phantom Draft This one has Melbourne taking Charlie Curnow with its first selection which becomes #4 after the Dees bid for Sydney academy player Callum Mills. The Demons then take Murray Weideman's grandson :- I don't think so but what would I know?Apparently, some sources are claiming that Curnow's the one for us.

But uncontracted - strange.

The club had a pre draft evening at a Volvo dealership in Port Melbourne on the night before we drafted Jack Watts and I briefly met Warnock's father there. He was happy for his son Robert who had moved to Carlton from Freo on a $400k contract which had beaten our offer by a fair bit money wise and in terms of contract length but dissapointed that he wasn't reunited in the same team as Matthew. Seemed to be fairly strongly in the Demon camp. I think Robert will be picked up by someone but our preference might be to rookie a developing ruckman.

Hardwick has regularly been referred to as a poor mans Petracca with similar traits... Not bad. Christian Petracca hasn't yet played a single game of AFL but there's already a poor man version of him out there.

A couple of minor surprises from Paige's AFL Phantom Draft - Edition Two but most would be happy with the way her selections pan out. * not quite sure about her draft order in light of the bidding system but I'll leave that to the experts.

The man was a hero for many in my generation. He could play in the ruck and up forward but he was peerless when he was at full back. Those drop kicks would often hit the centre of the ground and of course, he was always a feature of the World of Sport kicking competition. I can still see Bruce Andrew with hair neatly parted in the middlle, lifting the board to show he was awarding Tassie 9 out of 10 for one of his kicks. Vale Tassie and condolences to his family.

I can now answer my own question about the number of Bombers left at the club and still facing possible sanctions as a result of next month's CAS hearing - Essendon home to just 13 of original 34 players facing WADA appeal ahead of hearing So it has come to pass that an adverse decision at the final hearing of the charges will not be such a disaster for the Bombers' playing list and the club will now certainly be able to soldier on but paradoxically, Essendon, through its lack of transparency and its determination to stave off a full and open hearing into what happened at the club in 2012 has caused much of the damage. I think the AFL is also accountable for some of this when, in its haste to avoid the embarrassment of having Essendon in the 2013 finals dealt with that club inappropriately and before the investigation was finalised. Yes, and there were people at ASADA who also dropped the ball. This should all have been long over - the victims of the delay are the club and the players ... and of course Hird himself is gone as coach but should face further repercussions before this long and sorry saga is done and dusted for good.

It's unlikely that we will take a DFA this year. As it is, we have only three spare places on the primary list with very little scope for more than one or possibly two delistings at most. On top of that, nobody stands out among the DFAs anyway.

Funnily enough, the bolded part reminds me very much of the words that a prominent person within the TAC Cup system once used to describe Cameron Ling back in his early days as a player with the Geelong Falcons. How did that turn out?

Both vandenBerg and Harmes have been upgraded and will be officially placed on the club's primary list on Friday. We await a decision on a contract renewal for Viv Michie which must be done by the end of this week if he's to remain.

Flattery might get you into a lot of places but I somehow don't believe that Mr. Hannibal is going to respond to you.

Those damn tests again. I want footballers. Tell me about Jack Watts' 20 metre sprint time again.

His nephew is still a moderator on this site.

Or lawyers.

That's a fair summation of the "point of difference" between Parish as a junior and the player Toumpas turned out to be at Melbourne but what concerns me is that if we draft Parish, will we be able to successfully ensure his transition from a "jet" at junior level to an elite player in the AFL? There are no guarantees but the set up at the club under Paul Roos and the system of development with both coaching and fitness gives me some comfort. Kevin "Shifter" Sheahan said about Parish that he's the "jet" of this year's draft pool and that in most years there are only one or two such players. My concern is that in the past we have drafted "jets" but routinely failed the transition process. You can put all of Johnstone, Sylvia, Watts, Scully and Toumpas in that category - for one reason or another be it their temperament, ego, injuries and our own lack of ability, personnel or facilities and the club environment, we never got the best out of them. Since the arrival of Roos and subsequently McCartney, we appear to be on the path to getting it right which means that whoever we take, the mistakes of the past are less likely to be repeated. Players like Hogan, Salem and Brayshaw are already the beneficiaries, hopefully Petracca, Stretch, Parish and a few others will be added to that list in the very near future.

Oliver was really impressive in the last half of the season so he will definitely be looked at closely but if consistency is really the key, can you go past a dual AA midfielder who is a real midfield extractor?

Melbourne got a bum wrap when country zones were introduced in the late 1960s. At the time the zones were supposed to be rotated every few years but clubs like Carlton, Richmond and North which were run by some smart operators and also had the most productive zones managed to keep them. Our own zone produced very little and we were stuck with it for 20 years, leaving us in the lurch. I hope that if this plan comes into being that we stand up for ourselves to ensure that we can retain a competive edge in recruiting.

You could go further than that and add that Neeld was buried as a coach because he recognised the lack of fitness and the poor culture and tried to change it. The effect was that he was a lame duck from the very beginning.

Two more Bombers delisted tonight, Alex Browne and Elliott Kavanagh. I wonder how many of the 34 are left?

Incidentally, both Parish and Mathieson were All Australian Under 18s in both 2014 and 2015. I would be delighted if we could add them both to our midfield stocks.

Beg to differ and in fact am happy to know that Melbourne's recruiters won't be deciding who to select at the national draft on the basis of highlights packages and you tube videos which are in essence one or two minute grabs designed to highlight the good aspects of a player, most often when he has the ball in hand and/or disposing of it. Therefore, you generally see the spectacular stuff but don't learn much about the player himself.Things like what he's doing when he doesn't have the footy, whether he's inclined to chase and put pressure on his opponent. And I bet you won't see a player's weaknesses. You won't see the dropped marks, fumbles or when he doesn't (or can't) chase an opponent. You don't necessarily tell whether a player's fit or lazy. All you see is highlights. Which means you can't tell whether a player is consistent and, without detracting from Francis who I like for his versatility, my viewing of games of Under 18 championships and other games in full tells me that he has nothing like the consistency in performance of a Darcy Parish. From what I've seen of the latter, he consistently produces high quality performances even when his team is being badly beaten. He's all class in the midfield, solid on both left and right sides and a quick thinker. My reviewing of a couple of Vic Country matches also convinces me that Rhys Mathieson would be a value pick if available at 7. The knock on him from some of those who must be working off highlight reels is that his decision making and disposal are supposed to be poor. I disagree and if you care to check out the game between Vic Country and SA played 26/6/15 at Simonds Stadium and televised live on Foxtel you will see why Weitering, Schache and Parish are strong favourites to take off the draft trifecta and why Mathieson will be a top 10 draft pick. You can also check out Francis playing for SA. He had a bad day and very few highlights.

If he's considered by our recruiting people as the best available at 7 then the fact that he's a KPD rather than a KPF should make no difference. As it is we have a range of options for the key forward positions apart from the routine Dawes and Pedersen. Frost has been mentioned above and there are the McDonalds with Max King in the wings. Versatility is the key and I really do like the look of Collins - he's a footballer. That said, I'm still in favour of going for midfielders with both early picks.